Chapter 1

At my husband Felix’s birthday party, our daughter, Lilly, was supposed to perform a Latin dance for him.

Instead, he forced her into dance shoes and leggings embedded with poisonous needles, locked her in the dance studio, and made her spin all night long.

All because I had humiliated his model mistress and their illegitimate daughter.

“I had just decided to give them a home, and you already broke their hearts!”

"Let your daughter atone for your sins."

When I burst into the dance studio, the sight that greeted me made me want to tear my eyes out.

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1

Lilly lay in a pool of blood. Her legs, once so graceful on the dance floor, were now swollen and black, a twitching mass of rotten flesh.

A potent poison was ravaging her body, threatening to claim her life at any second.

My mind went blank.

I knelt and begged Felix, "Lilly is dying! Please, open the villa doors. Call a doctor, or let me take her to the hospital."

Without even looking up, he refused. "The party isn't over yet, and Amber doesn't like any surprises."

"Is that more important than Lilly's life?!" I screamed, my voice raw with anguish.

"She's just tired from dancing. Don't make such a fuss."

Felix turned to leave, and to soothe Mia, his illegitimate daughter with Amber, he stepped right over Lilly's legs.

Lilly thrashed like a fish out of water. I lunged forward to hold her, my hands instantly covered in sticky blood.

Tears streamed down my face, but she lifted her pale face to comfort me. "Mom, I'm okay... At least I'm still alive..."

But the look of unwilling despair in her eyes as she glanced at her own legs was an agony that tore me apart.

Dozens of bleeding punctures, hundreds of poison needles... I couldn't bear to imagine the excruciating pain she must have endured.

"You'll be okay, sweetheart. Trust Mom! Mom will find another way out of here, I promise!"My heart pounded with panic as I hoisted her onto my back and stumbled toward the villa's side door.

But a group of bodyguards blocked my path.

The man in the lead kicked me to the ground, his leather shoe stomping repeatedly on my chest.

"Be quiet! You're scaring Mia, don't you know how much Mr. Creed dotes on her?"

Lilly's leg was pinned beneath me, and she convulsed in pain.

But not wanting me to worry, she bit down hard, refusing to make a sound.

I begged them frantically, but my pleas were answered with two sharp slaps across the face.

These bodyguards knew exactly which side their bread was buttered on. Back when Felix loved me, they had treated me with the utmost respect.

Ever since Amber returned, they've treated my daughter and me like garbage.

By the time he was done, the last trace of color had drained from Lilly's face.

I clutched her in my arms, feeling like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Suddenly, the spotlight in the villa's main hall lit up.

The stage that should have been Lilly's was now occupied by another girl.

Felix sat in the front row with his arm around Amber, cheering for her.

A guest even gushed, "What a perfect family! Mr. Creed is such a wonderful father. His daughter must be the happiest girl in the world!"I held my hands tightly over Lilly's ears, but her scalding tears still fell onto my palm.

Her body was growing colder and colder.

Just as Felix began to clap, she suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood, her hand clutching mine desperately.

“Mommy, I don’t want to leave you… I want to live…”

Those words drained the last of her strength.

Her body went limp, and she passed out completely. No matter how I screamed her name, she didn't respond.

I charged toward the door like a mad woman, not stopping even as blood streamed from my head, wanting only to beg for a chance for Lilly to live.

Not only did the bodyguards refuse to move, but they even locked the side door.

The sound of the door shutting echoed along with their gloating laughter.

“Just wait for your daughter’s body to go cold!”