Phoebe's POV

He ground his teeth, voice rough. “Phoebe, you really don’t want to give birth to my child?”

“No.” I looked up slowly, languid. “You have fifteen seconds to decide. Either save Margaret, or let me go.”

“If you hesitate longer, the crane’s rope will rip off.” I started, then made a falling motion with my hand and smiled cruelly. “Then you’ll be collecting your little girl’s body.”

“I choose… Margaret!” Cade finally cried, slamming his eyes shut as if pulling himself out of some impossible moment.

I smiled in satisfaction. “Too bad. It’s already been eighteen seconds.”

“What are you gonna do?!” His pupils widened the instant the crane let go with a thunderous sound, and Margaret’s scream followed immediately.

“Sorry, you were a second too slow.” I looked at my fingernails, amused and indifferent.

Cade swayed as if he might fall. By the time he reacted, he was already rushing outside.

However, Margaret had already hit the ground, struck her head, and gone limp. Blood also stained her white dress.

He scooped her into his arms, frantic. “Doctor! Get my private doctor!”

“Phoebe!!” he spat, hatred blazing. “You bitch! I already made a choice. Why would you hurt Margaret?! Don’t drag someone else into this! If you hate me, come at me!”

Watching him with that mix of grief and fury was delicious. I couldn’t help but laugh heartily.

“Oh?” I went on. “Then why weren’t you thinking like this three years ago when Renzo died?”

At my words, Cade’s face drained of color. “How do you know about Renzo? What… what is your relationship with my brother?”

“If you hadn’t killed him, I probably would’ve been your sister-in-law.” I dropped the bomb. “Cade.” I raised my eyes, cold. “Funny thing, he died the night before he was going to propose to me.”

I’d known it for a while. Cade had killed his own younger brother.

Renzo Oliver had promised to marry me. I was a breath away from wearing his ring. But because of Cade, he and I were torn apart.

That was why I’d built this reckless playgirl act to get close to Cade.

His eyes reddened as he still held the unconscious Margaret. His jaw also clenched, and a cold laugh escaped him. “So you came on to me on purpose, to avenge him?”

“Phoebe, you’re naïve. A loser like Renzo could never inherit our family's fortune.” He sneered. “Anyway, we look the same, and now you’re carrying my child. Why not just marry me? Isn’t that perfect?”

I slapped him hard across the face, turning his face sideways.

With his bloody hand, he touched his cheek and said, “No woman has ever struck me before. You’re the first.”

Cade lifted his head, voice like breaking ice. “Since your hands aren’t clean, they should be made useless.” He gathered Margaret and started to leave.

As he passed the guards, his step faltered. “Those who betrayed our family, take them out too,” he ordered.

Yet the guards didn’t move. They still looked to me for orders.

Cade had been careless. He assumed those men were loyal to him, that he had control over everything here.

Later, the eldest servant, Elmer Hersey, approached me with a respectful bow and asked, “Miss, that punk Cade laid a hand on you hard. Want to show him some real power so he learns his place?”

Phoebe's POV

I was trimming a potted plant when I flatly answered, “No need.”

“This is just getting good, Cade,” I muttered.

Ever since he took everything from Renzo three years ago, I intended to make him pay back piece by piece.

“As for this child, remove it,” I said to Elmer.

Before they pushed me into the operating room, Elmer hesitated, trying to find the right words. “Miss, are you sure you want to terminate the pregnancy? If Cade finds out the child’s gone, he might fly into a rage and do something extreme.”

I only smiled, colder than before. “Are you afraid of him? Elmer, with our family’s power, even ten Cades aren’t worth mentioning.”

As I spoke, I let my gaze linger on Renzo’s photo with a strange tenderness. “If it weren’t for him looking like Renzo, he wouldn’t have lived this long.”

As such, Elmer fell silent and arranged for me to be taken into surgery.

When I opened my eyes again, a miserable bellow tore through the air. “Phoebe, how dare you!” Cade’s voice was raw with fury. “How could you terminate the baby without my permission?!”

The abortion left my body lighter, though my face was still pale and exhausted. I managed a small, haggard smile. “What, you’re not going to go look after your foster sister? Looks like her fall wasn’t that serious. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have time to shout at me.”

Cade went mad. He thought I was powerless here, nothing more than a lamb bound for slaughter.

“Phoebe, why are they listening to you? What are you, really?” he demanded, eyes hard on me.

I turned my ring on my finger and said, “You’ll know in time.”

He stared at the ring, his face turning grim. “Is that the ring Renzo was going to propose with?”

“Not exactly, yet yes.”

Renzo had prepared a proposal ring for me, but he died before I could wear it. So, I’d had an identical one made so it looked like I’d accepted his proposal.

“You actually have a grudge against Margaret? If you hate me, take it out on me. She’s only my sister. She won’t stop me from marrying you.” He tried to reason, voice strained. “Besides, you said you were going to marry him, didn’t you? Renzo and I look exactly the same. Marrying me is like marrying my brother.”

I stroked his face with a near-greedy touch. “Yes, exactly the same. If it weren’t for your hoarse voice, I might almost mistake you for him.”

But I knew Renzo wouldn’t have treated me like this. He was clean and pure, not the kind to become a crime boss, not the kind to keep a sheltered girl as a pet, not the kind to sneak from my room into Margaret’s to satisfy himself, not the kind to have one eye stabbed out by me.

“Cade.” I sneered and grabbed a nearby bottle, smashing it down on his head. The glass shattered across his skull.

My voice was soft but sharp as it rang out, “Cade, I got close to you to have you pay for it.”

He staggered, nearly split open by the blow, but he stayed on his feet.

The private doctors gasped and rushed forward to steady him.

“Phoebe!” Blood trickled from the corner of his eye. “Tell me, why did you come to me, only to refuse to bear my child? What do you actually want?”

My gaze cooled until it was ice.

Phoebe's POV

“Where’s Renzo?” I asked.

“At his grave,” Cade answered.

All I knew was that the night before he planned to propose, Renzo had gone back to thier family home. He said his parents were gravely ill and there was urgent business. But he never came back after that.

Afterwards, the eldest son, Cade, became heir, and Renzo seemed to vanish into thin air. It took me a long, exhausting search to learn the truth.

On the day the Olivers ‘mourned,’ Cade had murdered his own brother to secure the inheritance.

“Phoebe, give it up. You’ll never see him again,” Cade said, standing unafraid and sneering. His voice was cold and certain. “I buried him alive. I burned him to ash. I didn't even write his name in his tombstone or light a candle for him.”

“You’ll rot for this, Cade!” I snapped, blood burning behind my eyes. “Aren’t you afraid of karma? He wanted nothing, didn’t plan to compete with you. Why couldn’t you leave him alone?”

Seeing blood running freely down Cade’s head, people helped him away from the scene, steadying him as he left. They also pushed my wheelchair. But suddenly, a knife flashed toward me.

“Phoebe! You dare hurt Cade? I’ll kill you!” Margaret lunged, no longer saintly.

But clumsy as she was, she missed and tumbled to the floor.

Despite her attempt to stab me, I had her set free and simply ignored her.

But Margaret cried out with reckless desperation, “Phoebe, you could never guess. Renzo didn’t die! He just doesn’t love you anymore! He changed his identity to hide from you. You acting all heartbroken here is ridiculous!”

I raised my hand, and the men behind me stopped the wheelchair and turned me around.

“What did you just say?” I asked.

Margaret quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide and guilty.

I pursed my lips and nodded to the bodyguards, and they grabbed her.

“Looks like last time I didn’t manage to finish you off, you sure are lucky,” I said. “Since Cade killed my lover, I’ll kill his. Fair trade, right?”

As I ordered my men to lock her in the basement, panic showed on her face.

“Who are you people? Aren’t you loyal to Cade? Why are you obeying this woman?” she asked. “She must have messed with your heads. She’s a loose tramp who lures men. She probably slept with you all—”

“Shut up!” Elmer cut her off, face hard. “Keep talking and you’ll wish you hadn’t. Offend our Miss and see who buries you.”

In the basement, I tapped Margaret’s cheek with a short blade. “Tell me,” I said softly. “What did you mean when you said Renzo isn’t dead?”

She trembled but glared at me, full of hatred. “You bitch! If you hurt so much as one finger of mine, Cade will never forgive you.”

Unfortunately, threats don’t scare me. “Grab her hand. Show me the pinky.”

The guards obeyed, and I raised the knife and brought it down toward the little finger.

“Stop!” Cade, pale and ragged, burst in, reckless. “Phoebe, let Margaret go. I’ll take you to Renzo’s grave.”

I laughed, low and cold. “If you’d said that sooner, none of this would’ve happened.”

Still, I wasn’t taking chances. I clamped a hand over Margaret’s mouth and forced a small pill between her teeth.

Cade suddenly went pale. “What did you give her?”

I smiled, slow and deliberate. “Don’t panic. As long as you behave, your little girl will be just fine.”

Half an hour later, he led me to the manor’s back mountain, where rows of graves stretched out in silence. Then he stopped at a fresh mound. The headstone was blank with no name or identity.

I frowned, unsettled. Then Cade said, “Phoebe, the one you’ve been searching for has always been me.”

I froze, not understanding. “Cade, don’t lie to me. If you dare trick me, think about what might happen to Margaret.”

But his expression stayed grave, even pained. “Phoebe, stop searching. I am Renzo.”

My face turned cold. “Don’t joke with me.”

“I’m not joking. The one who died was my brother.”

With a tortured look, he pried open the stone casing on the tomb. My heart lurched when I saw the carved name beneath — Cade Oliver. The letters burned into my eyes.

“Now you believe me?” he pressed. “I am Renzo.”