Chapter 4

Damian Thorne arrived, radiating fury, like a trapped beast.

He kicked open the front door, his crimson eyes scanning the living room for my presence.

"Sera Blackwood!"

I was sitting on the second-floor balcony, leisurely sipping afternoon tea.

"Damian Thorne, after so many years away, have you forgotten even basic manners?"

He looked up, and the moment he saw me, all his rage transformed into palpable killing intent.

"Sera Blackwood! What exactly do you want?"

I put down my teacup and slowly walked to the railing, looking down at him.

"I don't want anything. I just want to take back what's mine."

He let out a scoff, as if he'd heard the biggest joke.

"Your things? Sera, everything you have was given to you by me! What do you possess? Without me, you'd be nothing but ash, just like your dead parents!"

"How can you do this to me? Aren't you afraid of karma?"

He thought that sentence would pierce me.

But he didn’t know that for all these years, hatred was the only thing that kept me alive.

I laughed, tears almost streaming down my face.

"Given by you? Damian Thorne, you really have the audacity to say that."

"This business empire, your so-called Thorne Group—every single brick bears my mother's name."

"If karma truly exists, it should be reflected on you, shouldn't it? Have you forgotten? You're the one who caused my parents' death!"

Damian Thorne's expression froze.

"You… what nonsense are you talking about?"

"Nonsense, you say?"

I turned, retrieved a document from the study behind me, and tossed it down.

The papers scattered across the floor, landing at his feet.

"Open your eyes and truly see!"

"The core technology of the Thorne Group, that biological patent that made you a rising star in the business world—whose name is on that patent!"

Damian Thorne stiffly bent down and picked up one of the papers.

On it, in black and white, the signature of the patent owner was my mother—Evelyn Blackwood.

His pupils constricted violently.

"Why do you think my parents had that car accident? Why were you so eager to take over the company right after their deaths?"

Watching Damian Thorne's face turn even paler, I curled my lips.

I descended the stairs step by step, closing in on him, the hatred in my eyes almost burning him to ashes.

"You bribed our driver, faked an accident, and killed my parents. You pretended to comfort me, tricked me into trusting you, and seized control of the company."

"You drained my family’s assets, using my mother's patent to build your own empire! Damian Thorne, you owe the Blackwood family two lives! It's a debt of blood you'll never repay in this lifetime!"

"The evidence I have is enough to put you in prison for life."

He was forced to collapse to the ground, trembling uncontrollably, unable to utter a single word.

All these secrets he thought were buried deep, I had brutally exposed.