16
###16
The subordinate stumbled in, panting, and slammed a USB drive onto the mahogany table in front of Daniel.
“Mr. Thorne! We hired a top international authentication team. They used the most advanced technology and verified it over and over again-the wedding video is real. It’s not a composite. Every image, every sound… it all happened. It’s raw footage.”
Daniel’s vision blurred.
The last thread of denial snapped.
Every humiliation Ava endured, every desperate scream, every blow-was real.
With trembling fingers, he inserted the USB drive into his computer. The screen lit up. The first video was higher-definition surveillance footage, secretly retrieved from inside the prison.
t was worse than what he’d seen at the wedding.
Whip marks crisscrossed her skin. Burns from electric shocks blackened her arms. She was shoved face-first into a slop bucket, her limbs thrashing in vain. The images seared into his brair ike molten steel-each frame a cruel brand of guilt.
Then, a second video played.
This time, it was from a dingy corner shop’s security camera. The lens focused on a narrow rash-strewn alley. A burly man stood in the shadows, whispering to a slim woman with her back urned. Daniel’s heart dropped.
He’d recognize that figure anywhere.
Delilah.
Even turned to ash, he’d know her.
She glanced around furtively, then shoved a thick brown envelope into the man’s hands.
Her voice, though lowered, was clear through the mic. Calculated. Cold. “The car accident must De flawless. My parents and I must stay safe. I intend to enjoy the Wren family fortune for a very ong time.”
The man weighed the envelope and grinned. “Relax, Miss Wren. We’re professionals. Not a scratch on you or your folks.”
Delilah gave a delighted little laugh. “And the blood packs?”
‘Ready to go. Looks just like the real thing,” the man said, patting his chest.
Delilah giggled. “Ava, now that the curtain’s risen… let’s see how you explain your way out of this Hahaha-”
The screen went black mid-laughter.
Daniel’s face was darker than the monitor.
Fire and ice tore through his chest in equal measure-rage and guilt locked in a vicious battle.
“Sir Daniel…” the subordinate swallowed hard. “There’s more. We tracked down an eyewitness- an old man who lives near the crash site. He said he saw Delilah smear herself with fake blood
after the accident.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“And,” the subordinate continued bitterly, “we made contact with a former prison guard who… handled Miss Ava. He confessed that Delilah paid him generously to carry out the torture.”
Daniel couldn’t breathe.
He remembered that day.
After the accident, Ava had barely escaped with her life. She woke up in a hospital bed-and they
cuffed her wrists.
“Ava,” the officer said coldly, “you’re suspected of attempted murder-trying to kill Miss Delilal and her biological parents.”
Delilah had cried pitifully. “Sister… how could you do this to me? Mom and Dad didn’t even care that you made me eat slop! Why… why did you still want to hurt us? Haven’t we been good enough to you?”
Ava had looked at him, eyes full of quiet despair, and said she hadn’t done it.
But what did he do?
He hadn’t believed her.
He’d glared at her pale, bruised face with disgust.
“You gave Delilah nightmares,” he had spat. “She has depression now. Isn’t that enough? Go to prison. Reflect on your sins.”
And when Ava’s tears fell silently, he had turned away-and wrapped his arms around Delilah like she was the only one that mattered.
He had wiped her fake tears and whispered comfort into her ears… while Ava was dragged into
hell.
It was him.
He had thrown her into that abyss.
And as she clung to one last sliver of hope, he’d added one final insult:
‘If you truly regret your actions, maybe one day… we’ll help you out.”
What a joke.
He was the one who should be damned.
Even being hacked to pieces wouldn’t be enough to atone for what he did.
Tears streamed down Daniel’s face, his expression twisted in anguish.
“Ava,” he whispered, voice shaking, “I will avenge you. I’ll make every one of them pay.”
That included himself.
When Daniel knocked on the Wren family’s door, cold fury etched into every line of his face, it
was Julian who answered.
