“I think Syl is really talented. Just look at his hands—he’s clearly going to be a top artist!”

“Of course. Director Goldreich never chooses the wrong person…”

The other employees' mocking voices pushed my heart into an icy pit.

Most of the people in the company were people I had once “picked up” from different parks. They all had dreams of becoming artists, but they could not even feed themselves. They had to do hard labor, serve tables, or work in bars to pay for their dreams.

I was the one who brought them into the company. I supported them for many years and only then did they finally get the chance to shine on the path of their dreams. I can still remember them crying and almost kneeling to thank me as if it happened just yesterday.

And now… all of them humiliate me.

While I turned around, Sylvester suddenly rushed out from behind Beatrice. He kicked my knee, forcing me to kneel and held me down tightly.

“Robert,” he shouted, “Ms. Goldreich is already giving you a chance for an apology. If you stay stubborn like a rock and make her angry again, I won't hesitate to make you more misserable!”

I threw Sylvester off me, clenched my fist and punched him right in the face. Blood instantly burst across Sylvester’s face from that punch.

I work out all year. Dealing with this little brat is nothing.

When Beatrice saw her 'loyal' assistant injured, she hurried to help him up.

Her eyes were full of worry. “Don’t be scared, Syl. I'll stand up for you.”

Then she turned to me. “Robert, you—”

“Beatrice, let’s divorce,” I said.

She froze in response.

I did not have time to argue with her. My hand could not wait any longer. While she was still stunned, I borrowed the cleaning lady’s phone.

“Beatrice, you didn’t pay for the cleaning lady’s phone bill, right?”

Ignoring the stabbing pain in my palm, I called an ambulance. Then I looked at her and said, “Beatrice, I’m willing to leave with nothing. When we got married, I had 27,400 dollars in my account. That is my own money. I will use my own money to fix my own hand. From this moment on, you have no right to control me anymore.”

Without waiting for her reaction, I left the office and sat on the sofa in the hallway.

There’s a hospital less than one kilometer away. The ambulance should arrive quickly. For the sake of my hand, I couldn’t leave yet.

Beatrice stayed inside the company making calls about something, but that no longer had anything to do with me.

While I waited, my phone beeped with a new message:

[Robby, we truly appreciate your talent and we are ready to pay for it. We have decided to invest 450 million dollars in Director Goldreich’s company. Tomorrow we will visit the company to talk to you in person.]

I suddenly remembered. Today was the day the investors would give their final answer. Sylvester ruined everything.

I should have explained the situation to them, but now my hand couldn’t type anything. So… they would just have to come tomorrow.

The sound of fast footsteps pulled me out of my thoughts. The doctors finally arrived.

The lead doctor looked at my right hand and let out a sigh. “Who did this to you? Good thing you called the ambulance in time. I don't think we could save your hand if it were too lete.”

The doctor quickly turned to pick up his tools, ready to treat me.

But just as he was about to start, Beatrice rushed out of the office.

Beatrice grabbed the medical tools from the doctor’s hands and threw them into the trash.

I stood up quickly and pushed Beatrice into the corner with my shoulder. My eyes were red with anger as I glared at her. “Beatrice, what is wrong with you?!”

“Robert, I just bought this entire building. If you want to act tough, then don’t treat those hands that betrayed me on my property!” she said.

The doctor suddenly stood up behind us, his eyes full of anger. “Ma’am, if we don’t treat this man’s hand now, it will be completely ruined! I don’t care what happened between you, but as a doctor, I am here to save lives! Please step aside. We need to treat his injury!”

He tried to walk toward me, but before he could get close, Sylvester pushed him away. Then the company’s security guards came forward together, blocking all the doctors outside.

Sylvester smiled, opened his phone camera and pointed it at me.

“Robert, if you admit that you leaked company secrets, we’ll take you to the hospital right away. We’ll even use Director Goldreich’s helicopter to send you to the best orthopedic hospital in the Capitol. If you refused, you can wait until you’re disabled.”

I stared hard at Beatrice. “Beatrice…”

She rubbed the place where I had pinned her earlier and said calmly, with a proud smile, “Why are you looking at me? Syl already gave you a choice. If you don’t want it, that’s your problem.”

Behind me, the doctors shouted anxiously, “Mr. Kleinn, if you wait any longer, your hand really cannot be saved! Protecting your hand is the most important thing!”

Thinking about the career I had loved my whole life and remembering the satisfaction in my father’s eyes when he realized I could inherit his artistic skill, I held back my tears.

Facing Sylvester’s camera, I forced myself to speak. “I admit… I leaked the company’s secrets.”

I repeated the entire script Sylvester had prepared.

Right after I finished, one doctor rushed forward and grabbed Sylvester’s arm. “We’ve already lost too much time. Earlier you mentioned your company’s helicopter—”

“The pilot, Mr. Park’s nephew, went back home for a wedding. The helicopter can’t fly.”

Beatrice cut the doctor off. She looked at me with a smile full of pride and disgust, then walked away.

The surgery on my hands lasted eighteen hours.

When they finally pushed me out of the operating room, I met a different doctor whose face pale was with exhaustion. She bowed to me.

“Mr. Kleinn, we really tried everything, but the results are not good… I’m afraid you won’t be able to draw again.”

The salty taste of my tears slid into my mouth, filling me with endless bitterness. But I forced myself to smile and looked at her with pleading eyes.

“It’s okay. Please give me some painkillers now. I need to be discharged. There are still many things I must do.”

“No. If we give you more anesthesia, your hand will definitely be ruined forever!”

I fell to my knees with a thud. “Please… I’m begging you.”

Two hours later, the painkillers took effect.

Smiling, I walked out of the hospital with my bandaged hand soaked in blood. If they destroyed me, then none of them would have peace either.

First, I went to the exhibition that my company was hosting in the city and tore apart all of my paintings.

Then I went back to the company and deleted all my ideas and sketches from my computer.

While I was destroying the unfinished paintings in Beatrice’s office, the door burst open. Beatrice and Sylvester rushed in.

When she saw the paintings torn into pieces on the floor, Beatrice completely lost control.

“Robert, what are you doing?! You tore the paintings from the exhibition! What about the tens of millions of dollars’ worth of tickets we already sold?!”

She continued shouting, “And what does ripping THESE paintings mean?!”

She looked at my hand that was covered in bloody bandages. Soon, a cruel light flashed in her eyes. She grabbed the fresh wound right after my surgery.

“Robert, answer me.”

Even with all the anesthesia, the sudden pain was unbearable. Cold sweat instantly covered my forehead.

I pushed Beatrice away and looked at the shredded paintings on the floor. I smiled.

“It doesn’t mean anything. I just want to destroy you... just like you destroyed me a few hours ago.”

Rage burst in Beatrice’s eyes. After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly laughed out loud.

“Destroy me? Robert, you’re so naïve. The copyright of those paintings you ripped? They were transferred to the company long ago. They’re not your paintings anymore! Forget tearing them, if you had dirtied even one corner, you’d have to compensate!”

“I did a rough calculation. You tore forty-five paintings. At the current market price for each one…”

Beatrice’s words exploded in my head like a bomb. I couldn’t hear anything after that.

With trembling hands, I took out my phone and checked the copyright records. When I saw that the copyright had been transferred half a year ago, my heart fell into a bottomless pit.

So she planned this long ago… Half a year ago... that was exactly when Sylvester Duskwood joined the company. Maybe… they had planned this together from the beginning.

Sylvester laughed mockingly in front of me. “Did you hear that, Robert? In total, 12.7 million dollars. When will you pay it back?”

I hadn’t eaten for a whole day and night. I had lost a lot of blood. My emotions were shattered. My vision went dark and I collapsed onto the torn pieces of my own artwork.

Beatrice looked down at me from above, her voice cold. “Scared, Robert?”

“Don’t be. Even though you betrayed me, even though you asked for a divorce, I’ll give you a chance, for the sake of our eight years together.”

She exchanged a look with Sylvester. A few minutes later, my father’s most beloved painting was brought in and placed right in front of me.

“Give me your father’s painting and we’ll erase your debt.”

I shot up from the floor, stumbling forward as I lunged toward the painting.

“Beatrice, keep dreaming! You think you deserve to touch my father’s work?!”

But before I could reach it, Sylvester kicked me hard in the stomach. The back of my head slammed against the corner of the coffee table.

Everything went black for a moment. Warm, sticky blood ran down my neck into my shirt.

Before I could react, Beatrice gently placed her foot on my bandaged hand.

“Robert, I’ll ask you one more time. Are you giving me your father’s painting or not?”