"It's just a piece of rotting wood. What's the rush?"
I was pinned to the ground, completely unable to move. All I could do was watch as he grabbed my grandmother's memorial tablet and hurled it to the dirt.
He tossed a cleaver in front of me. "You care this much about some old woman you're not even related to by blood? Then what about your uncle?"
"Your grandmother's precious youngest son is lying in a hospital bed with kidney failure. Can't move a muscle. Waiting for someone to pay his medical bills so he doesn't die."
My eyes burned, veins bulging at my temples. "What do you want?"
"Chop this tablet to pieces. I'll wire the money and save your uncle's life."
"He's the only person left in this world who ever gave a damn about you. Think carefully."
I thrashed against the hands holding me down. "Melvin! You animal! This is your own grandmother's tablet! And that's your uncle too!"
Melvin drove his foot into my stomach. "My parents carry the Gilbert name. They run the Gilbert Group. They have nothing to do with some backwater peasants!"
"I'm counting to three. If you don't do it, he dies."
"Three—"
"Two—"
"I'll do it!"
I picked up the cleaver. My whole body wouldn't stop shaking.
Melvin's lips curled into a satisfied smirk, his face alight with pure delight.
Then Greta's voice rang out from behind me.
"Victor! What are you doing?!"
