“My kidney is perfectly fine,” Sophia whispered in my ear, her voice as venomous as a snake. “That night at the factory, I stabbed myself and faked the injury. Your brother’s kidney? I had it ground up into pet food—for my dog. And guess what? My dog loved it.”
“You monster!” I lunged at her, but her bodyguard shoved me down.
Her face darkened, and she slapped me hard, the crisp sound echoing through the warehouse. “Ungrateful bag woman! Did you think your brother was worth anything? He was just your bargaining chip with Ryan. Now that he’s dead, you’ve got nothing!”
In my pocket, the recorder I’d secretly asked Mr. Brown to buy was still running—capturing every poisonous word.
At that moment, my phone rang. It was the hospital. I struggled to answer, and a nurse’s panicked voice cried, “Ms. Lane, your brother has a severe post-surgery infection. He’s critical! Come quickly—if you’re late, it will be—”
“Too late?” Sophia snatched the phone, laughing cruelly into the receiver. “Good! Better if he’s dead—no use wasting a hospital bed!” She hung up and smashed the phone to the ground, the screen spiderwebbed with cracks.