Chapter 4

Victoria’s face twisted in rage.

"You shameless liar! How dare you curse my son?! Julian is currently at his elite prep boarding school. If you say one more word about him, I’ll ruin you!"

*Slap!*

Victoria’s hand struck my face, hard.

My cheek burned with pain. I stared at her crazed, distorted face. A deep, dark hatred began to bloom in my heart.

The guests immediately took Victoria’s side, mocking me.

"How malicious. She’s so young, yet her mind is so twisted."

"Everyone knows Julian is Victoria's golden boy. This girl has no shame."

"Exactly. If you’re begging for money, have some respect. Cursing her own stepbrother like that? If I were Victoria, I wouldn't give her a dime."

"I always heard the Miller twins were manipulative. Seeing is believing."

My hand trembled as I touched my swollen cheek.

I looked at Victoria, suppressing my rage. "Believe what you want. I drank one bottle. Give me the ten thousand dollars."

Ten thousand dollars was enough to keep Julian in the ICU for two more nights.

In two days, at the Miller Group’s heir announcement gala, the truth would come out anyway.

I held out my hand, staring at her.

But Victoria only looked down at me with disdain and let out a cold laugh.

"You still want money? You cursed my son, and you expect me to pay you?"

"What... what do you mean?" My voice shook. "Are you going back on your word? You're not even going to give me ten thousand?"

"Security, throw her out!" Victoria barked, waving her hand.

Before I could struggle, two massive security guards grabbed my arms and dragged me toward the deck.

I lost all control and screamed at the top of my lungs,

"You evil witch! Karma is coming for you!"

"The gala in two days will be your reckoning! Remember my words, you monster!"

They threw me off the yacht.

Nursing a severe stomach cramp from the alcohol, I rushed back to the hospital.

When Julian saw me, a flicker of hope lit up in his eyes. But when he saw I was alone, his face fell.

"Chloe... where's my mom? Did she not have time to come? Did she just give you the money?"

I shook my head.

Silently, I pulled out my phone and played the video I had secretly recorded—Victoria laughing and drinking at her multi-million dollar yacht party.

Julian stared at the screen, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"No... no, this is a lie. How could she? She’s my mother!"

Julian roared in agony, punching the bed.

"My legs are gone because of her! And she’s out there throwing a party on a yacht?! How can she be my mother?!"

"She didn’t even give you a single dollar for my treatment! Ahhhh!"

Julian screamed, hitting his chest frantically. Ethan and I had to hold him down to stop him from ripping his stitches open.

Under the immense emotional trauma, Julian fainted.

Victoria stayed on the yacht, partying for a whole day and night.

Because Julian had no money for proper post-op care, his wounds began to fester. He woke up in the middle of the night, screaming from the excruciating pain.

Seeing that the hospital was indeed preparing to discharge him, I rushed back to the Miller mansion to steal some of Victoria’s expensive jewelry to sell.

But Thomas, the butler, blocked me at the gates.

"Miss Chloe, Madam Victoria has ordered that you are banned from the estate."

"Thomas, let me in!" I cried out in desperation. "I need to get some jewelry to sell for Julian's pain meds! He had an amputation! He’s in agony!"

But Thomas remained completely unmoved.

"Miss Chloe, I have already called Julian’s boarding school. His advisor said Julian is currently in class. Please stop lying."

Cold sweat poured down my forehead. Julian had always used his wealth to bribe his teachers to cover up his skipping. The school was used to lying for him.

No matter what I said, Thomas refused to let me pass.

Running out of options, I pulled out my phone and sent the video of Julian screaming in agony directly to Victoria’s Snapchat.

In the video, Julian’s legs were cut off up to his thighs, his body thrashing in pain.

On the other end of the screen, Victoria opened the video.

The moment she saw the boy’s face on the hospital bed, her eyes widened in shock. She took a step back, her hands shaking.

"No... this can't be!"

But a second later, her face hardened, and her manicured nails dug into her palms.

"That little bitch Chloe! She thinks she can use a deepfake AI video to fool me?!"

"She wants to trick me into paying for her brother's legs? I won't let her have her way!"

With a sneer, Victoria blocked my Snapchat account.

Her temples throbbed. She instinctively wanted to call Julian’s phone, but she remembered how annoyed he always sounded when she called him during his video games.

She sighed and tried to comfort herself.

"Calling him now will only annoy him. Besides, Thomas just texted me saying Julian is at school."

"Chloe, you little brat. How dare you use my son’s face for your sick deepfakes. I will make you pay at the gala tomorrow."

A malicious smirk appeared on Victoria’s face.

Meanwhile, I had no choice but to return to the hospital empty-handed.

When I arrived, Ethan was already waiting for me at the entrance, pushing Julian in a wheelchair. Julian had fainted again from the pain.

We had no choice but to take him to our cheap, rented room in the slums.

Ever since Victoria kicked us out after high school, Ethan and I had been living in a cramped, moldy studio apartment that cost us $300 a month. If I hadn’t run into Julian’s car crash on my way to my part-time job, he probably would have died on the street.

I looked at Ethan and said seriously,

"Tomorrow is the Miller Group gala. I will go there first and expose everything to the media. You stay here and look after Julian."

"Don't worry. I will take back everything that belongs to us."

"Okay," Ethan nodded, his eyes filled with complex emotions.