Chapter 5
723words
The camera cut to an elegant award stage where a young woman in a tailored charcoal suit—slender yet radiating authority—strode confidently to the podium.
When the camera zoomed in on her composed, confident face, glowing with quiet triumph—
Rachel's phone clattered to the floor.
She lunged at the TV, pressing her face against the screen, eyes bulging and pupils constricted to pinpoints. Her expression cycled through shock, disbelief, and finally, naked avarice.
The brilliant young CEO on screen, accepting thunderous applause from the business elite—
Was none other than Lucy Woods—the same girl she'd called "worthless," "helpless," someone who "couldn't last a week without the Woods family"!
"No... impossible... my eyes are playing tricks... When did she..." Rachel stammered, her voice quavering.
When the truth finally sank in, she whirled around, face ashen and lips trembling. Her expression was a battlefield of emotions—disbelief and regret quickly conquered by consuming, ravenous greed.
"Moonlight Tech... Lucy... she actually..." Rachel's breathing quickened to hyperventilation. "It's really her! She owns a major company!!"
A toxic cocktail of jealousy and opportunism surged through her veins: "We're going to be rich! Filthy rich! Her company is practically our company too!"
Rachel didn't bother calling ahead. She showed up at Moonlight Tech's headquarters, bulldozed past the protesting receptionist, and forced her way into my office.
"Lucy... sweetie..." Her hair was wild, her designer outfit rumpled. She stared at me—her adopted daughter now seated calmly behind an impressive desk in a corner office with floor-to-ceiling windows—as though seeing a ghost.
"Please... I'm begging you!" She collapsed to her knees on the polished hardwood floor, her voice cracking with desperation. "I know Moonlight Tech is yours! I see how successful you've become! Everything before was my fault! I was blind and cruel! I'm a monster!"
As she spoke, she slapped herself repeatedly, the sharp cracks echoing through my minimalist office.
"Hate me! Hit me! Kill me if you want! But Gregory is your father! And Vivi... whatever her faults, she's been your sister for over a decade!" Tears and mascara streamed down her face as she crawled forward, clutching at my pant leg. "They can't go to prison! It would destroy them! Please remember we're still family... remember I raised you... help them this one time!"
She looked up, her eyes wild with the desperate hope of a drowning person spotting a lifeline: "If you save them, I'll serve you for the rest of my life! I'll do anything! Please, Lucy!"
I remained seated, watching her performance with the detached interest of someone observing an insect under glass, my heart unmoved.
When her sobs quieted to hiccups, I finally spoke, my voice eerily serene: "Rachel, you finally understand."
"But your epiphany comes too late."
I rose and walked to the wall of windows, gazing at the rain-blurred city lights below.
"You raised me for over a decade?" I let out a soft, bitter laugh. "During those years, I lived worse than a stray dog. The scraps you fed me, the hand-me-downs, that damp storage closet—all designed to keep me functional enough to be Vivian's personal servant and emotional punching bag."
I turned to face her, my gaze cutting like a scalpel: "Now you speak of family bonds? Of maternal kindness? Where was this sentiment when you forced me to reject Westlake Academy's scholarship? When you watched Vivian humiliate me and then blamed me for it? When you repeatedly sacrificed my future to feed your precious daughter's insatiable ego?"
"Moonlight Tech exists despite the Woods family, not because of it. I built this company from nothing, coding in that damp storage room night after night, succeeding through my own determination and talent!"
My voice hardened, brooking no argument: "Gregory broke the law. Vivian committed fraud. The justice system will determine their punishment."
I pressed the intercom: "Security, please remove this woman from my office."
"No——!! Lucy! You can't be this cruel! You're inhuman!!" Rachel's shrieks echoed down the hallway as security dragged her flailing form toward the elevators.
Her curses faded to nothing as the elevator doors closed.
I returned to my chair, silence settling over the office once more, broken only by raindrops tapping against the glass.
The endgame was approaching.
