“No! You bitch! Even if you kill me, I won’t give it to you!” I spat a mouthful of blood onto her white dress. The red stain spread like a blooming flower.
Smiling through the pain, I glared at her and said through my teeth, “Beatrice, forget my father’s painting. Even this company you have, it’s going to collapse soon.”
“Heaven sees everything. Beatrice, you will get what you deserve,” I continued.
“Shut up! Robert, you’re disgusting!” Beatrice slapped my cheeks hard.
Beatrice’s sharp high then heel pressed down hard on my open wound. Blood soaked through the bandages instantly. The pain shot from my hand through every part of my body.
The doctor must have lied to me. Why wasn’t the anesthesia working at all…?
Tears slipped down my face uncontrollably. But I couldn’t worry about my hand now. So, I stumbled and crawled toward my father’s painting.
I had only moved the length of one hand when Beatrice grabbed the back of my collar.
A twisted smile appeared on her lips. She pulled open a drawer, grabbed a knife and rushed toward my father’s painting.
“Beatrice, no—!”
I pushed myself up with my injured hand and threw myself toward her, but I was too late. The cold blade had already cut a deep line across my father’s painting.
Beatrice smiled as she looked at me, tears filling my eyes. Then she slashed the painting again. And again. She hacked at the painting like a madwoman.
It was my father’s favorite painting. The very one he asked to protect for him before he died…
“Beatrice, you’re an animal…” Using the last of my strength, I staggered toward her. But after only two steps, my body gave out and I collapsed to the floor again.
At that, Beatrice let out a mocking laugh. “Robert, do you think you can fight me? You’re still too weak.”
“Let me tell you. This company won’t fall apart. Without a traitor like you, I can run this place even better!”
“From today on, you’re nothing but a rat in the sewer. You’ll lie there, pathetic, watching me get rich and live a perfect life!”
She spat on me before leaving.
Just then, the company receptionist rushed in. She was pale with panic.
Beatrice barked, “What could be so important?! Don’t you know how to knock?!”
The receptionist saw my destroyed hands and went even paler. “Director Goldreich… something big really happened.”
“That investor you’ve talked to for five years—she’s in the meeting room right now. She…”
“What about her?! Speak!”
“S-she asked to see Master Kleinn by name. He said if Master Kleinn paints a self-portrait for him, he’ll invest 450 million dollars into the company…”
