Chapter 3

“Ahhh!!!” Sonya screamed in agony.

My hand, still clenched around the shears, twisted deeper inside her.

“You trash! How dare you hurt me?!”

Grabbing the handle, she lashed out with her stiletto-clad leg and kicked me away as she roared.

Pain exploded through me as I crashed to the floor. The taste of blood instantly flooded my mouth.

Sonya looked unhinged. She said, “Kill her! Kill her now!”

As soon as she said that, the guards turned toward me as a single mass with murderous intent.

The next second, a wooden chair came crashing down toward me.

“Don’t touch my sister!” Matt shouted hoarsely through the chaos.

Through my blurred vision, I saw Matt stagger in front of me. The chair slammed down hard against his head.

“Matt!!!”

His body collapsed onto mine. He twitched a few times, then went limp.

I completely lost it. I scrambled to hold him, but the guards lunged and pinned me to the floor.

They pinned my limbs down. My face rubbed roughly against the floor. Blood and tears mixed together as I struggled and screamed.

Sonya’s lips curled into a vicious smile. The needle-sharp point of her stiletto came down on my fingers.

“Can’t take it anymore, can you?”

I was in so much pain that my body instinctively curled inward like a wounded insect. My face drained of color. Cold sweat broke out across my skin.

My vision began to blur. All I could hear was Sonya’s manic laughter ringing in my ears.

“Relax, it’s not over yet. I’ve got a special gift prepared for you two!”

The strike landed. Darkness swallowed me whole.

When consciousness returned, I was locked inside a refrigerated storage room sealed behind a glass enclosure with Matt.

Every inch of skin in contact with the floor burned with a sharp, stinging pain. I was shivering uncontrollably. Matt’s face had turned a frightening shade of blue. Frost clung to his lashes.

I rubbed my hands together desperately, then pressed them against his cheeks. Blood and tears spilled down my face.

“Matt, hold on! Please! Don’t fall asleep! Dad’ll come for us soon. Please just hold on!”

His breath grew fainter in my arms, and I felt helpless.

I looked up at Sonya outside the glass. My eyes burned with anger and hatred.

“Sonya, if anything happens to Matt, I swear I’ll kill you myself!”

Sonya could not help but laugh. Wrapped in a cashmere coat, she stepped into the freezer.

“You talk too much!”

She shoved a rag roughly into my mouth, then aimed a brutal kick straight into my chest.

“Seeing how you can’t control your temper, it’s time to cool you down!”

Sonya kicked over a bucket of water.

Icy water spilled across the floor and rushed beneath me. In the subzero cold of the freezer, the water froze almost instantly and glued me to the floor like a trapped animal.

The cold pierced straight through to my bones and sent waves of cold, burning pain deep into my body.

“Well? Do you like my special gift?”

She took a moment to admire my distress, let out a satisfied hum, then turned and walked out of the freezer.

Staring in despair at Matt’s lifeless form, a wave of crushing, all-consuming regret and rage washed over me. I wished I could run out and kill her right away.

At that time, my phone, which was still in my pocket, suddenly began to vibrate.

My eyes narrowed. It was Gerald!

Even moving slightly hurt a lot, but I used all my might and reached for my phone to answer it.

“Caroline, where are you?” Gerald sounded frantic on the other end.

“I’ll explain everything about Sonya later! Just let her go, or I’ll…”

Gerald paused for a second before he continued, “Or I’ll hate you for the rest of my life!”

The ice and frost on my skin were melting slightly from the faint warmth of my body. My heart was in a knot as if someone had grabbed it with both hands. Madness, hatred, and despair twisted across my face.

‘Hate me?’ I thought.

From the day we made our relationship official, everything Gerald built was because of my family’s help.

To earn our father’s approval, Matt had secretly supported him from behind the scenes for my sake. With his support, Gerald turned the Hoover Corp into a prominent industry in just three years.

To think this was how he was going to repay us! Not only did he use my money to cheat on me with another woman, but he was also threatening me when she was about to kill Matt and me!

‘That ungrateful scum!’ I thought.

Sonya was trying to kill us!

My mouth was stuffed with a rag, and all that rage dissolved into muffled sobs.

Then, Sonya returned.

Hearing Gerald’s voice through the speaker of my phone, Sonya froze. Shock and confusion flashed across her face as she snatched the phone from me.

“Hello? Honey, why are you calling her?!”

Gerald’s voice trembled as he asked, “Where is Caroline Skylar?”

“So, your mistress really is a Skylar, then,” Sonya said dismissively. “I’m just teaching her a little lesson. She needs to learn not to mess with me. I’m Mrs. Hoover, after all.”

There was a brief silence on the other end. Then, Gerald’s roar exploded through the speaker. “Sonya, what the hell did you do to Caroline? She’s the eldest daughter of the Skylar family! Are you trying to get me killed?”

Sonya flinched.

The phone slipped from her slack hands and hit the floor. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

After a few seconds, she turned around to look at me.