Chapter 10
Dusk had fallen, and the streetlights soon flickered on. Zachary stood at the edge of the river, the moonlight casting a chill over his expression.
Before him, a tightly bound man was on his knees, groveling for mercy.
“Please, Mr. Fuller. I’m begging you! Let my son go!” the man pleaded.
One of Zachary’s men pushed a stroller closer to the river’s edge. The wheels now hovered just inches
from the water.
“Tell me the truth, and I’ll let him go,” said Zachary.
Fear crossed Andy Jones’ face. “M-Mr. Fuller, I don’t know what you mean.”
“You don’t, huh?” Zachary let out a cold chuckle. “You’ve got three seconds. If I don’t get something useful
out of you, your son is going exactly where he belongs.”
He fixed his gaze on Andy, who was visibly shaking, and began to count. “Three… Two…”
As the stroller tipped toward the water, Andy snapped. He broke down, screaming, “I’ll tell you everything!”
He continued, “The slideshow that glitched during the farewell party, the fall from the cliff, and the fire at the gallery were all orchestrated by Susan and Yasmin. I only helped them because my son has congenital heart disease.
“They promised they’d pay for his treatment. I can prove that Ms. Melanie was innocent!”
With trembling hands, Andy handed over his phone. “All the messages between me and them are in here. Mr. Fuller, I was forced into it. They threatened me!”
Zachary took the phone and played voice messages at random. In an instant, Yasmin’s voice came through the speaker, full of malice.
“Of course, a curse has to be nasty enough. Otherwise, how would my father and Zachary turn on her? It’s not like I’m actually ill, so what harm could it do?”
“Melanie’s heading to the cathedral tomorrow. Your job is to drug her and get her to the cliff. I’ll handle the rest.”
“Set fire to the gallery. Burn every last piece. I want Zachary to lose all faith in Melanie.”
The more Zachary listened, the colder his eyes grew. Yet, Yasmin’s vicious rant was far from over.
“Melanie’s nothing but the daughter of a whore! If it weren’t for her, everything in the Lloyd family would’ve been mine! She didn’t just steal my inheritance. She stole my man, too!
“So what if Zachary finds out? Back then, I dumped him for some rich businessman overseas. And now that I’m back, he couldn’t wait to take me back.”
Andy kept his head down, too afraid to say a word. He thought Zachary would fly into a fit of rage. To his surprise, Zachary remained eerily calm.
A beat later, Zachary gave a curt wave, and his man pulled the stroller back from the edge. Then, he
turned to Andy.
“I’ll take care of your son’s treatment. But don’t tell Yasmin a thing about what happened today,” he said
evenly.
Andy froze momentarily. The question hovered on the tip of his tongue, but one look at the cold glint in
Zachary’s eyes was enough to make him swallow his curiosity.
After Andy left, Kevin couldn’t hold back and asked, “Mr. Fuller, are you really letting Ms. Yasmin walk away from this?”
“Of course not,” Zachary answered in a low voice, his gaze fixed on the rippling water.
He had thought Yasmin was naive, just a young lady chasing her dreams. But in reality, she was cunning,
vicious, and cold-blooded.
She had caused Melanie to miscarry, twisted the truth against her, and had her driven out of the country. Even running away from the wedding hadn’t been about chasing her dreams. It had been a betrayal.
A sharp pang gripped Zachary’s chest, but his face gave nothing away, much like the calm before the
storm.
He had no intention of letting Yasmin off. In fact, he’d make sure she lived through every last bit of what
Melanie had endured.
