Chapter 3

I watched in horror as the rare painting was shredded to pieces before my eyes. My mind froze.

After destroying the oil painting, Vanessa found the eight-million-dollar piano. I stood there, cold and numb, as she approached it. She ran her fingers along its polished body, then swept her hand across the keys. A haunting melody filled the room.

She turned around with a ferocious expression and lunged at me, grabbing my hair as she unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks.

"You bitch!" she spat. "This is my piano! Julian promised to buy it for me, and now it’s here, in your trashy apartment!"

I collapsed to the ground, instinctively curling into a ball as her high heels struck me again and again.

Gritting my teeth, I thought about how shocked this shrew, Vanessa, would be if she realized she was smashing her own wedding house and piano. But she wouldn't be needing the wedding house anymore. I swore right then that Vanessa would never step foot into the Sterling family.

"How does it feel, mistress?" the woman holding the live-stream camera sneered. "Watching your life implode?" She turned to her audience. "Remember this name, folks—Clara. Dig up all her dirt. She deserves it."

I thought the beating had already pushed me to my absolute lowest, but after they finished with the piano, they went upstairs and found the one thing I cherished most.

"Vanessa, look at this." When I saw the carved sandalwood box they carried down, I forgot the physical pain entirely.

Panic seized my throat, leaving me speechless.

Vanessa opened the wooden box, lifted the velvet cloth, and pulled out the glass trophy I always cleaned with such careful reverence.

"First Prize in Information Science. What's so precious about this lousy trophy?" she scoffed. "It's even in such a delicate box. Smash it."

"No, don't!" I shouted.

Seeing Vanessa raise her arm to shatter the glass, I cried out and scrambled to my feet, completely ignoring the searing pain in my body.

"You can smash anything else you want, but please give that back to me."

My parents won that trophy together when they received the country's highest scientific research award. They later divorced over diverging views on their academic research and conflicting attitudes toward their family and relationship. My father took my brother and dove into business, riding a golden wave of success to found the Sterling Group.

After the divorce, my mother took the trophy with her and moved to Seattle to devote herself entirely to science. Whenever she had a spare moment, she would take the trophy out and gently stroke it. I knew she was remembering my father—and the love they had once shared.

She never remarried. She raised me alone while pioneering new breakthroughs, but by the time I reached college, illness claimed her life.

That trophy was not just an affirmation of my parents' scientific achievements; it was a symbol of their love and the only true keepsake my mother had left me.

Vanessa looked at the trophy in her hand, then down at my nervous, trembling figure. "Oh? You care about it that much?" she said viciously. "Then I definitely have to destroy it."

Seeing her raise her hand again, I threw all caution to the wind. "Vanessa, this is the most precious thing in the world to Julian. If you smash it, Julian will kill you."

Vanessa hesitated for a moment, her gaze dropping back to the glass award.

"Julian, a scientist? You were just lying to everyone when you said you were Julian's sister earlier. Now you’re pulling the same crap?" the live-streaming woman interjected with amusement.

Vanessa frowned. "You almost got me again, you lying cow."

"I beg you. As long as you don't smash it, I'll do anything." My mind raced through countless desperate ideas, but I had no leverage to stop the crazy woman standing in front of me.

Vanessa weighed the trophy in her hand, a cruel sneer curling the corners of her mouth.

"Anything?" she asked. "Okay, then get on your knees and bark like a dog."