4: 4
The day before the engagement party, Edward grew visibly restless.
Every time I left the house, I could feel someone trailing quietly behind me.
His people, no doubt. Following the thread, hoping to trace where I'd hidden my daughter.
How amusing.
She was dead. Burned to ash.
Not even a god could find her now.
So I took out my daughter's old phone and sent him the first message in three years.
【The engagement party tomorrow. I'll be there.】
After I sent it, I kept my eyes on the screen.
Edward was anxious, and yet he made a show of playing it cool.
He deliberately made me wait three hours before he replied, short and cold.
【Good.】
I didn't answer again. I just pulled out the SIM card, snapped it in two, and dropped it in the toilet.
Then I sent a message each to Vivien and Savannah.
Ever since my daughter died, the three of us had been quietly plotting.
One was a mother whose daughter had died a brutal death, her heart full of hatred.
One was a girl who'd had a bright future ahead of her, her wings snapped clean off.
And then there was Vivien.
Her sister had been the nanny who cared for my daughter, and my daughter had relied on her deeply.
Back then, to punish my daughter for defying him, Edward had tormented the people around her, trying to force her to give in.
Vivien's sister was framed by Edward's people and driven out of her home, buried in debt, cornered until she jumped from a building.
The debt passed to Vivien too, and she was trampled underfoot.
I saved her. I paid off her debt.
I had her face surgically altered, and little by little I made her look like Yvette.
Edward was the heir the Gilbert family had groomed with care, a towering tree.
And the three of us.
One family fallen from grace, two women with no power and no standing.
Nothing but three tiny insects trying to shake a great tree.
So we spent three whole years.
Three unremarkable little insects, slowly hollowing that tree out from the inside.
On the surface it stood untouched. But today was the day it came crashing down.
Early the next morning.
I put on black mourning clothes, a white flower pinned over my chest.
The driver saw the way I was dressed and froze for a moment.
"Ma'am, where am I taking you?"
"To a funeral."
I answered calmly.
The driver coughed, a little awkward.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. My condolences."
I said nothing. I only shook my head.
I would not let my grief settle.
I would repay every grievance, avenge every wrong.
The car stopped in front of the most luxurious hotel in the city.
This was where Edward was holding his engagement party.
The driver stared at the lanterns and decorations outside, the luxury cars packed everywhere, dumbstruck.
"Ma'am, are you sure this is the right address?"
"It's right."
I pushed the door open and got out.
As I walked toward the gleaming golden entrance, I caught the sound of voices drifting out from inside.
"Edward, didn't we hear Yvette James had passed away? Turns out it was all just a way to get a grip on you!"
At his friends' words, Edward let out a contemptuous laugh.
"Women. They love pulling this crying, screaming, threaten-to-kill-themselves routine."
"She thought if she hid, I'd cave?"
"Little girls like her scare off with the smallest push."
"Forget it. Since she's willing to bow her head and admit she was wrong today, I'll marry her. Call it making up for the child she lost back then."
"After all, she's loved me hopelessly for all these years. Besides me, who else could she ever marry?"
His buddies immediately clapped him on the shoulder, laughing along.
"Ha, no one handles women like you, Edward. Guess she's getting exactly what she wanted!"
Exactly what she wanted... was it?
My daughter's last wish was probably to kill him with her own hands.
Just then, my phone buzzed.
A message from Vivien.
【Mrs. James, everything's ready.】
I smiled, and through the black leather bag I gently touched the small, delicate urn inside.
"Yvette, Mama's most beloved daughter."
"Today, Mama will give you exactly what you wanted."
