Chapter 3

Despite that, I still nearly slipped on the ice multiple times.

"Hold tight, Wilfred!" Zack hollered at me from the front. I gritted my teeth and continued following them step by step.

I couldn't afford to die here. I still hadn't seen William's or Dad's lives completely ruined yet.

After what felt like an eternity, we finally caught sight of the rescue camp at the foot of the mountains.

Zack led me around the camp to the side where an inconspicuous SUV was parked instead.

"Get in. We'll talk further after going back to the city."

The car's heater was on full blast, and my frozen body finally felt a little warmer.

Zack fetched a first-aid kit from the back seat and carefully and skillfully checked me over.

"You're fine. Nothing serious. Just some frostbite and lethargy."

He continued grumbling as he cleaned up and treated the small cuts on my fingers. "That Michael is such a bastard! I'm going to get someone to chop his leg right off as soon as I get back!"

"Don't be impulsive," I said, pulling him back. "It's illegal to do that. I'll make him suffer so much that he'll wish for death instead."

Zack looked at me with a complex expression in his eyes. "You've changed, Wilfred."

"People change after having died once," I said nonchalantly.

The SUV sped along back to the brightly lit city. Zack dropped me off in a presidential suite of a five-star hotel right in the city center.

"Stay here for the next few days and don't go home. Your place is a den of snakes at the moment."

I didn't object to his suggestion.

"My dad…"

"Don't worry. My men are watching his every move. Everything he does is under my control," Zack said, handing me a new phone.

"This is also a new number. Call me if anything happens."

I took a hot shower, changed into clean clothes, and finally felt alive once again.

I stood before the suite's massive floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city's night view below. I felt nothing but a chill in my heart.

After Mom passed away some years back, I fell into deep depression. It was Dad and William who brought me back from the brink of death with their "familial affection" and feigned kindness toward me.

But now that I thought of it, I realized that they weren't really trying to save me. They just didn't want me to die that easily.

After all, they needed me alive to slowly transfer the enormous fortune and inheritance under my name to their names instead.

My phone vibrated just then with a text message from Zack.

"The photos have been sent out, and several news outlets have acknowledged it. You're in for a show probably tomorrow morning."

I simply replied with an "Okay".

Then, I dialled another number to call Dominic Howell, Mom's most trusted lawyer before she passed away.

"Hello, Mr. Howell? It's me, Freddie."

Dominic was shocked.

"Freddie? You… Weren't you caught in an avalanche?"

"I'm back, Mr. Howell," I said, interrupting him. "I need you to do something for me. Make a detailed list of all the shares and assets that my mother left me. Also, prepare an application request to freeze all my assets."

Dominic was stunned. "What's happened, Freddie?"

"Something terrible," I said, looking at the night view outside the window as I made my words clear.

"Someone just tried to bury me alive and seize my inheritance from me."

…

Early the next morning, I was woken up by my phone vibrating incessantly on the table. A deluge of push notifications from the news app appeared on the screen, each with its flashy headline.

"Carson Heir's Fiancee Allegedly Cheating With Stepbrother."

"Secrets the Wealthy Don't Want You to Know: A Carefully-Plotted Murder?"

"William Carson's Reputation Shatters. Hypocrite? Or Two-Faced Snake?"

The heartwarming hospital ward photo from yesterday, coupled with the headlines I sent out last night, made for a particularly ironic situation in the news article.

Meanwhile, the comment section was flooded with incredulous comments.

"Holy shit! Is that for real? Wilfred hasn't even been found yet, and they're already sleeping together?"

"I knew it! William looked too sullen and sly in the other photo. I was right all along!"