Amber lifted the weapon reverently, testing its weight in her hands. Her smile turned predatory as she aimed it at an imaginary
target across the room.
“I love it! It’s perfect.”
1/3
3
+15 BONUS
The housekeeper approached at that moment, seeming to suppress something as he spoke: “Sir, isn’t it time to release Miss
Scarlett from the fire house?”
My father frowned with displeasure: “Edward, you’re being unusually talkative today.”
“Sir, today is the tenth day. The fire house is so hot, no person could endure it for this long.”
Yesterday’s smell had led the housekeeper to guess the truth. He must be tormented inside, knowing that just a few hundred
yards away lay a decomposing corpse. Imagine how sickening that knowledge must be.
“Yes, Dad,” Amber chimed in. “Scarlett must have reflected on her mistakes by now. Please let her out.”
Hearing Amber’s words, my father’s expression softened immediately. “Very well, if that’s what you want.”
He turned back to Edward, his tone dismissive. “When she comes out, inform her that I’ve canceled her cards. She can get a job
and earn her own money from now on. I don’t have room in this house for such a cruel daughter.”
How laughable. Truly ridiculous.
Everything he now possessed–the mansion, the pack position, the business empire–had come from my mother’s family
connections and inheritance.
Strip away his identity as a father, and he was nothing but an ungrateful man who had married up, then betrayed his wife’s
memory before her body was even cold.
Now he had added another identity: murderer.
Given the command, the housekeeper immediately led several servants to the fire house.
After fermenting overnight, the stench of death was even more pronounced, making the entire area unbearable.
Everyone covered their noses. Some even started vomiting on the spot.
“What is that smell? It’s horrific!”
“Did someone die in there?”
My father and Elise, with Amber between them, walked at the rear of the group. Even they wrinkled their noses at the stench. But seeing the servants‘ undignified reactions, my father’s sense of superiority kicked in.
“What’s all this noise about? Is this how you behave?”
“It must be Scarlett’s smell. In this heat, locked up for ten days–of course it stinks! After you get her out, have this place cleaned
thoroughly. I can’t stand looking at it.”
“Hurry up and open the door! Get her out now, or you’re all fired!”
My father barked orders, and several servants had no choice but to approach, fighting their nausea. One of them unlocked the heavy door and pushed it open.
213
3
+15 BONUS
In the center of the scorched floor lay not a human form, but the charred, twisted remains of a wolf–my wolf–curled in a defensive position.
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