LOGINMireille clenched her fists until her knuckles cracked, her face turning pale and strained. She stayed silent for a long moment.
At that moment, Fenris Carrington arrived, and even before he reached them, he was already yelling.
“Raina! You unfilial daughter! You come back and cause trouble everywhere, bringing shame on us! Aren’t you going to…”
Originally scolding Raina, Fenris froze when he saw her, his voice cutting off abruptly.
Had Raina’s appearance… recovered?
“Fenris, Raina’s been out too long, that’s why she’s so wild. Don’t bother arguing with her, don’t get angry... Remember, we have serious matters today. Besides, so many guests are watching.”
Odette, the third wife who’d risen in status, lowered her voice at the end.
Fenris snorted coldly, scowling, “What are you standing there for? Hurry up and come with me! Such an embarrassment!”
Raina lowered her gaze, her face returning to its usual indifferent expression.
This was her father — his heart was always biased.
But it didn’t matter anymore. She hadn’t come back to reunite, but to find her lost baby and reclaim what was hers.
Amidst the murmurs, Raina followed Fenris and Odette out.
Mireille snapped out of her daze and followed as well.
...
Hotel lounge.
With a sharp “slam,” Fenris threw a contract in front of Raina.
“Sign this contract. From now on, the Carrington family has nothing to do with you!”
On the front page of the contract was clearly written — Company Share Transfer Agreement.
Fenris was demanding Raina transfer her mother’s company to Mireille — for free!
Raina lounged casually on the sofa, but an invisible pressure radiated from her, even making Fenris furrow his brow and fix his gaze on her.
After all these years, something about Raina seemed different.
The girl raised her hand, picked up the agreement, and curled a cold, sarcastic smile at the corner of her lips.
“Company transfer agreement?”
Fenris felt no problem demanding Raina sign it. Ever since Lauren passed away, he’d taken for granted that everything belonged to him.
But before she died, Lauren left a will, leaving all her inheritance to that useless bastard, Raina.
Besides, the company was now managed by a professional manager, and without this transfer agreement, the other side wouldn’t acknowledge Fenris’s claims.
That’s why he saw this as the perfect opportunity. Raina was always timid — with him asking personally, there was no way she wouldn’t sign.
A flash of triumph crossed Fenris’s eyes before he impatiently said, “It’s just a failing company anyway. Think of it as your sister’s wedding gift. You wouldn’t be that petty to begrudge her that, would you?”
Odette quickly chimed in with a sweet smile, “Exactly, Raina, you don’t know how badly business has been these past years. The company’s always losing money. Even if you got it, you wouldn’t be able to run it. Better to give it to Mireille as her dowry — that’s what an older sister should do.”
Mireille sat nearby, her arrogant pride slowly returning.
With Fenris and Odette backing her, she didn’t even have to lift a finger to crush Raina.
“What right do you have?” Raina slammed the agreement down heavily on the table.
Fenris’s expression hardened, a bad feeling creeping up inside him. “What do you mean?”
The atmosphere instantly thickened.
Raina tapped twice on the contract, a mocking smile playing at her eyes and brows.
“The company is mine. Why should my own property be given away for free? I won’t sign this.”
“Whether you sign it or not isn’t up to you! You’ll sign it today—willing or not! Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re some untouchable high-society lady. With or without your consent, Jasper and Mireille’s engagement is already set in stone!”
“It’s just giving her a bankrupt company and you can’t even agree to that?”Odette seized the chance to fan the flames. “Fenris, I’m telling you, your daughter is… tsk, tsk, selfish to the extreme.”
Raina rubbed her forehead, knowing there was no point in staying. She stood and left the lounge.
“Raina! Stop right there! You unfilial daughter! Once you step out that door, don’t ever think of coming back to the Carrington family!”
The Carrington family?
Aside from the name, she no longer had any ties to them.
Beep—
As soon as she stepped out, her phone rang. Raina glanced at the caller ID, then answered, holding the phone to her ear.
“Raina, you really have some serious charm. Wherever you go, that Mr. Vexley follows. His people are at the scene too. Be careful not to reveal your whereabouts.”
Leif was here for the Hale family engagement banquet?
Rumor had it this Mr. Vexley was low-profile, never attending public events. If not to personally clear up the media rumors about the second young master of the Vexley family’s leg injury, he wouldn’t have appeared publicly.
Yet he even came to some insignificant noble family’s engagement banquet — low-profile, huh?
Raina lowered her gaze lazily and replied, “Got it.”
She hung up and tapped a few times on her phone screen. A complex web of lines and dots appeared, with over a dozen red dots blinking.
For such a large event, the other side could insert their people quietly without alerting the hosts — interesting.
“Raina! Stop right there!”
A sharp, venomous voice sounded from behind.
No need to turn around — it was Mireille.
Raina put away her phone and turned to look at Mireille, raising an eyebrow.
“Second Miss Carrington still have something to say?”
Second Miss Carrington — those words were like a fine needle piercing through Mireille’s skin. The pain was subtle but impossible to ignore.
Mireille stood frozen for a moment, then suddenly raised her head, her tone and expression turning cold and cruel as she sneered, “Why aren’t you dead yet? You should have died five years ago... Raina, seriously, just die already, won’t you?”
“Answer me! Say something, Raina! Answer me—”
Her voice grew sharper and full of malice, making it clear this curse wasn’t just empty words. She really wanted Raina dead.
But Raina laughed, covering her face with one hand as the laughter slipped through her fingers.
“You’re still alive, so why should I die? Mireille, everything you stole from me, I’ll make you spit it out one by one.”
“Never!”
Mireille’s eyes widened, a flicker of fear and panic flashing in her pupils. She clenched her fists tightly, as if holding onto something, and yelled fiercely at Raina:
“What I’ve got, is mine! Raina, you’ll never take it from me again... never!”
***
After a while, Raina finally stood up from the ground, brushed the dust off her clothes, turned, and said, “Let’s go back. There’s still a lot to do.”Ian looked confused. “A lot to do? What... what else can we possibly do?”Helpless. Powerless.They wanted to save people, but they couldn’t save even one. These people were already completely lost to madness.They had achieved nothing. It was a total failure.The man silently stared at Raina, as if wanting to speak, but in the end, said nothing at all.Raina raised her voice. “Ian, from now on, don’t get involved.”Ian looked at her sharply, his heart pounding violently. “Why?”He couldn’t shake the feeling that something about Raina had subtly changed. She wasn’t quite the same as the always-confident, always-smiling girl he knew, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was different.Raina didn’t look at him. “No reason. Just don’t get involved. If you ever get the chance to leave, then leave. Forget everything here. Start a new lif
Raina glanced at him through the rearview mirror. Though she didn’t want to shatter Ian’s hope, the truth was—they no longer had the luxury of retreat.She said, “You know it too, Ian. There’s no going back for us.”Ian tried to respond, but not a word came out. After a long pause, he finally whispered, “Why… why did it turn out like this? I really don’t understand. We were doing the right thing. So why… why did it all end up like this? Raina, did we… did we make a mistake from the start? Maybe… maybe we never should’ve gotten involved… maybe…”But deep down, both he and Raina knew—there was no ‘maybe.’Even if they made it out alive, this place would haunt them for the rest of their lives.The driver suddenly spoke: ‘If I could get you out of here, would you take that chance?’Ian froze, blinking blankly. “W-What did you say? You can get us out? Is that real? Didn’t Briar say the last chance to leave was already gone? Are you lying?”The man replied, “I’m not lying. But whether you g
Clang—clang—A bone flute, no one knew when it had been hung from the shattered window, clinked and clattered in the wind, sending an eerie chill down everyone’s spine."Aaaaahhhhh!"Ian clutched his head in his hands and finally couldn't hold back a scream.No one knew how much time passed before Raina slowly got up from the ground. Her whole body was trembling, yet she still walked step by step toward the empty skeleton lying before her.Eli was dead. In this kind of way.Raina’s hand hadn’t even touched the bones yet, but it was already shaking uncontrollably. She tried to untie the rope binding the remains, but her trembling fingers simply couldn’t manage it.At that moment, a hand reached out and helped undo the loosely tied knot.It was a right hand, with a black ring on the third finger.Raina slowly lifted her gaze. She saw a gaunt, bloodless face under a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on a high-bridged nose. The man said nothing as he gently took the skeletal remains dow
Raina didn’t want to respond. She kept staring blankly at the sky. She had never felt so exhausted—so utterly, soul-deep weary. From the depths of her heart, she suddenly felt that she never wanted to meddle in anything again. Never wanted to step forward again. Never wanted to play the hero ever again.The faint white glow on the phone screen dimmed—but then lit up again almost immediately.Ian had already wiped away his tears. “Answer it,” he said. “What if it’s something urgent…”But everyone knew in their hearts—at this point, what could possibly still count as urgent?People had started to lose faith in them. The once-fervent, worshipful gazes had turned dull, even hostile. Disbelief and resentment had taken their place.Everyone was just trying to survive. Life itself was a constant battle—who had time to wait around for a miracle that not even the miracle workers could promise?Raina glanced down. The call was from an unknown number. She hesitated, but still picked up. “Hello?”
"The way I see it, that’s nonsense. If they really had a solution, they would’ve used it by now. So many people wouldn’t have died. What kind of people are they? If you never intended to save us, then don’t come out and pretend you could! All that ‘trust us’ talk… tch! Disgusting!”Finally, someone dared to speak a different opinion.But as soon as the voice rang out, the speaker shrank back into the crowd. Looking around at the sea of people, it was impossible to tell who had spoken just moments ago.Still, once the first voice spoke, there was bound to be a second. And a third…Another person said, “Yeah, honestly, I’ve been holding it in for a while now. I just didn’t say anything. But now that someone’s finally called it out—truth is, she’s just not up to it. She should stop pretending to be a hero…”Someone else chimed in, “I heard the reason the original expert team left was because of them. If we’d known they’d leave us with a disaster, we never would’ve believed her.”Another
Unknowingly, two lines of tears streamed down Ian’s face. Even as tears fell from his eyes, he still refused to give up. He said, choking on emotion, “Even if it’s like this… it still… it still can’t be right, can it? If we leave, what happens to these people? They’ll… they’ll just die… we can’t… I can’t do that. I really… I’d regret it for the rest of my life…”He had never been this disheveled before.But right now, he couldn’t care less about appearances. By the end of his words, he could no longer speak. He clutched his head in both hands, pulling at his hair in frustration.Beyond that, he didn’t know what else he could do.Briar let out a snort, his voice weary. “Do you really want me to spell it out for you? Fine, I’ll say it—there’s one last evacuation opportunity in an hour. If you don’t leave by then, you’re stuck here for good. Got it? That’s all I can do now.”Ian suddenly lifted his tear-streaked face and looked intently at Raina. His voice stammered as he said, “No… I’m







