8 Chapter 8
Caspian was consumed by rage. He could no longer hold back his fury. He gave the guards a look.
They grabbed Jennifer’s arms and held her down.
His expression was grim. “I’m asking you one last time. Where is
“He’s dead.”
my brother?”
Caspian slapped Jennifer again. This time, the force of the blow made her spit out blood.
Jennifer dropped all pretense. “Caspian Hawthorne, are you even a man? You’re thirty, and that kid was only seven. How could he possibly be your brother? Why did you lie? Why are you being so cruel to me?”
“You stubborn woman!” Caspian kicked her to the ground. He took out his phone and pulled up a family photo. “Look closely. This is my mother. And this is my brother.”
In the photo, my husband Logan and I were standing close together, with Caspian and Leo by our side.
It was only then that a look of terror appeared on Jennifer’s face.
As the guards dragged her away, she trembled and screamed, “Caspian, I’m sorry! Please forgive me! I didn’t know she was your mother. Mrs. Hawthorne, I was wrong! Please forgive me…” Her voice faded into the distance.
I turned my head away. I felt no joy in seeing her punished. I had survived with scars all over my body, but I had lost Leo forever.
My husband, Logan, returned that night. His expression was stern, but he didn’t ask me any questions.
Caspian must have told him everything.
“Darling, don’t worry. I’ll make her pay.”
Jennifer was fired, but that was far from the end of her punishment.
In his youth, Logan was known on Wall Street for his ruthless tactics.
Caspian, despite his gentle demeanor, had inherited his father’s ruthless nature.
Together, the father and son would become Jennifer’s worst nightmare.
On the day I was discharged from the hospital, Jennifer appeared before me. She looked unharmed, but she was trembling uncontrollably. She knelt before me, her head bowed so low it
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8 Chapter 8
almost touched my shoes.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Hawthorne. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I’ve been punished. I’m begging you, I can’t take it anymore.”
“Where’s your brother?” I asked suddenly.
Jennifer paused, surprised. “In jail.”
I sneered. “He’s still alive. Why should I forgive you?”
Someone had sent me a video. In it, Jennifer was naked, kneeling on the floor, slapping herself. As she hit herself, she said, “I’m a bitch! I’m a slut! I deserve to die!”
I didn’t have to ask to know it was Caspian’s doing. Even so, how could that be enough to appease Leo’s spirit?
I transferred a sum of money to someone.
The next day, Deacon was released from jail.
Then, someone approached him, luring him into an underground high–stakes Texas Hold’em game organized by the Russian mafia, letting him win at first.
Slowly, he won hundreds of thousands, then millions.
He thought he was the chosen one, destined to win forever. Just as he was truly hooked, he started to lose.
To win back his losses, he sold his Jennifer for cash.
ar, his house, and even the gifts Caspian had once given
Jennifer knew nothing about this. She was busy trying to please Caspian.
She let Caspian beat and curs 2
her, endured my curses, and dealt with the fallout of her
indecent photos being spread online.
Even after all that, she still believed that if she could just win back Caspian’s affection, he would solve all her problems.
I didn’t shatter her illusion. Instead, I just
Watched as she walked step by step into the trap Logan had set for her. I even told Caspian to be a little nicer to her. I wanted to lift her higher, so she would fall harder.
I needed revenge for Leo’s death.
Deacon’s gambling debts snowballed.
When he could no longer hide what he had done, he sold Jennifer to the brutal Russian oligarch. The day the casino’s men came to collect her, Jennifer called Caspian, begging him to save her.
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Unfortunately, I was the one who answered the phone. “Caspian isn’t going to save you. You see, this was our family’s plan all along. You’re a murderer. Keeping you in prison would be too
lenient.”
Jennifer screamed hysterically, but I hung up, cutting off her last lifeline.
I looked at Caspian, who was standing in front of me. “Do you blame me?”
Caspian shook his head, his jaw clenched. “If you hadn’t wanted to get your own revenge, I would have had her ground to dust.”
I nodded in satisfaction. At least he wasn’t so blinded by love that he had forgotten Leo.
Later, I heard that Jennifer was beaten and starved at the oligarch’s place. She wasn’t allowed to wear clothes and was dúnked in cold water every day. Eventually, she gave in and agreed to become a “gift” for the oligarch’s business partners.
After the first time, it became easier for her.
It was at that moment that Logan made an anonymous tip to the FBI about the oligarch’s illegal activities.
She was a murderer, and now she was part of a human trafficking ring. Either of those charges was enough to put her away for life.
Logan even hired the best legal team in the country for her, not to get her acquitted, but to ensure that every charge stuck, sentencing her to life in prison without the possibility of parole. I want her to spend the rest of her life rotting in that hellish prison, repenting for my dead Leo.
