Chapter 4

"Let go of me! Help!"

I struggled desperately in the van. Robert held my hands in a death grip.

Driving up front was that pig-faced widower.

"Heh heh, this girl's got spirit. I like that."

The widower looked at me through the rearview mirror, his gaze lecherous.

"I'm your niece!"

I cried out in desperation.

"So what if you're my niece? Can a niece put food on the table?"

Robert spat.

"Raised you for three years—time you paid the family back."

The van headed toward a deserted country road.

Despair swallowed me like a tide.

Just then, a beat-up motorcycle came charging out from the side like a madman.

The motorcycle slammed hard into the front of the van.

The van spun out of control and crashed into a tree by the roadside.

Dizzy and disoriented, I lifted my head.

I saw him crawl up from the ground, face covered in blood, holding a machete.

He limped over, yanked open the car door, and pulled Robert out like a chicken.

"You son of a bitch!"

Jake's eyes were bloodshot as he brought the flat of the blade down on Robert's back.

The widower panicked, shoved the door open, and ran.

"Emma! Run!"

That voice... it wasn't Jake's.

I turned my head and saw Charlotte, who'd fallen from the back of the motorcycle.

She was covered in mud, struggling to crawl toward me.

"Charlotte..."

I called out instinctively.

Charlotte froze for a moment, then smiled—a smile uglier than crying.

"Go... Jake will hold them off... just go..."

She pushed me, her strength surprisingly fierce.

In the chaos, her old jacket tore.

A yellowed diary fell from her chest.

That was Mom's diary!

I remembered—when Mom died, this diary had gone missing.

I'd always thought it was lost.

I picked up the diary as if possessed.

The wind flipped open the pages, revealing line after line of writing.

[March 12. That bastard David (Dad) came asking for money again. He said if I don't give it to him, he'll sell Emma to the widower to pay his debts.]

[March 15. I'm not doing well. My health is getting worse. The doctor says Emma's heart condition might relapse. It'll cost a fortune.]

[March 20. Charlotte says she has a way. She agreed to marry Jake. They're willing to pay two hundred thousand dollars and help settle David's gambling debts.]

[March 21. No! I can't sell my daughter! Charlotte is only twenty years old! I have to go after her. I have to return their money. Even if I go to prison, I can't ruin Charlotte's life!]

My brain went blank.

The sounds of fighting and cursing around me seemed to disappear.

I stared at those words.

[Marry Jake... help settle David's gambling debts...]

So there was never any elopement.

There was never any true love.

She sold herself!

Charlotte sold herself to save me, to pay off the gambling debts of our so-called "missing" father!

Mom didn't go to stop an elopement.

Mom went with the house deed to try to buy her daughter back!

I looked at Charlotte crawling on the ground.

She was still pushing me.

"Go! Don't worry about me!"

Her voice was hoarse and ugly because her vocal cords had been destroyed long ago.

I looked at Jake, who was wrestling with Robert.

This man I'd called disgusting for three years was now like a wild beast protecting its young, using his body to block the wrench Robert was swinging.

"Charlotte!"

I let out a heart-wrenching scream.

"Why didn't you tell me?! Why did you all hide it from me?!"