My eyes were bloodshot as I begged, "I'll pay. No matter how much you want, I'll give it to you."

"You should have said that earlier. Could've saved us both some time," Seth said. "The treatment fee is 38,000 dollars. Adding in my emotional distress and lost wages, let's round it up to 100,000 dollars."

It was an absurd amount, but I had no choice. I told him my payment passcode without thinking twice. With a single chime, the money was transferred.

I'd assumed that after the payment was made, this nightmare would end.

But Seth had no intention of giving me the medicine.

"You want the pills? Fine. Crawl over here," he said.

I froze.

"Get on all fours and crawl to me. Bark like a dog with every move forward. And make sure everyone in the live stream can hear you admit you're a scamming piece of garbage who fucked up. Do that, and I'll give you the medicine."

The demand was sick, but I had no choice. I bit down hard on my lower lip until I tasted blood.

Looking at Dad lying there unconscious, I swallowed my humiliation and begged, "Please, don't do this…"

"My dad… He really is Fiona's father and the husband of Silverbrook's wealthiest woman. If something happens to him here, none of you can handle the consequences."

Seth doubled over laughing.

"Still pretending to be related to Silverbrook's richest woman? Who do you think you are? Some random nobody who married into wealth?"

One employee immediately rushed forward to flatter him.

"Exactly. Everyone knows that our boss is the future son-in-law of the Miller family. Ms. Miller is madly in love with him."

Another chimed in, "She even said that if we killed you both today, she'd cover it up."

Seth's satisfaction grew with every word of praise.

"Guess I haven't taught you enough of a lesson. Guys, give him something extra to remember. Show him what happens when he crosses me."

The two employees grinned wickedly as they cracked their knuckles menacingly.

Dad's breathing grew fainter by the second. By now, all the color had drained from his face.

I knew time was running out.

I unclenched my fists and lowered my head, choking out the words.

"Fine. I'll do as you say."

Like a zombie, I crawled mechanically toward Seth and barked.

"I'm a scamming piece of trash. I was wrong."

In the room, Seth and his employees howled with laughter. Even the live stream exploded with jeering comments.

When I finally reached him, I looked up at him.

"The medicine… Can I have it now?" I asked.

Seth should have had his fill of watching me degrade myself. But he lifted his foot and kicked me hard in the chest.

The impact sent me flying backward, and my head slammed hard against the floor. I tasted blood in my throat. And a moment later, it came pouring out.

My vision kept blurring in and out of focus. It felt like all my organs had been knocked out of place.

I could only watch in despair as Seth unscrewed the medicine bottle and dumped every last pill into that bucket of dirty water.

The medicine was gone, and with it, Dad's last hope.

Something inside me snapped as I watched Dad convulse one final time before going completely still.

I screamed, "Seth! I'll kill you."

I swallowed the blood pooling in my mouth, snatched a metal ornament from the floor, and swung it at his head.

I never got close enough to hit him with the metal ornament. The two employees reacted quickly and grabbed hold of me, locking me in place. Several hard slaps landed across my face, leaving me dizzy and disoriented.

"You psycho! You dare to hit me? You must have a death wish," Seth spat.

Despite the ringing in my ears, I kept shouting at them.

"Fiona! When she finds out what you did to us, she'd never let you get away with this. She'll tear you apart!"

Seth stopped hitting me at that moment. He grabbed a handful of my hair and wrenched my head backward, forcing me to look at him.

"You're done for, and you're still playing pretend? You keep claiming you're her brother, but take a good look at yourself. Do you look anything like her?"

His words caught me off guard for a second.

He was right to say that we didn't look anything alike because she wasn't my parents' biological daughter.

During a heavy snowstorm, the six-year-old me got separated from my parents at an amusement park. At the time, I'd heard faint crying coming from the bushes nearby.

When I pushed the bushes aside, I found baby Fiona in a tattered cardboard box.

My parents eventually found me, and we called the police. But surveillance technology was primitive back then, and they couldn't track down her birth parents.

I wanted her as my sister, and my parents felt like fate had brought her to us. Hence, they decided to adopt her.

We'd planned to tell her the truth once she settled down. Instead, the secret boyfriend she'd been hiding from us was now trying to kill the family who'd given her a second chance at life.

Before I could shake off the memories, someone shoved a stinking rag into my mouth.

"You like pretending to be someone you're not, huh? Then, I'll disfigure your face and see how you scam people after this."

Seth pressed a box cutter against my cheek. The cold metal made my whole body go rigid, and all I could do was make muffled sounds through the rag.

I felt something warm run down my cheek. The metallic scent of blood filled my nose, and I closed my eyes in despair.

Just then, I heard tires screeching to a stop outside the store.

Seeing a black Rolls-Royce Phantom pull up at the entrance, one of the employees shouted excitedly, "Ms. Miller is here! That's her car."

Fiona had finally shown up.

A flicker of hope ignited inside me. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Fiona as she walked in.

The second she pushed through the door, Seth dropped his cutter and rushed over to her like a wounded puppy.

"Babe, thank God you're here. Someone called me a kept man and bullied me," he said.

Fiona looked distressed. She pulled him close and spoke softly to soothe him.

"It's okay, Seth. I'm here now. Who would dare touch you?"

He pointed at Dad lying unconscious on the floor and at me, who was covered in dirt and blood.

"It's them. These two deadbeats came into our spa to cause trouble and tried to walk out without paying. When I called them out, this one faked a heart attack and tried to hit me."

Dad and I were caked in grime, our faces covered in dirt, such that we were nearly unrecognizable. It was natural that Fiona didn't recognize us.

After hearing that, her expression instantly darkened.

"Where'd these street rats come from? You dared to mess with my sweetheart? They must have a death wish.

"Get these losers out of here. Break their bones and throw them in the river."

She couldn't even stand to look at us and barked orders at the security guard by the door.

My heart sank at those words.

Was this really my sister? The one who'd always been so sweet and obedient at home, who always listened to everything I said?

Was this who she really was when I wasn't around, someone who bullied people and treated human life like garbage?

Rage and disappointment flooded through me. I wiped the blood off my face and spat the rag out with whatever remaining strength I possessed.

I spoke slowly, each word deliberate. "Fiona, is this what you do with your status? Being Silverbrook's richest heiress? You just said you'd break someone's bones and throw them in the river. Whose bones were you referring to, exactly?"

My voice snapped her back to reality. She stared hard at my face, ignoring Seth's whining beside her.

It took her a moment longer to recognize me. She stammered, "J-James?"