Chapter 176 – Auction [5]

Maxim disappeared soon after, leaving the family face to face with Veronica.

The maid’s mind seemed to pause. She became painfully aware that she had been manipulated and baited into revealing everything she knew about her master. Her eyes, as they settled on Sophia, were wide with fear, making her tremble and unconsciously whimper, trying to say something but only moaning and sobbing in horror.

Isolde watched the scene with cold and disgusted eyes. She had known that her father was sleeping with Veronica, but she had not been aware that it was not merely a mistress affair.

This was them discovering that the man they either called father or husband was the type of man who forcefully broke women and transformed them into slaves of his desires.

He was a man with a rotten heart and an ego bigger than what he could afford. A man who found a twisted comfort and meaning in enslaving women.

That realisation was like a slap to Isolde, her heart burning with fury against her father so hot that in her mind, the link of blood that connected Cole Amaris to her as a father was completely burned away.

He was no longer her father. He was a beast that deserved to be put down.

However, as she turned her eyes to look at her mother and sister, Isolde saw something deeper than what she herself was feeling.

Considering how little presence and impact her father had ever had on her life, Isolde’s pain and disappointment was not that great in the grand scheme of things.

But none could say the same about Anesthesia and her father.

They were close. Extremely close even, and Cole Amaris had never refused Anesthesia anything. She was his joy and pride, and he looked at her as if she were the greatest thing that had ever happened to him.

Anesthesia had come to love her father deeply because of that care. And it was that love — coupled with the love for her mother — that had given her the courage and the drive to play political games with the Hood.

All of it to make them proud and happy. All of it to thank them for loving her and raising her the way they did.

But what the Fallen Heiress had just witnessed shattered the image she had carefully built of her father into millions of pieces.

She lay sprawled on the ground, the usual light in her purple eyes gone, staring at Veronica as if still unable to believe the reality in front of her.

"This... this cannot be." Anesthesia croaked with a broken voice. "This cannot be true. Father can’t be like this. This must be a lie. This must be YOU!"

She snapped her head toward Isolde at the last word — and in an instant, like a beast overtaken by madness, she lunged at her sister.

Isolde didn’t have time to dodge the sudden attack and fell hard on the ground. Anesthesia was now on top of her, hand tightening around Isolde’s neck.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!" she bellowed, eyes bloodshot with anger and pain, strangling her. "This is all lies! All lies! You are doing this because he never loved you! Yes! That’s what this is! All lies, you—!"

Isolde’s left hand moved and struck Anesthesia squarely on the left temple with full force. The words stuck in Anesthesia’s throat, shocked and dazed, her grip loosening around Isolde’s neck.

Isolde used that moment to shove Anesthesia off her and get up. Without mercy, she kicked her straight in the stomach, sending Anesthesia flying like a ragdoll into the opposite wall.

Her back cracked on impact and blood sprayed from her lips.

Isolde watched her sister slide limply down the wall with cold eyes, breathing slowly. "It’s not my fault if the father you have been so proud of turns out to be the lowest of scum. And why do you think mother said nothing?"

She pointed at Sophia, who stood in front of Veronica, her expression unchanging as she looked at the maid, thoughts unreadable.

"Do you think mother would have said nothing if it were all lies?" she shouted, her eyes finding the pained and broken eyes of Anesthesia. "This is the truth. And there is nothing you can do to change it. Not even by refusing to face it."

Isolde drew a slow breath, her eyes moving between her sister and mother. "The more I learn about you all, the more relieved I am that you never considered me family. Every single one of you is among the worst people I have ever encountered...and I have encountered plenty."

She laughed, but it echoed like a hidden sob. "Here is a man who broke women and treated them like slaves — as if he is not himself the father of two daughters! God! How was he able to look at you, his wife, and you, his cherished daughter, while doing all of this?"

"And that’s not the end. Here is a mother who threatened to kill her own daughter without a change of expression, and a sister who just tried to kill her own sister."

"Stop your bullshit." Anesthesia growled. "Always acting as if you are the innocent one. Why, for once, don’t you stop being a hypocrite?"

She got up, swaying slightly with pain.

"You want me to stop being hypocritical? Alright." Isolde walked past her mother and stood in front of Anesthesia again. "Then I will say it, Anesthesia. I am sorry."

"You—! What?" Anesthesia recoiled in sudden disbelief, her red teary eyes wide.

"You heard me. I am sorry. I am sorry for hating you without reason, for being jealous and envious of you even though you are my sister. I am sorry for being, during our childhood and even now, a bad sister. I am sorry for all of that. Anesthesia, I am sorry."

"You!! What are you doing?" Anesthesia was struck with horror at those words, feeling as though the world itself was ending. "Don’t ever say that to me! I don’t need you to seek forgiveness! And do you think saying sorry is enough?"

"I know it’s not enough. And it’s not enough for me to dislike you any less, even knowing I am not innocent in all of this. But you wanted honesty, so here take it. Completely honest. What about you? Have you ever been honest with me? With yourself? Tell me, Anesthesia. Tell me what you feel about me! Tell me your hatred, everything! And I will tell you how I hate you, and how, also, I want to know you."

Anesthesia glared at Isolde, her hands tightening into bloody fists. "I am not going to play this game with you, Isolde. I absolutely will not. You created this mess—!"

"Are you two done with your sibling quarrel?" Sophia cut in tonelessly. "If so, there is an urgent matter at hand."

The two sisters turned their heads at the same time, looking at Sophia now crouching in front of Veronica, who had been silent as the dead since the beginning.

"M-Mother," Anesthesia sobbed, "is... is this all the truth?"

Sophia nodded simply. "Everything points to it being so. And now I understand more clearly why he wanted so badly for our family to move against the Desdemona. It was never about benefits. All of it was for the Kanam Matriarch and to satisfy his own disgusting desires."

Anesthesia seemed to sag, her face crestfallen. She pressed her lips into a thin, bloodless line. With her own mother confirming everything, she had no other choice but to believe it.

And that belief came with the perfect image she had constructed of her father in her mind burning and turning to ashes. Ashes that now fuelled the wrath inside her — the wrath of realising that all this time, she had been trusting and loving someone who held not a single ounce of respect for women.

Someone who took women as nothing but trophies, and worse, as objects of pleasure.

And if there was one thing Anesthesia despised more than her sister, it was that kind of man. Because such men did not even respect the mothers who had birthed them — let alone their wives and daughters.

The Fallen Heiress drew a deep breath, teeth grinding. "I will make him pay. I will—!"

"Not so fast, Anesthesia." Sophia said with a cold smile, her body trembling.

Only then did the sisters notice how their mother was shaking, as if trying desperately to suppress whatever was raging inside her.

But Sophia was beginning to fail at controlling it.

She looked at Veronica and almost laughed hollowly.

This was years of dedication to the house. Years of breaking her back, her mind and her body to make the house stronger and stronger. Years of enduring his indifference to his own bloodline. Years of accepting his poor treatment of her.

Through all of that she had said nothing. She had worked tirelessly, barely keeping any time for herself, like most noble women.

Yet at the end of all of it, Cole respected her and the house even less than she had realised.

With that understanding, all the emotions she had kept tightly sealed inside her chest detonated, and the sisters watched in dread as Sophia grabbed Veronica by the head and slammed it into the ground.

BAAAAM!

Veronica tried to scream but Isolde instinctively used her power, killing the sound completely before it could echo. Sophia did not stop for a single second.

Her power pulsed, creating a barrier throughout the entire bathroom.

Then she continued — cracking Veronica’s face against the ground over and over again, not minding the blood splashing across her own face. Her expression was like stone.

Veronica’s face became broken and mangled. This continued for a full two minutes before Sophia finally halted.

The maid was barely breathing.

Sophia lifted her left hand, cut her own skin and let her blood fall into Veronica’s mouth. And to the maid’s horror, she began to heal as if nothing had happened.

Veronica tried to beg and pull away from Sophia, but the mother of Isolde and Anesthesia was more fearsome than anyone had ever given her credit for.

"You must have felt quite proud, doing what you did under my roof." Sophia said with an empty murderous smile. "You must have been smiling. Oh, this won’t do. This truly won’t do. I can unfortunately picture you smiling while doing all of this behind my back. Oh, this won’t do. This truly won’t do."

She cracked her neck. "Isolde."

"What?" Isolde answered.

"Set a three-minute timer." Sophia ordered, causing Isolde to look briefly puzzled. But Sophia continued without care. "Anesthesia."

"Yes, mother." She answered with a murderous tone, still crying.

"Take a dagger and peel away her lips." Sophia whispered. "My blood will regenerate it, and you will do it again. And again and again. Do it fast and painfully. Are you both ready?"

Isolde and Anesthesia looked at each other, then turned back to face Veronica, their purple eyes glowing with dark intent.

"We are."

"Let’s begin. Timer starts."

Veronica screamed so hard that even under Isolde’s power, a shrill echo rang around the bathroom.

But this was only the beginning.

In the next three minutes, Veronica endured the worst experience of her entire existence, as the Amaris women showed her exactly how cruel they could be.

—End of Chapter 176—