Elise reacted first.

She covered her face and curled up, tears in her big eyes as she looked at Geff, like a little rabbit that had been wronged.

Geff rushed over and pulled her into his arms, full of pain and care. Without waiting for her to explain, he spoke in anger, “Apologize to Elise! Now!”

The pain in my hand was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. My lips trembled as I stared at him. “Apologize? Geff, do you know where I have been these past days?”

A cold laugh came from above. “You hated Elise and jumped off the building on purpose to frame her. Then, your trick did not work, so now you are losing control?”

So he really wished I was dead.

Geff clearly did not want to talk anymore. He picked up Elise in his arms and turned to leave the room.

I collapsed onto the floor as memories rushed through my mind. Then my phone rang.

“Go to the hospital tomorrow to clear out your mother’s things. In the afternoon, my people will come to pick you up.”

My mother was the president of the Yarlington Group. When her career was rising, she fell in love with my poor father.

She should have lived a bright, beautiful life. But after my father cheated on her, she collapsed from the shock and had not woken up since.

I never expected that years later, her daughter would face the same thing.

“I understand.” After hanging up, I wiped my tears and looked at the empty doorway.

Whatever.

Once these two days were over, everything would finally end.

The next day, I went to the hospital as planned, but my mother was gone from her bed. All the medical machines in the room had been removed.

In panic, I heard nurses talking.

“Did you hear? Mr. Sincle’s wife is in danger. She needs a heart transplant right away. And she is pregnant too.”

A bad feeling hit me. I knew “Mr. Sincle” meant Geff.

My heart tightened.

After finally finding the room, through the glass I saw Elise crying in Geff’s arms, and my mother lying beside her with an oxygen mask.

My heart jumped. I pushed the door open hard.

Geff froze when he saw me, then gave orders to the people beside him.

“Elise’s surgery is about to start. Throw her out. I do not want anyone to disturb Elise.”

Hearing this, I was even more sure of my fear.

I struggled with all my strength, not letting those people touch me.

“Geff, you are really going to give my mother’s heart to her? You are shameless!”

“Tyara, you know Elise is pregnant, yet you kept provoking her again and again. Now that she is sick, are you very pleased?”

I stared at the man with bloodshot eyes, filled with rage and despair. “I did not provoke her. The kidnapping was her scheme. She was the one who pushed me down the stairs. She was the one who killed our child…”

“Enough!” Geff’s face twisted, the veins on his neck bulging. “You are still trying to argue at a time like this? Fine. Then let your useless mother pay for it! This heart is what you owe Elise!”

Suppressing the pain in my chest, I took out a document from my bag and threw it at Geff. If he refused to believe the child in my womb was his, he could not possibly deny the hospital report. Even though that child was already gone, I still looked at him with a final sliver of hope.

In the next instant, a furious slap landed on my face. “Tyara, just because Elise is my first love, you refuse to save her! You are just as vicious as your mother. No wonder your father cheated on her!”

I knelt on the floor, staring at him in a daze. For the first time, I felt that he was a complete stranger. Everything I had once told him in trust had now become ammunition for him to humiliate me and my parents.

Elise pretended to be sympathetic. “Geff, Tyara must be heartbroken about losing her mother. Let her see her mother one last time, okay? Just let her fulfill her duty as a daughter.”

I glared at Elise as if I could tear her apart with my eyes.

The next second, Geff spoke in a cold voice, “Hold her down. I want her to watch with her own eyes as her mother’s heart is cut out.”

“Geff, you will be punished for this!”

Before the shining knife even came down, it already felt like my own heart was being torn apart.

“No! Don’t touch her!” I rushed forward. The moment I hugged my mother, the falling knife cut a deep wound across my back.

I closed my eyes tightly, as if I could not feel any pain at all. “Please… she will die!”

The next second, Geff grabbed my hair from behind and yanked it hard.

My whole body was forced backward by the force, slamming into the floor. My head rang as if it were about to split open.

Tears streamed down my face as I screamed at him in desperation, “Geff, when you wanted to start your business, it was my mother who gave you the money and found investors for you. If it were not for her, you would have burned to death in the ICU that winter, do you know that? She is your lifesaver. How can you treat her like this?”

I thought he would remember her kindness, but my words only seemed to touch his raw nerve. Geff flung me aside violently, then stepped on my face with his leather shoe.

“She is just a dead woman. Letting her contribute something to Elise at the end of her life is already an honor for her. Tyara, listen carefully. You slapped Elise like that. I did not make you pay with your life, and that is already my greatest mercy to you.”

My head was forced to the side, my eyes facing my mother’s operating table. At his command, the doctors raised their knives and brought them down.

I stared wide-eyed and screamed hysterically, but no one paid me any attention. Along with the stabbing pain that shot through my veins, half of my face was badly injured.

Bright red blood merged with the red soles of the man’s leather shoes, as if silently celebrating the success of the surgery.

Staring at the still-crimson heart inside the container, my bones felt as though they were being crushed by unbearable pain. My body trembled uncontrollably, and I could only let out broken, agonized moans from deep in my throat.

Why?

Why would he rather destroy everything around me than believe me even once?

I did not know how long passed before my body finally collapsed to the floor, my eyes staring bleakly into the distance.

A faint breeze drifted through. A blood-stained sheet of white paper from the operating table slowly floated down in front of me.

On it was a single crooked line of handwriting. I recognized it at once—it was my mother’s.

“Tyara, I hope you will be safe and sound, and get everything your heart desires.”

At that moment, my eyes burned with tears, and my limbs felt as though they were being torn apart by savage beasts.

Ten years ago, I had gone against everything for Geff. On the eve of registering our marriage, my mother held my hands and said, “If you love him, I love him too. But Tyara, Geff may be a talented man, yet he is not a good husband. If one day he dares to hurt you, I’m willing to give up my life in exchange for your safety and happiness.”

So she had woken up. She knew everything.

The screen of the phone in front of me kept lighting up. Trembling, I raised my hand. The moment I heard the voice on the other end, all the grievance and helplessness I had bottled up for so long finally burst out, “Adrian, I do not have a mother anymore.”

There was a long silence on the other end. “I am sorry. This was my mistake. I will make Geff pay for it. I swear I will.”

Not wanting anyone with ill intentions to overhear, I dragged my exhausted body into the stairwell. The next second, a familiar voice reached my ears.

Through the stair railing, I saw Geff. The man standing in front of him… was my father.

“I have waited six years for this day. Tomorrow, Yarlington Group will welcome its new owner!”

“Don’t forget our agreement.”

“Of course. At tomorrow’s banquet, I will personally take Elise as my adopted daughter and announce your wedding date.”

“As for Tyara… she knows too much…”

Listening to their conversation, I was so shocked I did not even dare to breathe. So they were in this together.

The next day, I handed a thick stack of documents to Geff.

“What is this?”

“Some work contracts.”

Geff gave me a deep look. Just then, his assistant came in to report that Elise had woken up. Geff hastily signed several pages and left me alone in the office.

I opened the documents and finally let out a smile. They were not work contracts at all. They were agreements confirming that all shares of the Yarlington Group belonged to me personally, as well as a divorce agreement that would leave him with nothing.

That night, the Varch family held the largest banquet in years.

As fireworks bloomed across the sky, Adrian opened the car door for me. “Are you ready?”

I got into the car without hesitation. “I am ready.”

At the same time, the giant screen at the banquet suddenly went dark. When it lit up again, it was playing everything that had happened in the stairwell the day before.

Yes. I had recorded it all.

Geff thought I was foolish, thought I loved him so deeply that I could die for him. But what he did not know was that the moment he chose Elise over our child, I had already stopped loving him.

In the rearview mirror, the mansion slowly disappeared, yet the fireworks seemed to burn brighter and brighter.

The video was only a small gift. It would make you pay for everything he had done to me a hundred and a thousand times over.