Chapter 4

"Fine. Go."

I said softly.

He breathed a sigh of relief. As he was leaving, he suddenly remembered something.

He turned back seriously. "Tomorrow afternoon at that auction, you must win that land at any cost. It's our only guarantee for returning to New York. Understand?"

I looked at him expressionlessly.

"Damien Foster is determined to get that land. Have you forgotten what happened when we framed his father Xavier Foster? If I, a woman, outbid him, what do you think will happen to me?"

Back when he disappeared for those two months, I barely escaped from my captors and had nowhere to turn. I went to beg the underground emperor at the time---Xavier Foster.

I knelt at his door for three days and nights before he gave me a chance.

He said he could protect us, but the condition was that we'd give him fifty percent of our company shares and all dividends. And if we didn't make a hundred million in profit within a year, he'd personally deal with us.

A year later, we did it. We even exceeded expectations.

But Ethan started resenting having to split half the profits with Xavier.

So he pulled me into a scheme that sent Xavier to prison.

Where he died from torture.

The year after his death, his son Damien Foster, who'd been studying abroad, returned.

Damien was even more ruthless than his father. He abandoned everything from the underworld and started legitimate businesses from scratch.

In just two years, his empire spread across Las Vegas.

He publicly vowed to avenge his father, to destroy Ethan's reputation, to make him fall back to rock bottom.

But now Ethan was asking me to face such a ruthless enemy alone.

I laughed bitterly. "Ethan, I could die. Don't you care at all?"

He just waved his hand dismissively.

"You've done this kind of thing for me many times over the years, and you've always pulled through. I trust you. This time will be no different."

His words were like an icy blade, shredding my last bit of hope.

The next morning, I'd just changed and was about to leave.

My phone received a message from an unknown number.

I opened it. On the screen was a marriage certificate.

The names were crystal clear. Ethan Chase. Sophia Hayes.

Followed by a text message.

"Lily, I know you've done a lot for him, but we truly love each other, and we have a child together. Please don't interfere with us anymore. Please leave him."

The words "family of three" stabbed at my heart.

I bit my lip hard to keep tears from falling.

With trembling fingers, I replied.

"Okay."

That afternoon, at the auction.

The land started at ten million dollars.

I kept raising my paddle.

But in the end, I lost, letting Damien Foster win the land for eighty million dollars.

After leaving the auction, I called Ethan to tell the result.

He immediately started berating me.

"Lily Lynn! Since when did you become such a coward? Afraid of Damien's revenge, so you hand over our only hope of returning to New York? You've disappointed me!"

Before I could speak, two large bodyguards suddenly appeared behind me and forcibly shoved me into a black SUV.

I was taken to the rooftop of an abandoned building.

I immediately saw Damien Foster sitting in a chair.

He took my phone and video-called Ethan.