Chapter 2

My phone screen lit up again with a photo from Roxy. In the frame, three massive Dogo Argentinos were snarling around Odette, while Roxy flashed a peace sign at the camera.

I slammed the gas pedal to the floor. When I jammed on the brakes in the casino's back alley and shoved my car door open, the rancid stench of the sewer, aggressively mixed with the heavy, metallic scent of blood, instantly hit my nose.

The heavy steel-bar doors of the kennel were half-open, emitting the excited, low growls of dogs stirred by the scent of fresh blood.

Roxy was barking orders at four burly bodyguards.

"Hurry it up! Throw this trash out before it stains Julian's property."

The guards were dragging a massive black garbage bag outward. The bottom of the bag was completely saturated with blood, leaving a long, sickening trail of dark crimson across the rough concrete floor.

Roxy spotted me and strutted over. "Sienna, you can't blame Julian for this. Your mother tried to bite me, so Julian let me release the dogs to teach her a little lesson. Who knew the old bat was so fragile? But hey, the dogs were starving anyway. Consider it an extra meal."

A bloody, brutal murder, brushed off gracefully as if it were absolutely nothing.

My gaze bypassed her completely, dead-locked onto the lifeless black bag a few feet away.

Just then, Julian emerged from the VIP corridor, flanked by a squad of lackeys, looking as if he had just stepped out to watch a meaningless sideshow.

"Baby, look at her!" Roxy instantly switched to playing the victim. "She's actually glaring at me."

Julian smoothly wrapped his arm around Roxy's waist, then looked at me with the exact same expression one gives a pile of garbage.

"I told you ages ago to take your pathetic, broke relatives and get out of my sight. Since you people didn't understand basic English, I had to handle it my way."

"Julian." I pointed at the black bag, my voice eerily calm. "Are you too scared to even open that bag and take a look? Are you absolutely sure the person in there is actually my mother?"

"Who else would it be but your deadbeat mother?" Julian scoffed coldly. He pulled a document from his pocket and slapped it directly against my chest, letting it fall to the floor.

Typed boldly across the top were the words: Divorce Settlement and Accidental Death Liability Waiver.

"Sign it." Julian looked down at me as if offering charity to a beggar. "She was the one trespassing and causing a scene. Even if you call the cops, my legal team can clear Roxy of any wrongdoing. As long as you sign this divorce agreement—walking away with nothing—and promise not to press charges over tonight's little 'accident', I'll be generous enough not to sue her estate for the damages."

I looked down at the papers scattered on the ground, a wave of profound absurdity washing over me.

I looked back up at the man I had loved for seven years. The penniless boy who relied on me working three jobs just to get him through business school, the man who once swore on his life to protect me—he was now using the most vicious, despicable means to force me to swallow this bloody tragedy.

"Julian," I took a deep breath, making one final, futile attempt to warn him. "You haven't even verified who is actually lying dead on the ground, yet you have the nerve to ask me to sign a liability waiver? Aren't you afraid that the very responsibility you're waiving today... will become your worst living nightmare?"

"Are you seriously trying to play mind games with me right now?!" Julian completely lost his patience. He lunged forward, grabbing me by the collar and glaring sadistically into my eyes. "Sienna, do you think I don't know exactly what you're scheming? You want to use this old hag's death to extort a massive payout from me, don't you? Well, I'm telling you, it's not going to happen! You will sign it whether you want to or not!"

"And if I don't?" I stared back at him coldly, without a shred of fear in my eyes.

"Oh, you won't sign?" Roxy chimed in with her sickeningly sweet, sarcastic tone. "Julian, why are you wasting your breath on this bitch? If she doesn't want her mother's body, leaving it here to rot is just going to gross us out."

Julian released my collar. He pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and slowly wiped his hands, as if merely touching me had deeply contaminated him. He turned to his bodyguards and issued the very command that would drag him straight down to hell.

"Pick up the papers. Since she wants to be ungrateful, she can't blame me for being ruthless." Julian pointed at the lifeless bag holding Odette, his voice devoid of a single ounce of human warmth. "Throw this old hag's corpse into the main fighting-dog breeding pit out back. The hounds haven't eaten in three days. Let them strip her clean. Make sure there isn't a single bone left."

"Julian!" I stumbled back a step. Even though I was mentally prepared, hearing him actually order the destruction of the corpse still left me physically nauseous. "Are you absolutely sure you want to go this far? You won't even leave behind an intact body?"

"An intact body? Does she deserve one?" Julian laughed, a cruel, soulless sound. "Sienna, this is what happens when you cross me. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm holding a press conference to officially announce our divorce. As for your mother? Who's going to care whether a decrepit old beggar lives or dies?"

On his command, the bodyguards immediately stepped forward. They practically stabbed thick iron hooks into the heavy bag, dragging Odette's corpse toward the breeding pits like she was nothing but a piece of bloody garbage.