Chapter 4
591 Words
I wanted to lunge at them and tear them apart, but my body had reached its limit.
Darkness swallowed my vision as I fell into familiar arms, the voice tender yet cruel.
"I have your mother's wooden carvings. Ava, go make a statement to the press, clear it up, will you?"
Through tear-blurred eyes, I nearly choked on hysterical laughter.
In the end, all I could manage was to grind out between my teeth.
"Despicable. Jeffery, I should've let you drown in that ditch years ago!"
His smile never wavered. His large hand closed around mine as he activated the live surveillance feed.
Dozens of bodyguards surrounded my mother's grave. Shovels were raised high, waiting for the order.
My breath caught. My heart stopped.
"You can't!"
Before I finished speaking, a thunderous crash echoed through the video feed.
The photograph on the tombstone shattered instantly. The fractured glass mirrored my mother's tear-streaked face.
Agony ripped through me until I collapsed, wailing uncontrollably.
A shadow of pain crossed his face, perhaps remembering the decade he'd hidden in our home from assassins.
The bruises covering Mother and me, the muffled sobs at night. Yet we never let him go hungry.
Jeffery threw his head back with a heavy exhale. Still, he didn't call them off.
The grave cracked under their blows, splitting apart what remained of my heart.
Tears and mucus streaking my face, I begged. "I'll do it! Anything! Just stop them!"
His features relaxed as he crushed me against him.
"I'll forgive you this once. But don't trouble Karina again. Understand? That's my girl. We're meant to grow old together."
His embrace burned with familiar warmth, yet left me shivering uncontrollably.
'Jeffery, that man's plane is landing soon. Our 'forever' ends today.'
On the press conference stage, camera flashes trapped Karina and me in their glare.
I recited the script like a puppet on strings. "Karina's mother wasn't the homewrecker... My parents' marriage had already..."
Jeffery sat in the front row, brow furrowed with displeasure.
Suddenly, Karina flashed me a smile.
The next second, a cascade of photos rained down from the ceiling. Every single one of them was my mother, being dragged away by a vagrant.
"No! Don't look!"
Vision blurring with rage, I lunged for them.
Karina seized the microphone with a shriek. "I always admired Maeve Jones, the late madam! But it turns out she was the one who cheated first, indulging in such scandalous behavior!"
The crowd broke into an uproar.
I lunged at Karina like a madwoman, wildly attacking her.
But before my slap could land, her sobs, amplified by the mic, echoed through the hall.
Chaos consumed the room.
"Ava!"
Jeffery's iron grip seized my wrist.
His icy glare pierced me, brimming with disappointment.
"You faked an apology just to set up this scheme to ruin Karina? What happened to the kind Ava? Is she dead?"
Unable to hear anything, I could only beg incoherently. "Jeffery... Please call the police... Stop tormenting my mother like this..."
A shadow of pity flashed in his eyes as Karina leaned against his shoulder, weeping softly.
"I truly believed Ava loved you sincerely. But the day you became family head, she threw excrement at my mother and called you just a lovesick tool!"
Jeffery gave a series of cold laughs, swept her up in his arms, and turned to leave.
The butler glanced at the rowdy crowd and asked anxiously, "Shouldn't we leave bodyguards for Madam?"
Jeffery froze mid-step as he started to reply when Karina suddenly toppled backward.
- Writer
