Sarah bit down hard on her tongue.The sharp pain jolted her back to her senses, giving her just enough strength to keep going. Her legs, heavy as lead, managed a few more wide strides. To lighten the load, she flung her purse into the grass by the roadside. It landed in the dew-soaked blades with a soft thud.Then came the blare of a horn.Sarah whipped around instinctively, eyes wide with fear.Just before everything went black, the last thing she saw was the woman behind the wheel—wild eyes, twisted in a frenzy. That deranged expression burned itself into Sarah’s mind as consciousness slipped away.Silence returned to the night.The truck’s engine cut off. Its headlights died. The hulking vehicle now sat in the shadows like a beast drifting into sleep.A door opened.Under the dim streetlamp, the woman’s face finally came into view.Vivian’s limbs were shaking. Her hands trembled, and tears streamed uncontrollably down her cheeks. Yet her lips were curled in a chilling, alm
“Henry Fisher?”Sarah pressed her lips together, thinking for a moment. The name sounded familiar. If she remembered correctly, he was Melvin’s assistant.Still, something felt off—though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.She shook her head, brushing away the uneasy thoughts. Right now, picking him up was more important. Without hesitation, she grabbed her bag and slung it back over her arm. “Send me your location. I’m coming now.”As soon as she opened the map and searched the pinned address, her finger hovered above the ride-hailing app. Her expression shifted.The place was only a few hundred meters away.Sarah calmly exited the app and reopened it, just to be sure. Still the same distance.Now she was starting to wonder if Melvin had intentionally chosen a bar this close to her place.It was almost midnight. The wind outside howled against the windows, and the moon was hidden behind thick clouds. The night felt eerie.She let out a long breath, lips curving into a f
He turned and headed downstairs. “I need to use the kitchen.”“Of course,” Mrs. William replied.Two hours later, Sarah finally woke up.Mrs. William walked in, carrying a bowl of soup. “This is mushroom soup. Try it—it’s been simmering for two hours.”Sarah took a sip.“Well? Isn’t it delicious?” Mrs. William asked with a proud smile.Sarah gave her a puzzled look. “Didn’t you make this?”Mrs. William gave her a meaningful glance. “No. Mr. Reynolds did.”Sarah froze in surprise. “He was here?”Mrs. William nodded. “He heard you had stomach pain and went straight into the kitchen. He stayed for an hour, then got called away by a phone call.”Sarah stirred the soup in silence, a strange warmth rising in her chest.This wasn’t the first time he had made this for her when she wasn’t feeling well. Back then, she used to take medicine, and every time, he’d follow it with a bowl of mushroom soup.Something in her heart began to shift, like the first crack in a long-frozen lake.
Leon silently pushed Vivian aside and made her sit on the couch. His voice was cold."Vivian, wake up. The Wilson Corporation is bound to go bankrupt."In today’s digital age, every scandal the Wilson family has been involved in has already spread like wildfire. People have an almost obsessive sense of justice—especially when the law fails. In those moments, they’ll take matters into their own hands to satisfy that sense of right and wrong.And in this case, the Wilsons were the perfect scapegoat.There was no saving the company. Not unless the victims came back to life.But obviously, that wasn’t going to happen. Their bodies had already decomposed in that abandoned factory, and their souls would remain trapped there forever.With their injustice unresolved, the public’s anger toward the Wilsons only grew—on behalf of the innocent people who died."I don’t believe it!" Vivian cried. "Why should the Wilsons go bankrupt? I didn’t even do anything wrong!"She wiped her tears. The
’Sara’ hadn’t shown herself to Leon in a while. She knew her place. If she wasn’t summoned, she acted like she didn’t exist.Standing respectfully to the side, Julian Spencer gave his update on recent matters.But when he reached the topic of the Wilson family, he hesitated.“Speak,” Leon said.“Sir, we’ve been quietly covering the Wilson Corporation’s financial losses these past few days. That might hold for a month or two, but after that…” Julian’s tone grew more serious. “You know the situation better than I do. The company’s taken a major hit. When a business is burdened by a fatal scandal, bankruptcy isn’t far off.”Leon knew he was right. But this was the deal he had made with Vivian.“I’ll think about it,” he replied calmly.—Vivian parked near Sarah’s apartment complex. She didn’t know what Sarah was wearing today or which building she lived in, but her eyes quickly landed on a Cayenne parked out front.It was Zachary’s car.Swallowing hard, she sat and watched as Sa
Lucy's colleagues behind her looked tense, one of them tugging anxiously at her sleeve.She forced a calm smile. “Sir, we’ve already made significant concessions in this proposal. You know how much a one-percent profit margin means in business. It’s not a small compromise.”She truly believed she had given enough. What else could he possibly want?But just as she was still trying to figure it out, the man looked past her, eyes shifting toward someone behind her.“Miss Chancer, have you ever considered that the reason this deal is falling through… is you?”“Me?” Lucy blinked, startled. “Why would you say that?”“Because you offended someone you never should’ve. From now on, any project associated with my company will never collaborate with yours.”Lucy's face turned ghostly pale. The people behind her had heard every word.She remembered leaving the city hospital that day, smug and certain Vivian was done for—like a stray dog with nowhere left to run. She had laughed at the idea