Chapter 4

A devilish voice suddenly called out behind me.

My footsteps paused, but the corners of my lips curled upward.

Marcus Hayes grabbed my shoulder.

“Anya, you smashed my head six months ago. I haven’t settled that score with you yet, and here you are, delivering yourself to me?”

I slowly turned, looking at the scar on Marcus’s face.

My grip on the urn tightened involuntarily.

“Tsk, I didn’t get a good look before, but you’re not bad-looking. Quite a bit like your sister, actually...”

His face was twisted with a lecherous smirk.

“Brother...”

Julian Thorne tensed, speaking out.

“She’s a madwoman, don’t...”

“Shhh—”

Marcus Hayes put a finger to his lips.

“Julian Thorne, you just worry about my sister. My business is none of yours.”

Marcus Hayes approached me with an lewd smile.

Just as he was about to lay a hand on me, Julian Thorne suddenly pulled me behind him.

“Marcus, you can’t take Anya.”

“Six months ago, to help you get off, I went against my conscience in court. Anya, she... just let her go.”

Marcus Hayes’s face immediately darkened.

“Julian Thorne, are you, a lawyer, really going to go against me?”

Julian Thorne remained silent, saying nothing, but showed no signs of giving up.

He continued to shield me behind him.

The smile in my eyes deepened.

Seraphina, however, glared at me, a flash of jealousy in her eyes, then threw herself into Julian’s arms, whining.

“Julian, do you still have feelings for her?”

“Anya is a mental patient, she can’t marry you now. Do you want her to drag you down your whole life?”

“My brother already promised me he won’t cause another death.”

“Why don’t you just let my brother send Anya back to the mental hospital...”

“Silence.”

Julian Thorne cut her off, his tone stern for the first time.

“Seraphina, you should go back inside.”

“It’s dangerous here. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”

Bodyguards led Seraphina away, but she looked back every few steps, unwilling and resentful.

“Julian, when you’re done, come find me right away!”

Watching their affectionate display, I couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

“I never thought my fiancé could be so gentle.”

“Anya, shut up!”

Julian Thorne’s eyes were fierce.

“If you don’t want to die, then say less!”

Marcus Hayes eventually gave Julian Thorne some face, but he shot me a resentful look and dropped a cold warning.

“Julian Thorne, you’re very bold.”

“I won’t touch her today, but I’ll see how long you can protect her.”

“What Marcus Hayes wants, Marcus Hayes always gets.”

They left with their bodyguards. After the crowd dispersed, the villa was left in utter disarray.

He quickly had someone clean up the “gift box.”

Julian Thorne frowned deeply, looking at me.

“Anya, I thought you’d be in the mental institution for a few years, but you just ran out on your own.”

“Do you have any idea who Marcus Hayes is? How powerful his family is? You just came here alone, wanting revenge, ready to throw your life away?”

Julian Thorne grew more agitated, his voice rising sharply.

“Didn’t you consider that by provoking Marcus Hayes, you wouldn’t just fail to avenge your sister, but you’d throw your own life away too?”

At the mention of Lila, my expression also turned cold.

“So you knew everything, Julian Thorne.”

Six months ago, my sister Lila was assaulted while working.

She was dragged into a villa by those wealthy scions, tormented all night, and found utterly broken.

After emergency surgery,

The doctor regretfully informed us that many of her organs were damaged, and she would need a catheter bag for life.

A young girl’s entire future, shattered by those animals.

I desperately begged Julian Thorne, who was my fiancé at the time, to help us win the lawsuit, no matter what.

Julian Thorne had furiously declared to me:

“I will wield the weapon of the law and not let those beasts go unpunished.”

But after a few rounds, Julian Thorne inexplicably changed his stance.

In court, he unexpectedly changed his testimony.

Based on a recording held by the wealthy scions, he declared it was just ordinary intimacy.

“Hear that, Anya? Even your own defense attorney says your sister gave up her dignity for money, actively seduced Marcus, took off her own clothes, and cried out so passionately...”

In court, my eyes burned red.

“Julian Thorne, how can you lie through your teeth?”

“Tell the truth! Were they threatening you?!”

But Julian Thorne refused to look at me again, stubbornly insisting that “no crime had been committed.”

The lawsuit was lost, and the culprits walked free.

Julian Thorne, however, looked at me, crumpled on the floor, with pity.

“Anya, he’s Seraphina’s brother. If he goes to prison and gets a record, Seraphina’s reputation will be ruined.”

“Besides, the Hayes family is too powerful. We can’t win against them.”

“Since it’s already happened, I’ll help your sister get more financial compensation. Let’s just put this behind us.”

But could money fix any of this?

If he wouldn’t help me get justice for my sister, I would do it myself.

But I didn’t tell Julian Thorne any of this. I smiled and pushed his hand away.

“You’re wrong. I didn’t come here for revenge this time.”

“Julian Thorne, I heard you’re getting married to your fiancée. I came to give my blessings.”

Julian Thorne’s face suddenly changed.

“Just that ‘gift box’ from earlier?”

“Who would see that and not think you deliberately came to cause trouble?”

“Anya, your condition hasn’t cleared up yet. I’m sending you back to the mental institution immediately. This is for your own good.”

“For my own good?”

I laughed out loud, tilting my head to look at him, puzzled.

“Then why cancel the engagement?”

Julian Thorne’s face stiffened. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

The truth was, when he was defending Lila’s case.

Julian Thorne and Seraphina were already flirting behind my back.

He thought I didn’t know.

I just played along, pretending not to know.

As long as he could help my sister win the case, and get her justice.

As long as he could silence those who called my sister a "gold-digger" and a "whore."

A man was just a man. I could let him go.

But he didn’t.

So he, too, was a killer.