Chapter 5

I had just gathered the items and documents I needed and was just about to leave when Aurora suddenly appeared before me.

With Brian nowhere in sight, she dropped all pretense and sneered at me.

"You really are a useless piece of shit. It's one thing to always lose out to his first love, but now, you can't even measure up to a replacement stand-in like me.

"Your daughter's also dead now, so you don't even have the last bargaining chip left to vie for his affection anymore.

"By the way, did you know that I wrecked your daughter's face on purpose? She looked too much like you, and I loathe you with every inch of my body."

I clenched my fists as my breathing grew ragged.

Just then, the sound of footsteps drew near, and Aurora suddenly slapped the urn in my arms onto the floor, spilling Joy's ashes on the ground. I couldn't hold back anymore and delivered a fierce kick that sent her tumbling down the steps.

When Brian arrived, he saw Aurora lying at the foot of the steps, screaming in pain—even though it was only a drop of two steps that could have been covered in a single stride.

But Aurora writhed on the ground as if she'd fallen from a building dozens of floors up. She even slammed her head against the railing so that blood would seep out from her forehead.

Brian cried out in shock and hurriedly went over to help her up. Aurora immediately clutched his hand and played the victim.

"It's all my fault for exposing Mrs. Harrell's lies one after another. She lashed out in a fit of rage and pushed me down the stairs. It's okay, though. I don't blame her for what she did to me."

Brian cradled Aurora's injured face in his hands, his anger flaring up at once.

"Charis Olsen! You've caused us enough trouble, and I never punished you for any of it! And now, you actually dare to resort to violence? Did you know that you could have killed someone by pushing them down the stairs?"

I gathered Joy's ashes on the floor bit by bit, glaring at him and saying, "Do you even know what Aurora did? She caused Joy's death, abused her corpse, and even scattered her ashes all over the floor!"

Upon hearing this, Brian flew into another rage. He yelled, "Joy is alive and well! How dare you keep painting her as dead just to cover up for your crimes?

"I don't care anymore. God himself can try to intervene today, but that will still not stop me from making you face your punishment for everything you've done!

"Guards! Tie her up and hang her off the back of the helicopter! We'll see if she's brave enough to face certain death if she's brave enough to try and commit murder!"

I was already diagnosed with terminal cancer anyway, and I wasn't afraid of death anymore. I just glared angrily at him in response.

Brian grew even more agitated at my challenging stare and kicked the pile of ashes I'd painstakingly gathered on the floor again, scattering them everywhere.

I let out a devastated roar, but I couldn't escape the iron grip that the bodyguards had on me. They wound a thick hemp rope around my body and suspended me from the tail of the helicopter.

After tightening the rope, Brian softened his tone with me and said to me with a sigh, "You'd better learn your lesson this time. Stop making trouble for everyone so that we can all live a good, happy, peaceful life together, okay?

"And remember to bring Joy home later on. It must be uncomfortable for her to be staying with a classmate or living under someone else's roof where you're hiding her."

In the end, he even smoothed out my disheveled hair and signaled for the helicopter to take off.

The helicopter lifted off the ground with a loud, deafening roar.

As my body swung through the air, I coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, but Brian didn't know that I was throwing up blood.

He let out another long sigh and saw me retch and just signaled to his assistant, Wendy Hubbard. "Bring Joy back ahead of time. Let's surprise her later."

Wendy shuddered hard as she stammered, "B-But Mr. Harrell, Ms. Harrell is already dead, and you let Dr. Bradley dissect her body at the hospital just now. Her ashes are at home, but they're spilled all over the floor now. Should I go and collect them and place them into a new urn?"

Brian's eyes widened in shock when he heard this. He was about to exclaim in disbelief when, high above him, the rope binding me to the helicopter snapped cleanly in two.

As I plummeted rapidly to the ground, I realized I felt no fear. In fact, I just laughed.

I was going to be reunited with Joy very soon. In our next life, and the one after that, we would never have anything to do with Brian again.

There was a loud, sickening crash, and my body slammed into the ground just a short distance away from Brian.

His stunned face was splattered with bright red blood.