Chapter 4

Mia's words were the final blow that shattered my remaining consciousness.

I wanted to raise my hand and slap her, but the severe anaphylactic shock had drained every bit of my strength. I could only lean against the wall, desperately gasping for air like a fish out of water.

But Mia wasn't done. She picked up the bowl of crab pasta from the table and brought it to my lips. "Chloe, honey, are you hungry? Your lips are so white. Let me feed you another bite."

She scooped up a large piece of crab meat and shoved it brutally into my mouth.

"You...!" I glared at her, trying to scream, but only a raspy wheeze came out. My body began to shake violently.

Mia viciously covered my mouth, preventing me from spitting it out.

"Chloe, do you know how many times I've been pregnant with Carter's babies?"

"Six times. Want to know why he didn't marry me? Because he didn't want me to suffer. He didn't want me to live a middle-class life. So, he came up with a brilliant plan. Find a dumb, broke girl to marry, kill her for the insurance money, and then live happily ever after with me. Isn't he smart?"

Hearing this, I couldn't believe my ears. They were monsters. Complete psychopaths!

With a sudden surge of adrenaline, I slammed my head forward, knocking Mia back. I lunged at her, my mouth open, trying to bite her.

Mia screamed dramatically and fell to the floor. "Chloe! I was just trying to feed you! Why did you try to bite me?!"

Hearing the commotion, Carter whipped around. Seeing me lunging at Mia, his face darkened instantly. "You psycho bitch! Mia was nice enough to feed you, and this is how you treat her?!"

He rushed over and kicked me hard in the stomach, sending me rolling across the floor. "How long are you going to keep acting?! Do you seriously have to throw a tantrum in front of everyone?!"

"It... wasn't me... she forced..." I squeezed out the last few syllables with everything I had. But he didn't give me a chance to explain. He kicked me again.

"Enough! I don't want to hear your lies anymore! You only ate a bite of crab. Even if you're allergic, it wouldn't be this bad! You're just jealous of my relationship with Mia, aren't you? I only treat her like a sister, and she treats you like family! How could you be so cruel to her? Do you think acting like this will make everyone pity you?"

Carter turned around and began complaining loudly to the other diners about how controlling and demanding I was, claiming I had "princess syndrome" but lived a peasant life. His complaints quickly won the sympathy of several men in the diner.

One of them yelled, "You need to teach a woman like that a lesson. If she doesn't behave, a good beating will fix her."

Carter looked down at me with absolute disgust. "Fine. You love acting? I'll let you act all you want. Just stay here and keep pretending. I hope you actually die this time. If you can't keep up, you can walk back yourself."

With that, he turned and walked out of the diner without looking back. The other customers looked away, leaving the diner one by one. No one cared if I lived or died.

I lay on the freezing floor, my body's trembling slowly weakening. Every breath felt like swallowing glass, and the pain in my chest gradually numbed. My vision grew darker, and the sounds around me faded into static. Not a single person turned back to look at me. Despair, cold and heavy, began to pull me down into the abyss.

Maybe... this is it...

I don't want to die yet, Dad...

I don't know how much time passed, but eventually, those two devils walked back in. I heard them whispering near my ear. "Is she dead yet? Is our insurance money ready?"

Suddenly, a thunderous roar echoed through the diner.

"How dare you touch my daughter!"