Mr. Smith stood still as the taxi disappeared into the darkness, its taillights fading like a dying fla. A slow, satisfied smile spread across his face, one that carried both triumph and malice.
"Oh, Lena... Lena, Lena, Lena," he muttered under his breath, almost affectionately, yet laced with venom.
"You thought Mr. Black would protect you forever? Still the sa weak little girl." He let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. "Just a little pretense from , and you co running back, searching for daddy’s love."
He laughed again, louder this ti, the sound echoing faintly in the empty street.
"This ti around, my plan actually worked. Like I always say, patience is a virtue."
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number from mory. The call connected almost imdiately, as if the other party had been waiting.
"It is done," Mr. Smith said coldly. "She will be delivered at the agreed location tonight. I want the balance of the money we agreed on before the end of tonight. I will be leaving Vegas City tonight."
He didn’t wait for a response before ending the call.
To him, the conversation was nothing more than a transaction, simple, clean, and final.
Afterward, he glanced around cautiously, scanning the quiet street to ensure no one had overheard him.
Satisfied, he stepped into another taxi and instructed the driver to take him to the airport.
He checked into a hotel close to the airport and stayed the night, his mind unusually calm. By morning, he boarded the earliest flight and left Vegas behind without a second thought.
When he finally arrived ho at his new house, he was t by two familiar faces waiting in the living room, Selena and Ashley.
The mont he stepped inside, Selena rose to her feet, her eyes filled with anticipation.
"How was it? Did it go well?" she asked quickly, unable to hide her eagerness.
Ashley remained silent, standing off to the side. Her expression was stiff, her body tense. Even now, she still felt uncomfortable calling him "father." The word felt foreign on her tongue, like it didn’t belong to her.
Everything had changed just a few weeks ago.
The mory still burned vividly in her mind.
It had started the day she saw the photos, Raymond and Lena, smiling together, circulating all over the internet. The sight had sent sothing inside her snapping.
She couldn’t bear it.
Back when she was in York City, she had at least been close enough to interfere, to sche, to attack Lena directly and find ways to bring her down. But now...
Now Lena was in Vegas City, living a peaceful, perfect life.
And her?
Look at what she had beco.
Holess.
Broken.
Used.
She had been molested, beaten almost to death, and abandoned like trash. Evans, the man she thought she could rely on, had turned his back on her completely, calling her nothing but "bad luck." Even her so-called friends, Freya and Jas, had deserted her without hesitation.
The bitterness had consud her.
"Why does she get to live a good life while I remain stuck here with nothing?" she had scread that day, her voice cracking under the weight of her pain.
Unable to take it any longer, she had stord out, determined to go to Vegas City and confront Lena herself.
But Mr. Smith and Selena had stopped her.
She rembered that mont clearly.
"Where are you heading to?" Mr. Smith had asked, his tone sharp and suspicious.
"I’m traveling to Vegas City to confront Lena," Ashley replied, her chin lifted defiantly, her hands clenched over her chest.
"You fool," he snapped imdiately, his eyes reddening with anger. "Sotis I wonder how I birthed such a nuisance... such a failure."
His words had struck her like a slap.
"You had Lena all to yourself. Your only job was to manipulate her into signing that contract with Evans so we could take over his company. But you made a ss of everything! And even now, you still lack the basic skill of survival."
He stepped closer, his gaze cold and unforgiving.
"After everything Mr. Black did to you, you still don’t understand the kind of person he is? The last incident was a warning. If you try him again, he will kill you. And if that’s what you want, don’t drag and your mother into it."
Ashley barely heard the rest of what he said.
One sentence echoed repeatedly in her mind.
How I birthed...
Her heart skipped.
Her entire body froze.
She turned slowly to look at Selena, her eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.
"Is it true?" she asked softly, her voice trembling.
Selena lowered her gaze, unable to et her daughter’s eyes.
Then she nodded.
Ashley felt the ground shift beneath her feet.
"Why?" she whispered, her voice growing stronger with each word. "Why did you keep it from all these years?"
Her emotions began to spill over.
"You made believe Mr. Smith didn’t know I was your daughter. You told the only way for him to acknowledge was to deal with Lena. You had grood from a young age, making believe Lena took everything from ... that if I got her out of the way, I could finally have a father."
Her voice broke, but she didn’t stop.
"You both lied to . All these years, I lived with Mr. Smith, doing everything he asked because I thought I was indebted to him for letting stay. But it was all a lie!"
Tears stread down her face as she looked between them.
"Why did you do this? Why treat like an outsider when you were both my parents? Do you know how hard it was... being in that orphanage?"
"Oh, please," Mr. Smith interrupted dismissively, waving his hand as if her pain ant nothing. "We did everything so you could have a better life. Don’t make it sound like we abandoned you."
"Did you not abandon ?" Ashley scread, her voice filled with raw anguish. "All this ti, I thought my mother couldn’t acknowledge because you didn’t know I existed. But you did.
You both did, and you chose to keep it from !"
Selena stepped forward, her voice calm but firm.
"It’s not like that, Ashley. We had our reasons for everything we did," she said. "In fact... it is because of you that we ventured down this path."
Ashley let out a bitter laugh.
"Oh, please. Don’t bla for this," she shot back. "You both chose to abandon , not the other way around."
She turned her face away, tears falling freely.
"You will never understand what we had to do to give you the life you have today," Selena said quietly.
"What life?" Ashley cried, turning back to her. "I’m holess! The man I love wants nothing to do with because I was violated. And you, both of you, you caused everything! You could have protected , but you chose not to!"
Her voice broke into sobs.
Selena’s expression hardened slightly, though her tone remained controlled.
"Your father and I have a plan," she said. "But first, you must listen, and you must promise not to disrupt it."
Ashley didn’t respond imdiately, her chest rising and falling with uneven breaths.
"Do you think we would let Lena go after coming this far?" Selena continued, her voice now laced with quiet anger. "Do you think we would forgive them for what they did to you?"
She stepped closer, placing a hand on Ashley’s shoulder.
"You are my daughter. It is only right that I seek revenge on those who hurt you."
Ashley slowly lifted her gaze to et her mother’s.
"All we ask is that you let us handle it," Selena added softly. "You’ve done enough."
Ashley said nothing, but the storm in her eyes had not cald.
"You will really take revenge for ?" Ashley asked, her voice filled with fragile hope, her eyes searching their faces for reassurance.
"Yes, of course we will," Selena replied smoothly, her lips curving into a calm, almost reassuring smile. She turned slightly toward her husband.
"Won’t we, Magnus?"
"Of course we will," Mr. Smith responded curtly, his tone flat and without emotion.
To him, this so-called daughter ant nothing.
Ashley was nothing more than a mistake, an inconvenience that had disrupted the carefully laid plans he and Selena once had for their lives. If it had been up to him, she would never have existed. But Selena cared, and for that reason alone, he tolerated Ashley. He played his part when necessary, wore the mask of a father when it suited him, but nothing more.
"Good. Now co," Selena said gently, extending her hand toward Ashley.
Ashley hesitated for only a brief mont before stepping forward and taking it. Despite everything, she had always shared a closer bond with her mother.
Their relationship had not been perfect, far from it, but Selena had been the only constant presence in her life, even if that presence had been distant and complicated.
Selena guided her to sit beside her.
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