My daughter had been kidnapped and my wealthy husband forbade me from calling the police.

“Zofia will handle the rescue mission,” he told me coldly. “She needs a first-class merit citation for bravery so her daughter can get into that elite primary school.”

“You’d better not interfere. Or I’ll have the kidnappers send you her corpse right now.”

I didn’t dare make a move at his threat. I just begged him through my tears to bring our daughter back alive.

Three days later, Zofia proudly received her first-class medal. Dominic himself handed her the certificate of honor, along with a check for a million and a half crowns.

That same day, she posted a smiling photo of Dominic with her and her daughter, all cozied up together.

The caption read: “Thank you for staging this kidnapping just so I could earn my medal.”

The post disappeared quickly.

And I… I finally found my daughter’s cold, stiff body in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. The pain was like a knife through my heart.

If he had used my daughter as a pawn, then he couldn’t blame me for burning the whole chessboard!

——

As Aina’s funeral procession passed by the awards ceremony, I saw a large crowd gathered in the square. From the loudspeakers, I heard Zofia’s triumphant laugh.

“I didn’t think much at the time, The child was so young… I just couldn’t bear it. If I could, I would have traded my life for hers,” she said.

“Thank the God because she was only frightened. the child’s already been sent to the hospital for a full check-up.”

Her words drew a wave of applause.

“Ms. Reid truly is as beautiful inside as she is out,” said the host.

He then turned the microphone toward Dominic. “Mr. Gardner, what would you like to say to Ms. Reid for saving your daughter?”

Dominic’s eyes never left Zofia. His lips curved into a faint smile.

“I heard Ms. Reid is a single mother. In addition to the miliion-and-a-half-crowns reward, I’ve decided to make her daughter my goddaughter,” he announced.

“I’ll put her on my family registry and guarantee she’ll be treated exactly like Aina—equal inheritance rights and all.”

Gasps rippled through the crowd, followed by approving murmurs and raised thumbs.

The host was stunned. “Mr. Gardner, you’re so generous! Being your daughter must be the greatest happiness!”

“Nico…” Zofia’s eyes suddenly reddened.

They exchanged a smile, as if they were savoring the intimacy of that moment. Applause and cheers thundered through the square.

Meanwhile, as the funeral procession continued, I clutched my daughter’s cold, stiff body and sobbed until I couldn’t breathe.

Zofia was lying. Aina had already been murdered.

The autopsy revealed she had been dead for three days, with multiple fractures and bruises all over her body. Even now, her eyes wouldn’t close.

Dominic ignored his own child—he’d been too busy bringing Zofia and her daughter into his home.

I will make them pay for this.

Hatred surged through me as I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I hadn’t called in years.

“Freeze every bank account under Dominic Gardner’s name within the hour. Pull every investment and contract I’ve secretly arranged for Gardner Group over the years.”

The truth was, I was an heiress of House Blueholt, a powerful family in our capital New Ceruleath.

Years ago, I was taken hostage by robbers and Dominic had been a passerby who tried to save me and was stabbed multiple times for his trouble. That was when my feelings for him took root.

For the sake of his pride, I’d hidden my identity and stayed by his side, quietly helping him build his empire from scratch.

But now, it was time to end it.

Most of Gardner Group’s suppliers and clients only worked with him because of House Blueholt’s name. The moment we announced we were cutting ties, they would cancel their contracts. The penalty fees alone would bury him in debt.

And at that point, Zofia’s daughter could inherit every last cent of his debts.

Three days later, I returned home with few of my daughter’s personal belongings and her death certificate, ready to talk to Dominic about a divorce.

The moment I stepped inside, I noticed that belonged to me from the master bedroom upstairs had been thrown out into the hallway like trash.

Inside my room, Zofia and her daughter were cheerfully unpacking their suitcases, arranging their things as if they owned the place.

My blood boiled.

I stormed in, ready to toss every one of Zofia’s belongings out the door. “Get out! Who told you you could move in here?”

Before I could even touch her, she wrapped her arms around Clementine in a dramatical show of fear.

“Ah—Nico, help me!” she said.

“Uncle Dominic, this woman is trying to hit me and Mommy!” said her daughter.

Suddenly, Dominic grabbed my wrist from behind and twisted it hard in the opposite direction. Pain shot up my arm, my face going pale—I was sure I heard a bone crack.

Through clenched teeth, he spoke, “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming back. Who told you to report that the kidnapping was staged? Now they’ve stripped Zofia of her first-class merit award, Clem can’t get into the elite school! So, are you happy now?”

I hadn’t even had the chance to explain.

“Let go of me! It wasn’t me—I came back to—”

Dominic cut me off sharply, his voice thick with barely restrained anger.

“I’m the one who let them move in. Clem is my goddaughter now, which makes her a family. They wanted this room, so you’ll give it up. You ruined her chance at that school, so, you owe them."

He added, "Touch them and I’ll break your hand.”

His cold words sent a chill through my spine.

We hadn’t always been like this. There were days, in the beginning, when we were happy.

During his startup days, we were so poor we ate plain bread every night and I lost ten pounds from the diet. He felt so guilty, that one time, he’d secretly put a cheese slice in between my bread.

Though life was hard back then, I was content.

Then his business took off—and Zofia came back into the picture, divorced and with a daughter.

Zofia Reid was Dominic's first love, the one he’d never been able to have. After that, he started coming home later and later, always with the excuse of “business dinners.”

We fought about her endlessly.

On our wedding anniversary, I found a brand-new necklace in his suit pocket. I thought it was a surprise for me—until he stormed in, ripped it from my hands and snapped my right wrist.

“This is Zofia’s birthday gift! You have everything already—why steal from her?”

Later, he got onto his knees and apologized, saying he hadn’t meant it.

If it weren’t for the fact that Dominic had once nearly died saving me, I would never have forgiven him, never given him chance after chance to hurt me again.

The memory of that broken wrist made me instinctively take a step back now.

However, Zofia used the moment to stumble backwards instead and hitting her head against the cabinet door. She dropped to her knees in front of me, clutching the small cut on the back of her head.

“Hannah, you’ve destroyed Aina’s future already, are you trying to kill us too? Please, spare a poor widow and her daughter!”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” I realized something was wrong.

Before I could say more, Dominic growled. He kicked me hard on the chest.

I crashed into the table, knocking over a vase and several glasses. They shattered against my back, sharp fragments slicing into my skin. Warm blood soon trickled down, mixing pain with cold fury.

“Zofia, drop the act! You and the kidnappers are the ones who killed Aina!"

"And you, Dominic, you’re no better. You had my daughter kidnapped just to make things easier for that woman!”

“Do you realize the police recovered part of the crime scene footage? I saw the back of the woman who bribed the kidnappers and had Aina killed! It was her!” I shouted.

Zofia immediately shook her head like a rattling drum, tears streaming down her face. “It wasn’t me!”

Dominic could never stand to see Zofia getting harassed. In a single stride, he grabbed a wooden stool from beside him and smashed it over my head.

“Aah!”

I screamed as hot blood ran down the back of my neck. He seized me by the throat with one hand, lifted me off the ground and hurled me onto the shattered glass.

Then he pulled out his phone and called his assistant. “Bennie, go to the hospital and record a video of Aina. Send it to me.”

Hanging up, he narrowed his eyes, stepped over and stepping on my neck, grinding hard.

“Still want to run your mouth? Wonder if you'll keep going once I got the actual video.”

The pain had turned my whole body numb, my consciousness slowly fading. The choking made me feel the cold shadow of death creeping in—I couldn’t even speak.

Not long after, his phone rang. He put it on speaker.

“Mr. Gardner, bad news! The hospital says your daughter was never there.”

“What? She has a tracker on her. Find her!”

Dominic’s brow furrowed as he glanced at Zofia. He distinctly remembered telling her to take Aina to the hospital.

Zofia hadn’t expected Aina to bring a tracker around with her. Immediately, she panicked.

Zofia quickly gestured for Clementine to start packing their things, looking dejected as if she had suffered a great injustice.

“I really did take your daughter to the hospital, I even told her not to wander off. Hannah must have hid her daughter to frame me!”

Zofia then turned to me. “I know you’re angry about the kidnapping plan Nico and I came up with. I know you don’t want me and my daughter here. I’ll leave with Clem right now."

She continued, "It’s my fault—I should’ve listened to your warnings. Now you’re doing everything you can to ruin me.”

Dominic caught the implication instantly. “What did she threaten you with?”

Under his stare, Zofia pretended to hesitate before mumbling, “Hannah told me in private to stay away from you. She said she had plenty of ways to destroy my daughter’s future… She even called me and Clem worthless trash nobody wanted.”

By the end, she was sobbing uncontrollably.

“You… liar…” I managed to croak.

Dominic snapped. He yanked me up by the hair and dragged me across the floor until I was in front of Zofia. He forced my head down toward her feet.

“Zofia is the woman I treasure most. You have the guts to threaten her? Now, apologize!”

Meanwhile, his phone kept vibrating, but he had no time to notice.

“If you didn’t look a little like Zofia back then, do you think I would’ve taken the knife for you? Married you as a consolation prize?”

His words left me feeling as though I had been plunged into an ice cellar.

I clutched Aina's death certificate in my arms, refusing to let go, even as Dominic slammed my forehead into the floor until blood trickled down my face.

Through blurred vision, I saw Zofia’s lips curl in a faint smug smile.

I gave a bitter laugh.

So the man I thought had risked his life for me had never done it for love. I’d been nothing but Zofia’s stand-in.

Just as my consciousness began to slip away, tires screeched outside the gate. Dominic’s assistant burst in, looking frantic.

“Mr. Gardner! Why didn’t you answer your phone? I found your daughter’s trail.”

Bennie shot me a quick, pitying glance before continuing.

“The tracker was damaged, but I traced her with Mrs. Gardner near the awards venue. Then the signal vanished. I’ve got a team working on restoring the data now.”