Chapter 1: The Final Countdown

Two days later, my five-year-old son, Leo, finally woke up, though his tiny body was paper-pale and dangerously weak. I carefully carried him back to our London mansion.

The estate was extravagantly decorated today—Julian had indeed booked the city’s entire fleet of light drones to put on a show for Leo’s birthday. Dressed in a sharp suit, Julian stepped forward with an exaggerated air of fatherly devotion:

“Happy birthday, Leo. Daddy prepared the biggest gift in the city for you.”

Leo cowered in terror, burying his face in my neck and trembling uncontrollably.

Suddenly, Chloe walked down the grand staircase wearing a sparkling diamond necklace Julian had just bought her. She pouted delicately, leaning against the banister:

“Julian, I feel so dizzy… I don’t think that blood donation was enough. Could Leo give a little more for me?”

I clutched my son tightly and took a step back, my heart pounding with pure hatred.

Julian frowned at Chloe, then glanced at our fragile, half-conscious son. For a split second, a trace of lingering conscience made him hesitate: “Chloe, he just left the hospital. Maybe in a few days…”

“Julian! Don’t you care about me anymore?” Chloe instantly burst into tears, feigning a swoon into his arms.

Julian’s hesitation evaporated into thin air. He turned to me, his eyes instantly cold and demanding: “Clara, bring him to the emergency room. It’s just a little bit of blood this time!”

“Julian, you are a monster!” I screamed, tears streaming down my face. “He is your own flesh and blood! Are you trying to kill him to feed this woman?”

“I told you, this is the price you both pay for your disrespect!” he snapped, signaling his bodyguards. “Hold her down and take the boy!”

As the guards lunged forward to rip Leo from my arms, my phone vibrated in my pocket. The massive countdown on my screen hit ****.

Suddenly, a deafening crash shattered the silence.

Chapter 2: The Arrival of the King

BOOM!

The iron gates of the estate were completely rammed open by a heavy armored vehicle. Before Julian’s guards could react, a convoy of sleek black SUVs flooded the courtyard. Over a hundred heavily armed operatives in dark suits spilled out, surrounding the entire mansion in seconds and disarming Julian’s men effortlessly.

Julian turned pale, stepping in front of Chloe. “Who do you think you are?! Do you know who I am?!”

The armored car door swung open. A regal, middle-aged man with silver-streaked hair and an obsidian-encrusted walking cane stepped out, his dark wool coat draped over his shoulders. He was the undisputed head of Europe’s most powerful syndicate—and my long-lost father.

Seeing him, my eyes filled with tears. “Father…”

He rushed over, his sharp eyes softening with profound heartache as he saw my emaciated frame and his grand-son’s deathly pale face. “Clara, my child… I’m sorry I’m late.”

He gently took Leo into his arms, handing him directly to a team of top international medical specialists waiting in a mobile ICU unit.

Julian stared in total disbelief. “Father? Clara, what kind of ridiculous play are you acting out? Did you hire actors to cause a scene?!”

My father turned around. His gaze was as cold as a Siberian blizzard. He gave a subtle flick of his wrist.

CRACK!

Two of his chief enforcers stepped forward and delivered a brutal strike across Julian’s face, sending him crashing onto the floor with blood spilling from his mouth. Chloe shrieked in terror, scrambling to hide behind a sofa.

“Julian Vance, your company is officially bankrupt as of five minutes ago,” my father said casually. “Every loan, share, and supply chain under your name has been liquidated.”

Julian’s phone rang frantically. He answered with trembling hands, only to hear his assistant screaming in utter panic: “Sir! It’s over! All major partners canceled their contracts! The banks froze every single account! We are completely ruined!”

Chapter 3: The Price of Cruelty

Julian stared at me, then at the powerful man beside me, finally realizing that the syndicate boss I had mentioned was never a lie.

“Clara… please…” He crawled toward my feet, his voice shaking with terror. “I was wrong… That woman deceived me! I didn’t know—”

My father stepped forward, bringing his leather boot down heavily on Julian’s wrist—the very wrist he had used to drag me and dislocate my joint. The sickening crunch of bone echoed through the hall, accompanied by Julian’s blood-curdling screams.

“This is the hand that hurt my daughter,” my father said mercilessly.

He then glanced at Chloe, who was cowering under the table. “As for this woman who faked illnesses to drain my grandson’s blood—send her to a psychiatric facility on the border. Let her experience real ‘blood loss’ every single day.”

Chloe wailed and begged for mercy, but she was dragged out like a stray dog.

Julian clutched his broken wrist, tears of pain and panic streaming down his face as he looked up at me: “Clara! Please give me one more chance! I’m Leo’s father! I proposed to you a hundred times… have you forgotten?!”

I looked down at him, my heart completely numb. The devotion I once had for him had died permanently the night he threw our son into a pit of venomous pests.

“Those hundred proposals were the biggest mistake of my life, Julian,” I said, pulling out a pre-signed divorce decree and tossing it onto his bleeding face. “Sign it. You will spend the rest of your miserable life behind bars for child abuse and attempted murder.”

My father placed a warm coat over my shoulders, his voice gentle: “Let’s go home, my daughter.”

Chapter 4: Eternal Regret

I walked out of the ruined mansion without a single backward glance.

Outside, the night sky was illuminated by thousands of drones that Julian had originally booked. But instead of displaying a birthday message for his amusement, they formed a massive, glowing phrase orchestrated by my father:

[WELCOME HOME, CLARA AND LEO]

Behind me, the wail of police sirens cut through the night, accompanied by Julian’s desperate, soul-shattering cries as hand-cuffs were slapped onto his wrists. He had lost everything—his fortune, his status, his freedom, and the wife and child who had once loved him more than life itself.

Holding my sleeping son safely in my arms, I boarded the private jet, ready to embrace a bright, peaceful new beginning—leaving a broken man to rot in the shadows of his own bitter regret forever.