“Next time,” she said, helping Jovan to his feet and looking down at me from above, “it won’t be this simple.”
I clenched my fists.
For the next week, the entertainment headlines were flooded with photos of Eliana shopping arm in arm with Jovan.
I acted as though I had never seen them.
Late one night, as I worked overtime in my office, the door suddenly burst open with a violent kick.
Before I could lift my head, an icy hand clamped tightly around my throat.
With a heavy thud, Jovan dropped to his knees, his voice shaking with barely contained sobs.
“Louis, my parents are just ordinary workers! Please, I’m begging you, let them go!”
He raised his phone, and on the screen, a middle-aged couple’s faces were smeared with blood as they bowed toward the camera.
“Louis! Please, have mercy. Our son will never dare to compete with you for Eliana again!”
Eliana wrenched the phone away, her eyes burning with rage.
“Louis! Have you lost your mind? You actually sent people to hurt Jovan’s parents?”
“I don’t even know them.” My tone was cold as I met Jovan’s gaze. “Great acting.”
“You’re still denying it!” Eliana slammed the phone down in front of me.
On the screen, the couple struck their own faces in desperation.
“They’re calling you by name, begging you!”
I inhaled slowly. “I didn’t do it.”
Jovan lunged forward, clutching my wrist.
“Louis, my parents are still lying in the hospital! They’ve lived honest lives, they would never….”
“Enough!” I yanked my hand free. “If you’re going to frame me, at least make it believable.”
“Louis, you make me sick.” Eliana’s voice was frigid, her eyes colder still.
“If you intend to marry me, you shouldn’t be doing something so mindless.”
“Take him away!”
Four bodyguards stepped in at once, their grip brutal as they wrenched my arms behind me.
They shoved me forward, and behind us, Jovan sniffled softly. “Eliana, my parents…”
I was slammed down onto the cold tiles of the ancestral hall, pain shooting up my legs as my knees bruised instantly.
Eliana tossed a share transfer agreement in front of me.
“Sign it. Transfer eighty percent of your shares to Jovan.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I ground out through clenched teeth.
Jovan’s voice turned falsely humble. “Eliana, Louis looks down on people like me… maybe just forget…”
Eliana forced me down harder. “Weren’t you so high and mighty when you were beating other people’s parents?”
She shoved my fingers into the red ink.
“Today, you’ll sign it, whether you want to or not.”
I was left locked inside the ancestral hall.
Three days later, the doors finally opened.
I thought I was about to be freed, until I saw Jovan walk in alone.
“Eliana said you can go now.” His voice rang sharp in the emptiness of the hall.
With effort, I lifted my head, meeting the venom in his eyes.
He loosened my ropes slowly, then, without warning, shoved me hard to the ground.
The acrid stench of gasoline hit me instantly.
“What are you doing?!” My gaze locked on the lighter flickering in his hand, my voice trembling.
A cold laugh slipped from his lips. “Louis should just disappear, right? Let me make it quick for you, save you from haunting Eliana every day.”
The moment the lighter struck the floor, flames erupted with a deafening roar.
A scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate, piercing through the air and startling Eliana outside.
“What’s going on?!” She rushed in, her eyes widening at the sight of the blazing inferno.
Jovan acted fast. “Eliana! Louis said if he can’t have you, he’ll destroy you! He threatened to burn down the ancestral hall!”
Her furious voice cut through the crackling flames. “Put out the fire! What are you all standing there for?!”
But the flames only raged higher, the scorching heat twisting the air around us.
At that moment, the Anderson gates were torn open by several armored vehicles, the roar of engines shaking the ground beneath us.
Through the haze of flames, a woman strode forward, her fiery red trench coat sweeping past the blaze.
Behind her, two rows of fully armed bodyguards moved in, seizing control of everyone in the courtyard with swift precision.
Her expression was cold, her voice sharp. “Where is Louis?”
Eliana’s face paled. “Why is it you?”
Without so much as a glance at her, the woman plunged into the inferno.
The people she brought worked fast, subduing the flames in moments.
She emerged carrying me in her arms. Blood had seeped into her expensive clothes, yet she held me as though I were the most fragile treasure in the world.
