Chapter 2
The female assistant blocked my path with a cold sneer.
“What, are you planning to restrict my freedom now?” I asked sarcastically, narrowing my eyes at her.
“Freedom?” She let out a sharp laugh. “You’re talking to me about freedom? In this capital?”
“Let me tell you something, dear,” she added. “Here in the capital, even the air you breathe belongs to the Armitages!”
While her arrogant grin stretched to her face, mine darkened.
All these years, I’d devoted myself wholeheartedly to the country in that classified facility. Tc compensate for my sacrifices, the higher-ups had clearly supported Sylvan quietly.
But I never expected that support to breed this kind of unhinged entitlement!
Suddenly, my daughter broke free from my hand and dropped to her knees in front of her dad’s assistant.
She begged, “Please, Aunt Sage-just let this lady go. She doesn’t even know you or my dad. She didn’t mean to offend you. I-I’ll apologize on her behalf.”
The moment I saw that, tears surged down my face.
This was my precious daughter-the one I dreamed about every night, whose photo I kept close to my chest just to fall asleep in peace!
And now, she was kneeling in front of that bitch and the young boy!
How much had I owed her in these past six years?
Sage curled her lip, clearly unimpressed and about to say something when the young boy holding her hand suddenly rolled his eyes and chimed in.
‘You want to apologize for that lady? Fine. Then clean off the toy you knocked to the ground earlier. If you get it spotless, I’ll let her go.”
‘Yes, yes!” my daughter agreed without hesitation. “I’ll clean it right away!”
She quickly picked up the plane toy. It looked expensive, probably costing more than a month’s salary.
But then the boy added, “But no water allowed. I want you to lick it clean. Every inch.”
My daughter’s face turned pale. She blurted out, “Jethro, I… I’m your sister! How could you ask
me to do that?”
Jethro scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself, Estelle. You’re nothing but the child Dad had with a woman long dead. I’m the only real child of Mom and Dad. Are you gonna lick it or not? If you don’t, then don’t blame me for what happens next.”
“I’ll do it!” Estelle said in pained resignation.
She looked at me, then turned back, tears streaming down her face as she stuck out her tongue and lowered it toward the dust-covered plane.
Just as her tongue was about to touch it, I snatched the toy from her hands and slammed it to
the ground.
“You people have gone too far!” I yelled.
I could barely breathe from the pain in my chest, my eyes bloodshot as I glared at the assistant and the boy.
I never imagined that Sylvan would already be married and have a child with another woman while he was still legally my husband.
What I couldn’t have imagined even more was that their child would humiliate my daughter like
this!
‘Even if you’ve moved on, Sylvan-how could you treat Estelle like this?’ I imagined complaining to him.
“You… you smashed my plane?”
Jethro froze, his small face twisted into something far too cruel for someone his age.
He demanded, “Sage! I want her to pay for my toy-with her life!”
‘Bitch!” Sage exploded. “You must be in a real hurry to die, daring to offend the young heir like that!”
‘Where the hell is security?” she roared. “Didn’t you see them offending Sir Jethro? What are you all doing, playing dead?!”
The security lurking nearby exchanged glances before closing in on me.
‘Beat her! Beat her hard! I don’t care if you kill her-it’ll be on me,” Sage barked.
barely managed to fend off two of them before another struck me hard across the back with a baton, sending me crashing to the ground.
The rest piled on, kicking and hitting me relentlessly.
The surrounding crowd looked on but not a single person dared step in. They all just shook their heads and sighed.
‘Poor woman. Must have a death wish-of all people to mess with, she chose Jethro, that little devil.”
