CHAPTER 57 I'm Going to Destroy Him

　　I once swore I would never set foot in a car that reeked of Chloe's stench, but life has a cruel way of making us eat our words.

　　I never thought I'd find myself back in Daniel's car, heading toward his hometown.

　　On the way, Daniel said, "Kate, thank you."

　　"You don't need to thank me," I replied coldly. "I'm not doing this for you—I'm doing this for your mom."

　　Perhaps it was because I'd always yearned for familial warmth that the thought of an elderly mother, bedridden after a lifetime of hardship, stirred an instinctive sense of compassion in me.

　　The journey was grueling—five hours on the highway to his county, then another half-hour from the town to his village. Finally, we arrived at his family home.

　　His house was a simple two-story red-brick structure. The car couldn't get too close, so we had to walk a stretch of bumpy dirt road to reach it.