I watched my parents shuffle away with heavy hearts. As they disappeared from sight, the ringing phone in my hand pulled me back to reality.

"Ariel! I already heard about that scumbag Derek—are you okay now?" Gemma's anxious voice crackled through the receiver.

I reassured her softly, telling her not to worry about me and to focus on recovering from her own injuries.

"I told you to stop driving already... and now look—you're stuck in bed with those serious injuries, just staring at the ceiling."

A while ago, during one of Derek's business trips, Gemma had offered to stay with me for a while. On her way to my place, due to her poor driving skills, she accidentally hit someone. The victim had only suffered minor external injuries but was hospitalized for a few days to recover.

Gemma had stayed by the patient's side the entire time until he was discharged. She hadn't known his identity—only that he had a dark birthmark on his lower leg.

They thought the matter had been resolved quietly. But not long after, someone deliberately targeted Gemma. While she was home recovering, she was hit by a car in a vicious "accident" and knocked unconscious. The road had no surveillance cameras, and to this day, the truth remained a mystery. Gemma had no choice but to swallow the injustice.

It wasn’t until later that she discovered the man she had accidentally hit was someone from the Reed Group. Knowing how the Reed family operated—strict, calculating, and always repaying debts—she immediately suspected they were behind the hit-and-run. After all, her family had worked with them before, and the Reed Group was infamous for being ruthlessly fair and unforgiving.

“Wait—what?! That man was from the Reed family?” Gemma exclaimed in shock and sat upright in her hospital bed.

I could practically hear the gears in her mind turning. She had never understood why I insisted on taking the fall for Derek. Now she was starting to piece things together. Looking at the cast on her leg, she nodded silently with a complicated expression.

"Take care of yourself, Ariel," she said quietly. "Once I'm better, I'll come see you."

After I ended the call, my parents' words echoed in my mind.

"The victim has regained consciousness..."

A faint smile tugged at the corner of my lips. It was time for me to start playing my own chess game.

I had five minutes left before returning to my cell. I was about to dial a number on a slip of paper I'd been holding when the phone rang again.

"Gemma? What is it? Don't worry too much about me. I'll find my own way out."

Just as I was about to hang up, a deep, magnetic voice came through the line.

"Ariel. It's me."

My heart froze. I dropped the phone in shock.

"You're... you're really awake," I whispered, trying hard to suppress the surge of emotion welling up inside me.

Before he could reply, the visitation time ended. The call cut off automatically, and the phone was taken back by the guard.

Back in the cold, damp prison cell, I gripped the piece of paper with the number I never got to dial. My mind was already spinning—the next move had to be flawless.

Determined to earn another visitation opportunity, I decided to fully cooperate and maintain model behavior for the next few days.

That night, I lay in bed early, memories flooding my mind like a broken dam.

I thought about everything between me and Derek.

We met in our teens. I'd fallen for him at first sight. After months of pursuing him, we naturally became a couple—like fate itself had drawn us together.

On a warm summer day, he threw a surprise party. In front of all our friends and family, he knelt on one knee with flowers and a ring, vowing his future to me. We married on my 20th birthday.

"Ariel, you'll always be my one and only. I can't live without you."

"Ariel, hold on a little longer. I'm almost at the hospital. You and the baby must be okay!"

"Ariel, Cody's crying again. Can you look after him? I'm heading out."

"Take the kid away. Don't embarrass me in front of my drinking buddies!"

His words echoed like a tangled web in my head, each memory pulling me deeper into heartache. Sweat broke out on my forehead.

"Ariella! Wake up!"

The warden’s shout blared from the loudspeaker, yanking me from my restless sleep. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow and started another grueling day.

Even though I hadn’t been here long, some of the older women in the cell already couldn’t stand me. When I worked seriously, they’d mess with me on purpose. During meals, they’d dump their leftover scraps into my bowl. Before bed, they’d drench my mattress with urine.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I stormed over and yelled at them in fury.

But they didn’t back down—in fact, it fired them up. One of them suddenly slapped me hard across the face, knocking me to the floor.

"You filthy bitch! How dare you show your face here? I’ll rip your mouth apart!"

I was quickly overwhelmed. One against many—I had no chance. They pinned me down and began beating me mercilessly, delivering brutal kicks straight to my stomach.

Blood quickly filled my mouth. A searing pain tore through my abdomen, and a gush of warm amniotic fluid soaked down my legs.

Only when they’d finally vented their rage did they stop. One of them gagged me, tied my hands and feet, and tossed me back onto my bed like a broken doll.

Before I could even sit up, I was slammed hard onto the floor again. Dazed, I looked up and saw the ringleader—an older woman—counting money and handing out bills to the others. The payout wasn't small.

“Thanks, sisters. Easy work, right? Fast cash, too.”

I couldn’t speak, but my eyes burned with fury as I glared at them from the corner—hatred etched deep in my bones.

Still bound and gagged, I endured hours of excruciating pain before finally blacking out. It wasn’t until the next day that the warden found me—face pale, lips bloodless—and rushed me to the infirmary.

When I woke up, the doctor gave me the news. The baby was gone.

The women who attacked me all stuck to the same story. With no witnesses and no solid evidence, the incident was swept under the rug with nothing more than a verbal warning.

I said nothing—but in my heart, I knew exactly who had orchestrated this. I knew who saw me as an enemy worth eliminating at all costs.

...

When the news broke that I had been badly injured and lost the baby, Jade closed her phone with glee and burst into laughter.

"What's got you in such a good mood this early, babe?" Derek lazily wrapped his arms around her from behind.

Riding the height of her victory, Jade cheerfully suggested they go out for drinks and have fun. Derek, ever the obedient fool, readily agreed. The two of them soon left the house.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the attic, Cody called out weakly for his father, but Derek didn't even flinch. After they drove off, the child, alone and starving, fainted from hunger.

Since Jade had moved in, she'd done nothing but indulge in pleasure with Derek, who catered to her every whim. He hadn't been to the office in days. No one in the house even remembered that Cody existed.

—

Back in the infirmary, I wept in silence. The warden, finally moved by my misery, granted me another visitation.

When my parents arrived and saw my pale face, frail body, and lifeless eyes, my mother instantly noticed the flatness of my stomach and burst into tears.

“My baby... who did this to you? I swear, I’ll tear Derek to pieces! That coward hides behind that vixen Jade while you suffer like this!”

My father, equally grief-stricken, told me that he had gone looking for the accident victim to beg for forgiveness—but the man had already been transferred to another hospital. No one knew where he'd gone.

Long before my parents arrived, I'd managed to get hold of a phone and dialed that number. The voice on the other end was like a shot of adrenaline, completely calming my heavy heart.

As my parents raged on in my defense, I glanced calmly at the digital clock.

Seven days.

It had only been seven days since I entered this hell.

But very soon, everything was about to change.

"Mom, Dad... trust me. Karma is coming—and it won't be gentle."

They looked at me in confusion, thinking I must be delirious. After all, Derek seemed to be flying high. The Ortiz Group had just announced they would go public in three days.

I was about to explain when suddenly Leonel burst into the visitation room, soaked in sweat and panting heavily.

He took a deep breath and shouted, “Derek says he’s turning himself in!”

The room went still.

Leonel looked flustered. “He just called me—said he’s taking the evidence to the police and wants to confess that he was the one behind the wheel!”

My mother’s knees buckled, and she fell to the floor in disbelief.

I finally smiled triumphantly.

Still stunned, Leonel turned to me. “Say something—what’s going on here?”

Everyone looked at me with bated breath.

I stood tall, confidence glowing in my eyes.

"Confession? That's not enough. Karma doesn't come with just one slap—it comes with the full storm."

"And turning himself in? That’s just the beginning.”

The Reed family never lets things go. Their precious son was critically injured. I didn’t even have to lift a finger—they’ll handle Derek for me.

Everything was going exactly as planned.

And the real show was only just the beginning.