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.