Chapter 2

2

For the next few days, Gale spent every waking hour plotting how to make my life a living hell.

He stormed into the hospital where my father was recovering, but just as his men had reported, I was nowhere to be found.

"Your precious daughter really has ice in her veins. Her father's hands are ruined, and she won't even show her face."

Facing Gale's taunts, my mother stood trembling in front of the hospital bed, her eyes red from crying.

"What more do you want from us? We put you through school! We treated you like our own flesh and blood, and this... this is how you repay us? You're a monster!"

My mother's voice faltered. I knew she wanted to scream the truth at him, but she choked it back at the last second.

Gale didn't even notice her hesitation. The mention of the past only fueled his rage. He kicked the base of my father's bed with a deafening bang.

"Don't you dare bring up the past! You're quick to blame me, but why don't you ask your daughter what she did?"

"You're all the same. You bullied me when I was a nobody with nothing. Now that I have money, you want to play the family card."

"Let me make this clear. I only came back to see Kiana Hennessey crawl at my feet. Until that happens, the nightmare continues!"

I knew exactly what he was hung up on.

Years ago, to force him to leave me, I said the most poisonous things I could think of. I called him a cripple. I told him I had found someone better.

He wouldn't believe me at first. He cried, promising he'd get surgery, promising he'd change for me.

Nobody knew how much it killed me to push away the only person I ever loved. But I had no choice. He had a bright future, and I had already been handed a death sentence by my doctors.

I had no way out, so I used the cruelest methods to drive him away.

I slapped him to 'wake him up.'

I made him kneel and beg for my love, only to tell him I was just bored and playing a game.

I thought hate would be easier for him to move on from than love.

Clearly, I underestimated his obsession.

After years of grinding, Gale had become a titan of industry. He could crush a family like ours with a single phone call.

He smiled, but his words were like shards of glass driven into my heart.

"You'd better pray Kiana comes to me soon. Otherwise, the rest of you are going to pay her tab."

I fell to my knees in front of my parents, wailing for them to just tell him the truth. I begged them to stop keeping my secret.

At this point, I just wanted them to live.

But they couldn't hear me. they remained silent, stubbornly guarding their daughter's final wish even after Gale stormed out.

Gale hadn't made it to the top by being soft. He was a man of his word, especially when it came to his threats.

He said he hated me, and he proved it by destroying everything I cared about.

I just didn't think he would go this far.

When the black sedan sped toward my mother, I screamed and tried to block it, but I could only watch as the car struck her. The kindest woman I knew was tossed into the air like a ragdoll.

Gale looked on with a numb expression, as if the woman bleeding on the pavement was just a piece of meat. Then, he picked up his phone and ordered his men to take her to a private hospital he owned.

My soul felt like it was weeping blood.

I hated him for his coldness. I hated myself for being powerless. Most of all, I hated the choices I made that led us here.

I wanted to regret it all, but it was nine years too late.

Outside the operating room, the surgeons were bowing to Gale, explaining the risks of the procedure.

He didn't have the patience for it. He cut them off with a dark frown.

"I don't care how you do it. I only have one requirement. Amputate both legs."

My eyes widened in horror. He knew my father's hands were useless. My mother was the only one left who could work to support the family. And now, he was taking her legs.

The doctor tried to protest, suggesting there might be a way to save them, but Gale snapped at him.

"I said amputate. Are you the shareholder here, or am I?"

Any flicker of hope I had for Gale died in that hallway.

He wasn't the sweet boy who used to call my mom "Auntie." He was a demon. He was a monster who treated human lives like trash.

I waited from dawn until dusk until the surgical lights finally flickered off.

In the recovery room, my mother was still unconscious. My father looked at the empty space beneath the sheets where her legs should have been and broke down.

It was the first time I had ever seen that strong man cry with such utter despair. And then Gale walked in to deliver the final blow.

He pulled out several thick stacks of cash and threw them at my father's face. The hundred-dollar bills scattered everywhere, hitting my father's aged skin.

"This is your compensation. It's more than enough for two legs. You can refuse it, of course, but you know the law won't touch me. You'll end up with much less if you fight."

"Don't bother thanking me. Think of it as a handout to a beggar. That's what Kiana used to call me. If you want to thank someone, thank her."

He was smiling like a ghoul from the depths of hell. Every word was a poison needle.

My father tried to lung at him, but his balance failed. He fell with a heavy thud, landing right at Gale's feet in a pathetic, broken heap.

Gale laughed even harder. He pulled out another stack of cash and tossed it on the floor.

"You're much smarter than your daughter. Here's a little extra for the show. Make sure you stay alive, Arthur. I'd hate to lose my entertainment so soon."

The insults were like a whip, flaying my father's spirit.

He knelt there, his back trembling and hunched, and that was exactly what my mother saw when she opened her eyes.

A patient waking up from such trauma shouldn't be provoked. Seeing her husband kneeling before the man who destroyed them was too much.

My mother's lips turned blue. She let out a choked, agonized sob before her heart rate plummeted on the monitor.

The hallway erupted into chaos―nurses screaming and the sound of running feet. Gale just rolled his eyes and stood to the side, mocking them.

"No wonder Kiana was such a coward. Weakness clearly runs in the family."