Eileen spoke up from the side：“That's……Effie, how could you say that about me……”

She covered her nose and mouth with one hand, letting out a soft whimper.

My father's voice cracked like a whip：“You ungrateful wretch! Who do you think you are?! Someone take her to the basement and lock her in. She stays there until she's ready to apologize.”

“Lock me up instead!”

My mother stood rigid in front of my father, staring him down.

【No, Violet! You're only going to make the male lead angrier!】

【He responds when you yield. Stop going head-to-head with him!】

Sure enough, Abner fixed my mother with a long, searching look, trying to find the smallest trace of surrender.

He found none.

“Your health is too fragile for me to touch you, but……” His gaze turned razor-sharp：“I'm cutting off your mother's medical expenses.”

My mother's body went rigid.

The year my father lost everything, my grandfather's family hadn't lifted a finger. They'd even humiliated him publicly when my mother remarried.

Later, when my father clawed his way back, he didn't just crush his longtime rivals. He destroyed my grandfather's entire family too.

My grandfather and uncle were driven to take their own lives. My grandmother collapsed from illness not long after.

The Summers family, once powerful enough that people fought for their favor, had been reduced to a single survivor: my mother.

My father knew that my grandmother was my mother's last line of defense and her only living relative.

She stared at him, tears rolling down her face in heavy, unbroken streams：“You have no heart, Abner. The year you went under, it was my mother who secretly sent someone to——”

“Ahh——”

A raw, guttural scream tore out of her.

【Stop talking, Supporting Character! You broke system rules by defying fate to save this father and son. The punishment has been triggered. The system will not let you speak the truth.】

I stared at the golden text, frozen.

The truth?

What truth?

What really happened that year?!

Just as the text warned, my mother crumpled to the ground. Her mouth opened again and again, but each time it was forced shut.

She writhed on the floor, moaning in agony, as though some invisible torture was being inflicted on every nerve in her body.

【Has the system lost its mind? That voltage will kill her!】

I crawled to her side：“Mom, stop. Please stop talking.”

“Come on, sis, this really isn't the time to put on a show. Just apologize to Abner and it'll all blow over. No need for the theatrics.”

“Seriously, Mrs. Summers, nobody even touched you. This act is way too over the top. Just say sorry to Mr. Farley!”

Mother and daughter, perfectly in sync. A few sentences was all it took to turn my mother's real, suffocating pain into a cheap performance.

My father's hand, half-extended toward her, slowly pulled back.

Whatever flicker of concern had crossed his face curdled into the cold fury of a man who believed he'd been played.

“Fine! You want to take the punishment for that little brat? I'll grant your wish!”

“Someone get them out of here! Both of them kneel outside. Without my permission, no one helps them. No one.”

I scrambled across the floor on my hands and knees and grabbed the hem of my father's trousers：

“Father, I was wrong, I was wrong! Mom just had a miscarriage. Please don't punish her. Please!”

He didn't even glance at me. He just kicked me away like something dirty on his shoe.

Then he left, his arm around Eileen, Liam, and Celia.

My mother and I knelt outside the entire night.

A heavy rain started at midnight. My mother pulled me tight against her, shielding me with her body.

She didn't make it to dawn. The fever took her consciousness first.

The punishment was finally over.

Late that night, my father pushed the bedroom door open a crack and stood there, watching my mother lying unconscious on the bed.

After a few minutes, he stepped inside.

As if afraid of waking her, his palm brushed feather-light across my mother's face.

He let out a long sigh：“Violet, why couldn't you have been the one who came to save me with that money? I loved you so much. Why did you have to betray me?”

【You idiot! The supporting character sold everything she owned, down to her mother's last piece of dowry jewelry, converted it all to cash, and handed it to her best friend to bring to you. What more was she supposed to do?】

【Betrayed you? If it weren't for what the supporting character did, you'd have been crippled years ago. And that rotten son of yours should've died in a car crash three years back, right on schedule with the plot!】

I pressed myself into the corner of the wall, reading the truth scrolling across the floating text, biting down on my sleeve so I wouldn't make a sound.

So that was it. Back then, everyone had been deceived.

【Final day of the countdown.】

The next morning, before dawn had even broken, my brother barged in and tossed two sets of clothes at me.

“Tomorrow, Father is holding a wedding with Mother.”

“Father's worried Mother will be looked down on, so he specifically wants you and Violet there as witnesses. That's the only way the other high-society wives will truly accept her.”

The fact that my mother had remarried back then was one thing. People had always scorned her for it.

But a best friend inserting herself into a marriage on the verge of collapse wasn't exactly a badge of honor either.

Over the years, neither of them had escaped the whispers.

That was exactly why Eileen reacted so violently whenever anyone called her the other woman.

I stood frozen, aching for my mother.

If what the floating text said last night was true.

Then Eileen hadn't just hidden the truth about what happened back then. She'd stolen my mother's husband while she was at it.

How could the victim stand as witness for the person who destroyed her?

I couldn't contain my fury. I grabbed the clothes and hurled them to the floor：“Absolutely not! Get out! Eileen IS the other woman, and I will never stand there and vouch for her!”

“Mother carried you for nine months and gave birth to you. How can you treat her like this!”

My brother seized me by the throat, rage flickering in his eyes.

“Effie, I'll say it one more time. Eileen is my mother. That woman lying in bed who abandoned her husband and child without a shred of loyalty is NOT.”

“You're right. I'm certainly not your mother.”

My mother had come out of the room at some point. She picked up the clothes from the floor, her voice quiet and even：“I'll attend the wedding tomorrow. You can go now.”

She hadn't even finished speaking when several servants burst through the door.

“Young Master, something terrible has happened! The Madam tried to kill herself!”

My brother's expression changed instantly. He flew out of the room and nearly collided with my father, who was already rushing toward us.

His eyes were dark, his face terrifyingly grim.

He shoved the door open and slapped my mother across the face：“Violet, I was still too soft on you.”

Ignoring how white her face had gone, he closed his hand around her throat：“How dare you post something like that online?! How do you have the nerve?!”

A few hours earlier, an anonymous user had published a post titled 《After My Best Friend Stole My Husband, I Found Someone New》.

It shot to the top of the trending charts almost immediately.

The post not only confirmed that Eileen had inserted herself into the marriage, but described in graphic detail the thrill and forbidden excitement of the affair with another man.

The author hadn't named names, but anyone paying attention could tell exactly who it was about.

“Sleeping with someone else was that thrilling for you? Violet, are you really that shameless?”

【Let go of her! The supporting character is about to die!】

I saw the text flashing above and threw myself at my father like I'd lost my mind, sinking my teeth into his hand.

He flinched from the pain and finally released his grip on my mother's throat.

He pointed at me and roared：“Beat this brat to death!”

“No!”

My mother screamed and threw her arms around me：“Don't touch the child! Whatever anger you have, take it out on me. Don't touch the child.”

My father crouched down and seized my mother's chin, his grip cold and hard. Not a shred of pity in his eyes.

“Since you love sharing so much, I want you to stand up at the wedding and tell everyone exactly how you threw yourself at another man. How you abandoned everything to be with your lover.”

“Fine.”

I stared at my mother's eyes. Nothing left in them. Just ash.

My heart sank with them.

He was going to……drive her to her death.

The day of the wedding, the grand hall glittered with light.

Eileen held her daughter's hand and walked toward her groom, beaming, surrounded by well-wishers and applause.

At the same time, my mother knelt below the stage in rags, a sign reading ： hung around her neck.

She repeated the words like a machine with no soul left inside it：

“I am vain and loose. During Mr. Farley's darkest hour, I abandoned my husband and my child and threw myself at another man.”

“It was Ms. Fox who brought Mr. Farley his salvation. I am nothing but a worthless whore who deserves to be spat on.”

Filthy whispers filled the hall, one on top of another, never stopping.

I crawled to her on my knees and pressed my hands over her ears：“Don't listen, Mom.”

When that part was finally over and she tried to stand, her legs gave out beneath her.

【Exit countdown: five minutes.】

In the back room, Eileen walked in from outside with a smile. She looked at my mother and feigned surprise：

“Oh, Violet! You're still here? Your mother just passed away. Shouldn't you be paying your respects?”

A sound came out of my mother that didn't sound human：“What did you say? When?! When?!”

“What? You didn't know?!”

“A day ago, Abner was so furious after seeing that post that he pulled the medical team. Your mother stopped breathing just a few minutes ago.”

My mother didn't even stop to take off the sign still hanging from her neck. She bolted out the door like she'd lost her mind.

“Mom!”

I ran after her as hard as I could, but I couldn't keep up.

【Exit countdown: one minute.】

In the main hall, my mother shoved the doors open and screamed in front of everyone：“Abner Farley, you lied to me! You lied to me!”

My father and brother both froze, their brows knotting tight.

“Violet, have you lost your mind? What is this now?!”

“My mother is dead! My mother is dead!”

My father paused for a beat, then let out a cold scoff：“Don't blame me. You killed her yourself.”

My mother crumpled to the floor, clutching her head, and the wail that tore out of her echoed through the entire hall.

I was blocked outside, but I screamed anyway, screamed with everything I had：“Mom, don't stay here! Just go!”

【Countdown: 5, 4, 3……】

The next second, my mother shot to her feet, broke through every hand that tried to stop her, and ran for the rooftop.

“Violet, come back!”

Watching her retreating figure, so absolute, so final.

My father was swallowed whole by a dread he'd never felt before.

The color drained from his face, and he tore after her.

【Congratulations, Host. Exit successful.】

A cold, mechanical voice rang out.

My mother leapt from the rooftop.