"I don't care," she sobbed. "If Lydia did something wrong, shouldn't she be punished? Unless... Oliver, are you treating me like an outsider now?"
Her words sealed my fate.
A tablet was placed in front of me; the video began to play.
One by one, the stray animals my mother had rescued were being euthanized.
My mother broke down, screaming and begging on her knees.
"One life for another. That's how it should be," Czarina said coldly.
Then a syringe filled with clear liquid appeared in front of my mother.
If it touched her... she would end up like those animals.
The grip on my arms suddenly loosened. I collapsed to the floor, knees hitting the cold tile.
"Don't hurt my mother—don't touch her! Do anything to me, I don't care—please!"
"Oliver... I'm begging you. For the last time, I'm begging you!"
All my life, I had begged others to save my dying mother.
But never him. I never wanted to show weakness in front of him.
For a moment, a flicker of hesitation crossed his dark eyes.
I thought—naively—that he was about to relent.
But he turned his head away... And covered Czarina's ears.
The next second, someone yanked me up, and a fist—hard as steel—slammed into my abdomen again and again.