Chapter 5

Sienna Shaw POV

After Sebastian left, I lay in the hospital bed.

I thought I could wait for his plan. I thought I could leave this place safely.

But the next morning, the phone screen on my bedside table suddenly lit up.

It was a short video from an unknown number.

I tapped it open.

In the video, an excavator was smashing into the red-brick villa. The walls collapsed with a deafening crash. That was the memorial hall my father had protected his entire life.

In the lower right corner of the video, a marble-pale wrist looped around Lucas’s arm appeared. It belonged to Serena.

Then a text message popped up.

[How pitiful. The home you treasured so much is gone.]

My mind buzzed.

I didn’t care about the IV needle in the back of my hand. I yanked hard, ripping it out.

Blood instantly gushed from the back of my hand and dripped onto my hospital gown.

I didn’t even put on shoes. Barefoot, I ran out of the hospital.

By the time I stumbled to the entrance of the old building, most of the memorial hall had already collapsed. Only the last red-brick wall with an archway stood alone in the ruins.

I rushed inside like a madwoman, but two security guards grabbed me and pinned me down in the pile of rubble.

“Let go of me! Let go!”

Sharp, jagged stones tore open both my knees. Blood soon soaked through my hospital gown.

Lucas stood not far away in a black suit, holding a black umbrella.

Serena clung to his arm, covering her mouth as she laughed softly.

Pinned down by the guards, I desperately raised my head and stared hard at Lucas.

“Lucas Lawson! Tell them to stop! That’s the only thing my dad left behind! He didn’t plagiarize! He was framed!”

Lucas slowly walked over and stopped two steps away from me.

Mud splattered his leather shoes. He frowned slightly, then crouched down gently and pried my fingers, one by one, from the cuff of his pants.

“Sienna, the ground is dirty. Let’s get you up first, okay?”

He brushed the mud and grit from my shoulder. His voice was still gentle, but his eyes were utterly cold.

I knelt on both knees in the pile of rubble and slammed my forehead hard against the sharp stones.

“I’m begging you! Lucas, I’m begging you!”

With no dignity left, I kowtowed to him. “Tell them to stop! My dad’s paintbrushes are inside, and his photos… please.”

My forehead struck the broken stones. In an instant, it split open, blood pouring down. Blood mixed with mud and smeared across my entire face.

Lucas stood above me with the umbrella, looking down at the sight of me covered in blood. A flicker of disgust crossed his eyes.

“Sienna, stop making a scene. You look like a lunatic.”

Lucas’s voice remained gentle, yet it was so cold it held no warmth at all. “Your dad is already dead. What’s the use of keeping these things?”

Serena giggled beside him. “Exactly, Sienna. Even if you keep them, you can’t protect them.”

My nails dug deep into the cracks between the stones, leaving my fingers bloody and mangled.

Seeing the steel claw about to come down again, I completely broke down. I crawled on my knees to Lucas’s feet, clutched his calf tightly, and sobbed until my heart felt torn apart.

“I’ll sign the agreement! I don’t want anything anymore! I’ll give it all to Serena! Please… don’t let the big truck move… I’m begging you…”

Lucas looked down at me. At last, satisfaction appeared in his eyes.

He bent down and used a silk handkerchief to wipe the blood from my forehead. “Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d behaved this well from the start? Sign it, and I’ll leave you something to remember it by.”

He shoved an inheritance waiver and a pen into my bleeding palm.

My hand trembled uncontrollably.

Blood seeping from the cracked nails of my right hand dragged a vivid red streak across the signature line.

I thought that as long as I lowered myself into the mud, I could preserve the last thing my father had left behind.

Trembling, I handed the agreement over.

Lucas took it. After confirming the signature was correct, he stuffed it into his secretary’s arms.

His tone carried a practiced indulgence. “Good girl.”

But the next second, he stood up. Without even looking at that red wall, he calmly ordered the foreman behind him, “This place is a safety hazard. Keep demolishing it.”

My pupils suddenly contracted, and a piercing sound tore from my throat. “Lucas Lawson—!”

“Boom!” The steel claw crashed down before my eyes, and the final red-brick archway instantly shattered into ruins.

With his arm around Serena, Lucas turned and got into the black car parked by the road.

The car started and sped away in a cloud of dust, splashing muddy water hard across my hospital gown.

I collapsed into the muddy water and stared at the broken bricks scattered before me, my eyes bloodshot.

Inch by inch, I crawled over. With my bleeding right hand, I clutched a cracked red brick tightly.

I pressed my face against the cold brick, as if I were holding my father’s once-warm hand.

I remembered the way my father used to hold my hand and teach me to write.

I remembered the last “I’m sorry” he said to me before he jumped from the building.

Now it was all gone.

Holding that brick, tears fell from my eyes in huge drops.

I lay amid the rubble. Then, hysterically, I began to laugh.

“Lucas Lawson, you’re so cruel!”