“No… no!” Terror seized me. I lunged at Lucas, pleading desperately. “Come after me! Don’t hurt my mother! Lucas, please, snap out of it! I didn’t release that video! Chloe set me up! This is all her doing!”
At my words, Chloe crumpled, her eyes squeezing shut in pain as tears streamed down her face.
“Lucas, I really can’t stay here any longer. His wife will be the death of me.”
Her shoulders slumped as she turned away, a heartbroken sob catching in her throat. “I–I should just leave. Even though I truly love you, I can’t endure his wife’s insults anymore…”
Lucas, however, seized Chloe’s hand. His eyes remained fixed on me, boring into me as he ordered the bodyguards in a cold, chilling voice, “Take my wife to the rooftop.” With that, he turned, guiding a visibly shaken Chloe up the stairs.
My arms were grabbed by the bodyguards, who, ignoring my frantic struggles, dragged me toward the villa’s expansive rooftop.
My eyes shot up in horror. The wide platform was covered, packed with fireworks and firecrackers. Lucas and Chloe stood in the safest corner, far from the ominous display.
Lucas’s entire face was lost in shadow, his expression unreadable, but I heard his voice, a low rumble in the darkness: “Arrange all the
fireworks.”
The bodyguards meticulously placed them, forming a perfect, circular array–a full hundred fiery sentinels.
A terrible premonition seized me, as if I already knew what was coming. My face went bone–white, my lips trembling as I whispered, “No… don’t… please, no…”
Lucas let out a cold, sharp laugh. “Wife, you adore fireworks, don’t you? This is me spoiling you. Shouldn’t you be ecstatic right now?”
My head thrashed from side to side, a silent denial. Happiness was a distant memory, replaced by a cold, suffocating terror.
A fresh wave of dread washed over me as footsteps began to thump heavily on the stairs.
My mother appeared, propelled onto the roof by the bodyguards. Her eyes, wide and trembling with fear, found mine. “Annie,” she choked out, her voice thin with helplessness. “What in God’s name is going on? A group of men just stormed into my house and dragged me here…”
“Mom!” I shrieked, my voice tearing. “Don’t come any closer! Run!”
But it was already too late.
The bodyguards dragged my mother, her feet scrambling uselessly, directly into the meticulously arranged circle of fireworks. Her gaze, lost and utterly bewildered, met mine, her eyes brimming with sheer terror.
I lunged, a guttural cry tearing from my throat, desperate to reach my mother, but the bodyguards held me in an iron grip, pressing my face into the rough concrete. I couldn’t move a single muscle.
“Lucas!” I shrieked, my voice raw with venomous fury. “If you dare harm my mother, I swear, I will never forgive you!”
But Lucas’s voice, devoid of warmth, carved the words into me. “You hurt Chloe, wife. And I can’t forgive you for that either.”
“No! No!” I shrieked, my voice raw with desperation. “Chloe framed me! She murdered my dad and brother, and now she won’t even leave my mom alone. She’s a monster!”
Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose, a clear sign of his mounting irritation. He let out a slow, deliberate sigh. “Give the wife a private
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fireworks show,” he commanded, his voice sharp and laced with disdain.
The bodyguards immediately obeyed. They lit a hundred fuses, and in a single, blinding instant, every single firework detonated
A thunderous whoosh tore through the air.
Then, a myriad of explosions filled the sky, showering us in a kaleidoscope of light and color
My mother, caught in the magic circle, shrieked–a raw, frantic sound–as the fireworks detonated above her, blooming into a colonal white light that threatened to swallow her whole.
A guttural scream tore from my throat. “Mom!”
The deafening roar of the fireworks drowned out my screams, blinding white light searing my vision until I thought I was going blind
When the chaos finally died down, all that remained was my mother, crumpled in a pile of ash
Blood seeped from beneath my mother’s feet. My eyes widened, locking onto the horrifying crimson stain.
Hot tears streamed down my face, each drop a testament to the raw, gut–wrenching grief that consumed me. My breath hitched, then caught entirely, refusing to fill my lungs. The world spun, then dissolved into an agonizing, blessed blackness.
<
I blinked awake to the sterile white of a hospital room.
Lucas’s voice, soft and low, drifted from beside me. “Feeling better?”
Menu
I bolted upright, my body trembling as I stared at Lucas. My voice was barely a rasp. “My mom…where is she?”
Lucas’s face registered a flicker of disappointment. His eyes swept over me, cold and dismissive, as he said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble, “I thought you’d admit your mistake first, wife. At the very least, you owe Chloe an apology for your actions, don’t you think?”
My eyes burned, red–rimmed and bloodshot, as I bit out, each word laced with venom, “She ruined my family! You not only cheated on me with her, but now you’re demanding I apologize to a murderer?!”
Lucas’s face hardened, his jaw tightening. His voice came out, cold and devoid of all warmth. “Anna Reed, watch your tongue. You know the Thorne Dynasty can’t have any whiff of scandal, especially not infidelity. It’s a strict family code. Chloe and I are entirely innocent. Watch what you say.”
Oh, so even he was afraid of his ugly truths being dragged into the light?
I was so consumed by fury, a laugh tore free.
I laughed, a harsh, brittle sound that tore from my throat. My finger shot out, pointing directly at Lucas. “You honestly think you can protect her? She’s done so many heinous things. Even if you kill me for her, the law will never let her walk free!”
Lucas’s gaze, sharp with raw disgust, cut into me. My accusations were like gasoline on his already smoldering rage. He surged to his feet, his voice a low, dangerous snarl. “I was a fool to ever show you any tenderness. You need to take a long, hard look in the damn
mirror.”
I pinned Lucas with a frigid stare. “I will never forgive you, Lucas. You have lost me, forever. Completely.”
Lucas cast me one last, detached glance. He said nothing, simply locking me back into the hospital room, forbidding me to take even a
single step out.
For the days that followed, my hospital room became a forbidden zone; no one dared to approach.
Water and food became luxuries I was denied. Even the AC in the room remained stubbornly off, a cruel punishment.
The nights plunged to twenty degrees below zero, and I lay in the hospital room, shivering violently, every tremor a testament to his cruelty.
A kind nurse appeared at my door, her voice heavy with sorrow. “Mrs. Thorne,” she said, “your mother passed yesterday. She didn’t
make it.”
In that moment, my heart shattered and died.
I sat in the sterile hospital room, stunned, my mind adrift for what felt like an eternity. When clarity finally pierced through the haze, the horrifying realization crashed over me: I was utterly alone in the world.
Dad. Brother. Mom…
Every single one of them, gone.
Grief ripped through me, and I wailed, the sound tearing from my throat until it was raw and burning.
Early the next morning, my phone lit up with a notification: my travel documents had been approved.
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