Clayton was emotionless, a bit slow-witted and mute. Kai treated him like a loyal, obedient dog—every command given was executed without hesitation or question.
Right now, Kai had tasked him with keeping a close watch on me, making sure I didn't follow my son into the grave out of sheer grief.
"Honey, pull yourself together. Losing Leon hurts me too, but life must go on. We can always have more kids..."
Kai knelt beside the bed, his voice soft and coaxing, as if he were truly a heartbroken husband.
I turned my back to him, my face buried in the pillow, silently shedding tears. My hatred burned so fiercely inside me that my teeth ached from clenching them too hard. I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands.
But I was too weak. His bodyguards, his power—there was no way I could take him down in a moment of fury. I needed a plan. A long one.
"Don't cry, love. Look at you—you've lost so much weight. And these bruises... what happened? Don't tell me you tried to hurt yourself..." He trailed off, then sighed dramatically. "I see now. It's all Clayton's fault for not watching you properly, isn't it?"
Kai put on his usual performance, a flawless blend of tenderness and concern, his hands brushing my hair as if I were the most precious thing in the world. "Whoever dares to harm you, I'll never forgive them."
He stood, grabbed a whip from the wall and coldly ordered, "Clayton, shirt off. Kneel."
Without hesitation, Clayton obeyed, sinking to his knees and pulling off his shirt to expose his broad back.
The whip cracked through the air and Kai struck him over and over—more than ten times, until Clayton's back was a canvas of raw, bloody welts. Not once did he make a sound. When it was over, Clayton calmly put his shirt back on, returned to his position beside the bed and stood like a statue.
Kai wiped the blood off his hands with a silk handkerchief, then cupped my face, his fingers cool against my skin. "Milly, are you satisfied now? Will you finally talk to me?"
I gagged, turning my head to the side and spitting straight onto his designer suit.
"Oh dear, sorry," I said sweetly, "my stomach's been acting up lately. Everything wants to come back up. Join me for breakfast, darling?"
The stench of bile and bitterness clung to him and his expression briefly cracked before he forced a smile. "I have a meeting," he said, using work as an excuse to flee.
As soon as he left, I sat up. I had to check the surveillance footage.
Leon had always wanted a cat. For his fourth birthday, I'd secretly arranged for a purebred British Shorthair to be shipped from overseas.
The cat hadn't arrived in time—but I had prepared everything. Cat food was tucked away in the storage room and I had secretly installed surveillance cameras all over the villa, ready to watch the cat's every move once it arrived.
Leon never got to meet that cat. But now, those cameras had a new purpose—they might've caught glimpses of Kai's crimes. Proof. Evidence. Anything. Except Clayton was watching me like a hawk. I tried everything to make him leave—screaming at him, hurling insults, even slapping him across the face.
"Are you deaf? I said get out! You're nothing but Kai's dog. Admit it—you killed Leon, didn't you?"
Clayton simply stared back. His sharp profile remained carved from stone, unmoved by my words or my fists.
In a fit of rage, I grabbed a porcelain vase from the nightstand, smashed it to the floor and seized a jagged shard, pressing it to my wrist.
Clayton moved in an instant, faster than I could blink. His iron grip locked around my wrist, forcing the shard from my hand. They said he held a ninth-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a fifth-degree black belt in Karate—restraining me was no harder than handling a helpless kitten.
But desperation made me frantic. Clayton had to leave, so I slammed my head against the wall with everything I had.
Blinding pain exploded across my skull and my vision blurred red.
For the first time, Clayton hesitated. Panic flickered in his eyes and then he bolted from the room to summon a doctor.
I didn't waste a second. Fighting the waves of dizziness, I crawled to my laptop, locked the door and accessed the surveillance footage.
My fingers shook as I sped through the recordings, heart pounding in my ears.
But there was nothing. Not a single clue pointing to Kai's hand in Leon's murder or the theft of his organs. He was too careful. Too cautious.
But I did find something else.
A conversation between Rae and my father.
They were discussing how to kill me.
