All it took was a single exchange between my sister and Giselle’s lover, and my daughter accused her of stealing a gold bracelet. As a result, my sister was left to die in a warehouse for three whole days.

With my sister’s life hanging by a thread, I got on my knees and pleaded before my wife and daughter.

“Please, let Lucy go. She won’t speak to Theo again.”

Faced with my pleas, my daughter simply let out a cruel smile.

“I can release her, but only if she returns the bracelet.”

Lucy never took the bracelet in the first place. There was no way she could return something that was never in her possession.

Agony ripped through me as I crawled toward Giselle.

“Please, Giselle. I’m begging you. Please let her go. She’s going to die at this rate!”

Giselle took one cold, hard look at me before uttering, “So she’s been hung to dry for three days. She won’t die. If you really want her release, you should hand over your mother’s keepsake to Theo.”

I looked up in shock at Giselle Thornwall.

“That’s the only thing my mom left to me…”

My daughter, Palmer Thornwall, looked annoyed.

“So what is it going to be? If you’re not going to do it, Lucy stays up there.”

“I’ll do it!”

Lucy Thornwall hadn’t had a drop of water in three days.

If she wasn’t released soon enough, she could very well die here.

With tears in my eyes, I removed a tag necklace from my neck and carefully handed it to Palmer.

“Palmer, this is all I have left of your grandmother. Keep it safe…”

Palmer glanced at the necklace in my hand, her voice dripping with disdain.

“It’s the hideous thing ever. I don’t get why Theo would ever want this.”

Theo?

I couldn’t believe that Theo was behind this.

Before I could wrap my head around the whole thing, Theo Castell emerged from outside.

“Palmer!”

“Theo!”

Theo’s presence perked Palmer up.

She darted toward Theo with a spring in her step. Throwing herself into his arms, she said, “What took you? I’ve been waiting for ages.”

Giselle approached and shuffled Palmer’s hair before saying, “Palmer, Theo has his own business to take care of. It’s only natural he arrives a little later.”

The picture of the trio acting like one big family cut into me like a knife.

I couldn’t make sense of it all.

What was it that made Theo charming?

The moment Theo showed up, gone were my sweet baby girl and loving wife.

Meanwhile, Palmer put on her sweetest voice, seeking Theo’s approval.

“Even though you’re late, I still got you the necklace.”

She clicked her tongue at me as if summoning a dog. She said, “Come here, you. Give the necklace to Theo.”

No father would tolerate such disrespect from his daughter, and I was no exception.

Anger and humiliation overtook my every being.

It took multiple deep inhales and constant reminders that Lucy was in their custody before I could swallow my pride.

Rising to my feet, I gripped the necklace in my palm and headed toward them.

I barely moved a few feet.

Palmer cut me off, her face filled with annoyance.

“Did I say you can stand?

“A piece of trash doesn’t deserve to walk on two feet. Get on all fours and present the necklace to Theo with your mouth.”

The taste of metal filled my mouth.

I bit down hard on my lip.

‘Dean Thornwall, keep it together!’

I screamed inside my head while dropping to my knees in disgrace. Clamping the necklace between my teeth, I crawled toward Theo.

“Hahahaha! He actually did it!”

Palmer’s laughter rang out across the warehouse.

After setting the tag necklace down on the ground, I said, my voice stripped of dignity, “Can you let Lucy down now?”

Palmer kicked my arm away in disgust.

“Give it a rest already!”

As her eyes darted mischievously, she turned and slipped into Theo’s arms. She said perkily, “Here’s the thing. Throw yourself at Theo’s mercy. If he accepts the necklace from you, I’ll release her right away.”

My arms shook violently as I looked up in shock.

“Dean…”

In the back, Lucy’s broken voice drifted over.

I closed my eyes in agony.

Head down, I crouched low.

I pressed my forehead hard against the cold, hard floor.

“Mr. Castell, please take this necklace.”

Theo offered no response.

I kept my head down the entire time.

Not once did I lift my gaze.

Blood from the top of my head ran down like tears, washing over my face.

“Alright. That’s enough. I’ll take it.”

Theo, as if genuinely sorry, helped me to my feet and leaned in to whisper in my ear, “Do you know why Palmer set Lucy up? I told them that Lucy undressed herself and threw herself at me, begging me to take her…”

His remark hit me like a ton of bricks, and something in me snapped.

I raised my leg and kicked him in the gut.

Once Theo was knocked over, I mounted on him and punched him in the face over and over again.

Soon enough, his face was just as bloodied as mine.

Giselle and Palmer screamed for backup to pull me away.

“Theo!”

Finding Theo unconscious, they snapped angry looks at me and uttered menacingly, “If anything happens to Theo, you’ll answer for this!”

Their threats had to take a back seat. Turning on my heel, I stumbled toward Lucy, who remained suspended in the air.

“Hang in there, Lucy… I-I’ll get you down now.”

Getting on my tiptoes, I tried to hook onto the rope above.

From days without food and water, Lucy’s eyes were sunken. Parting her cracked lips, she murmured, “Dean…”

With trembling hands, I brushed the stray hair away from her face and forced a smile before muttering, “Don’t be scared, Lucy. I’ll find a ladder to get you down now.”

Several burly security agents burst in and dragged me out.

“What are you doing? Unhand me!”

Brushing off my struggles, they hauled me away from the warehouse.

“Lucy! Lucy!”

The last thing I saw before I was taken away was a teardrop falling from the corner of Lucy’s eye.

Half an hour later, I was escorted into a room, hands bound and a hood over my head.

“Swoosh.”

The hood was pulled off.

I could barely keep my eyes open due to the glaring lights in the room.

“Smack!”

Out of nowhere, I was struck in the face.

I opened my eyes and saw Giselle, her eyes swollen from crying.

“Dean, Theo is in the ICU because of you!”

I paused for a second before smirking. “Well, Theo got what he deserved.”

“Smack!”

It was another slap on my face.

However, Giselle wasn’t the perpetrator this time. It was my daughter, Palmer.

Palmer stared at me with hostility, as if I were her sworn enemy. She said, “You’re the reason Theo is in the hospital. You’re a bad man! You’re not my daddy! As for this…”

While talking, Palmer pulled out the plushie from me and snipped it to bits with a pair of scissors.

“I’m done with this, too!”

I watched blankly as Palmer stomped on the shredded plushie, my heart broken to pieces.

The plushie was my gift to Palmer after the car crash.

Her words of appreciation were still fresh on my mind.

Palmer uttered, “I’m sorry, Daddy. I shouldn’t have wandered off. It’s my fault you got hurt protecting me.”

She added. “You’re the best daddy in the world! No one beats you! I’ll treasure this plushie the way I treasure you, Daddy!”

The past and present blurred together before my eyes.

I started to shake violently in distress.

“Giselle, we’ve been together for years. Are you honestly going to stand by as Palmer pushes Lucy and me to our graves because of a stranger?”

Furrowing her brows, Giselle didn’t look at all pleased.

“Push you to your graves?

“Dean, don’t start. I’ve already ordered for Lucy to be let down before I took you here.

“You’re just giving Theo a kidney. It’s not like it’ll kill you.”

Palmer applauded the idea.

“That’s right. You won’t die. Just do the transplant already!”

“Doctor! The donor is here. Start the surgery now.”

There were simply too many of them.

I stood no chance against them.

The only thing I could do was watch as they strapped me to the hospital bed and plunged the sedative into my veins.

“Giselle…”

Giselle looked at me indifferently, offering no response.

The anesthesia began to take hold.

As every inch of strength left my body, I lost consciousness in no time.

The next time I opened my eyes, Giselle and Palmer were no more.

“Lucy…”

Fighting back the pain, I got up and threw the covers off me. I stumbled out of bed and the hospital, my hand pressing against my wound.

The rotting body was the first thing I saw in the warehouse.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

A deafening buzz filled my ears and head.

The grief was so overwhelming I couldn’t even speak.

Tears soaked my face.

In a daze, I went outside, dragged back a chair into the warehouse, climbed onto it, and untied the rope that kept Lucy hanging for far too long.

The rope went slack.

Lucy’s body dropped to the ground with a thud.

I scrambled off the chair and held Lucy’s decaying corpse, my heart shattered.

“I came too late, didn’t I, Lucy?

“It’s alright. I’ll take you home now.”

Gritting my teeth against the pain in my abdomen, I hoisted Lucy onto my back.

“Wham!”

The pain was so intense that my leg gave out.

Lucy slipped from my grasp and hit the ground hard.

“I’m sorry, Lucy!” I cried.

Sinking to my heels, I tried to get her onto my back again.

As I leaned close to Lucy, maggots crawled out of her pale, lifeless ears.

The gruesome fact that Lucy was dead stared me right in the face.

The pain was too much for me to bear. Cradling her, I let out a harrowing scream.

“Arghhh!”

I didn’t even get a moment to keep my head above the weight of my grief.

A silhouette approached me.

Cocking my head back, I saw Theo.

Theo looked refreshed, nothing like someone who had just had surgery.

“Tsk. Oh, my. Your sister’s death is so tragic…

“But don’t put this on me. You killed your sister. I have nothing to do with it.”

Shaking to my core, I got up to give him a kick.

“Bam!”

Theo knocked me to the ground.

He said aggressively, “You’re a broken man. What makes you think you can beat me?”

Blood spilled from my surgical wound.

Agony rippled through me, and my entire body started to spasm.

I lay motionless on the floor.

Shaking his head, Theo grabbed a jerrycan of accelerant and poured the liquid all over Lucy’s body.

I, my eyes widened, shouted in a quivering voice, “Theo! What are you trying to do?”

With a chuckle, Theo pulled out a matchbox, struck a match, and flicked it away.

“Fwoom!”

Hungry flames licked across Lucy’s body.

Seeing red, I tackled Theo to the ground with everything I had. I scooped a metal pipe, ready to drag him to hell with me.

“Dean!”

Giselle and Palmer arrived at the scene on the double.

They held an urn in their hands.

That was my mother’s urn.