Chapter 1

"What are you waiting around for?" the kidnappers roared on the video. "Transfer 100 million to us right now, or you can get ready to collect your parents' corpses!"

No sooner had the kidnapper barked out his demand than several large snakes sank their fangs into Dad's legs, and a heart-wrenching cry instantly echoed across the wedding hall.

My face went deathly pale. I trembled uncontrollably as tears streamed down my cheeks.

Most of our family business capital had long since been poured into Adrian Dickson's new project after he'd sweet-talked us into it.

Forget about 100 million—we couldn't even scrape together a million dollars right now.

I clutched the hem of Adrian's suit jacket, pleading desperately with him.

"Dree, please, save Mom and Dad first! Once they're safe—"

But before I could even finish, he cut me off impatiently and said, "So, you're not willing to do it, are you?"

He then gave my pale face a contemptuous pat before turning to the kidnappers on the screen, saying, "I don't have the money. Go ahead and kill them. I don't care."

It was as though my mind had just been struck by lightning. I screamed at the top of my lungs, completely breaking down.

"No! You can't kill them, Adrian! They're my parents! You can't be that heartless!"

A split second later, a sharp pain shot through my scalp. Adrian yanked me up by my hair with a dark expression on his face and slapped me hard across the face.

"Have you already forgotten what you did to Cassie, Jillian Hanson? A vicious woman like you actually has the nerve to call me the heartless one?"

I looked into Adrian's cold, hard eyes and felt a wave of anguish and bewilderment engulfing me.

"But I've already done everything I could to make it up to her!"

I had long regretted the mistake I'd made selfishly in a moment of impulse back then. The day Cassandra Addams dropped out of school, I sought her out to apologize personally, even using Mom's connections and spending a huge fortune to send her to a top-tier college abroad.

I continued showering her with jewelry, luxury cars, and mansions, spending nearly all of my money on her, and Cassandra accepted everything I gave her. Adrian also stopped giving me the cold shoulder and became his usual attentive and affectionate self with me after that.

I thought that the matter was already behind us. But as it turned out, it had all been nothing but a facade after all.

"Did you think that your sorry attempts at making amends could erase what happened?

"If it weren't for you, she wouldn't have become depressed and ended up alone and miserable abroad! Did you even know that she had a severe depressive episode not too long ago and tried to kill herself? She nearly died!

"It's all your fault! You owe her a debt you can never repay!"

Adrian then watched coldly as all the color drained from my face before suddenly letting go of my hair.

When I collapsed to the floor, he tilted my chin up with the tip of his polished leather shoe, deliberately humiliating me.

He spoke each word as though he were determined to crush every bit of my pride. "Do as I say, or your parents will never live to see the light of day again. Take your pick."

I looked at Mom's and Dad's faces on the giant screen, completely twisted in agony, and felt completely engulfed by a tidal wave of despair.

Finally, I broke down and sobbed, "Fine… I'll do it."

Then, I endured the strange, bewildered, and judgmental stares of the wedding guests as I raised my hand and slapped myself across the face, repeatedly saying, "I'm a bitch… I'm a bitch…"

I continued slapping myself on the stage, every last bit of the love I had for Adrian dying.