Chapter 6

Avery's POV

The news of Dylan's amputation utterly crushed me.

I stopped resisting, stopped crying, and simply drifted through the villa like a ghost every day. Ethan thought I had finally become obedient, and his surveillance of me relaxed slightly.

That afternoon, Ethan went to the company. Celeste, carrying a cup of black tea, leisurely walked into my guest room.

Looking at me, staring blankly out the window, Celeste chuckled, her voice filled with triumph. "Avery, your brother is actually quite pathetic. The people who beat him up in prison? I arranged for them."

My eyes moved slightly, and I turned to look at her.

Celeste approached, lowering her voice, her eyes malicious. "And your mom's surgery. That bypass surgery was actually very simple, I could do it with my eyes closed. I just deliberately made my hand tremble. Who told your mom to always belittle me before, thinking I wasn't good enough for Ethan? I just wanted to show her how her proud daughter would be trampled underfoot by me."

"Aren't you afraid Ethan will find out?" My voice was low.

"What if he knows?" Celeste laughed triumphantly. "He'll just think I was wronged. Avery, don't you understand? In Ethan's heart, even if I committed murder, he'd hand me the knife. And you, even your breathing was a mistake."

Celeste finished speaking and left happily.

What she didn't know was that a miniature recording pen had been hidden in my wide sleeve all along. I had forced a maid, through a hunger strike, to secretly buy it for me.

That evening, I seized the opportunity during the maids' shift change and climbed down from the second-floor balcony using a drainpipe. My palms were scraped and bleeding, but I felt no pain.

I ran wildly until I reached the nearest police station to the villa.

"I want to report a crime! I want to accuse Celeste of attempted murder and hiring thugs to injure someone! This is the evidence!" I slammed the recording pen onto the reception desk, as if grasping at my last shred of hope.

The police officer had just taken the recording pen when the police station door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Ethan walked in, his face dark. The atmosphere in the entire station instantly froze.

"Mr. Thorne," the receiving officer immediately stood up and greeted him respectfully, handing him the recording pen. "Ms. Miller says this is evidence for a report."

I lunged to snatch it. "Give it back! That's my evidence!"

Ethan pinned me tightly in one arm, while his other hand toyed with the recording pen. He didn't even press play; he simply threw the recording pen on the ground and crushed it with his polished leather shoe.

With a crunch, my heart shattered into a million pieces along with it.

"Ethan! Why didn't you even listen! She admitted it herself!" I screamed in collapse.

"Listen to what? Your AI-generated fake recording?" Ethan's eyes were cold, full of disappointment.

"Avery, I thought your brother's amputation might make you behave, but I didn't expect you to be so unrepentant, using such disgusting methods to frame Celeste!"

He forcibly dragged me out of the police station and pushed me into his car.

Inside the car, Ethan grabbed my chin. His voice was incredibly cruel.

"Since you love running off so much, I'll completely cut off your hope. I've arranged for a medical charter plane to send your mom to a private sanatorium overseas tonight. You'll never see her again without my permission."

I was shocked, looking at him in disbelief.

Sending my mom overseas was equivalent to holding her hostage forever.

Looking at Ethan's cold face, I suddenly laughed, tears streaming down my face, my body shaking.

I finally understood that in the game rules set by this man, I would never win.

Since there was no way out, I could only choose death.