Chapter 4

Mom heard that.

A cold laugh slipped out of her.

"You? What exactly do you think you are?"

"In this house, my daughter Ivy Swanson is the only heiress there will ever be."

I thought she would do what she always did.

Teach them a proper lesson.

I didn't expect what came next.

A strange odor drifted through the air.

My legs and Mom's went out from under us at the same time, and we both dropped to the floor and lost consciousness.

Watching us collapse, they showed no surprise at all, only smug satisfaction.

"Finally worked. That knockout drug really does the trick."

Ada's face appeared above me, twisted with a manic grin.

"Ivy Swanson, aren't you the little mama's girl? You and your mother, thick as thieves, best in the whole wide world?"

"Then let me give you both a fun little game. I promise you'll have the time of your lives."

She clapped her hands.

Several men pushed in through the side door.

They looked us over with leers, ugly grins on their faces.

Ada crouched down then and shoved a fistful of pills into my mouth.

She watched my body burn up, my face flushing red.

She patted my cheek, thrilled with herself.

"Why so quiet all of a sudden? Scared now?"

"Then beg me. Beg me like a dog, right now, and maybe I'll tell them to be gentle."

Beside her, Tristan spoke up quietly.

"Forget it, Ada. Her mother's the one we're after—"

The woman flew into a rage.

She shrieked.

"No, they've both wronged me. Ivy Swanson stole my life, took the nest that was mine. This is the price for it!"

She let out a sinister little laugh.

"Once they're done with you, it'll be your mother's turn."

"And when your father gets here, what do you think he'll make of her?"

"I bet he'll blow up on the spot and throw you both out on the street."

I looked over at Mom, still unconscious.

And I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

Ada clicked her tongue and kicked me hard.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Laughing at your mother?"

But I was laughing at Ada.

Death at her door and she couldn't even see it.

Wasn't that funny?

Ada gave up on me.

She turned and walked toward my mother.

"You cheap little thing. When your husband gets here and sees you looking this filthy, do you really think he'll still want you?"

She bent down to strip off my mother's clothes.

The next second, my mother's eyes snapped open.

Her hand shot out and seized a fistful of Ada's hair.

She hauled her up and flung her hard, sending her crashing to the floor across the room.

Ada screamed with pain, her face full of disbelief.

"How is this possible? You breathed in the drug, you passed out. How can you be perfectly fine?"

What she didn't know.

My mother had spent years moving among every kind of person.

Drugging, sabotage, dirty tricks — she'd seen it all a thousand times.

A little knockout powder was nothing to her.

Ada clutched her bruised body.

And called my father.

Told him to come and back her up.

Tristan stepped up too and warned me.

"You two are finished!"

"Ada is the true heiress of this family. When my father-in-law gets here, he'll make you both pay!"

Mom and I sat calmly on the sofa, sipping tea while we waited.

It wasn't long.

My father arrived, his whole face terrifyingly dark.

The moment Ada saw him, she burst into tears of joy and threw herself into his arms.

"Dad, you have to teach these two shameless women a lesson! I've drifted out there alone all these years. You owe me. You have to make it up to me today!"

But after all her sobbing, the man wasn't moved in the slightest.

Instead he shoved her hard away from him.

And struck her across the face.

"In this house, my wife has the final say. Who do you think you are, screaming at my wife like that?"