Chapter 4

A waiter led us to a guest room on the ground floor.

The lights were off inside, and the air hung hot and thick, like a steamer.

"This one. Get in!"

The waiter shoved us in and slammed the door behind us.

Mom was burning up. She fell onto the bed and curled into herself in pain.

I fanned her with one hand and wiped the sweat off her face with my sleeve.

Sobbing, I said,

"Mom, let's run away."

"Somewhere far, far away, where Dad can never find us again."

A flash of ghostly lightning fell across the room, and I saw a complicated look on her face.

"Nina, soon. Mom's going to take you away from here very soon—"

Just then, the lock turned.

A heavy reek of cigar smoke and rank body odor drifted in.

"Long time no see, Samantha."

Wheezing hard, a man as fat as a pig squeezed through the door.

It was Steve Lambert!

The same Steve who years ago had almost raped Mom, and whom Dad had beaten into the ICU!

Every drop of blood in me ran cold.

Steve had two bodyguards with him, and he reached back and locked the door.

"Get out!"

I grabbed the ashtray off the table and hurled it at him.

He tilted his head and dodged it, his eyes fixed on Mom on the bed with sick intent.

"Dodging what? Your husband handed you to me for a night to keep me happy. What's with the act?"

My head exploded.

I remembered how Dad had leaned in to speak with the bodyguards just now.

It was Dad!

The taste of blood spread through my mouth.

"You animal!"

Mom struggled up, snatched a hairpin, and pressed it to her own throat.

"Don't come near me!"

Steve wasn't scared at all. He gave a twisted grin and waved a hand.

The two bodyguards rushed forward and pinned me down.

"Let go of my daughter!"

Mom's scream tore out of her.

"Samantha, show me those skills you use to please Giles!"

"Or you can stay and collect your daughter's body!"

At that, one of the bodyguards clamped his hand hard around my throat.

I couldn't breathe. A choked, rasping sound scraped out of my throat.

Mom set down the hairpin like someone accepting her fate.

Steve roared with laughter and lunged at her like a starving tiger onto prey.

Mom shut her eyes in despair, two lines of tears running from the corners.

"Death-substitution task at one hundred percent. Host's vital signs are fading."

"Final ten-second countdown. Preparing to leave this world."

"Ten, nine, eight…"

I heard the system's voice—

Strength left me and I sank to the floor, tears running into my mouth,

salty, but my heart was sweet—

Mom would never again endure this hell for anyone's sake,

Mom was finally,

free—

Steve suddenly stopped, wiped his face with disgust:

"The hell, why is she so cold?"

He slapped Mom's cheek:

"Bitch, quit playing dead!"

Mom didn't respond.

Her body had gone icy, her chest still.

Steve reached out and warily checked her nose and mouth for breath.

"She's dead!"

Steve and the two bodyguards scrambled out of the room over each other—

In the banquet hall, Giles's hand jerked, and the glass shattered on the floor.

"You're telling me Steve Lambert slipped in through the back door with two bodyguards?"

"Giles, what's wrong?"

Giles's other hand shot out and clamped down on Marjorie's wrist.

"Where is Samantha?"

Marjorie forced herself to stay calm, but her face only stiffened more.

"Samantha's in 306, of course…"

Giles didn't move.

If he couldn't see through acting this clumsy from Marjorie,

then his decades in business had been for nothing.

An instant later, Giles seized Marjorie's face hard.

"I'll ask you one last time! Where is Samantha?"

Marjorie went completely blank, her voice dropping.

"Samantha… she's, she's in the room at the very back of the ground floor."

The next second, Giles bolted for the ground floor without hesitation—

By the time Dad got there,

I was pulling clothes back over Mom's bare upper body—

Dad's eyes were bloodshot, his whole body shaking with rage, as if he'd swallow Steve alive the next second.

"Who did this! Was it that animal Steve!"