Chapter 6

Sienna POV

On the luxury yacht Ethan had chartered for Yolanda, lights blazed and elegantly dressed guests mingled.

Yolanda wore that starry gown, nestled against Ethan's side, accepting everyone's blessings and envious gazes.

I shoved the banquet hall doors open with force.

The cheerful music cut off abruptly. Every eye turned to me.

I wore a thin windbreaker soaked through with rain and mud, barefoot, the soles of my feet covered in bloody cuts.

The moment Ethan saw me, his expression darkened sharply.

"What are you doing here?"

Ethan strode over, trying to block everyone's view, and hissed quietly in fury.

"Didn't you embarrass yourself enough last time? Get out of here!"

I ignored him. I stared hard at Yolanda hiding behind him.

"Yolanda Reed, what did you show Oliver this afternoon?"

My voice was eerily calm.

Yolanda flinched and clutched Ethan's sleeve tighter.

"Ethan, I'm scared... She looks like a lunatic..."

"Sienna! I told you, Yolanda was with me all day!"

Ethan grabbed my wrist, squeezing hard enough to shatter bone.

"Where's security? Drag her out!"

I laughed.

I wrenched my hand free from Ethan's grip and pulled a blood-stained phone from my pocket.

It was Oliver's phone. Inside was a video Yolanda had sent him.

In the video, Yolanda threw Oliver's original artwork into a fire pit one by one, burning them while telling him in the most vicious language:

"Your sister has been used up by Ethan. She'll be thrown out of the Pierce family soon. You idiot, you do nothing but drag her down. These garbage drawings of yours are only good enough to be my stepping stones."

I held the phone screen up to Ethan's face.

"Ethan, look closely. This is the kind, fragile woman you've been protecting with your life!"

Ethan's gaze fell on the screen. His face instantly darkened. He turned to look at Yolanda.

Yolanda panicked. Tears immediately started falling.

"Ethan, it's not like that! That autistic boy went crazy first and tried to hit me. I just got upset and scared him a little... I really didn't..."

"Scared him?"

I advanced step by step.

"Do you know that because you 'scared' him, he went into heart failure? He's dead! Yolanda Reed, you killed my brother!"

The entire room gasped.

Ethan's body went rigid.

He looked at me in disbelief.

I pulled a sharp knife from my sleeve and lunged straight at Yolanda.

"You're going to pay for his life!"

Yolanda screamed and dodged.

In that critical moment, Ethan instinctively stepped in front of Yolanda.

With a sickening sound, the blade slashed Ethan's arm. Blood immediately gushed out.

I froze.

I stared at the blood on the knife's edge, then at how Ethan had protected Yolanda without hesitation. Suddenly, it all seemed laughably absurd.

"Have you lost your mind?!"

Ethan snatched the knife from my hand and shoved me violently to the ground.

I crashed hard onto the cold marble floor. My bones made a dull thud.

"Oliver is dead because he had bad luck. What does that have to do with Yolanda?"

Ethan looked down at me from above, his eyes utterly devoid of warmth.

"You actually dared to pull a knife and try to kill someone on my turf because of some autistic kid?"

"Bad luck?"

I lay on the floor, tilted my head back to look at him, and finally let the tears fall.

"Ethan, it wasn't bad luck. It was meeting you! You enabled Yolanda. You personally cut off his path to survival!"

"Send him for cremation. I'll cover the funeral expenses."

Ethan cut me off impatiently and turned to order the security guards.

"Take Sienna back to the western suburb villa. Lock her in the basement. Without my permission, no one is to let her out. When she learns to apologize to Yolanda, then she can eat again!"

I didn't struggle. I let the security guards drag me away.

I watched Ethan anxiously check whether Yolanda had been hurt, watched him cradle that murderer in his arms protectively.I closed my eyes and told myself:

Ethan, this is the last time I'll cry for you.

From now on, we'll never see each other again.