It was the seventh year since I’d framed my girlfriend and sent her to prison. On a freezing winter day, I was found in the streets, my legs mangled, my body naked, begging in the pouring rain. The onlookers cheered. “It’s karma! He knocked up Amelia Hayes and refused to take responsibility. Then he ran her over with his car to force a miscarriage.” “Even worse, after tossing her a check for a hundred and fifty grand at the hospital, he turned around and sued her for extortion, getting her locked up.” “About time, though. Amelia should be getting out soon. I heard some big shot from the city’s elite circles is picking her up from prison himself. Probably going to get justice for her.” That night, I was dragged to the outskirts of town. I was forced to watch as my parents’ throats were slit, their blood draining onto the cold ground before my eyes. The next morning, I cradled their lifeless bodies, tears of blood streaming down my face. There were some things I had planned to take to my grave. Now, I regretted that decision. 1 A well-known social justice blogger paid for my parents’ funeral. In return, I finally agreed to let him film me. In front of the camera, my twisted fingers held up my ID. “Hello, everyone. I’m the monster, Laurent Cross. The truth is, there’s more to what happened all those years ago. Today, I’m here to formally report the powerful socialite, Jacob Croft…” As soon as I sent the recorded video and all the evidence to the blogger, I got a message back from him. “Give me three days. I swear I’ll get this video trending. I’ll get you justice.” I clutched my battered old phone, a bitter, helpless smile on my face. Justice didn’t matter anymore. But there was one last thing I needed to tell Amelia. BANG! The iron door of my hovel was kicked open by the local gang leader. Before I could even turn, he grabbed me by the hair and started slapping me, left and right. “Where’s today’s take?” He held out his hand, his face a grotesque mask of menace. A wave of terror washed over me. I curled into a ball on the floor, my head in my hands, trembling and begging for mercy. “Spike, I’m sorry, please don’t hit me. This is all I made today.” My blood ran cold. My numb fingers fumbled in my pockets, finally pulling out all the money I had. A few dimes, some quarters, a couple of dollar bills. All told, it was barely twenty bucks. Ever since I fell into Spike’s hands, my daily quota was five hundred dollars. Anything less earned me a beating. After all these years, I was terrified of him. As expected, Spike was not pleased. The veins on his forehead bulged. He beat me with a wooden stick, then slammed my head to the ground, his knee pressing into my stomach, pinning me down. Then he unzipped his pants and urinated all over my face. The stench was so foul it made me gag. Before he left, he glanced dismissively at my mangled legs. “Never thought the great Laurent Cross, the heir to the Cross fortune, would end up like this. Sacrificing your own legs just to keep Amelia’s parents in that fancy nursing home, becoming my personal beggar.” “Too bad,” he sneered. “You lost your legs for nothing.” I froze, a seed of doubt planting itself in my mind. Before I could process his words, the old man who tended the local cemetery came running in, his face panicked. “That plot of land on the outskirts, the one with the graveyard… it’s been bought out for development! They’re starting construction now! They’ve already dug up your parents’ graves!” My eyes instantly turned red with fury. I ignored the filth and pain, clawing my way out of the shack as fast as I could. My parents were buried in a small, private plot owned by the villagers, where old burial traditions were still honored. By the time I got there, their bodies had been unearthed, dismembered, and tossed carelessly aside. The other graves remained untouched. “Stop! Who are you? Who told you to do this?” My face was ashen with rage. I picked up a rock and hurled it at the still-operating excavator, then pounded my fists against the hard, unforgiving ground. I hated my own powerlessness. I hated the injustice of the world. My parents had been good people their whole lives. They’d never hurt a soul. Why couldn’t they even rest in peace? “I did.” A clear, female voice sounded from behind me. Amelia stood there, looking down at me, her eyes filled with an endless, burning hatred. I stared at her, stunned, my fingernails digging into my palms. The bitter, suffocating feeling in my chest was becoming unbearable. She used to be beautiful like a spring blossom, vibrant yet gentle. Now, her beauty was sharp and cold, like a shard of ice. I knew she was here for revenge. She shot me a venomous glare, then lifted her foot, bringing the four-inch heel of her designer shoe down hard on my twisted, mangled fingers. “Argh!” A searing pain shot through me, turning my face white. My body trembled uncontrollably. I could almost hear the bones in my hand snapping. “Laurent Cross,” she hissed, “you never thought I’d get out, did you? You ran me over, killed my baby, framed me, and threw me in prison, all for your own sick pleasure.” “Today, in front of your parents’ corpses, you’re going to get a taste of what it feels like to be humiliated!” She gave a meaningful look to Jacob Croft, who was standing behind her. Jacob clapped his hands lightly, a wicked smile playing on his lips. Immediately, the construction crew gagged me with a dirty rag and dragged me over to my parents’ bodies. They tore off my clothes and began to whip me, filming the entire thing… “Mmph! Mmph!” Despair and rage consumed me. My eyes, wide with fury, were locked on her as I fought for the last shreds of my dignity. When it was over, I was tossed aside like a piece of trash, left to die. And all I could see were the faces of my parents, their eyes wide open in an eternal, silent scream. “Is that all you can take, Laurent? Do you have any idea what I went through in prison?” “No, you don’t. How could a heartless monster like you, who could even kill his own flesh and blood, possibly understand?” Amelia shrieked, her voice raw with a year’s worth of pent-up hatred. She grabbed a bag of salt and poured it over my open wounds, a cruel, triumphant smile spreading across her face. I was in so much pain my face was completely white. Silent tears streamed from the corners of my eyes. My gaze was empty, dead. “I didn’t… back then… I had no choice…” 2 Back then, my family’s sworn enemy, Jacob Croft, had come for us. He swore that he would destroy everything I held dear. I thought the Cross family was powerful enough to stand against the Crofts. But I never imagined Jacob would forge alliances with the city’s criminal underworld. In just six months, he had completely erased the Cross family name from the city’s elite circles. At the time, Amelia and I were about to have our baby. For her safety, I planned to send her away in the middle of the night. But as soon as we got in the car, I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, someone had already taken my car, impersonated me, and run Amelia down. The fetus was forced out, a bloody, mangled mess. It was a horrifying sight. I knew it was a warning from Jacob. In a moment of cold, desperate clarity, I decided to play along, to let her believe the worst of me so she would hate me and stay away. But I still gave her a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, disguised as a breakup settlement. After that day, Jacob had his men watch me around the clock. I couldn't go anywhere. By the time I was finally released, I learned that Amelia had been charged and sentenced to seven years in prison, based on a complaint that bore my forged signature. By then, the Cross family had lost all its power. All I could do was blame myself. Then, her parents were suddenly poisoned and fell into a vegetative state. Jacob used them as leverage, threatening to have them thrown out of the nursing home unless I did as he said. He forced me to lie down in the middle of the road and let a semi-truck run over my legs. Once wasn’t enough. He made the driver do it again, and again… until my legs were completely severed, a mess of flesh and bone. Only then was he satisfied. He had his men dump me with Spike, to be tortured for the rest of my days. I was terrified. I thought that by keeping the truth from Amelia, I was protecting everyone. But the moment she was released, she was manipulated by Jacob. She murdered my parents in cold blood, and now she was desecrating their graves. I finally realized how terribly wrong I had been. “No choice?” Amelia interrupted me impatiently. “You didn’t have a choice? You’re just scared of my revenge. Well, you just watch. What I have in store for you is far from over.” She pointed at my parents’ corpses, a strange, twisted smile on her cold face. “Watch closely. I’m going to feed your parents’ bodies to the dogs, as an offering to the spirit of my dead child.” “No! You can’t! My parents are innocent! They even…” My eyes widened in terror. Jacob’s eyes flickered. He kicked me hard in the chest, the pain stealing my breath and silencing my words. He shot me a mocking glance, then turned to Amelia with a gentle smile. “Amelia, even if his parents did poison yours… didn’t your mom and dad tell you when they woke up yesterday that I was the one who saved them? Let it go. An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” At his words, Amelia’s eyes reddened. She fell into his arms, her voice choked with emotion. “Jacob, thank you. I see now that you’re the one who’s always been there for me.” My eyes widened in disbelief. Amelia’s parents knew! They knew that my parents had done everything in their power to get them to the hospital after they were poisoned. Why would they lie to her and say Jacob had saved them? Suddenly, Spike’s words from earlier echoed in my mind. A deep sense of unease settled over me. I felt like I was trapped in a meticulously woven web. And I was already like this… why was Jacob still lying to Amelia? What did he want? Then I saw it. The way he looked at her. There was an unmistakable, possessive affection in his eyes. Could it be that he… for Amelia… Realizing the truth, I fought through the sharp pain in my chest and forced the words out. “You’re lying! The ones who saved Amelia’s parents were—” “That’s enough, Laurent!” Jacob cut me off, his voice sharp with annoyance, but still laced with that sickeningly false sincerity. “I’m trying to calm Amelia down. Are you trying to add fuel to the fire?” I couldn’t take it anymore. I started to crawl toward Amelia, desperate to tell her everything. But Jacob stepped in front of me, his foot coming down hard on my shattered hand. “Don’t worry,” he said, his voice a low murmur. “Amelia won’t really do it. Even though you killed her child, she’s not the type to desecrate the bodies of the elderly.” The pain was excruciating. I shoved him with all my might, and he stumbled backward, falling into the pit the excavator had dug earlier. “Jacob!” Amelia cried out, rushing to help him up. Her face was flushed with anger. She glared at me, her voice a low, venomous hiss. “Isn’t it enough that you’ve already ruined my life? Now you’re trying to hurt Jacob, too? You’ll see what happens when you dig your own grave!” She shot me one last, cold look and made a phone call. A sense of dread washed over me. Ten minutes later, a small girl, no older than six or seven, was brought to the site. “Now you can watch,” Amelia said, her voice devoid of emotion, “as your sister dies in front of you.” She gave a signal, and a car sped toward the little girl. “NO!” I screamed, my voice a raw, desperate cry, my vision turning red. The one thing I had wanted to tell her was that this little girl… was our daughter. 3 The fetus that had been forced from her body that day had, by some miracle, survived. To protect her, my family had claimed she was my younger sister. The car struck the child, and she collapsed in a pool of blood, barely breathing. Jacob shot me a look that was a mixture of amusement and contempt, then picked up my daughter and tossed her in the trunk of his car. “Amelia, this one’s on her way out,” he said nonchalantly. “Let’s not let her go to waste. I can use her as a human specimen for my collection.” “Fine,” Amelia agreed without a second thought. She turned and got into the car with him, leaving me behind. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I let out a crazed, desperate roar and started to crawl after them. The sharp gravel on the ground tore at my skin, leaving a bloody trail, but I didn’t dare stop. “Amelia! She’s our daughter!” The news of Amelia’s release from prison had become a media sensation. The tragic story of what had happened seven years ago was dredged up again, and I became a reviled figure, a monster everyone loved to hate. Passersby recognized me on the street, beating and cursing me as I dragged my broken body toward the hospital. By the time I reached the entrance, I was fading in and out of consciousness, my face as white as a sheet. I saw Amelia walk out of the hospital, empty-handed. The unease in my heart spread through my entire body. I forced myself to stay awake, crawling to her feet and looking up at her with what little strength I had left. “Amelia… the child… where is she? What happened back then… it’s not what you think. The truth is…” “Shut up,” she said, her voice cold as ice. “Scared now, are you?” Her eyes, filled with malice, scanned the street and landed on a large, discarded ceramic vat. A dark, sinister idea seemed to take hold of her. The onlookers, following her gaze, understood her intention immediately. A few of the more eager ones pulled off their own filthy socks, stuffed them in my mouth, and lifted me up, dumping me into the vat, leaving only my head exposed. Amelia watched, her face impassive, a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes. “Thank you all for your support,” she said to the crowd, her voice ringing with a newfound confidence. “Things are different now. I have powerful friends. No matter how you choose to humiliate him today, no matter how far you take it, I have the power to clean up any mess.” She gave Jacob a look filled with adoration, then bowed deeply to the crowd. Everyone knew what that meant. With Jacob Croft backing her, they could kill me, and no one would ever be held accountable. “Mmph! Mmph!” All I could think about was my daughter’s safety. I thrashed around in the vat, trying to make any sound I could to get her attention. But she didn’t spare me a single glance. She just turned and got into the car, driving away. Jacob shot me a malicious look, then whispered something to the men who had put me in the vat before getting into the car and following her. That night, they sawed off both of my arms. They filled the vat with snakes and scorpions and other venomous creatures, torturing me for three days and three nights. When I was barely breathing, Jacob appeared. He pulled the gag from my mouth. “Laurent, you really have lost everything, haven’t you? To be destroyed like this by the woman you love.” “I bet you don’t even know,” he continued, a cruel smile on his face. “It was me who knocked you out. It was me who drove your car and ran Amelia over. And it was me who forged your signature to send her to prison.” I had already figured out most of what he was saying. But his next words hit me like a physical blow. “Actually, Amelia’s parents were never poisoned. All it took was a few well-placed words from me, and they were more than happy to play along with my little charade to get revenge on you. The one driving the truck that ran over your legs? That was Amelia’s father. He was just getting even for his little girl.” “And do you know why I sent her to prison, only to be the one to get her out? Because I needed to sever all her ties, to break her completely. Only then, when she was at her most helpless, would she let me in, would she let me control her.” I met his gaze, my own eyes filled with a cold, mocking light. “You can’t fool me, Jacob. You’ve fallen in love with her. You sent her to prison to cut her off from everything she knew, so that when she was at her lowest, she would cling to you like a lifeline.” “If she ever finds out that everything she’s suffered was because of your twisted, obsessive love… do you think she’ll hate you?” My words struck a nerve. For a fleeting moment, I saw panic in his eyes. But he quickly composed himself, his face twisting into a hideous grin. He grabbed my jaw, forcing my mouth open. He raised a small knife and plunged it into my mouth, slicing off my tongue. “Hmph. If you can’t talk, how will she ever know?” A warm, metallic liquid filled my mouth. An unbearable pain consumed me, threatening to swallow me whole. But I held on, clinging to consciousness, desperate to find out what had happened to my daughter. “Jacob? How is he?” Amelia’s voice, filled with concern, came from the end of the alley. Jacob’s body tensed. He quickly tossed the knife aside, wiped the blood from my mouth with the back of his hand, and then clutched his own hand, letting out a pained cry. “Ah!” “Jacob! What’s wrong?” she cried, rushing to his side. Jacob bit his lip, sucking in a sharp breath. “I was just trying to give him something to eat. I guess he’s still angry about his ‘sister.’ He took it out on me… he bit me.” Amelia looked up and saw the blood around my mouth, then looked at the bloody marks on the back of his hand. Her face contorted with rage. I could only shake my head helplessly, silent tears mixing with the blood in my mouth. “Laurent Cross, I’m going to kill you!” she shrieked. She ordered her men to take the vat, with me still inside it, and throw it into the river to drown me. I was terrified. My breath came in ragged gasps. I thrashed against the sides of the vat, my eyes pleading with her. I tried to tell her, with every fiber of my being, that the girl she had run over was our daughter, that this was all Jacob’s sick game. But she ignored my frantic movements. As the vat was submerged, the last thing I heard was her cold, detached voice. “Jacob, that girl is still breathing. But the people at your lab said that for the best vascular specimens, it’s better to use a live subject. I don’t understand any of that, so I’ve already sent her over.” “Thank you, Amelia,” Jacob replied, his voice smooth as silk. “Thank you for putting aside your personal feelings and providing the girl’s body for study. This will be an invaluable contribution to clinical medicine.” In that moment, the last thread of hope that had kept me alive snapped. I closed my eyes in despair and let my consciousness slip away.
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