Chapter 3

I caught the moment Jason's facial muscles stiffened.

He recognized me.

I thought he would come to my rescue, but suddenly, I saw hostility flash in his eyes!

His gaze seemed to say: I'm here to protect the Vance family fortune from you.

"What a ridiculous act," Jason snapped back to reality, flicking the ash off his cigar. "Tie her up to the pillar in the center of the showroom. Bind her hands and feet tight. And record it—let everyone see what happens to someone who tries to scam me."

The bodyguards immediately bound me to the marble pillar, then started kicking and punching me.

One of them held up a phone, the camera practically shoved in my face, capturing every humiliating moment of my beating.

Within minutes, the video was projected live onto the massive LED screen in the mall atrium.

My bruised face, with blood trickling from my lip, was magnified and looped on the towering screen, drawing a crowd of onlookers outside, gasping in shock.

"Jason, you're amazing!" Sienna giggled beside him, reveling in my misery on the screen.

Jason ignored her and stepped closer to me.

"That birthmark is so ugly; let me help you get rid of it."

Realizing his intent, I struggled fiercely, but he gripped my chin tightly. In the next moment, the glowing red tip of his cigar pressed mercilessly against the skin behind my right ear.

"Ah—"

The searing pain shattered my pride and composure, and I convulsed uncontrollably, tears streaming down my face.

"Stop! Please... stop!" I screamed, my voice breaking in agony.

Jason finally pulled the nearly extinguished cigar away, looking satisfied with my suffering.

Just then, my grandfather called.

Sienna's malicious grin pressed the speakerphone button.

"Violet, my child, have you met your biological father yet?"

"Oh, just an old fossil," Sienna interjected, her tone dripping with arrogance and malice. "Listen up, old man, keep your little gold digger in check!"

"Who are you? What have you done to Violet?!" My grandfather's voice rose sharply on the other end.

"I'm someone you don't want to mess with." Sienna rolled her eyes. "I warn you, take this con artist and get out of our sight—never set foot in this city again! Otherwise, Jason and the Vance family will kick you out like stray dogs!"

With that, she hung up, smashing the phone on the ground.

Fifteen minutes later, a deafening roar filled the air.

"What the hell?" Jason cursed.

Several helicopters descended forcefully on the plaza.

Before anyone could react, the showroom doors were violently smashed open.

Dozens of heavily armed mercenaries in black tactical gear poured in.

In mere seconds, they disarmed Jason's bodyguards, knocking them to their knees with the butts of their rifles.

My grandfather, leaning on his cane, strode into the showroom, flanked by his own bodyguards.

"Who just said they'd kick me and my granddaughter out of this city?"