“Boss, I heard that Lizbeth bitch is pregnant. This time she’s done for!” One of the men spoke up from the crowd.

"Pregnant, huh?" The scarred man laughed cruelly. “If the baby’s real father gets chopped to pieces, that’ll definitely hit her. Heh, maybe she’ll drop dead from the shock! Two lives gone at once!”

He pointed a finger at Erick. “Start with this one. He looks soft! I bet Lizbeth will hate to see him hurt.”

They loosened Erick’s ropes and tore the tape from his mouth. “Wait, don’t touch me or Lizbeth will kill you all!”

“Shut up!” someone barked.

Erick clearly was inexperienced with this kind of situation. The more he screamed, the more excited these gangsters became.

While they surrounded him, I used my knife to cut my own ropes. My eyes remained fixed on the chaos before me.

Then came the sound of fabric tearing. Erick’s white shirt was ripped to shreds. He cried out while calling Lizbeth’s name over and over.

The scarred man slapped him hard and grabbed his hair. “Shut up! Or I’ll cut your tongue out!”

Just as he raised his hand, I finally cut through my ropes and got ready to rush in.

At the same time, Erick shouted, “Don’t touch me! I’m just Lizbeth’s side lover! I mean nothing to her! If you hurt me, she won’t care!”

He pointed straight at me. “But that man, kill him! He’s been with Lizbeth for eight years!

She said it herself, that bastard is her life!”

The scarred man froze, then turned toward me. Erick dropped to his knees, his voice shaking, eyes full of fear and flattery.

“Boss, look at him! He’s been with Lizbeth for eight years! I remembered! he’s killed plenty of your men before! The guy we lost last week? He died taking the blame for him!”

My body stiffened. I stared at Erick in disbelief. He knew who I was. He knew what I meant to Lizbeth.

So this was the ‘innocent guy’ she swore to protect? What a joke.

The scarred man’s face twisted with rage. He grabbed my throat with one hand.

“So you’re the bastard who got my brother killed? Damn it! Kill him!”

Then he shouted to his men, “That one too! They’re both trash! Chop off their heads and send them to Lizbeth!”

As his hand reached for me, I twisted, trying to throw him down. However, he saw it coming. He kicked my wrist hard. The knife flew from my hand.

“Still trying to play games with me?” The scarred man grinned. “Hold him down! Beat him to death!”

Soon the gangsters surrounded me, soon their fists were raining down on me. I tried to escape but I found no chance.

In the distance, Erick was already on the ground, barely breathing. Dozens of people were on top of him.

A fist then slammed into my head and turning my vision blurring red. As I frantically thinking how to escape, the old factory windows shattered with a crash.

Lizbeth burst in with a hundred armed men following her.

In seconds, the scarred man’s crew was pushed back. The fight broke with even more chaos. One of the gangsters realized that they were about to lose and he turned to stab Erick in the stomach.

Lizbeth saw it happen and pulled her trigger in a flash.

Gunfire filled the air.

Next, she pushed through the fight and rushed to Erick’s side. She pulled him into her arms and saw his eyes were staring at me.

“Tommy… I never wanted to steal Liz from you.

Why did you do this to me?” His voice faded and he passed out.

Lizbeth turned her head toward me, her eyes colder than I’d ever seen them.

“Tommy,” she said quietly, “I’ve been far too soft on you.”

Lizbeth stepped over corpse as she approached me.

"You better be ready to get my revenge."

My eyes were red as I clutched my aching lower abdomen. "You really think it was me? Lizbeth, I'm not stupid."

"Are you saying that I'm the stupid one here?" She kicked an unconscious gangster in front of me aside before reaching out to grab my jaw and forced me to look up.

"Didn't I warn you before? I told you to behave. So, why didn't you?"

I laughed, tears running down my face. “I'm just teaching him a lesson. I didn’t mean to get him killed!”

“So Rick was jealous of you and he had to get stabbed and take the blame for you?” Her voice shouted over mine.

“Tommy, do you even know how ridiculous you sound when you lie? He wouldn’t even step on an ant!”

In that moment, I lost all strength to argue.

I watched as she gently helped Erick stand up and walked past me. She said one thing to his men, “You know what to do. Don’t kill him—just leave him breathing.”

“Ah—!”

A knife went straight through my calf. I tried to get up, but another blade pinned my other leg to the ground. The pain was unbearable.

My eyes burned red as I watched her walk away. She held Erick, gently covering his eyes. Her voice was soft, like she was comforting a child.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

Those words… They pulled me back to the eight years ago.

The first time our enemies came for me, I didn’t know how to fight. She stood in front of me, alone and killed everyone who tried to hurt me.

Then she turned around, covered my eyes with her scarf and whispered the same words, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

My mind went blank. Instinctively, I reached out toward her, trying to hold onto her warmth.

The next second, a blade cut through my right arm completely.

When I woke again, I was alone in the abandoned factory. I pulled a blood-soaked plane ticket from my pocket and crawled out from this personal living hell.

“Lizbeth, we..."

"Will never meet again.” Lizbeth helped Erick into the car.