Chapter 2

The words barely left my mouth when my phone was violently knocked to the ground.

Tiffany Vance, who introduced herself as the richest man's daughter-in-law, scoffed, looking at me as if I were trash.

"What? Did you hear I'm a Vance, and now you're calling all your hooker sisters to back you up?"

"Heh, birds of a feather flock together, don't they?"

"Sluts like you, who get by seducing men, raise unruly little bastards who even dream of seducing my son!"

The fury in my chest was about to explode. I was just about to stand up when I heard Lily's faint voice.

"Mommy… Mommy isn't a hooker…"

Her small face was pale, eyes closed, her whole body trembling.

"My mommy… is a hero.…"

My heart instantly clenched. I quickly gripped her cold little hand.

"Mommy's here, baby, don't be scared. Lily's mommy is a hero who protects people, she's—"

"She's lying!"

Tiffany's son, Brendon Vance, shrilly interrupted me.

"Different women drop her off at kindergarten every day. How can one person have so many moms?"

"She's just a bastard from a whorehouse, no one knows which man spawned her. Her mom can't possibly be a hero!"

Brendon's face was chubby, his features squeezed together, wearing an insolent expression far beyond his age.

"She lies all the time and never listens to me. I have the right to punish lowly people!"

"My mom said our family runs this city. Even if she dies, someone will clean up the mess for me!"

I couldn't believe a five-year-old child could utter such venomous words and act so maliciously.

I looked at Tiffany.

"Is this how you teach your child?"

She, however, looked proud, lifting her chin.

"Isn't it the truth? Am I wrong?"

"A child getting dropped off by different women—what else is it if not a whorehouse?"

"What's wrong with me teaching my son to recognize the true nature of society's bottom-feeders early on?"

She stepped closer, almost pointing a finger at my nose.

"Let me tell you, in Emerald City, what the Vance family says, goes!"

"My son punishing her was giving her face. She dared to resist and hurt my son. Even if she dies, she deserves it!"

"The lives of people like you, combined, aren't as precious as a single strand of my son's hair!"

I clenched my fists, wanting nothing more than to rip apart her foul mouth.

Lily's parents had both died in service to the country one after another when she was one. Both their families were generations of decorated heroes, and she was their only remaining kin.

We didn't want to send her to an orphanage, so we raised her in the army.

The reason different people dropped Lily off every day was because she was so loved and cherished.

Everyone on leave fought for the chance to take her. It was finally my turn today, and I never expected something like this to happen.

If anything happened to Lily, I didn't know how I would explain it to my sisters in the unit and to General Maxwell.

In the end, reason won over fury.

I am a soldier. My actions represent the country.

Knowing it was useless to reason with someone like her, I stepped back, my eyes cold as I stared at Tiffany.

"The Vance family, huh?"

Good. I'll remember that.

Some debts, we'll settle them later.

No point in wasting more breath on her. Saving Lily was the priority now.