Chapter 10
1327 Words
Diana smiled faintly, placed her bag on the stainless steel table, and flicked her hand. “Mr. Marven, what’s your decision? Whether she agrees or not, we have our ways to bring her to you.”
“Elena has no right to decide,” Reginald interjected, his voice dry as ash. “She signed a waiver of guardianship. Lyra is now legally a research asset owned by Marven.”
Elena clenched both hands tightly, shaking her head repeatedly. “No. I only signed… because they forced me. I would never—”
“No one cares about personal feelings,” Marven cut in, his tone as even as if reading an inventory list. “The issue is: after the unauthorized attempt to reclaim the specimen, I must reassess its value.”
Diana turned sharply, her face paling. “What do you mean by that?”
“Lyra’s sample has been leaked, her body damaged, and her gene data no longer intact. I propose reducing the transfer price from 300 million USD to 160 million.”
The words landed like a hammer on the table.
Reginald grabbed his daughter’s arm as he saw Diana about to react. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice calm: “160 million? The girl still has the full elite gene sequence. Her brain only shows minor reaction. We can—”
Marven lifted his eyes. “This is not a renegotiation. This is the final offer. If you disagree, I return the goods.”
The air thickened. Elena stood frozen between three fronts: her daughter barely breathing behind her, relatives about to sell her off before her, and Marven, a scalpel of cold calculation at her throat.
“Fine,” Diana said with a tight smile, though her voice no longer carried its usual calm. “Isn’t Elena being included for free anyway? Consider it compensation for the loss — can’t we keep Lyra’s price unchanged?”
Marven said nothing. He only tilted his head.
Diana stepped forward, leaned down beside Elena, and whispered, “Thanks, cousin. Thanks to you, we didn’t have to bargain much.”
“What…?” Elena stepped back.
Reginald approached and dropped a folder on the table. “We propose to include an auxiliary subject. No additional cost.”
Elena froze.
“Her,” Diana said. “Elena. Lyra’s mother. A broken Omega, but still biologically useful.”
“Free, as we offered earlier,” Reginald added, face unreadable. “A complimentary item.”
Elena trembled, throat tightening. “You can’t…”
Marven crossed his arms, looking at her like a piece of meat on an operating table. “Is her reproductive function still active?”
Diana nodded immediately. “Yes. One hundred percent. She was once part of the Omega breeding selection council before being expelled.”
Elena was speechless. Every word — “Elena included” — pounded into her temples like a mallet.
Marven twirled the pen in his hand, ready to sign. Reginald had opened his tablet. Diana flipped to the final page of the contract, extending her hand to the doctor as if offering wine.
It was at this moment that Zeyan finally stood up straight, without a sound.
His voice rang out — not loud, not sharp, but enough to jerk the whole room back into reality:
“I’ll pay it back. Ten times.”
A breathless silence gripped the room.
Then Diana burst into laughter, shaking her head as if unable to believe her ears. “Ten times is three billion dollars? Did you just say… three billion dollars?”
Reginald chuckled as well, his scorn barely masked. “I’ve met international Alpha-class leaders and never heard such a delusional line.”
“Three billion?” Diana tapped her fingernail rhythmically on the stainless steel table. “You carry that in your jacket? Or stashed in your shoes?”
Marven didn’t laugh. But the curl of his lip made his stance clear. “Words without a secured account are garbage.”
Zeyan didn’t react.
Elena turned her head, her gaze wavering between fear and a sliver of hope. She whispered hoarsely, “You… is it true? Can you…?”
Zeyan looked at her. No nod. No denial. He only said one thing:
“I’ll handle it.”
Elena swallowed dryly. She looked at him the way a drowning person sees sunlight through thin ice — a fragile glimmer, with nothing to prove it’s real.
Diana sneered. “Handle it? You gonna sell a lung? Or beg the unemployed Rogues for donations?”
Reginald shook his head, as if pitying. “I’ve heard dogs howl from hunger. But this is the first time I’ve seen one howl thinking it’s a roar.”
Marven closed the folder, indifferent. “No account. No verification. No name. No origin. No certified authority Seal. Offer rejected.”
Diana glanced at Elena, her voice dripping like honeyed venom: “Cousin, what do you think? Still believe this guy can save you?”
Elena didn’t answer. Her hand rested on Lyra’s forehead, slightly trembling.
She tried to keep her face composed, but her lips were growing pale. Zeyan didn’t look back at her, but he knew.
Elena looked at Zeyan like someone clinging to a doorframe in a room filled with freezing air. But his hand, resting on the edge of the bed, didn’t move. His eyes stayed on Lyra. No action. No explanation. No sign he would stop any of this.
Moments ago, she had reassured herself: he’s waiting for the right moment. He has a plan. He won’t let their daughter be taken away like liquidation stock. But now, with pen and paper on the table, with Marven needing only to sign, she saw nothing.
She turned away.
Slowly. Quietly. And this time, without tears.
Diana raised her head to look at her, lips curling slightly, eyes gleaming like she had just struck a prey’s most vulnerable nerve.
“You finally understand, don’t you?”
Elena didn’t respond.
Diana stepped closer — very close. Her voice dropped, smooth as silk laced with poison: “The man you gave up everything to follow… is just standing there. Handsome. Silent. And useless.”
Reginald chimed in from behind: “Your generation is strange. Thinking love alone can defy bloodlines. And now? What did his promises get you? Not even a drop of ink on the contract.”
Elena looked straight into his eyes. But her gaze was empty.
Diana glanced at Zeyan, smirking. “Once useless, always useless.”
Reginald laughed. “Truth is, no one ever really wanted him.”
“Cousin,” Diana tilted her head toward Elena, her smile growing gentler yet sharper than claws, “you always said you loved him because he was quiet, unlike the others who fought and schemed. So what now? He disappeared for years, left you to give birth alone, and now he can’t even save his own daughter.”
Elena clenched both fists. Her nails dug deep into her palms, but she felt nothing.
Diana still didn’t stop: “I used to be jealous of you, did you know? When you insisted on marrying him, ignoring the whole Pack’s objections, I thought: ‘That man must be extraordinary.’ But turns out…”
She looked at Zeyan, exhaling a breath like sealing a comedy’s final line: “You gave up bloodline, title, future… all for a shadow.”
No one objected. No one stopped her.
Marven had returned to the table, his hand on the pen. No one paid Zeyan any more attention. He stood there like a statue, just filling the numbers. A faded silhouette forgotten in decisions that weren’t his to make.
As for Elena, at that moment, her head had lowered. No more resistance. No more response. No more pleading.
Only Lyra still lay there, her tiny chest rising and falling faintly. Each breath like a countdown for something dying within her.
- Writer
