Chapter 3

Giselle stiffened slightly, as if my words had struck a nerve. But the next second, she grabbed my chin and forced my face up. A mocking laugh escaped her lips.

"You've gotten addicted to your own lies, haven't you? That thing on the helicopter was clearly just a dummy, yet you keep insisting I save your mother. I'm telling you, nothing matters more than Jay right now!"

After hearing Giselle's words, the hesitation on Valerie's face vanished, replaced by a harder, more resolute expression. "Take him over there and draw his blood for Mr. Cooper!"

I was thus forcibly pinned into the transfusion chair. The needle pierced my vein, and pain shot through my body. I trembled violently, and my vision grew blurrier with every passing second.

Suddenly, I remembered a time when I had accidentally cut my finger while cooking. Giselle had been so worried that she nearly panicked.

Ironically, she and Valerie were now working together, disregarding Mom's life and forcing me to give blood to her new lover.

Darkness crept across my vision in waves. At last, I couldn't hold on anymore and passed out.

…

When I woke up again, night had fallen. For a long moment, I stared blankly at the ceiling. I ripped out the IV needle, stumbled out of bed, and rushed out of the room.

In Room 303, Mom's face was still turned toward the direction where the bodyguards had dragged me away. With her organs shredded, she had died in unbearable pain.

The intern doctor from earlier looked at me with deep sympathy. "Your mother kept saying she wanted to see you one last time before she went. I searched the entire hospital and eventually found out you had fainted."

Tears slid down my face without warning.

At that time, Giselle and Valerie were forcing me to donate blood. I never imagined that would be the reason I missed Mom's final moments.

"Mom!" I cried out in agony, as if hoping a miracle would bring her back. Unfortunately, there was none.

The pain in my chest was so severe that I coughed up a mouthful of blood. Dazed and hollow, I went to process Mom's death certificate. Just like that, a living existence had turned into a thin sheet of paper.

That feeling weighed on my heart like a boulder I could never move.

I returned to the home where Mom had lived, tears in my eyes as I sorted through her belongings. She never wanted to put me in a difficult position, so she had never once stayed overnight at my place.

Whatever nice thing there was, she always saved it for Giselle and Valerie. In return, she had been suspended from a helicopter like a toy, thrown into the air like a kite.

Everything around me was arranged just as it had always been, except that the woman who used to smile and tell me to visit her whenever I had time was now reduced to a handful of ashes.

I respected Mom's wishes and cremated her body. I also bought her favorite flowers, white jasmine, and placed them in front of her wooden memorial tablet.

My fingers brushed over the cold wood as tears fell one after another. "I'm sorry, Mom. I chose the wrong people to trust. I should never have been so devoted to Giselle and Valerie."

A shadow fell over me.

I looked up in a daze. Jay walked closer, looking radiant and satisfied. He tossed a cross pendant into the air and caught it casually.

"You didn't actually believe that this was my mother's keepsake, right?" he taunted. "It's just something I bought from a street stall. My mother is alive and well, unlike yours, who fell from such a high altitude and died a miserable—"

Jay's words hit me like a blow. My whole body started shaking uncontrollably.

I grabbed him by the collar and punched him hard in the face. He staggered back a step, but didn't seem fazed at all. Instead, he casually wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and let out a cold laugh.

The lighter in his hand arced through the air in a perfect curve and landed precisely on Mom's wooden memorial tablet. Flames erupted instantly, and my eyes went red with rage.

"No!"

My fingers were burned black as I fought the fire with everything I had, finally managing to smother it. I held the damaged wooden tablet in my arms as if it were the most precious thing in the world. At that moment, it truly was.

Suddenly, Jay walked toward me. I stared at him warily, yet he simply curled his lips into a meaningful smile. "I'll destroy everything you have, Dylan. If you don't leave on your own, believe me when I say I'll kill you."