"Where the hell did that brat run off to? We can’t find her anywhere! Mr. Coleman’s already waiting at the hotel. If we don’t hand her over soon, we’re screwed," Laura Lockhart said, her face twisted with rage.

Richard Dawson’s brows were furrowed, a dark look in his eyes. "Keep looking. She already drank the water—we laced it. There's no way she got far."

They’d finally gotten her to come out for a family birthday dinner at the hotel. Everything was ready. They just had to get her to that room. And yet... somehow, she slipped away.

"Dad, we have to make this work. Otherwise..." Christopher Dawson shuddered at the thought of Mr. Coleman’s ruthless methods and the 200k debt hanging over his head. "He’ll skin me alive."

Laura clenched her teeth. "Find her now. She can't have vanished into thin air."

"Right, let’s split up," Christopher immediately chimed in, desperately. If they didn't get her into that room tonight, the money was gone, and he was done for. The three of them scattered, frantic.

From the shadows, Elizabeth Dawson finally emerged, her expression cold and filled with hatred.

So that’s what this was all about. No wonder her body had been feeling so off. It was them—all of them.

Just then, she collided with someone.

"You?" Mrs. Parker snapped, her eyes flashing with a mix of annoyance and disdain. "Were you following me?"

Elizabeth hesitated for a second. Her head was foggy, the effects of the drug worsening. In the background, she could hear her so-called family’s voices growing louder.

The panic in her chest surged. She bit her lip and looked up at the woman. "I need to talk to you. Can we step outside for a minute?"

She didn’t mention the drugs. Right now, getting away was all that mattered.

Mrs. Parker scanned her face, her eyes narrowing at Elizabeth’s slightly hazy but still striking expression. She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, “A real troublemaker.”

With her chin lifted ever so slightly, voice laced with cold arrogance, she said, "Elizabeth, I already told you—after all these years living with the Dawsons, you owe them. Don’t even think about crawling back to the Parkers. Don’t be ungrateful."

Come back to the Parker family? That’d only happen over her dead body.

Hearing that, Elizabeth felt a cold wave crash over her. She let out a breathless, bitter laugh in her mind—what a joke. Did she really just try to ask this woman for help?

After finding out the truth about her birth three months ago, she had gone to the Parker family. They rejected her then too.

And now she was hoping this woman would suddenly grow a heart? What a fantasy.

She bit down on the tip of her tongue. The pain helped clear a bit of the haze clouding her mind. No time to waste—she turned on her heel to leave.

But before she could take a single step, Mrs. Parker grabbed her arm.

"Where do you think you’re going?" she said, face dark with suspicion.

Of course she could tell something was off. And there was no way she was letting her just walk out.

Elizabeth snapped her head around. "Let me go."

“No can do. I’m turning you in to the Dawsons. If I don’t, how am I supposed to explain this mess?”

She had no desire to talk to those two snakes either. But...

Her eyes lingered on the girl in front of her, and an almost invisible smirk curled on her lips.

Some people belong in the mud. And no matter how hard they try, they’ll never climb out.Elizabeth Dawson was getting more and more panicked. Her whole chest felt tight.

Without thinking, she sank her teeth hard into the woman’s hand.

"Aah!"

Taking advantage of her pain, Elizabeth yanked herself free and bolted.

At the sound of the scream, the Dawson trio came rushing over.

When they spotted Mrs. Parker, they froze for a moment—visibly shocked.

But mostly, they just looked guilty as hell.

Laura Lockhart was the first to regain her composure. "Mrs. Parker, did you happen to see our Elizabeth around here?"

Mrs. Parker’s face darkened. "No idea what’s wrong with that girl. She bit me and ran off that way."

Laura hurriedly bowed in apology. "I’m so sorry. That girl’s not quite right in the head. Please forgive her, Mrs. Parker. Once we find her, we’ll be sure to discipline her properly."

Without wasting time, the three of them took off after Elizabeth.

Mrs. Parker glanced at their retreating backs, a cold smirk lifting the corner of her lips. Her face quickly shifted back to that of an elegant socialite.

Still, she figured it was probably best to swing by a hospital for a rabies shot. Who knew what kind of germs those slum-raised kids carried?

*

Elizabeth stumbled, nearly falling as she pushed into a room by accident.

"Who’s there?" a cold voice rang out in the dark.

But to her drug-addled mind, it sounded strangely alluring. Looking over, she spotted a figure lying on the bed.

Whoever was on the bed must’ve noticed something off too. His voice turned icier, and the tone even sharper, "Get out."

Elizabeth clearly picked up on the hostility—but she wasn’t scared at all. If anything, that voice made her heart tremble. It was the most seductive thing she’d ever heard.

Her feet started moving toward him on their own. Whatever last ounce of reason she had finally snapped.

"I’m sorry!"

She leapt like an octopus onto the figure. Right now, all she knew was survival. She was so young—hadn’t even had a taste of the good life yet. She wasn’t ready to die.

In the darkness, a pair of brown eyes were full of cold murderous intent. "Get… off…"

But Elizabeth had already lost every shred of control. She couldn’t feel the fury radiating off the man anymore. Dead now or dead later—it was all the same to her.

At least this way, maybe her life wouldn’t have been a total waste.

With that desperate sense of now-or-never, she moved against him…

His face—sharp and perfectly sculpted—was pale like a ghost, totally drained of color, yet seething with rage. He wanted nothing more than to tear her limb from limb.

If not for his condition flaring up today, leaving him completely paralyzed, how could some random girl have pinned him down like this?

He was Victor Maxwell, for God’s sake. And now he'd been reduced to this humiliating scene, paralyzed as the woman forced herself on him.

And he'd even told Oliver Kennedy and the others to leave him alone.

What the hell were the guards outside doing anyway? How’d this woman even get in?

Unless… this whole thing was a setup?

Just the thought made the fury in his eyes burn hotter. He wanted her dead.

But before his mind could settle on anything, or even process what was happening, her kiss landed.

And against all logic, his senses betrayed him—reacting on pure instinct…