No sense of touch. No fine motor control.
I was finished.
Dirk Harding, you're ruthless.
You didn't just steal my heart. You had to destroy my livelihood too.
The door swung open.
Dirk walked in.
He looked as polished as ever, carrying a fruit basket in one hand.
"Isabella, Amy's young. She doesn't always know where to draw the line."
He sat down. His voice carried a thin veneer of warmth, the kind you'd offer a stray you pitied.
"There's fifty thousand dollars on this card. Enough to last you the rest of your life."
"All you have to do is sign this settlement agreement and drop any claims against Amy."
I stared at the card.
Then I laughed.
Tears slid down my cheeks and into the corners of my mouth. The taste was shockingly bitter.
"Fifty thousand?"
"Dirk, you think my hand is worth fifty thousand dollars?"
"Or do you think five years of your lies are worth fifty thousand dollars?"
His brow creased. Whatever thin patience he'd brought with him evaporated.
"Don't push your luck."
"You should know by now that in Greystone City, I have a hundred ways to make you disappear."
"Sign it. It's better for everyone."
I took the settlement agreement.
My right hand throbbed so badly I could barely grip the pen.
I switched to my left hand and scrawled my name in jagged, uneven letters.
Satisfaction settled across Dirk's face.
"There we go. Smart people know when to accept reality."
He picked up the signed agreement and walked out without a backward glance.
What he didn't know was this:
Beneath that settlement agreement, my phone had been hidden the entire time.
Every word he'd just said, his own admission that Amy had ordered the assault, had been recorded. Crystal clear.
I knew the recording alone wasn't enough to take down the Harding family.
But I could wait.
After I was discharged, I vanished.
I locked myself inside a run-down basement apartment.
My right hand was useless, so I trained my left.
My sense of touch was gone, so I sharpened my eyes.
I threw myself into researching Harding Group's luxury retail operations.
Dirk had been preparing an unprecedented "Global Limited Edition Auction" to prove his worth to his family.
It was his ticket to the throne.
It was also the funeral I'd handpicked for him.
I reached out to Mentor Hargrove, the man who'd brought me into the industry.
When the old man saw my hand, tears streamed down his weathered face.
"Bella, why put yourself through this?"