From Broken to Beloved-Chapter 111- be terrified

Lucca had originally been waiting in giddy excitement for the two street thugs she had hired to send her photos and videos of Catherine—waiting to see Catherine humiliated all over again.

Instead, what she received were photos of those two men lying in hospital beds, their faces bruised and swollen beyond recognition.

One of them had a broken nose.

The other had fractured ribs.

Not long after, her phone rang. A man’s rough, gravelly voice came through the line.

"Miss Channing, the Lord of Washington asked me to pass on a message," the man said coldly. "Your show has officially begun."

Lucca dropped to the floor in shock.

She had never imagined that her plan would be crushed before it even had the chance to unfold—let alone by Bert himself.

Before making this move, Lucca had considered the possibility that Bert might find out sooner or later. But she hadn’t cared. In her mind, by the time Bert discovered the truth, Catherine would already have been destroyed. Her photos and videos would be spreading wildly across the internet, her reputation in ruins. Even if Bert came after her then, she was prepared to accept it.

At the very least, she would have dragged Catherine down with her.

And once Catherine was reduced to something so disgraceful, Bert surely wouldn’t want her anymore. Catherine would be cursed and despised by thousands—so even if Bert destroyed Lucca in return, she would still consider it worth the price.

But now, Catherine was completely unharmed.

And Bert was coming for her instead.

How could Lucca not be terrified?

She broke down crying on the spot. She hadn’t even seen Catherine fall yet—how could she accept losing like this?

At present, Lucca was living with Tracy—or more precisely, Tracy was living with her. After divorcing Channing, Tracy had been left with nothing and had no choice but to move in with her daughter.

Tracy had been involved in tonight’s plan to humiliate Catherine as well—and she had supported it wholeheartedly. Both mother and daughter believed that by the time everything came to light, Catherine would already be ruined, and they would finally have their revenge.

People often say that like mother, like daughter. Neither of them ever considered the consequences of their actions. All they cared about was making Catherine suffer as quickly as possible, so they could vent their bitterness—never stopping to think how brutally Bert would retaliate afterward.

And now look at them.

Catherine hadn’t been hurt at all—yet they had managed to destroy themselves.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Lucca ran into Tracy’s room. After hearing everything, Tracy panicked as well. It took her quite a while to calm down, and once she did, she immediately instructed Lucca,

"Call your father. Right now. Tell him to go find Catherine. Have him speak up for you—ask Catherine and Bert to let you go."

It was the only solution Tracy could think of.

After all, Channing was Catherine’s father. Surely Catherine would give him some consideration. And Catherine had always been gentle, soft-hearted, easy to talk to. If Channing sincerely pleaded with her, maybe—just maybe—Catherine would relent.

Pitiful.

And tragic.

Even now, this mother and daughter were still counting on Catherine’s kindness, still believing she would be easy to persuade. They had no idea that after being framed and set up by them time and time again, Catherine had long since lost all affection for either of them.

Even Channing—her biological father—meant nothing anymore. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

What’s more, the power to decide their fate had already slipped out of Catherine’s hands.

It now belonged entirely to Bert.

Crying, Lucca hurriedly called Channing. After hearing what she had done, he nearly exploded with rage. On the other end of the line, he roared hoarsely,

"Lucca—are you out of your damn mind?! Are you trying to drag our entire family to its death?!"

No wonder Channing was so furious he nearly coughed up blood. Bert had already injected sixteen million into his company. With just the final four million, every last deficit on the books would have been wiped clean.

During this period, Bert had demanded that he reconcile with Renata. Yet ever since Renata had called the police the last time he tried to approach her, Channing hadn’t dared to seek her out again. He was already at his wits’ end, unable to secure that remaining four million.

And now Lucca had gone and done something so catastrophically stupid.

That last four million was completely gone.

Given Bert’s petty, calculating nature, it wouldn’t stop there. It wasn’t just the four million they’d lose—Channing was certain their entire family would be plunged into misery from this point on. How could he not curse Lucca out?

If Lucca were standing in front of him right now, he would have slapped her across the face several times without hesitation, just to vent the rage burning in his chest.

Lucca had always been the one Channing doted on. But recently, buried under crushing debts and endless financial chaos, all Channing could see was his company. Everything else had faded into insignificance—so much so that he no longer recognized kinship at all.

In another sense, this only proved that Channing had never been a qualified father to begin with.

Or rather—he didn’t deserve the title of "father."

Whether it was Catherine or Lucca, the only thing he had ever truly cared about was his own利益—his own benefit.

To have lived a lifetime under such a selfish, self-serving father was, for both of them, a quiet tragedy.

Lucca cried even harder as he was berated over the phone. Yet no matter how furious he was, Lucca was still his daughter. Channing hadn’t become so cold-blooded that he could ignore her fate entirely.

The moment he hung up, he immediately called Catherine.

A cold automated voice informed him the phone was powered off.

He called Bert next.

Also powered off.

Enraged, Channing hurled his phone to the floor.

Bert had done it on purpose—switching off his phone so that Channing couldn’t reach a single person, leaving him and Lucca to stew in torment for an entire night.

Unable to reach either Catherine or Bert, Channing had no choice but to give up.

He knew where Catherine and Renata lived—but he didn’t dare go knocking in the middle of the night. The last time he’d tried to approach Renata, she had called the police without hesitation. If he showed up at this hour, she would likely respond even more ruthlessly.

As for Bert, Channing had no idea where he lived.

Within Burg Eltz’s business circles, Bert was a figure shrouded in mystery—someone both righteous and dangerous, impossible to read. The Burg Eltz power behind him, along with the rapidly rising Technology he had founded himself, inspired nothing but awe. Yet Bert remained almost entirely absent from social and commercial functions, keeping an exceptionally low profile.

To people like Channing, he was little more than a legend.

With no way to approach Bert either, Channing—driven to desperation—could only call Lucca in a fury and tell her to deal with the mess she had created herself. He was done with it.

And truthfully, Channing couldn’t deal with it. His company’s crisis and his failed marriage had already left him overwhelmed. For Lucca to cause such a disaster at such a critical moment—he simply had no energy left to clean up after her.

After being outright rejected by her father, Lucca collapsed into hopeless sobbing. Tracy paced the room anxiously, back and forth, until she finally stopped in front of Lucca and ventured cautiously,

"What about Gerald? Maybe you could ask him to help—have him put in a good word for you with Catherine?"

"No!"

Lucca shouted the answer instantly, rejecting the idea outright.

"If I go to him, wouldn’t that be the same as telling him everything I’ve done?" she cried. "He’s already been insisting on breaking up with me lately. If I tell him what I did to Catherine now, I’d just be handing him the perfect excuse to abandon me completely!"

"No. Absolutely not. I will never go to him."

She shook her head violently, refusing even to consider it. Gerald could never know what she had done. In his eyes, she would forever remain that lively, sweet, innocent Lucca.

Tracy had no answer.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" she said helplessly. "Things have gone this far—Bert won’t let you off."

She hesitated, then suggested again,

"Then... why don’t you go to Catherine yourself and beg for mercy?"

Though Tracy hated the idea of Lucca lowering herself before Catherine, there seemed to be no other option left.

Lucca stopped crying. She let out a cold, scornful laugh.

"Me? Beg her?" she sneered. "I’d rather die than humble myself in front of her. In this lifetime, she’s only fit to be trampled under my feet. How could I ever go and beg her?"

The thought of Catherine now surpassing her in every way made Lucca so furious she felt like she might explode.

And it was precisely that jealousy and rage that instantly swept away the fear she’d felt moments earlier. She raised her hand and roughly wiped the tears from her face.

"What’s there to be afraid of?" she snapped. "It’s broad daylight, this is a society ruled by law. I don’t believe he’d dare kill me."

Then she turned to Tracy and said,

"Starting tomorrow, I’ll call you every few hours. If I ever miss a check-in, it means something’s happened to me. You call the police immediately."

Tracy had no choice but to agree.

"...Alright."