"Ah!"

"Brother Maverick, it hurts. Alina’s in so much pain!"

The moment Alina let out that sharp, pitiful cry, Maverick, who hadn't lifted a finger to stop me until now, finally snapped. He turned and shoved me hard onto the coffee table.

The glass beneath me shattered instantly, and my body crashed into the shards.

Bright red blood oozed out, but I felt no pain. Instead, I let out a bitter, broken laugh.

I remembered those days when I used to cook for Maverick, and once. At the same time, chopping vegetables, I accidentally nicked my finger. It bled just a little, but he panicked like mad.

He scooped me up in his arms, rushed me to the hospital, and insisted only the best doctor treat the tiny wound.

But now, that tenderness, that love, he had given it all to someone else.

"Ariella, don’t go too far."

"I’ve held back because of what happened to your father, but don’t think I don’t have limits."

"Hahaha! You tolerated me? Maverick, you threw my mother off a building. You left her disabled. And you dare say you tolerated me?"

I stood slowly, letting the glass dig deeper into my skin, piercing through me inch by inch.

I welcomed the pain, used it to remind myself never to love him again, to carve a clear boundary between us.

When Maverick saw the shards embedded in my body, he froze.

"Ariella, don’t use your body to punish me. Until this matter is settled, I won’t care."

Whether he cared or not no longer mattered.

I had nothing left to prove to him.

All I needed now was to find my mother.

"Ariella, I didn’t mean to kill your father. I just panicked and ran. Can’t you forgive me?"

"I’ll kneel and apologize to you."

The moment she said that she made a show of lowering herself in front of me.

But I had seen the truth with my own eyes that night, the night I went to confront her.

She had been laughing and smoking with her friends, dancing like nothing ever happened.

I heard her say my father was just some old man who refused to die, and that his blood had stained the luxury car Maverick gave her.

I saw them laugh, mocking how my father had struggled before he died as if it were some cruel joke.

If not for that night, I might’ve believed she was simply scared.

"If you know you committed a crime, then don’t kneel in front of me, go turn yourself into the police!"

Alina clutched her cheek and burst into tears on the spot, looking so pitiful, as if I had been the one bullying her.

Maverick’s face darkened instantly. Without hesitation, he raised his hand and struck me.

"You already hit her with a vase. Why are you still pushing her, hitting her?"

That slap was clean, decisive. It erased everything that had ever existed between us.

There was nothing left. No bond. No warmth. No love.

I turned away, my white dress soaked in blood.

Maverick used to love seeing me in white. He’d lift me in his arms, spin me around, and call me his little girl forever.

But all those once-sweet memories unraveled in a flash, rewound into nothingness.

"Maverick, we’re over. You walk your sunny path; I’ll walk my lone wooden bridge."

"Whatever."

Maverick carried the perfectly unharmed Alina in his arms and walked out.

I didn’t waste a second grieving alone. Instead, I rushed straight to the hospital to search for my mother.

But after combing through every hospital in the city, I still couldn’t find her.

That’s when it hit me. Maverick must’ve hidden her.

I picked up my phone, furrowed my brows, and dialed his number.

"Maverick, where did you hide my mother? Don’t you dare take this any further!"

On the other end, I could hear the clink of glass as he swirled his wine, his tone colder than steel.

"Until you hand over the evidence, you’ll never see your mother again."

I couldn’t believe he would actually use my mother’s life as leverage against me.

Had all that love been a lie? Just a game to him?

Even though I already hated him to the bone, the sting of his cruelty still pierced through my chest.

I shut my eyes in pain; my voice was hoarse beyond recognition.

"Where are you? I’ll bring the evidence right now."

When I arrived at the apartment, I realized he had given the sea-view place he once gifted me to Alina.

As I stepped inside, everything that once belonged to us was gone, replaced by a completely different style.

I clutched my chest, but all I felt was hollow emptiness.

When Maverick came downstairs with Alina, I lifted the USB in my hand.

"Maverick, I brought it."

"If you want it, then tell me, where are you keeping my mother?"

Alina’s face lit up with smug satisfaction the moment she saw the drive.

She knew that with Maverick shielding her, nothing, no matter how serious, could ever touch her.

"She’s in my private hospital!"

The moment I got my answer, I flung the USB straight at his face.

Without wasting another second, I turned and walked away.

When I finally found my mother’s hospital room, I stood frozen, struck like lightning. One of her legs was gone.

I shook my head in disbelief, tears falling silently onto the cold, sterile floor.

Every step I took toward her felt like walking on nails, sharp, cruel, unbearable.

"Mom… what happened to your leg? You only fell from the second floor. It shouldn’t have come to this!"

At the sound of my sobs, she stirred. Her tired eyes opened slowly, meeting mine with pain and exhaustion.

"It was Alina. She ordered the doctor to amputate it."

"What? It was her?"

She hadn’t been satisfied with killing my father. Now she had destroyed my mother, too.

The fire inside me roared to life, scorching every inch of my being. I wanted nothing more than to rip Alina apart with my bare hands.

Just then, my phone rang. It was my lawyer.

"Ariella, you need to check the news right now."

I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, searching for the latest broadcast.

Every news channel was reporting the same thing: that my father had been drunk and jaywalking when he was struck and killed by a car.

But he hadn’t been drinking. And he never jaywalked.

I knew instantly that it was Maverick’s doing.

To protect Alina, he had fabricated a false video to smear my father’s name.

Now that he had the evidence, and I was left empty-handed, they could spin the story however they wanted.

I trembled from head to toe, my whole body shaking with rage.

Beside me, my mother, already frail, was so distressed by the lies that she started coughing up blood.

Her health had been fading ever since my father died.

Now, after being thrown from a building and losing her leg, she was permanently crippled.

And I couldn’t do a thing.

"Ariella, don’t blame yourself. People like us can’t go up against the rich and powerful."

"Let go of the appeal. I’m terrified they’ll come after you next, and if anything happens to you, how would I keep on living?

I was unwilling, so deeply unwilling. But I couldn’t touch Alina. Not even with all this hate in my heart.

As I walked out of the hospital, I heard people cursing my father, calling him a scammer who tried to extort money, saying he deserved to be hit.

They claimed he died rightly.

I couldn’t hold back. I argued with them in a fury, but someone recognized me as his daughter.

Their faces changed. They all stepped back, whispering, "Like father, like daughter."

That I was probably just another fraud looking for pity and compensation.

Two days later, I discharged my mother and held my father’s funeral.

Halfway through the ceremony, a commotion broke out outside.

Someone kicked over the wreaths, ripping apart even the white mourning banners, shredding them into pieces.

I was so furious that I rushed out, only to be forced to the ground by people Alina had ordered, pinned down, and made to kneel.

Mrs. Ariana Walker grabbed my chin and slapped me hard across the face.

"You little beast! Your father tried to extort my daughter, and you still dare to sue her? To call the police?"

"You think the Walker family is that easy to bully? Smash everything, hard!"

"I want him to have no peace even in death!"

"No! Please, stop!"

My mother hobbled out with a cane, trying to stop them, but Alina shoved her to the ground.

I struggled with all my might, hatred fueling every ounce of strength in my body.

Breaking free from their grip, I grabbed a chair and swung it straight at Alina.

But before I could react, someone kicked me from behind, sending me crashing into the wall.

And just like always, Maverick appeared. Right on cue.

Always there to witness the end, never the beginning.

"Brother Maverick, I just brought Mom to apologize to Uncle Liam. I didn’t expect Ariella to act like this toward me. Ah! It hurts so much!"

Maverick scooped her into his arms, casting a cold, sharp glare in my direction.

"Ariella, didn’t I tell you this ends here? Why won’t you listen?"

"That’s not how it happened! She brought people here and destroyed the funeral—"

"No, we didn’t! She’s lying!"

Alina immediately burst into exaggerated sobs, then collapsed to the ground as if she’d fainted.

Ariana jumped in without missing a beat.

"My daughter’s already suffering from depression because of your father’s case; she even tried to take her own life. I beg you. Please let her live!"

Everything we said, Maverick refused to believe. Yet every word from those two vipers, he treated like gospel.

"Someone, destroy the funeral for me."

"Ariella, this is your third strike. If you go against me again, I’ll make sure you never forget it for the rest of your life."

With that, he turned and carried Alina out. She peeked through one eye and threw us a mocking face.

When my mother saw my father’s black-and-white portrait ripped to shreds, she fainted on the spot from sheer rage.

I panicked, rushing her to the hospital for emergency care, hands trembling as I dialed a number on my phone.

When the call connected, I broke down completely. "Help me... I really have nowhere else to go..."

Only the sound of my sobs echoed down the cold hospital hallway.

Not long after the call ended, a video call from Alina popped up.

"Tsk tsk tsk, crying so pitifully! Too bad, Brother Maverick is still standing on my side."

"I was the one who drunk-drove and killed your father, you know? He was still alive at first, but I hated how his blood stained the car Maverick gave me. It scared my dog, so I stepped on the gas and sent him straight to heaven."

"You see this white pipe here? That’s the leg I had your mother’s doctor amputate after I tossed her from the building. I made it into a pipe, just for you. A souvenir!"

"Hahahaha!"

I curled around my phone, trembling, broken, yet the fire in my chest burned hotter than ever.

"You monster... you’re no different from the beasts who once slaughtered civilians."

"Oh? You guessed right. I actually got the idea from a documentary about the Japanese turning bones into pipes."

"Alina, I curse you, may you die a miserable death!"

I lost all sense of reason and charged at Alina, ready to risk everything, to drag her down with me.

I slashed the knife toward her with all my strength, but she only screamed for help with a twisted smile, like everything was unfolding exactly as she had planned.

A warning shot rang out.

Maverick’s men had opened fire, and the bullet grazed my hand.

"Ariella, are you insane? You tried to kill someone with a knife?"

My eyes burned crimson, fury roaring through my chest like wildfire, an inferno I could no longer contain.

"Yes, I’m crazy. As long as I’m still breathing, I’ll kill her."

"Maverick, don’t you dare put on that pained, disappointed face. You make me sick."

"Fine. You asked for it."

"She’s yours to do whatever you want."

With those cold words, Maverick turned and walked away.

"Maverick, you’re not human. You’re a beast!"

"What are you all standing around for? Go get her!"

Terrified, I tore myself free and ran, but just then, the hospital called.

My mother was gone.

I froze. It felt like lightning had struck me, and in that moment of shock, they caught me.

They ripped at my clothes, pinned me down, and refused to let me move.

I shut my eyes in despair.

At the sound of a gunshot, my eyes snapped open.

I knew—it was him. He had come to save me.