He Covered for My Parents' Killer, Then Lost Me

Just because she had forgotten to peel the cherry tomatoes in the salad, Freya Judson's mother was pushed from the thirtieth floor by her employer and died on the spot. At the funeral, that employer had someone deliver a check for ten million dollars. Without a second thought, Freya tore it up and called the police. But to her surprise, the very next day, her father was hung upside down above a transparent water tank. Inside the tank, hundreds of starving piranhas swam in frantic circles. "If you want your father to live, sign this letter of settlement. Stop going after Greta, and I won't touch him." The man who said that was William Judson, her husband of three years. His expression was calm as he casually set a pen on top of the settlement agreement, as though they were discussing something utterly ordinary. Only then did Freya realize that the employer who had killed her mother was Greta, William's ex-wife from six years ago. And William, her husband, was now willing to throw her entire family's lives away just to protect Greta. Trembling all over, Freya gritted her teeth and asked, "What if I don't sign? Are you really going to let my mother die for nothing, and have my father killed too, all for that murderer?" William's gaze was dark, the emotion in his eyes impossible for Freya to read. "Freya, no matter how many mistakes Greta made, she's still the mother of my son. Your parents were already old. You could say they'd lived long enough. But my son can't grow up without his mother. Don't blame me." After saying that, he tapped two slender fingers lightly against the table. The next second, the rope suspending Peter Aldridge was lowered another two meters. Freya completely panicked and shook her head desperately. "William, I can plead for leniency for her in court. I can ask the judge to go easy on her. I just want justice for my mother. Is even that too much to ask?" William was silent for a few seconds, but when he spoke, his voice was so cold it carried no warmth at all. "You have forty-five seconds left." At that moment, Freya felt as though her heart had stopped beating. Was it really that his son could not live without Greta, or was it William himself who could not let her go? In truth, even before marrying William, Freya had known exactly what Greta was like. That woman was vicious, cruel, bad-tempered, poisonous as a viper. And yet William had always loved her deeply, even though she was the woman he had personally spoiled into being. What Freya had never imagined was that for the sake of a woman who had betrayed him, William would abandon even his most basic moral bottom line. In the end, as if surrendering to fate, Freya picked up the pen and signed her name on the settlement agreement through her tears. 'Mom, I'm sorry... You were right. I was never going to measure up to Greta. She's the rose William raised with his own hands. They have years of history between them, endless entanglements, a child together, and a bond that will never truly be severed. I've lost. I admit it.' The moment she finished the last stroke of her signature, William snatched the agreement away and turned to get into the car, already making a phone call. "Well done, Freya. Don't worry. Dad will be fine." Limping badly, Freya rushed toward the water tank in the corner of the warehouse and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Didn't you hear him? Let my father go!" Just moments earlier, she had received a message from Ivy Jansen. Ivy had been her mother's closest friend. She had already arranged connections for Freya and her father, and found someone to help them erase their identities. Very soon, Freya would be able to take her father and leave Northridge forever. Just as the masked guards looked ready to loosen the rope, it was suddenly cut. Her father plunged straight into the tank. The piranhas lunged at him in an instant, swallowing his cries for help whole. In no time at all, a living man was reduced to a churning mass of blood and shredded flesh on the water's surface. "How could this happen? Dad! Dad!!!" Freya screamed like she had gone mad. Then one of the masked figures tore off the face covering, revealing Greta's beautiful yet vicious face. "Freya, how does it feel to watch your father die right in front of you?" In just two days, Freya had lost both of her parents. The blow nearly tore her apart. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor, her voice so hoarse it was almost impossible to hear. "Why...? Was killing my mother not enough for you? Why wouldn't you spare my father too?" Greta crouched down and suddenly clamped a red-polished hand around Freya's face.