Chapter 2

The basement door slammed shut and locked behind me.

Not long after, footsteps sounded outside.

Ryan appeared on the other side of the iron bars with a bandage wrapped around his head, looking down at me from above.

My father didn’t even notice the malice on his face. He pointed at me and started cursing.

“You picked up every rotten habit imaginable out in the countryside. Stay down here and think about what you’ve done!”

With that, he turned and left.

The moment the hallway was empty, the wounded look vanished from Ryan’s face.

He walked over to the corner, grabbed the basement’s main heating valve, and twisted it hard.

Click.

The heat shut off completely.

“Ethan, did you really think destroying one stupid teddy bear would be enough to take me down?”

Ryan’s smile turned so vicious it sent a chill through me.

“You don’t even know where I hid my real secret. What makes you think you can beat me?”

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and stared coldly at him.

“Is dirty shit like this all you know how to do?”

“If it works, who cares?”

Ryan grinned smugly.

“I’m going to make this entire family hate you. By the time I’m done, you’ll be worth less to them than a dog.”

With that, he walked away.

It was the middle of winter.

Without heat, the basement temperature plummeted.

I shivered uncontrollably, my lips turning blue.

Just as I was starting to lose consciousness, something warm and furry burrowed into my arms.

The Ragdoll.

【Fuck! That two-faced bastard is actually trying to freeze you to death!】

The cat pressed itself against me, sharing its body heat.

Its voice was frantic.

【Hang in there! I’m going to get someone!】

With that, it sprang onto a high shelf and squeezed through the air vent.

A few minutes later, a tremendous crash came from the living room upstairs.

Then my father roared.

“My antique Ming Dynasty vase! What the hell is wrong with that damn cat?”

The cat had deliberately smashed my father’s favorite antique to save me.

Chaos erupted upstairs as the servants scrambled around trying to catch it.

Eventually, someone finally remembered I was still locked in the basement.

Claire was the first one down.

The moment she saw how pale I was, panic flashed across her face.

She quickly took off her coat and draped it around my shoulders.

“Why are you freezing? Who turned off the heat down here?”

Even my father’s expression softened.

He was just about to tell someone to bring me something hot to drink when Ryan suddenly widened his eyes and gasped.

“Oh my God! Ethan, did you turn off the heat yourself just to make Dad feel sorry for you?”

“Even if you hate me for taking Mom and Dad’s love away from you, you can’t gamble with your own life!”

“Were you really trying to threaten them by freezing yourself to death?”

Claire’s hands froze halfway through adjusting the coat around me.

My father’s expression instantly twisted with disgust.

“So now you’re pulling stunts like this for sympathy?”

He yanked Claire away from me.

“Leave him alone! Let him freeze! If he freezes to death, he’ll have no one to blame but himself!”

I watched them storm away.

I didn’t even have the strength to laugh.

The cat poked half its head through the air vent, practically grinding its teeth.

【Fuck! I’m so mad! These idiots are beyond saving!】

I pulled Claire’s coat tighter around myself.

“Ryan said something earlier. He said I didn’t even know where his real secret was hidden.”

“Those bloodstained letters were just a decoy, weren’t they?”

The cat’s blue eyes lit up.

【Exactly! That bastard has backup plans for his backup plans. The metal box only contained a list of the victims.】

【The real evidence is inside a waterproof bag hidden beneath the garden fountain!】

Late that night, the cat and I slipped into the backyard.

Gritting my teeth against the cold, I reached into the fountain and searched along the bottom.

Finally, my fingers brushed against something wedged into a crack beneath the statue’s base.

A heavy black waterproof bag.

I dragged myself out of the fountain and opened it with trembling hands.

Under the faint moonlight, I finally saw what was inside.

Photographs.

Photo after photo of the victims being tortured before their deaths.

And the background in every picture was unmistakable.

It was the Spencer family’s old estate.