Chapter 4

"Great-Grandma, are you alright?"

Marcus helped me up, my face pale, and got ready to take me to the hospital.

But Louisa stopped him with a raised hand.

"Who are you?"

"Playing the hero for some old lady—doesn't that disgust you?"

Marcus glared at her, furious.

"How dare you! How dare you treat Great-Grandma like this!"

"Do you even know who she is—"

Louisa cut him off with a scornful laugh.

"Great-Grandma this, Great-Grandpa that. She gets a little old and really thinks she's somebody."

"Want to be some knight riding to the rescue? Fine! She wrecked my car—she owes me two hundred thousand dollars."

"You pay that money for her, and this old thing is all yours!"

Of course Marcus couldn't come up with that kind of money.

Besides, I was so old I could barely walk without trembling—how could I possibly have wrecked her car? I spoke up without thinking.

"You've got it wrong, haven't you? Great-Grandma was walking, not driving. How could she have wrecked your car?"

"And from the look of her right now, it must have been you who hit her with your car, isn't that right?"

Marcus was telling the truth, but Bryan grabbed him by the collar and, without a word, slapped him across the face several times.

Marcus's mouth was full of blood from the blows, and he even lost a few teeth, but Bryan's eyes were practically spitting fire.

"What makes your worthless eyes so sure it was Louisa who hit her?"

"It was this old thing who couldn't watch where she was going and threw herself right under Louisa's wheels!"

"If Louisa didn't have such a kind heart, she'd have been a puddle of mush long ago. Is two hundred thousand a lot to ask?"

"Broke and still poking your nose into other people's business. Today I'll teach you what happens when you meddle!"

Dragging Marcus along, Bryan hauled him over to his motorbike, had his men pin him down, and ran straight over him.

"No! I'll give you the money! Just let him go!"

My heart nearly stopped, and terrified this would end in a death, I quickly cried out for them to stop and pulled out my black card.

But Louisa held up five fingers at me.

"Fine! Five hundred thousand dollars. Pay that and I'll let him go right this second!"

Five hundred thousand?

My vision went dark, and I nearly fainted on the spot.

It had only been a moment—how had two hundred thousand turned into five hundred thousand?

Even the most ruthless con shop wasn't this cutthroat!

I hesitated for only a second, but Bryan, on the bike, lost his patience.

He twisted the throttle and shot straight toward Marcus.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and one of Marcus's hands was crushed off on the spot.

Agonized screams filled the whole place, and the shock made me stagger and fall to the ground.

I shouted that this was a crime! That they would be held legally responsible!

But Bryan seized me by the collar and dragged me under the wheels too.

"Give it a rest, you old thing. All that talk is just about having no money and wanting to skip out on your debt."

"You're lucky. The Sanchez family will be here soon, so Louisa doesn't have time to deal with you."

"Breaking one of your legs—call it a lesson! Don't provoke people you shouldn't provoke from now on!"

Louisa nodded along, praising Bryan for a job well done.

The roar of the motorbike was right in front of me.

Sprawled spread-eagle on the ground and pinned down, all I could do was declare who I was again, shouting at the top of my lungs.

"Let me go! I am the great-grandmother of the Sanchez family!"

"Louisa! Tell your people to stop! Otherwise you'll never set foot inside the Sanchez house as long as you live!"

But Louisa found me too loud, and she grabbed some gravel and rotten leaves and stuffed them into my mouth.

Marcus, forcing back the pain, crawled over to shield me, and even remembered to tell me:

"Great-Grandma, don't worry. I already fired off a signal flare."

"Help will be here soon."

That only drew laughter from Louisa and the rest of them.

But the next second, more than a dozen luxury cars pulled up in front of the orphanage.

Everyone went dead quiet, and someone muttered under their breath.

"Someone actually came?"

"Could this old thing really be somebody after all?"

But Louisa cut them off flatly.

"However important they are, could they beat the Sanchez family?"

"I'm the eldest young lady of the Sanchez family! Even if something goes wrong, the Sanchezes will have my back!"

Even so, the way she looked at those car doors couldn't hide her nervousness.

Only when she saw that the person stepping out was the Sanchez family's butler, whom she knew, did Louisa finally breathe a sigh of relief.

She'd known it all along—what background could a half-buried old woman with one foot in the grave possibly have?

The Sanchez family, on the other hand, had probably come to back her up, seeing that she'd been up at the orphanage on the hill for so long without coming down.

Buoyed by that thought, Louisa went to greet them with a beaming smile.

"Alfred..."