Chapter 4

Bradley wasn't the least bit afraid. Right in front of Sierra, he gave Harvey a hard kick.

Harvey hadn't seen it coming, and he fell to the floor in a pathetic heap. His eyes were watering from the pain as he cried out, "Ouch, that hurts! Bradley, how could you do this to me?"

Bradley cut him off sharply, "Stop putting on this fake act! Harvey, do you have the guts to repeat what you just said?"

"That's enough, Bradley!" Sierra rushed over and helped Harvey up, her face full of worry.

Then she turned to Bradley, and her voice was bone-chillingly cold. "So he stopped them from refrigerating her body. Is something that small really worth all this yelling?"

Hearing the woman's dismissive tone, Bradley stared at her in disbelief, his voice trembling at the end. "...You knew about this, too?"

Sierra replied, "He asked for my opinion. I thought it was sweet of him. He knew you were short on cash, so he took care of it for you."

Her voice was cool and mocking as she added, "Besides, Mrs. Jaeger grew up in the countryside. People should know their place, even in death. You should have had enough sense to understand that."

Stunned and humiliated, Bradley felt a painful lump in his throat, as sharp as a blade cutting him open. He shook his head over and over, his voice going cold with every single word. "Sierra, how could you disrespect my mom like that..."

Before he could even finish speaking, Bradley let out a hopeless laugh. The truth was, Sierra had always been like this. In all the time they had known each other, she had never once visited Kristey. When Kristey offered to come see her, Sierra claimed she was too busy, and she hadn't even saved his mother a seat at their wedding.

He'd spent so long fooling himself that the moment reality came crashing down, it tore him to pieces.

"That's just the way it is." Her eyes were icy and unreadable. "But that's no excuse for picking on Harvey, Bradley. Apologize to Harvey."

Bradley grabbed the vase on the table and smashed it hard against the floor. Glass shattered everywhere, and a few shards cut into his leg, but he didn't even feel the pain. He lifted his head and spoke slowly and clearly.

"Sierra, in your dreams."

Sierra simply looked at him, unbothered. Her icy stare landed on his backpack as she asked, "I'm guessing your mom's ashes are in that bag? Do you really want to risk disturbing her peace even after death?"

Bradley froze, and a chill ran through him.

There was a moment of dead silence before Sierra coldly called for her bodyguards, making it clear that her patience had run out.

"...I'm sorry." Bradley lowered his unbearably heavy head, his voice hoarse. "Mr. Goldstein, I'm sorry."

"Is a verbal apology all you're going to offer?" Sierra asked flatly.

So Bradley bent forward and bowed. It was just like all the other times when, over some tiny mistake, she had dragged him up in front of company-wide meetings to publicly admit his faults while the employees in the audience looked at him with pity.

"I'm sorry. I was wrong."

As he lowered his head as far as it could go, a single cold tear slipped silently from the corner of his eye.