When I'm taking Mom and Dad to experience the cable car ride, an infinite display of fireworks suddenly bursts from the bottom of the mountain. Soon, they form a sentence in the air.

"Our romance will never fade away, even if we die. Yvonne Shaw, my heart belongs to you always."

Right away, I realize that my husband, Henry Glover, has specifically prepared the fireworks display just to please his childhood sweetheart, Yvonne Shaw.

Under the powerful attacks of the fireworks, the cable lines begin to shake and tremble violently to the point they are about to snap.

My fingers tighten around my phone so much that they've turned white. I scream into the speaker, "Henry Glover, have you gone nuts? Stop it! Mom and Dad are still in the cable car!"

But he merely chortles in return. I can hear Yvonne's delicate voice egging him on in the background.

"Why should I stop? When Yvonne's parents were lying in the ICU and waiting for help three years ago, you screwed up their life-saving surgery despite the fact that you never failed a surgery before!

"Today, I want you to have a taste of what it feels like to lose your loved ones as well!"

After that, the bodyguards' responses echo from the other end of the line.

Henry orders, "Add another huge batch of fireworks and aim them at the cable car. Just keep firing at it!"

Yvonne's titters are like poisoned honey. She continues egging on Henry.

"You're amazing, darling! Make those two bastards turn to ash!"

The cable car sinks all of a sudden. Mom and Dad are so frightened that their complexions turn deathly pale.

With bloodshot eyes, I use all of my strength in roaring at my phone.

"Henry Glover, your own parents are the ones trapped inside the cable car right now!"

"Do you even hear yourself, Zoey?" Henry Glover snapped over the phone. "You're being utterly pathetic here! My parents are vacationing in Mortham right now! You should try coming up with a lie that's actually halfway believable next time!"

His voice sounded cold and cutting.

Yvonne Shaw giggled before asking, "Do you not see what she's doing, Henry? Zoey is trying to use your parents to control you again. It's the same trick she used to trap you into marrying her."

Yvonne's words immediately struck a nerve with Henry. His expression darkened as he gestured to the bodyguards to aim the fireworks at the cable car.

"You have ten minutes to think it over, Zoey. I'll consider letting you off if you agree to sign the divorce agreement, leave with zero assets, and tell my parents that the whole divorce was your idea; otherwise…"

There was no mistaking the threat in his statement, as the cable car shuddered and swung from the impact on the glass soon after. The metal hinges creaked ominously.

I didn't even have a chance to speak before my father-in-law, Roger Glover, snatched the phone in a fit of rage. "You insolent brat! Is this how you've been treating Zoey when we're not around?"

Dad's voice was a bit raspy and shrill due to his fear of heights.

Henry froze in shock before exploding in rage. "Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that? I've never acknowledged marrying Zoey! You've got a lot of nerve trying to act like you're related to me! You're asking for it!"

In the very next moment, a more violent barrage hit the cable car, shattering the glass.

I was hanging halfway out of the window as I gripped the doorframe tightly. I broke into a cold sweat from the searing pain as the glass fragments dug into my hands.

Mary Fuller, my mother-in-law, widened her eyes in surprise while shrieking, "Your hand, Zoey!"

I was well aware that nothing mattered more to a doctor than their hands, but I still smiled wryly and said, "It's alright, Mom."

Mom hurriedly took out her phone, saying, "I'll call Mr. Coleman now to tell him to come here to rescue us, Zoey."

She cried out frantically when she found out that Henry was the one who picked up the call. "You're going to kill us, you good-for-nothing son! You'd better stop this cable car this instant!"

Henry clicked his tongue in irritation, massaging the bridge of his nose. "Did Zoey complain to you again, Mom? Stop listening to her nonsense. Everything is fine between us."

He hung up abruptly after saying that, and a second later, my phone rang. He exploded in fury, yelling, "Do you really think my parents are your get-out-of-jail-free card, Zoey? I've already fired Mr. Coleman, so no one will be able to save you now! You either sign the divorce agreement or die miserably!"

Mom, overcome with rage, suddenly collapsed, struggling to breathe.

I immediately knew that she was suffering from a heart attack. I fumbled through my handbag and finally located her medication. But just as I was about to give it to her, a helicopter swept in and hovered barely a hundred yards away.

Henry had his arm around Yvonne while holding a shotgun, which he then loaded and chambered.

In that instant, a shot rang out, and the bullet grazed my cheek and pulverized the medicine, leaving my hand completely numb from the impact.

Henry racked the slide again and aimed directly at me. "Your ten minutes are up, Zoey. Are you signing the divorce agreement, or do we have to do this the hard way?"

Mom gripped my hand tightly and silently shook her head.

Dad was livid. He was just about to lean outside the window of the cable car to argue on my behalf when Henry fired a warning shot straight into his shoulder. "You have ten seconds, Zoey!"

I looked at my in-laws, whose lives hung in the balance, and stated coldly, "I'll sign the divorce agreement, but you'll have to send me some heart medications right now and get Dad to the hospital before I do that. It's our fight, Henry, so please leave Mom and Dad out of it."

"Very well," Henry replied, his smile deepening while snapping his fingers.

I signed the divorce agreement once the drone brought it to me. I was just about to reach for the medication attached to it when a bullet struck my hand. I immediately bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to stop myself from screaming out loud.

Yvonne was the one who fired the shot. She stood there with a gun in her hand, her gaze full of malice. "Zoey is the reason my parents are dead. Why do her parents get to live, Henry? I absolutely won't allow it!"

Henry planted a kiss on her cheek after she turned her head away in a huff, then burst out laughing. "You're too impatient, Yvonne. How could I ever let Zoey off so easily? That bottle actually contained rat poison, not heart medication."

I snapped my head up and looked at Henry in utter disbelief. I thought that if Yvonne hadn't intervened earlier and I had fed the medicine to Mom, not even the greatest doctor on earth could have saved her.

Henry cocked his brow after noticing my grim expression, mockery written all over his face. "I had no intention of letting you live, so there's no difference in letting you die sooner or later, Zoey."

He raised his gun again and aimed for the cable car's mounting hook. He then fired the shot, causing the cable car to jolt violently and leaving only a single steel wire to support our weight.

Dad was flung out of the window from the momentum, but he still held fast to an emerald pendant necklace that had the word "Glover" engraved on it.

Henry's assistant spotted it and gasped. "Isn't that Mr. Roger's necklace, Mr. Henry? He had two of those made from the emeralds he found in Southern City. One for him and one for you. That man over there couldn't possibly be Mr. Roger, right?"

Henry's face clouded over at the question, but before he could process it, Yvonne immediately fanned the flames.

"Those Lovells are absolutely pathetic! Zoey stole my position in the Glover family, and now her father stole your father's necklace. They're a family of thieves, Henry!

"Didn't you call your parents last night? They're away on a vacation at Mortham, so there's no way they would suddenly appear here on a cable car with Zoey!"

Henry shook off his doubts—as if waking from a dream—after hearing that. The worry on his face vanished instantly.

I held onto Dad's hand tightly while bracing my feet against the doorframe, a wave of helplessness washing over me. It was true that my in-laws had been away at Mortham the night before, but they had flown back overnight to help me work on my relationship with Henry, insisting on keeping it a secret.

Henry was supposed to join us on the cable car ride, but he never showed up; instead, we were met with an infinite display of fireworks.

Dad slipped into unconsciousness, causing his body to become a heavy weight that kept sliding down.

My shoulder was already dislocated. The pain was so blinding that I couldn't even scream. I forced myself to hold on, as I couldn't possibly allow Dad to fall from this 300-foot height and be torn apart on impact.

I closed my eyes as I begged him at the top of my lungs. "You have to save Dad, Henry! You will never be able to live with yourself if you let him die today!"

I never imagined that Henry could be this depraved, as he leveled his shotgun at my wrist once more and pulled the trigger.

"Stop trying to pull that family crap with me, Zoey. I only have one father, and he's on a vacation in Mortham. I've warned you that I'm going to make you experience the pain of losing a loved one today."

I lost control of my hand after suffering from the powerful force of the bullet, leaving it paralyzed. I could only watch in despair as Dad plummeted straight down the cliffside.

"Dad!" I yelled in agony.

I knew that the cable car was on the verge of falling, and I had no idea if Mom was still alive. I, on the other hand, was losing so much blood that my sight grew increasingly hazy.

Henry sat leisurely in the helicopter, looking quite at ease with a wine glass beside him.

Yvonne, nestled against him, tilted her head back and proposed, "Why don't we make this more interesting?"

Henry, who always indulged her every whim, playfully tapped her nose and replied affectionately, "You can do whatever you want, Yvonne."

Yvonne's eyes glinted with delight. She clapped her hands, signaling a bodyguard to step forward with a giant hornet's nest caught in a net.

Yvonne admired her manicure, then gave a slight nod of her head toward the cable car. "Go ahead and toss it inside."

It was then that the wasp nest was tossed into the cable car in an arc, with the wasps peering out cautiously at first, then swarming toward Mom and me in a frenzied blur.

I couldn't move out of the way in time; a large welt formed on my arm where I was stung, rapidly turning red and swollen.

"I heard an old wives' tale that wasp stings work wonders for heart conditions. I'm just trying to help your mother, so don't be ungrateful, Zoey," Yvonne explained with a laugh.

She then shot a look at the bodyguard, and before long, a bucket of honey was splashed over us, the cloying scent further aggravating the wasps.

I gritted my teeth against the pain as I scrambled to pull a coat from my bag to shield us both, looking completely disheveled. Henry's and Yvonne's shrill laughter echoed through the valley. It was obvious they were treating us like a form of entertainment.

In the end, due to the sudden movement, the cable car started swaying again, causing Mom and me to be violently thrown to one side. We slammed hard against the metal frame of the door.

I suddenly spotted a single heart medication pill lying in the corner of the cable car. I ignored the swarm's stings, lunged for it, and shoved it into Mom's mouth.

I then kicked the wasp nest straight out of the cable car and watched it drop into the valley, the swarm trailing behind it. Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the floor.

Mom was still reeling, her body incredibly frail. She realized that we were the only ones left in the cable car, so she hurriedly grabbed my hand and asked, "Where's Roger, Zoey?"

I couldn't help but start tearing up upon hearing the mention of Dad. I immediately turned my head away in silence, unwilling to respond.

Mom immediately understood.

Henry, on the other hand, was still laughing shrilly. "Your mother just won't die, will she? Why don't I help you two along and send you down to join your father, Zoey?"

Having said that, he fired another shot, directly hitting the steel cable.

Mom dug her nails into her palms, her eyes filled with a murderous rage. She scrambled through her pockets until she fished out a flare gun. "Use this to alert the Thunderbolt Squad from the Glover family. That'll alert them to rescue us, Zoey."

Mom was in a terrible state, so the moment she said her piece, she passed out.

I didn't waste a second. I aimed at the sky and pulled the trigger, causing the flare to shoot through the clouds and explode in a blaze of color high above. It completely eclipsed the infinite display of fireworks Henry had launched for Yvonne earlier.

Henry's composure shattered upon seeing the flare. He slapped the armrest of his chair and lunged to his feet. "Why did your mom have that with her?"

That flare had been fired—a signal that the head of the family was in peril and required immediate rescue.

Henry, being a Glover himself, understood the gravity of the situation. He knew that once the Thunderbolt Squad arrived, there would be no hiding what he had done.

"I-I can't let Mom and Dad find out about this," Henry muttered to himself before a savage glint flashed in his eyes, radiating pure murderous intent. He then reloaded his weapon, chambered a round, and took aim at my head.

Yvonne's eyes lit up with a predatory gleam. "That's right, Henry! You'll have nothing to worry about once Zoey is dead!"

Yvonne's words aligned perfectly with Henry's intent, so he didn't hesitate and pulled the trigger.

Henry's bullet flew toward me, but a shot from the southwest was faster, intercepting it and causing the two bullets to explode midair.

In the meantime, the mercenaries from the Glover family's Thunderbolt Squad swept in, their helicopters box-circling Henry, who was forced to keep his eyes shut from the massive downdraft.

Robert Glover, Henry's uncle, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, bellowing, "How dare you, Henry!"

Henry's face paled with fear as he faced Uncle Robert's domineering presence. He then tried to bluff his way out of it, saying, "You've all been tricked by that wretched woman, Uncle Robert! Zoey stole the flare gun! Mom isn't even anywhere near this place!"

Uncle Robert ignored his excuses entirely. He slid down the rope, landed right in front of Henry, and delivered a sharp backhand across his face.

"You impudent fool! Have you forgotten all the rules drilled into you since childhood? How dare you talk back to me!"

Henry was seething with resentment, but he had no choice but to submit under Uncle Robert's absolute authority. He lowered his head and mumbled, "Got it, Uncle Robert."

In the meantime, the Thunderbolt Squad moved with professional efficiency, rescuing Mom and me from the cable car in one swift motion.

Henry glared at me and hissed, "You'd better be smart about this, Zoey. I'll personally kill you if you dare breathe a word about this to Mom and Dad—"

He was cut off mid-sentence by his assistant, who was staring and pointing at Mom's hand with a ghostly pallor. "How could the scar on that woman's hand look exactly the same as the one on your mom's hand, Mr. Henry?"