He Called The Heiress A Gold Digger

Chapter 4

Richard froze all of a sudden. The whole room went dead silent for three full seconds, then exploded into raucous, mocking laughter.

"Look at that raggedy little thing, she's got the nerve to try and scam the Garrick family!"

"President Garrick almost worked himself to death looking for his daughter back then. If this kid really was the Garrick’s' long-lost daughter, do you think she'd have ended up getting her head shaved like that?"

"Those two are both off their rockers, if you ask me! They're pulling lies straight out of thin air without even bothering to make them sound believable!"

Rosalie's eyes darted shiftily from side to side, and she stepped forward to yank on Richard's sleeve. "Richard, the poor kid's probably just heard a bunch of silly gossip lately, right? She's just rambling to help her mom out of trouble, that's all. Don't be upset over it…"

Richard's gaze landed on my faded, yellowed jacket. Dark, stormy rage swirled in his pitch-black eyes. He stepped forward and clamped his fingers hard around my jaw, his grip so tight it ached. "You even have Arthur Garrick's name memorized. Looks like you've spent a lot of time scheming and digging up dirt on the Mercer family, huh? Sure enough, you're Elena's brat through and through. You'd make up any garbage story just to get your hands on money." He let out a sharp, scoffing laugh and jerked his hand away, flinging my face to the side. "But I'm not playing along with your little scheme. You two will rot here for the rest of your lives. You'll never step foot outside the Mercer estate again, not even in death."

Richard locked us up in the storage room. Sometime after that, they moved us down to the dark, damp basement. There was no heating inside, and we were both shivering so hard our teeth chattered.

Mom pulled me shivering into her arms, her whole body wracked with quiet sobs. Ice-cold tears plopped onto my cheeks one after the other, stinging my cold skin. "I'm sorry, baby… I got the wrong person. It was all my mistake. That Richard's a terrible person. Mom's done with him, okay? Never, ever going back to him."

I wiped the tears off her face, leaned in close to her ear, and whispered softly, "It's okay, Mom. I have a secret to tell you. I already called Grandpa a while ago. He's coming to pick us up tomorrow, and no one will ever dare to bully us again after that."

Or that's what I thought, anyway. But Grandpa never showed up.

When the day of the welcome banquet rolled around, Richard sent his bodyguards to yank us straight out of the basement and hurl us roughly into the middle of the crowded, brightly lit venue.

Mom barely had time to steady herself before Richard slammed a brutal slap across her face. "Elena, you're digging your own grave! I was kind enough to spare your life, and you dare hire people to hurt Rosalie?"

Mom pressed a hand to her bleeding lip, her head shaking in blank confusion. "I didn't… I have no idea what you're talking about…"

Before the words left her mouth, Rosalie came staggering out of the lounge. Her clothes were a rumpled mess. A deep gash sliced across her shoulder oozed bright red blood that soaked her entire body. The whole gruesome sight made people's stomachs turn.

"Don't hit Elena! This is all my fault!" Rosalie threw herself to her knees right in front of Mom, slapping herself hard across both cheeks one after another, each blow landing with a sharp c***k. She sobbed so hard she could barely catch her breath, but a flash of cold, vicious spite flickered deep in her eyes for a split second. "It's my fault for falling for Richard. I wronged you, so take it out on me all you want! But Elena, even if you come after me, Riva's only twelve! She didn't do anything wrong!"

Rosalie's blood splattered all over Mom's face, and she shrieked in terror, stumbling backward. "It wasn't me! I swear it wasn't!"

But Richard just sneered and stepped forward, kicking her hard in the back of the knee. "Quit playing the innocent act!" He flicked a hand, and a group of sleazy, thuggish men were hauled forward by his bodyguards.

The second they spotted Mom, they dropped to their knees and pointed right at her. "It's her! She slipped us money and told us to go after the Marlowe mother and daughter!"

Every drop of blood in my body turned ice-cold in an instant. I knew that was impossible. I'd stayed with Mom the entire night before because she hadn't even stepped foot outside the storage room.

Before I could say a word, someone pulled out a phone on the spot. A voice identical to Mom's drifted out of the speaker. "I want Rosalie to suffer way worse than I did back then. That's the only way Richard will dump her."

The entire crowd of guests erupted at once.

"Oh my god, this woman is so downright vicious!"

"She played the fool and tricked everyone this whole time. It was all an act!"

"President Mercer is way too kind. If it were me, I would've thrown her out ages ago!"

Richard's eyes blazed bright red, the muscles in his cheek twitching violently, erratic and uncontrolled. He nodded at his bodyguards to step forward, his voice thick with unbridled fury. "Since you love hurting people so much, you get to taste what Rosalie just went through! Drag her inside, and let these men keep her good company."

My mind went blank with a sharp buzzing noise. Without even thinking, I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around his legs, sobbing as I slammed my forehead against the floor again and again. My forehead slammed against the floor again and again until blood seeped down and blurred my eyes.

"It wasn't my mom! You can check the security footage! She was locked up the whole time! Don't do this to her. She can't take it, she'll die!"

Richard kicked me away hard. My lower back smashed against the corner of a table, and the searing pain made my vision go black for a second. "And Rosalie could take it?"

Mom finally realized what was about to happen to her. She snapped into a panic, clinging to the c***k of the door with every ounce of strength she had. "Help me! Estelle, help me! Estelle!"

"No!" I screamed until my lungs burned, but the agony in my back left me too weak to pull myself off the floor.

Just as the bodyguards were about to drag her inside, the grand banquet hall doors were kicked clean open with a single heavy kick. Dozens of luxury cars were lined up outside the entrance, and over a hundred black-clad bodyguards stormed in and surrounded the entire venue.