Chapter 1
After my father died, the illegitimate daughter he had hidden overseas, Annabelle, rushed back to fight me for the family
estate.
I was the only daughter of his lawful wife, and I had the will in my hands.
Yet I still couldn’t keep the family estate.
Because my fiancé, Alexander, the man who had influence over all of Ravenhill, stubbornly sided with the illegitimate daughter against me.
He stood protectively in front of her wheelchair and said impatiently,
“I gave you enough money to buy several estates like this. Do you really have no compassion? Why are you fighting a
disabled person for it?”
My voice trembled with disbelief as I tried to defend myself.
“Fighting? That estate is the only thing my mother left me!”
In the end, Alexander helped Annabelle win the lawsuit.
Afterward, he looked at me with guilt in his eyes as I sobbed, my eyes red and swollen.
“Vivienne, I’ll make it up to you someday.”
But I knew there would be no ‘someday’ for us.
***
“Another five million, that’s my final offer. Just hand over the estate to Annabelle.”
“She was in a car accident abroad. She’ll be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Just think of it as pitying
someone disabled.”
Alexander’s casual tone nearly drove me insane.
“Don’t even think about it. That house was my mother’s dowry!” I snapped.
“Her mother was just a maid in our house back then,” I continued, my voice cracking. “She seduced my father while my mother was pregnant with me. Then she had the audacity to flaunt her pregnancy in front of my mother, who was so furious she went into early labor and died from massive bleeding after giving birth to me.”
“You want me to pity her? Then who’s going to feel sorry for my mother and me?”
Faced with my hysterical accusations, Alexander took off his gold-rimmed glasses and rubbed the space between his
brows. He looked at me with growing impatience.
“Vivienne, stop making a scene. I’ll add another twenty million. That should be more than enough to buy several homes like this. Now are you satisfied?”
“Come on, sign the transfer agreement.”
I stared at the person in front of me in disbelief, tears falling uncontrollably from the corners of my eyes.
Chapter 1
12.50%
“Alexander, I’m your fiancée! Even if you won’t help me, how could you turn around and help her?”
“Is this the love you spoke of so sincerely when you proposed to me?”
He hesitated, guilt flashing briefly in his eyes.
After a long silence, he softened his tone.
“I just feel sorry for her.”
“Vivienne, as long as you sign this, I promise I’ll protect only you from now on.”
He slid the contract in front of me again.
Without hesitation, I tore the agreement into pieces and hurled them in his face.
“Forget it. I’m not signing anything.”
“If you plan to keep siding with Annabelle in court tomorrow, then I’ll see you there.”
I grabbed my bag and stood up to leave.
His warning echoed behind me.
“Vivienne, don’t push me.”
My steps faltered.
But I walked away anyway, even more determined.
Suddenly, there was a scuffling noise behind me, something alive being forcefully dragged out.
A sharp, familiar bark broke through the air.
My heart sank. I turned around, and when I saw what was happening, I lost it.
“You’re insane!”
“You’re threatening me with Bobo?!”
Bobo was the dog Alexander and I had raised together for five years. He was like family, like our child.
Now he was chained tightly, his paws restrained by two tall, strong bodyguards who pinned him to the ground while a vet stood nearby, holding a sharp syringe.
All it would take was a single word from Alexander, and the euthanasia drug would be injected into Bobo’s body.
Alexander sighed deeply and looked at me with feigned helplessness.
“Vivienne, you forced me into this.”
“I had a second copy of the contract prepared. Sign it.”
“You have three minutes. Whether Bobo lives or dies… that’s up to you.”
Seeing Bobo being restrained pushed me to the brink of collapse.
1 lunged forward and grabbed Alexander’s sleeve sobbing.
“Alexander, that’s Bobo. We adopted him together. How could you even think of hurting him? He’s ten years old now. He’s too old, too fragile. He won’t survive this. He’ll die!”
But my tears stirred not even a hint of sympathy in his eyes.
He glanced at his watch and said coldly,
“You have two minutes left. Do you want the family estate, or the dog?”
Bobo’s body was already too weak.
He struggled violently at first, panting hard with his tongue out, his cries sharp and pained. But the guards only pressed him down harder until his whimpers faded.
He couldn’t speak. He could only whimper and beg me with his eyes.
His tail, which once wagged with excitement, now hung limp on the ground. His eyes were barely open, filled with pain and pleading as he stared at me.
Even one more look at him made my heart feel like it was being torn to pieces.
But the family estate… it was the only thing my mother left behind.
How could I bear to hand it over to the illegitimate daughter who helped cause her death? How could my mother rest in
peace if I did?
“Vivienne, you’ve got one minute left.”
I lost all sense of dignity and grabbed his arm, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes, pleading.
“Alexander, I’m begging you. Let Bobo go.”
“This is between us. Why do you have to drag Bobo into this? When he was a puppy and nearly died from parvo, you were
the one who cried with red eyes holding him. You cared about him then. How can you be so cruel now?”
“Give him back to me. Can’t you see he’s barely hanging on? Please, I’m begging you.”
Alexander said nothing. He just stared at his watch and began to count down indifferently.
“Ten seconds.”
“Five.”
“Doctor, go ahead…”
The syringe was lifted high. Bobo lay on the ground, barely breathing.
At that moment, I finally saw how cruel Alexander truly was.
I collapsed, broken, and screamed through my tears.
“Fine. You win. I’ll do it.”
