Chapter 6

Eva's POV

I woke up from the freezing wind on the street corner. My hand was still clutching the crumpled photo of my father.

Suddenly, my phone screen lit up. It was a text from an unknown number.

It was an address in the old industrial district, with a simple signature: An old friend of your father.

I stared at the message for a long time. My fever had gone down slightly, but my body felt completely hollow.

I didn't go back to the clinic. Instead, I used my last few dollars to take a bus to the address.

I had to see this person.

The shop in the old district was run-down, the metal shutter half-open. When I pushed the door open, a white-haired man was wiping down picture frames.

He turned around, and when he saw my state, he froze.

"Are you... Eva?"

I nodded quietly, holding out my father's photo. "You knew my dad."

The man was Tom Miller. He took the photo, his eyes turning red. "Back when your father was at his peak, everyone in this city respected him. How did you end up like this?"

I held onto the edge of the desk, my knuckles white. "Tom... why did my dad go bankrupt? Why did he jump from that building?"

Tom's face fell.

He sighed, reached into the deepest drawer of his cabinet, and pulled out a dusty, yellowed folder.

"The night before your father passed, he came to see me. He said if you never asked, I should keep this a secret forever. But if you ever came looking for the truth, I should give this to you."

I stared at the folder.

Tom looked at me, his voice shaking. "Eva, for the past three years, have you really believed that the Vance family went bankrupt because of bad management? Have you really believed you owed Julian Sterling?"

My throat closed up.

Yes. Julian told me, Victoria told me, the whole city told me that my father had left a mess that almost ruined the Sterling family.

That was why I kept my head down. Why I took the blame. Why I let them stomp on my dignity!

Tom shoved the folder into my hands, his teeth clenched in anger. "Your father didn't owe them a single dime! He put up the entire Vance family's assets as collateral to save the Sterlings when their project ran out of funding!"

"But when the project failed, the Sterling family pulled out to save themselves! Your father was hunted by banks and loan sharks until he had no choice but to end his life!"

"The Sterlings saved their company, and your father became their scapegoat!"

Boom.

It felt like a bomb went off in my head. My hands shook violently as I tore open the folder.

Inside was a property transfer document and several old receipts.

Every single page had my father's signature and the Sterling family's stamp.

The documents clearly stated: The Sterling family agrees to cover all subsequent project losses.

But that line had been crossed out with black ink. A liability waiver page had been added to the back.

And on that page, there was no signature from my father, only the Sterling family's stamp!

I stared at the red stamp, my vision going black. My chest ached with pure hatred and despair.

The Sterling family took everything my father had, bled us dry, and then brainwashed me into thinking I was the one who owed them?!

"Your father wasn't a criminal," Tom sobbed. "He was set up by the Sterlings!"

The sharp edges of the paper cut into my palm, my blood dripping onto the documents.

I remembered Victoria sneering, "You stole from us."

I remembered Julian telling the guards to throw me out like trash.

I remembered him throwing the check at my feet.

This time, the pain wasn't from my surgical wound.

It was in my bones. It was the pain of being skinned alive and serving the very people who destroyed my family.

"Does Julian know?" My voice sounded like it was coming from a grave.

Tom paused. "Julian was young back then. He might not have known the details. But his mother definitely did!"

I let out a laugh. It was a dry, raspy sound, and blood leaked from my split lip.

"Just because he didn't know, he had the right to drag me through the dirt?"

Tom couldn't answer. With red eyes, he pulled a heavy metal box from his desk. "Your father left this for you. He said inside are all the proofs that the Vance family never owed anyone anything."

I took the metal box.

At that moment, my body reached its absolute limit.

"Eva, you look terrible. Let me take you to the hospital!" Tom said, trying to help me.

"No," I pushed his hand away, holding the folder and the metal box tightly against my chest.

"I need to go to Sterling. I need to ask him myself."

I turned and walked out.

The afternoon sun was blinding.

As soon as I crossed the street, the sounds of the city began to fade. The metal box felt heavier and heavier, and a wave of pain hit my abdomen like a tsunami.

I couldn't fall.

Not yet.

I had to throw these papers in Julian's face!

I had to clear my father's name!

I had to tell Julian that I didn't owe him a damn thing! It was his family that owed us a life!

I bit my lip hard, gripping the metal railing by the sidewalk. My fingernails bent back, drawing blood.

But my broken body couldn't hold on any longer.

Clatter.

The heavy metal box fell onto the hard asphalt.

My world went black, and my body collapsed onto the street.

The documents slipped out of the folder, fluttering in the wind.

Bystanders screamed and rushed over. "Call 911! Someone collapsed!"

In the last second of consciousness, my fingers were still gripping the edge of the documents.

I was not a criminal.