Blurb：
Betrayed and left for dead in a bridal salon, Barney Tucker’s world shatters when Milo Austin attacks him, claiming to be Susan Lefebvre’s true husband. With sulfuric acid burns and a knife wound, Barney’s seven-year engagement to Susan is exposed as a lie. As the Lefebvre family’s power looms, Barney’s sister Allison Tucker arrives, igniting a fierce retaliation. Dive into this gripping tale of vengeance, family loyalty, and dark secrets in Dorilholt. Will the Tucker family’s influence overcome the Lefebvres’ dominance? Explore the escalating conflict where no one is safe from the fallout of betrayal.
Content：
The day I went to try on my wedding suit, a stranger stormed into the VIP fitting room and drove a knife into my gut.
Sleeping with my woman, and you dare wear a suit this expensive? He ripped my shirt into ribbons with a wild grin and threw sulfuric acid straight at me.
The knife was buried deep in my abdomen. Pain ripped through me as I collapsed.
He yanked my hair, forcing my head up. “Susan Lefebvre is my wife. What the hell are you? Just some filthy side piece hiding in the shadows!”
Blood dripped from my fingertips as the truth sank in. The fiance I’d loved for seven years had been cheating on me all along.
“What are you staring at?” He sneered. “Even if I kill you, no one can touch me. My wife runs this city!”
Watching that arrogant face twist in triumph, I took out my phone with a trembling, blood-soaked hand and dialed my sister.
“Allison,” I said, my voice cold and calm. “Come pick me up at the bridal salon. And tell the Lefebvres that the engagement is off.”
Chapter 1
…
When I hung up, the expensive suit on my back was already eaten through by acid.
My skin burned like hellfire. The stench of chemicals mixed with blood and rot as yellowish fluid oozed from my wounds.
I glared at the man in front of me, hatred so fierce it could have burned through him.
Onlookers formed a ring of phones and burst into laughter.
“Hahaha! Serves him right for stealing from Milo!”
Milo Austin pointed at my nose and spat, “You piece of trash! Still pretending, huh? You think calling someone’s gonna save you? The Tucker family? Never heard of them. I’m calling the police now and have you attested.”
Blood streamed between my fingers as I clutched my abdomen. My vision swam, the world fading in and out.
Looking at the group of henchmen behind him, I regretted not bringing my bodyguards with me that day.
I glanced around, desperate for rescue, but everyone just watched, whispering and smirking. Grinding my teeth, I forced myself to stand. My eyes locked on Milocold, bloodshot, murderous.
“I don’t care who you think you are,” I said. “I’ll say it once. I am Barney Tucker from Dorilholt! Leave now or face the consequences!”
Enraged by my defiance, he kicked me hard in the gut, right where the knife had gone in. “What a joke! You think I’m scared of you? I’m Milo, Susan Lefebvre’s husband. You’re just a nobody who talks too much.”
Pain exploded through me as the wound tore open again. Blood poured down my torso, but I barely felt it anymore.
His words kept echoing in my head. He claimed that he was Susan’s husband. Then what was I?
I looked at his smug face and smiled bitterly as realization hit me. Susan had cheated on me.
The woman I’d loved since childhood, the one chosen by both our families, my fiance of seven years, had been sleeping with someone else behind my back.
I swallowed the rage boiling in my chest and hissed through clenched teeth, “Milo, right? You’re going to drive me to the hospital and call Susan over!”
He froze, staring at me like I was insane.
I glared back, my voice turning to steel. “If something happens to me, my family won’t let you off the hook. Susan will be buried with you!”
Silence settled in, broken by Milo’s wild laughter. He grabbed my hair again, slamming my head into the floor.
“What a big tone!” he scoffed. “You think you can order me around? Even if I kill you right here, no one can touch me. The Lefebvres run this city.”
My skull rang as blood blurred my vision. He ground his heel into my wound, twisting cruelly. Pain and despair crashed over me in waves.
Just then, a screech came over as a matte-black luxury car roared up to the glass doors.
Relief flickered through the agony. I looked up at Milo and sneered, “I told you, I’m a Tucker. My sister is here. Prepare yourself!”
Chapter 2
“Barney!” Allison Tucker called out in alarm, seeing my broken form.
Anger rose in her like a tidal wave. She crossed the room in four strides, tore off her shawl, and wrapped it around my bare shoulders.
She crushed me against her chest; her heartbeat thundered in my ear. “You all right, Barney? Don’t be afraid. I’ve got you.”
A sour ache hit the tip of my nose, and hot tears rolled down my face. She reached up and brushed them away with fingers that trembled a little.
Then she turned to glare at Milo. “You’re dead for hurting my brother!”
As if he had heard the dumbest joke, Milo threw back his head and burst into laughter. When he stopped, his eyes were snake-slits.
“Big words,” he scoffed. “Let’s see if you can bluff like this later.”
Turning to the guards, he barked, “Get her! Teach her a lesson she’ll never forget!”
The goons behind him lunged forward, meeting the escorts brought by Allison. They knocked a few of Milo’s men flat, but more poured out until our side staggered.
I clutched Allison’s sleeve. “Didn’t you bring more people?”
She frowned, patting my hand. “Don’t worry. Dad’s bringing the main force. These people will pay for messing with you.”
Milo’s smirk faltered as his men hit the floor one by one. He glanced at me, then pulled out his phone and began to dial a number. “Just you wait! I’m calling over Susan to deal with you!”
Once the line was through, he put the phone on speaker, whining, “Honey, a woman named Allison Tucker is trying to kill me for hurting her brother. Come save me!”
An anxious voice came from the other end. “Allison? Which one? Where are you? Stay put. I’m on my way!”
Seven years together, and I could pick Susan’s voice out of a crowd. Even through the speaker, I heard the tremor threaded in every syllable.
I smiled with something that felt almost like dread, expecting her arrival and reactions later.
Milo ended the call with a jackal’s cackle. “Ha! My wife is coming to bury you both. Says she doesn’t know any Allison. Guess I’ll just finish you off and compensate a little. Problem solved.”
He spun to his men. “0-0 million to whoever brings me their heads!”
Greed lit every goon’s face. One snatched a knife off the table and lunged forward.
“Barney, close your eyes,” Allison said, whirling to shield me with her body.
Before I could react, a warm hand slammed across my face, covering my eyes. A muffled cry echoed, and the smell of blood pervaded the air.
The omen that had been gnawing at me flared into terror. I clawed at her hand, desperate. “Allison, what’s wrong?”
When she finally let go, I saw the jagged tear across her forearm, the blood mapping out little rivers down her skin. Someone kicked us hard, and we hit the floor with a thud that jangled bones.
She coughed up something dark and wet. I screamed, raw and desperate, “Allison!”
My chest ached from the force, as if someone pressed a hot iron against it. I’d come away without a scratch, but her white dress was soaked in blood.
Rage climbed up like a living thing in my gut. I saw the blurred edges of the world through tears and fury.
I snatched the tailor’s shears from the nearby workstation, rushed up to Milo, and drove them into his abdomen.
Chapter 3
Milo shrieked like a stuck pig.
Not done, I clutched the scissors, twisting them wildly into his flesh.
“You worthless bastard! How dare you hurt me?” He grabbed the handle, kicked me hard, and roared with fury.
The blow sent me sprawling to the floor. I tasted blood rising in my throat.
“Get him!” he shouted, his voice cracking with rage. “I want him dead!”
At once, the goons turned toward me with cold ferocity. A wooden chair came crashing down toward my head.
“Don’t touch my brother!” Allison bellowed, stumbling in front of me just as the chair smashed into her skull.
“Allison!” I screamed, catching her fallen form.
She collapsed into my arms, twitching, then went still. I fumbled to hold her up, but the goons tackled me, pinning me to the ground.
My limbs were crushed under their weight. My face scraped the concrete as I struggled, screaming through blood and tears.
Milo’s leather shoe pressed down on my fingers. “Is that it?”
I curled up into a ball, my body twisting in agony. My face went ashen, cold sweat pouring down my skin, and my vision began to blur.
His manic laughter echoed in my ears. “Don’t die so soon. I’ve prepared a special gift for you two.”
A blow came crashing down, and everything went black.
When I opened my eyes again, Allison and I were trapped inside a glass-walled freezer.
Every inch of skin that touched the icy ground throbbed with stabbing pain. I shivered uncontrollably, while Allison’s face had already turned purple, frost clinging to her lashes.
I rubbed my palms together, pressing the warmth against her cheeks, as blood and tears slid down my face.
“Allison, stay with me! Don’t sleep. Dad is on his way to save us. Hold on,” I muttered, but her breath grew weaker.
My heart sinking into despair, I glared at Milo through the glass, my eyes red as if they would bleed. “If something happens to her, I’ll wear your skin as a coat!”
Unfazed, he pulled on a cashmere coat and strutted into the freezer. “You sure talk a lot!”
He shoved a rag into my mouth and kicked me hard in the chest. “So much anger. Time to chill.”
He kicked over a bucket, the icy water instantly spreading under my feet. In the freezing temperature, it quickly turned to ice, welding me to the ground.
The cold seeped deep into my bones, each second sharper than knives.
“Enjoy the gift I prepared for you?” Milo grinned, admiring my misery, before walking out of the freezer.
I stared in despair at my lifeless sister, drowning in regret. I itched to rush outside and kill that bastard.
The phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated, interrupting my thoughts. My pupils contracted as I saw a call from Susan.
Enduring the pain that tore at my flesh with every movement, I inched toward the phone and answered it.
Panic vibrated in her voice. “Barney, where are you? I can explain about Milo later! Just let him go! Otherwise…”
She paused. “I’ll hate you for the rest of my life.”
The blood beneath me steamed against the ice, and my heart clenched painfully in my chest. My face twisted with madness and despair.
“Hate me?”
From the very day we got together, Allison had been secretly helping Susan behind the scenes, all so that our father would accept her.
In just three years, she’d turned the Lefebvre Group into an industry leader. And this was how Susan repaid us, using our money to keep a lover and letting him hurt us like this.
She was nothing but an ingrate, and her lover was now trying to kill us. With the rag still stuffed in my mouth, all my fury could only come out as muffled sobs.
Milo burst back in, pausing at Susan’s voice on the phone. He rushed over and snatched the phone. “Babe, why are you calling the home-wrecker?”
Getting no response from me, Susan panicked. “Where is Barney?”
“So, that’s his name, huh?” Milo sneered. “Just roughing him up, showing him I’m not someone to mess with.”
The silence on the other end of the phone was thick and lethal, broken by Susan’s furious scream. “What the hell did you do? He is from the Tucker family. You’re gonna get us both killed!”
Milo jolted, the phone slipping from his hand and crashing to the floor. His pupils widened in shock, disbelief flooding his face.
For several seconds, he just stood there frozen, then jerked his head toward me.
Chapter 4
Milo ripped the rag from my mouth and raised his voice in a furious demand. “Are you really Barney Tucker?”
Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. I gave him a cold, broken smile. “Now you believe me? Then do the right thing and take Allison to…”
Before I could finish, his hand struck across my face with a loud, stinging crack. “Shut up! I’m Susan’s husband. So what if you’re a Tucker? Doesn’t change the fact that you’re a homewrecker.”
He took out his phone and shoved it in my face. On the screen was a photo of their marriage certificate, the date burning into my mind.
I laughed bitterly, finally understanding why Susan had always worked late these past five years. She hadn’t been busy with work at all. She’d been married to Milo.
I had been such a fool, worried about her exhaustion and begging Allison to send talented people to assist her, and what had she done in return? Lying to be with Milo.
In our seven-year relationship, she had spent five of them dating another man. What Milo said wasn’t just a punchline. I was indeed an outsider in their relationship.
I laughed until tears streamed down my cheeks. My chest heaved, and I coughed up a mouthful of dark blood.
Milo’s face twisted in fury. “Susan loves me. She’d never yell at me. You seduced her, didn’t you?”
He gripped my throat. “Answer me!”
In a blind rage, I sank my teeth into his wrist. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, making me gag. I spat a bloody wad at his feet and sneered at him.
He didn’t even flinch, just smiled with a crazed glint in his eyes. “Go to hell! Once you’re gone, Susan will be mine alone.”
He staggered out of the room, then came back with a canister filled with some kind of liquid. He uncapped it and dumped it over me.
The cold splash hit my face, followed by an overwhelming, nauseating stench.
It was unmistakably gasoline. Milo wanted to burn me alive.
Panic surged through me. I grabbed Allison and tried to run toward the door, but it was too late.
The lighter in his hand clicked once, then came the flash. Flames exploded across my clothes, licking upward in hungry tongues.
The smell of burning flesh filled the air. I rolled on the ground, screaming in agony, but the fire only spread faster.
Maybe my cries were too desperate. Allison, who’d been unconscious, suddenly stirred.
Her eyes flew open, and she cried out, “Barney!”
Driven by horror, she tore free from the ropes binding her wrists and ankles, stumbling toward me without hesitation.
Through the haze of pain, I shouted hoarsely, “Don’t come closer! You’ll die too! Stay back!”
She ignored my warning, slapping at the flames with her bare hands. “Barney, I’ll save you. You’re gonna be fine!”
The moment her hands met the fire, the skin on them blackened and peeled, revealing raw flesh underneath.
Her pained expression broke my heart, but the moment tears welled up, they were dried by a blast of heat.
Not stopping, she forced a trembling smile to reassure me. “Don’t cry, Barney. I’m fine.”
I’d never seen her look so broken before. And it was all because of me.
Regret tore through me like a second fire, burning deeper than the flames ever could. I pounded my chest, glaring at Milo with every ounce of hatred in my soul.
It was all my fault. If I hadn’t fallen for that heartless woman, none of this would’ve happened.
“Milo!” I roared. “When my father gets here, I swear I’ll kill you!”
He laughed mockingly, gasoline pouring from his hands onto the glass floor. He flicked the lighter open again, the flame reflecting in his deranged eyes.
“Still taking big!” he snorted. “It’s fine. I’ll send you both to hell.”
Just as the fire was about to swallow us whole, two voices thundered through the warehouse.
“Stop!” Susan rushed up, her face pale.
“Who dares touch my children?” Wilfred Tucker burst in, flanked by a group of bodyguards.
The moment he saw our burned forms, his face twisted with fury so deep it seemed to shake the earth itself.
Susan collapsed, and Milo froze, his insanity giving way to terror.
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