3: 3
The shocks finally stopped.
"Agree at the start and you'd spare yourself the whole ordeal. But no, every single time you have to drag it out this far. What a stubborn wretch."
Shaking, I called the bank and gave them the security key.
"You can go collect it now."
Liam narrowed his eyes and looked me over, suspicious. "Usually I have to nearly kill you before you'll give up anything I ask for. Why the sudden cooperation this time? That's the most important thing your mother ever left you."
He was starting to doubt me.
My palms were damp with nerves. I put on a cautious, timid look. "I just don't want to be tortured anymore. I'm handing you the whole company. What's one pendant next to that?"
Three days ago, Liam had used the child in Bianca's belly as an excuse, telling me to sign the company over to him as compensation. I refused. So he used the chip in my brain to put me through the shocks.
More than ten hours of it, until I lost control of my bladder and every bone in my body felt scorched.
I couldn't take it, so I pretended to agree. Then I stalled for days, using the paperwork as a cover. In the end, when there was nothing left to try, I wrote a will, donated every asset in my name to the state, and prepared to end it all.
I never expected a stranger to pull me back from the edge, and that was how I finally found out the truth.
"It's just... that's the only thing my mother left me. I hope you'll take good care of it."
Bianca gave a smug little smile. "Don't worry. I'm your best friend. What's yours is mine. I'll take very good care of it."
Then she tugged at Liam's sleeve. "Stop overthinking it. It's been five years. She's finally learned her place."
Only then did Liam let go of his suspicion. He turned to me with that put-on look of his. "Amber, looks like we're almost there. Soon we can pull that lovesick system right out of your body. You'll be free."
Bianca pulled him back before he could say more. "Go get the pendant already. My stomach's acting up again."
I watched them walk toward the door, then slipped into the study.
I opened his computer, remembering how Liam had once said his password had to mean something to him.
I tried several and none worked. In the end I used the date the chip was implanted in me, and the computer opened right up.
I laughed coldly inside. So the day my suffering began really was worth commemorating.
I started searching for what I needed. Liam was as arrogant as ever. Every encrypted file on the machine used that same date as its key.
Reading through the files he'd buried, I could barely contain the surge inside me.
This was more than enough to send Liam straight to hell.
I sent it all out, then wiped every trace. I'd just stepped out of the study when I heard a noise at the front door.
Bianca had a phoenix jade pendant hanging around her neck. It was the most precious thing my mother had left me.
I gripped the hem of my clothes, my fingertips going white with the pressure, wanting nothing more than to snap her neck on the spot.
Catching my expression, Bianca stroked the pendant and looked at me, pleased with herself. "Amber, don't you want me wearing it?"
Liam's face went cold at once.
I shook my head. "Of course not. Seeing it just made me think of my mother. I got lost in it for a second."
Just then the study door drifted open a crack. I must not have shut it all the way.
Liam's gaze snapped to the study behind me. He came toward me slowly, cruelty and murder in his eyes.
"You were in my study?"
