As Cindy switched the air conditioning back to cooling mode, she glared at me through clenched teeth.
“Vance, you’ve always been this stubborn. You forced me to do this!”
By the time I fully regained consciousness, I found myself outside my mother’s hospital room.
Cindy grabbed the back of my head and pressed my face against the glass.
Inside, several bodyguards were holding down my terrified mother, shoving her head toward a microwave.
With a flick of her fingers, one of them turned the dial all the way up.
I could already smell the acrid scent of singed hair in the air. I didn’t dare imagine what would happen if this continued.
Grabbing Cindy by the collar, I roared, “Have you completely lost your mind?! That’s my mother! Are you insane?!”
Cindy didn’t flinch. Instead, she leaned down and kissed my bloodied fingers with a smile that chilled me to the bone.
“I had no choice, Vance. You’re too stubborn—and I couldn’t bear to let you die. So your mother will have to do it for you.”
Smiling, she held out her hand. “Hand over the USB, or watch your mother’s head explode into pulp. Think carefully.”
From inside the room my mother’s agonized screams continued.
“It’s burning! Let me go—please!”
Pain like knives stabbed through my chest. I shut my eyes in despair and choked out the words.
“The USB... it’s in the space between my phone and the case. Now let her go, please...”
Cindy retrieved the USB and gestured for the guards to stop. Then she lifted my chin and smiled sweetly.
“Without this, you can’t touch Eugene. And I’ve already spread the word—no lawyer in this city will dare take your case.”
Right before my eyes, she dropped the USB into the drain and flushed it away.
I watched her hand, and a wave of cold devastation slowly crept through my chest.
I had considered that Eugene might try to steal the evidence. I’d been so careful, keeping the USB with me at all times, thinking I could bring it to the police before he got the chance. I didn’t even make a backup.
But never, not even in my worst nightmares, did I imagine that the one who’d help him escape justice would be my own wife.
To protect him, Cindy didn’t hesitate to use my mother’s life—and the entire legal community of New Haven—as leverage.
Does this mean my daughter really died for nothing?
I tried to turn back toward the room to check on my mother, but Cindy yanked me by the wrist.
“Eugene knows you’re upset. He was worried you’d be too exhausted, so he went ahead and arranged Louise’s memorial. We should head there now.”
“And remember—her death was just an accident. I’ve already talked to him about it. I don’t want to hear another harsh word from you.”
...
On the way there, I stared blankly at the little crystal globe on the dashboard.
It was the first gift Cindy ever gave me. Inside the globe, two cartoon figures—modeled after us—stood locked in a gentle embrace. She had sculpted them by hand, stroke by stroke.
Back then, she wasn’t the powerful Cindy Contreras. She was just a withdrawn, isolated student in my mother’s class.
After her parents died in a car accident, her relatives swooped in and took all the compensation money. She couldn’t even afford tuition.
My mother took pity on her, using our family’s savings to help, and even let her move in with us.
During the darkest days of her life, I was afraid she might do something foolish. I stayed by her side, keeping her company, telling her jokes, helping her study—trying everything to bring light back into her world.
Eventually, Cindy fought her way back. We both got into the same university. After graduation, she started her own company.
The day her company went public, she finally worked up the courage to propose to me.
Her proposal came with an array of luxury gifts—and that crystal globe she made herself.
I still remember her kneeling on one knee in front of everyone, her voice trembling but filled with conviction.
“Vance, I know you don’t care for flashy gifts. But I got you those because I want you to have what other men have too.”
“This crystal globe... I actually finished it a long time ago. But I didn’t dare give it to you, because aside from my love, it doesn’t have any real value.”
