###Chapter 4
“She’s not just the daughter of a mistress-She’s the reason my mother’s dead. And you expect me to apologize?!” I yelled.
Piper didn’t even have time to open her mouth. Colin’s eyes went glacial.
“I warned you,” he said, his voice like steel dragged across ice. “Don’t test my patience.”
Then he turned to his men and barked, “Get her mother’s body. Drag it out of the funeral home.”
Every word was a dagger dipped in poison.
“She won’t learn until she’s broken,” he sneered. “You think someone like you deserves to be lady of the Marks Family?”
“Feed the corpse to the dogs.” He meant it.
The guards moved without hesitation, their footsteps echoing like a death march.
“No! No, please!” I lunged forward in blind panic-only to be grabbed by another bodyguard. His grip crushed my arm so hard I heard a crack.
Agony burst through me like wildfire.
Tears blurred my vision. I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe.
“Colin, please! Don’t do this to my mother. She’s-she’s gone. Isn’t that enough?!”
Piper tilted her head sweetly, hiding the smirk playing on her lips.
‘Colin… the dead deserve peace. Maybe we should let this go?”
He turned to her with a sigh. “You’re too soft. That’s why she walks all over you.”
Then he looked back at his men. “Well? What are you waiting for? Do you need me to show you where the funeral home is?” he barked at the guards.
His voice cut through me like broken glass, scattering the last remains of the love I’d held onto for ten long years.
He knew. He knew my mother was my only weakness. And he didn’t hesitate to crush it underfoot.
broke.
bowed.
My spine bent, my head dropped, my pride bled out on the floor at Piper’s feet.
‘Please,” I whispered, tears falling hard. “Please just leave my mother. Let her rest in peace.”
Each word was a blade in my throat. “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
Wrong for hoping for fairness.
Wrong for believing-foolishly-that maybe, just maybe, he’d choose me over her.
As I bent forward, the blood-soaked back of my collar showed.
Colin’s eyes flickered. For a split second, he seemed stunned.
“Is this enough for you?” I straightened with every last ounce of strength I had left-staring him
down with disgust I couldn’t barely concealed.
His jaw tightened. He gestured to his assistant. “Bring the agreement.”
Only when I pressed my bloody fingerprint onto the page did his brow finally ease.
“You’re bleeding,” he said. “I’ll call a doctor.”
He let go of Piper and moved toward me.
I slapped his hand away.
“Save it. Go get your precious girl’s injuries checked instead-if you wait any longer, the fake bruises might fade.”
I turned to leave, but Piper stuck out her foot.
I tripped hard, crashing forward.
Colin’s instincts kicked in. He reached out-but stopped himself just inches away.
His hand froze mid-air. Then he stepped back.
“Alright. Handle your wound yourself,” he said stiffly.
I forced myself to stand tall, even as pain shot up.
He looked at me as they reached inside the elevator. “I’ll go with you to the wedding boutique tomorrow,” he said, before the elevator doors closed behind them.
My body swayed, the dizziness from blood loss rising in waves.
In the blur of pain, I was pulled back to a memory-back to college.
Colin was just nineteen when he took over the family business. He’d worked through endless nights, eyes rimmed with exhaustion. One day, I burned my hand slightly while making soup for him. Just a tiny blister.
Yet somehow, he found out. He stormed out of an important meeting and sped home, barely stopping at red lights.
He grabbed my hand, stared at the burn and held it like it was made of glass.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I should’ve protected you,” he said, voice tight with guilt. “I swear, as long as I’m breathing, I’ll never let anything hurt you again.”
Then he pulled me into his arms. Warm, strong, trembling just a little. That hug-and that promise-etched themselves into my memory like a brand.
But that boy was long gone.
He grew up into a cold, distant man who looks at me like I’m nothing. Like I’m disposable.
Now, he’s the one hurting me the most.
I stumbled toward the building’s exit. Everything went black.
But before I hit the ground-I fell into someone’s arms.
A stranger’s arms, firm and unfamiliar.
Before the darkness swallowed me whole, I heard one quiet breath against my ear.
“Do you want revenge?” A whisper, like a devil making an offer.
“As an exchange for those shares… I’ll help you find the evidence on your mother’s death.”
7:29 pm
