Chapter 3

All of Felix's relatives looked fierce, each with a wrench in their hands.

"Winona, am I being too nice to you?" Felix shouted through the crack in the door at me.

"If you don't hand over the property rights to this apartment and pay up today, let's see who can save you!"

Zoe stood behind him, holding the pair of gold bracelets I had prepared for my wedding.

They were left to me by my grandmother.

"Winona, these gold bracelets are really heavy. Selling them should be enough for our whole family to live in the city for a while."

Zoe grinned from ear to ear. Then, right in front of me, she slipped the bracelets into her pocket.

"Put that down!" I yelled, slamming hard into the door. But Felix held it shut from the outside.

Bertha fed him ideas from the side. "Felix, unruly people like her need to be starved for a few days to behave.

"Go find the property deed. Then make her transfer it into your name."

Bertha added, "She's an only child, and her family is rich. This apartment can count as a wedding gift to us."

Felix nodded, his eyes full of greed. "Mom, don't worry. Once she's in there, she doesn't get a say."

I leaned against the counter, forcing myself to stay calm.

Felix had snatched away my phone, and I couldn't contact the outside world.

But I knew my computer was still on. It was connected to a hidden camera I had installed to monitor the renovation progress. By now, it should have recorded everything they were doing.

I looked at Zoe and said, "Zoe, do you really think Felix can protect you? Is the child you're carrying even really his?"

Zoe's expression froze.

Felix turned to look at her. Then, he asked me, "Winona, what are you talking about? How could Zoe be pregnant?"

Zoe immediately started wiping away her tears. "Felix, she's trying to drive a wedge between us. She wants me dead!"

I scoffed.

"Last week, I went for a prenatal checkup. I happened to see you in the obstetrics department. The doctor even called your real name, Maria Levine.

"Should I go into more detail about how you're carrying that old man's child? And that you planned to pass it off as Felix's?"

Felix froze and looked at Zoe suspiciously.

Zoe suddenly rushed at me like she had lost her mind.

She screamed, "Winona, I'll rip your mouth off!"

She grabbed the scissors from Felix and started wildly scratching the glass kitchen door. The screeching sound made my skin crawl.

Bertha panicked when she heard the baby wasn't Felix's, but what she cared about more was the apartment.

"Felix, don't listen to this shrew. She's just trying to drive a wedge between us!" she said hurriedly. "Get the property deed first. Once you have the apartment, you can have any woman you want!"

Felix pulled a stack of papers from his pocket and shoved them through the door gap.

He said, "Winona, sign this voluntary gift agreement. Once you're done, I'll let you come out and eat. Otherwise, you can rot in there!"

I looked at the agreement. There were so many typos.

But that didn't matter. What mattered was that I knew what Felix feared most.

"Felix, you embezzled two million from your company," I said calmly. "If I call the police now, you'll spend the rest of your life in prison."

"How did you know that?" Felix's breathing turned ragged.

He had embezzled the money six months earlier to invest in cryptocurrency. He ended up losing it all.

He had intended to use my apartment as collateral to fill that bottomless hole.

Passersby were already taking photos. The movers were still in a standoff with Felix's relatives.

"Not only do I know that, I also know you transferred half of that money into Zoe's name," I said. "The moment I press confirm, the police will be here within five minutes."

I pointed at the tiny camera mounted above the kitchen cabinets.

"Every second right now is being recorded and streamed in real time."