Chapter 4

As Lucia screamed and tumbled down, everyone gasped.

"Aurora Lambert, are you a shrew?!"

Ethan quickened his pace down the stairs to help the woman up, his gaze ice-cold.

Lucia collapsed weakly in the man's arms, coughing continuously.

"I don't know how I offended Mrs. Shaw. Usually when Mrs. Shaw scolds me, I never tell anyone, but at least don't embarrass Mr. Shaw, sob sob sob..."

As she spoke, she inadvertently revealed bruises on her arms and thighs, looking pitiful.

Onlookers cast strange glances.

Ethan stood up and suddenly slapped me, his eyes nearly splitting with rage.

"Where are the manners the Shaw family taught you? Get down there and apologize now!"

My eyes turned blood red.

"Impossible! She killed my mother. Are you blind?!"

Ethan acted as if he hadn't heard me and called the demolition crew in front of me.

Gritting his teeth hard, he threatened, "Apologize!"

I shook my head in horror, imagining the ancestral home reduced to rubble.

"No, don't!"

Under Ethan's threatening gaze, I staggered up and walked before Lucia.

"I'm sorry!"

The woman smugly assumed a victor's posture.

Ethan put his arm around her waist and looked down at me.

"Here's five dollars. Go get the deed from the homeless man."

After saying this, Ethan carefully carried the woman to the medical office.

I picked up the crumpled five-dollar bill in disgrace.

The guests laughed uproariously.

"She climbed into bed for five thousand back then, and now she's looking for a homeless man for five dollars. How cheap."

I staggered to my feet, listening to these insults.

Ethan, I no longer care about the fake love you gave me.

Just as I turned to leave, a message appeared on Lucia's deliberately dropped phone.

"Received. We'll begin demolition immediately!"

My heart sank sharply.

I pushed everyone aside recklessly and rushed out of the auction.

Ethan looked deeply at my retreating back, about to call out when Lucia interrupted him.

"My ankle hurts so much."

The man withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace into the medical office.

When I reached the ancestral home, workers were pushing down the surrounding walls with excavators.

"Stop! I'm telling you to stop!"

The rumbling machinery completely drowned out my pleas.

Just then, a pair of greasy, filthy hands grabbed me and threw me aside.

"This is the house I paid for. Who told you to demolish it? Give me back my money!"

The homeless man threw rocks at my head crazily, each one heavier than the last.

My screams faded as blood covered my eyes.

One last blow, and I collapsed to the ground, spent.

Ethan turned down Lucia's dinner invitation and drove to the family estate instead.

As he stepped out of the car, a homeless man nearby was fiddling with a blood-stained five-dollar bill, muttering to himself.

"That woman? Tough as nails. Maybe she'll give me a fat son!"

Ethan froze mid-step. He grabbed the man by the collar, his eyes wild.

"Who the hell are you talking about?!"