I picked up my phone and called her, frowning in frustration. “Selene, where are you hiding my father? Don’t push your luck.”
On the other end of the line, she swirled a glass of wine in her hand, her voice cold as ice.
“Until you hand over the evidence, you’ll never see your father again.”
I couldn’t believe it. She was using my father’s safety as leverage. Had all her so-called love for me been nothing but an act?
Even though I hated her with every fiber of my being, my heart still ached from her heartless betrayal.
I closed my eyes in agony, my voice hoarse and dry. “Where are you? I’ll bring you the evidence right away.”
When I arrived at her place, I found out she had given the Stars Cluster apartment, once a gift for me to Alaric. As I stepped inside, everything that once belonged to us was gone, replaced by an entirely new aesthetic.
I clutched my chest, where only sorrow remained.
Then Selene came downstairs, hand-in-hand with Alaric. I raised my hand, holding the USB drive between my fingers.
“Selene, I brought what you wanted.”
“If you want it, then tell me where you’ve locked up my father.”
Alaric’s smile widened in triumph as he saw the USB in my hand. He knew that as long as Selene was around, there was no problem he couldn’t solve.
“He’s in my private hospital,” he said smugly.
As soon as I got the answer, I threw the USB drive at Selene’s face.
There was no time to waste. I turned and ran.
When I finally found my father’s ward, I froze in the doorway. One of his legs was gone.
I stood there, stunned, unable to believe what I was seeing. Tears streamed down my face, hitting the cold hospital floor. Every step I took felt like nails piercing through my feet. I was on the verge of collapse.
“Dad! How did you lose your leg? You only fell from the second floor! It shouldn’t have cost you your leg!”
My father stirred at the sound of my sobbing and opened his weary eyes to look at me.
“It was Alaric” he said weakly. “He forced the doctor to amputate my leg.”
“What? Him?”
He wasn’t satisfied with destroying my mother, he had to ruin my father too.
The fury in my heart ignited and I felt like tearing Alaric apart with my bare hands.
Just then, my lawyer called.
“Xavier, check the latest news.”
I picked up the remote and turned on the TV. All the news reports were spinning the same lie, that my mother had been drunk and crossing the street recklessly when she was hit by a car.
But my mother didn’t drink. And she didn’t cross the road. It was clear Selene had fabricated the video to protect Alaric.
They already had the crucial evidence, without it, they could twist the story however they liked.
I was shaking with rage and my father, watching the broadcast, was so devastated, he coughed up blood.
Since my mother’s death, my father’s health had worsened day by day. He had even been thrown from a building.
And now this.
I felt utterly helpless.
“Xavier,” he said weakly, “don’t blame yourself. Ordinary people like us can’t win against the rich and powerful. Just give up the appeal. I don’t want you to end up in danger too. I couldn’t bear it.”
But I couldn’t accept it. I refused to accept it. And yet, there was nothing I could do to touch Alaric.
As I walked out of the hospital, I heard people gossiping, cursing my mother, saying she’d tried to extort money and had gotten herself killed. They said she deserved it.
I lost control and lashed out, arguing back—only for them to recognize me as her son.
