"Can we do that?"

Lana smirked immediately.

"Of course we can. Why not? Let’s do it."

The moment those words fell, Willow, Sophie, and their partners completely panicked.

Fear instantly appeared on their faces.

They abruptly stood up from their seats.

"You can’t do that!" Sophie shouted while pointing toward Lana.

Then another voice rose shakily.

"You can’t do that to us!" Willow screamed at Lana. "Do you even have a shred of humanity left? We just lost family members, too!"

Their voices became louder and louder, filled with outrage and desperation.

"We’re grieving!"

"We can’t think clearly right now!"

Before anyone could react further... Slap!

A sharp sound echoed through the hall.

Sophie’s head snapped violently to the side as Lana’s slap landed squarely across her face.

The force was so strong that Sophie nearly stumbled backward.

This was the same slap that had once landed on Gwen’s face.

Now Lana was reclaiming her revenge.

Sophie clutched her burning cheek in disbelief while Lana stepped closer, her eyes cold enough to freeze blood. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Trust me," Lana hissed softly, "I wanted to give you two more slaps for the stunt you pulled. But considering you’re grieving your family member, I decided to hold back."

The room fell dead silent.

Nobody dared to breathe loudly.

Lana slowly swept her gaze across every single person there before speaking icily.

"I don’t care what kind of emotional blackmail you people try."

Her voice was calm, yet every word carried terrifying pressure.

"But remember this clearly."

She pointed toward them one by one.

"Your children were rotting inside that forest. And it was me who brought them back."

Nobody spoke. Nobody even dared move.

"If I hadn’t done that," Lana continued coldly, "you wouldn’t even have ashes left to cry over."

After saying those words, she turned toward Gwen and James, waiting nearby. Soon, the trio walked away together.

This time, none of the parents dared chase after Lana.

Their confidence had completely shattered.

Meanwhile, Willow hurriedly rushed toward a secluded corner. Her sharp eyes had caught a waiter recording them.

The waiter was nervously clutching his phone.

A dangerous thought flashed through Willow’s mind instantly.

Without hesitation, she snatched the phone from his hand.

Sure enough, there was a recording.

Everything that had happened earlier had been captured clearly.

The waiter’s face changed dramatically.

"Y-You’re misunderstanding!" he stammered nervously. "I was just randomly filming! I never thought I’d accidentally record something this scandalous! I’ll delete it immediately!"

Willow narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Oh really?"

Her lips curled slowly into a cold smile.

Quickly, she forwarded the video to herself before returning the phone after downloading the recording onto her own device.

The waiter looked terrified.

Then Willow leaned closer and whispered coldly,

"I’ll deal with you later."

With that, she turned and walked away.

Before leaving completely, she did not forget to throw one final warning over her shoulder.

"If you dare upload the real video onto the internet, I will sue you."

Of course, Willow knew she could have simply deleted the recording from the waiter’s phone herself.

But she did not dare.

After all, she had already transferred the video from his phone to hers.

Technically, that counted as consent regarding the existence of the recording.

If she forcefully deleted it afterward, there was a high possibility the waiter could sue her for invasion of privacy.

Once she secured the video safely, she quickly returned to the others.

A sinister chuckle escaped her lips.

"I got the video."

Everyone immediately looked toward her.

"We can upload it online and morally blackmail Lana."

Sophie frowned deeply.

"Would that even work?" she muttered uneasily. "From what I’ve seen, Lana doesn’t seem easy to crack."

Willow’s eyes darkened with calculation.

"That depends on how we portray the story."

The group fell silent immediately.

A slow, malicious smile spread across Willow’s face.

"As long as we present ourselves heartbreakingly enough," she whispered softly, "then even if Lana did nothing wrong..."

Her smile widened further.

"...the public will still force her to pay."

In fact, all four of those people had been specially found by Thessy herself.

The moment Thessy, who had secretly been keeping an eye on Lana’s every movement, learned about the entire situation, she immediately contacted them in private.

"I’ll give all of you five million dollars," Thessy had promised coldly, "if you can extort ten million dollars from Lana."

To Thessy, this was merely a game.

To those parents, however, it became an opportunity.

Even though they truly were heartbroken over the deaths of their children, they still accepted the offer without much hesitation.

After all, Aurora and Jeremiah were not their only children.

They still had other sons and daughters to care for, other responsibilities, other futures they valued.

And money... money could heal many things.

Thus, all four of them had come prepared to create trouble from the very beginning. Their only motive now was making sure Lana was forced to kneel before them publicly.

Just as they were thinking about their next move, Lana finally left alongside Gwen and James.

Earlier, while listening to Gwen’s miserable confession regarding debts and repayment contracts, Lana had suddenly remembered something buried deep inside her memory.

How Gwen had died in her past life... it was due to malnutrition.

Now Lana knew why Gwen, a famous public figure, still died poor.

Her mother had constantly starved her, simply to siphon money away from her.

Thinking about it now made Lana’s chest ache unbearably.

After reaching a secluded spot, she took out two jade pendants she had prepared beforehand.

Without hesitation, Lana handed one pendant to Gwen and the other to James.

Their eyes widened slightly in confusion.

Lana patiently explained the uses of the pendants to them in a calm voice.

Once she finished speaking, Gwen’s fingers trembled faintly before she hurriedly tried to return the pendant back.

"I... I can’t keep this," Gwen muttered nervously. "This is far too precious."

Her breathing became uneven as she stared at the jade.

"At the very least, this should be worth one hundred million dollars."