Soon the gangsters surrounded me, soon their fists were raining down on me. I tried to escape but I found no chance.
In the distance, Erick was already on the ground, barely breathing. Dozens of people were on top of him.
A fist then slammed into my head and turning my vision blurring red. As I frantically thinking how to escape, the old factory windows shattered with a crash.
Lizbeth burst in with a hundred armed men following her.
In seconds, the scarred man’s crew was pushed back. The fight broke with even more chaos. One of the gangsters realized that they were about to lose and he turned to stab Erick in the stomach.
Lizbeth saw it happen and pulled her trigger in a flash.
Gunfire filled the air.
Next, she pushed through the fight and rushed to Erick’s side. She pulled him into her arms and saw his eyes were staring at me.
“Tommy… I never wanted to steal Liz from you.
Why did you do this to me?” His voice faded and he passed out.
Lizbeth turned her head toward me, her eyes colder than I’d ever seen them.
“Tommy,” she said quietly, “I’ve been far too soft on you.”
Lizbeth stepped over corpse as she approached me.
"You better be ready to get my revenge."
My eyes were red as I clutched my aching lower abdomen. "You really think it was me? Lizbeth, I'm not stupid."
"Are you saying that I'm the stupid one here?" She kicked an unconscious gangster in front of me aside before reaching out to grab my jaw and forced me to look up.
"Didn't I warn you before? I told you to behave. So, why didn't you?"
I laughed, tears running down my face. “I'm just teaching him a lesson. I didn’t mean to get him killed!”
“So Rick was jealous of you and he had to get stabbed and take the blame for you?” Her voice shouted over mine.
“Tommy, do you even know how ridiculous you sound when you lie? He wouldn’t even step on an ant!”
In that moment, I lost all strength to argue.
I watched as she gently helped Erick stand up and walked past me. She said one thing to his men, “You know what to do. Don’t kill him—just leave him breathing.”
“Ah—!”
A knife went straight through my calf. I tried to get up, but another blade pinned my other leg to the ground. The pain was unbearable.
My eyes burned red as I watched her walk away. She held Erick, gently covering his eyes. Her voice was soft, like she was comforting a child.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”
Those words… They pulled me back to the eight years ago.