I had thirty minutes to save his dying mother, but my husband smashed the only antidote because his mistress had a party. My mother-in-law had been poisoned and was dying. I was the only toxicology expert in the city who could save her. I hung up the phone and was about to leave when Silas blocked my way. "Today's the grand opening of Bella's Nightmare Estate. You walk out now, who's gonna play the beggar NPC?" My face went cold. I told him the antidote window was thirty minutes. One second too late and his mother was dead. Silas just looked annoyed. "So your mom dies. She dies. I'll toss a few bucks at the funeral home, problem solved. But you mess with my day and I will end you." Bella threw herself onto him, laughing and wrapping around his neck. "Aw, is she in a rush to sneak off and ride some other guy? Look at that face, baby. She's more worked up than you are when I'm on top of you. Isn't that right, my man?" I could've laughed at how shameless these two were. Silas had it all wrong. He thought the one dying of poison was my mother.
"Fine. I'm not going." I tucked the antidote serum back into my coat and kept my face perfectly still. Silas froze. He'd probably expected me to cry and beg, or to bolt for the door no matter what he said. He squinted at me. "Scared now, huh? Bella's opening is worth a hundred of your trashy mother." Bella gave his chest a playful smack and giggled. "See? My man's got a real talent for training women." "Speaking of which, baby, is that how you broke her in? In bed? Last time you tried that new position on me I couldn't walk for three days." The two of them were all over each other within seconds. I cleared my throat. Silas snapped. "What now, Elara? Your filthy, stinking mother dies, she dies. The woman reeks of piss and shit from head to toe." "What, did she dig through another dumpster for food and poison herself?" "Why even bother going? To collect the body? Just flush her down the drain and be done with it." I'd always told myself Silas was just being manipulated by Bella, that conniving pick-me bitch. That he was confused. That he wasn't really this cold. But he actually thought the one dying of poison was my mother. And my mother's life wasn't even worth as much as the grand opening of Bella's little haunted house. Disgusting. I pulled out a chair and sat down. "Sure. I'll stay." "Your fun matters most. Mom's life is nothing." Silas paused, and the contempt in his eyes deepened. "Smart girl. So even you know your stinking mother's life is worthless." Bella giggled and draped herself all over him. "Good for you, Elara, knowing your place. Your mom's probably faking it to squeeze out some cash before she croaks. What, you wanna rush over and grab your cut before she flatlines?" Silas leaned back and let Bella's hands wander wherever they pleased. "Let me make this real clear, Elara. I put three hundred million into the Nightmare Estate. It's my gift to Bella." "You ruin this for us and I won't just let your mother die. I'll wipe out your whole family." Right then Silas's phone rang and he hit speaker without even looking, irritation all over his face. "Mr. Vane? Your mother is fading fast. If Professor Thorne doesn't get here with the serum soon, it'll be too late." Silas lost it. He grabbed me and shook me and the vial of serum slipped off me and hit the floor. "Don't you dare compare Elara's worthless old hag of a mother to mine. Let her die already! Call me again and I'll blow your whole hospital to the ground!" The second he finished, he stomped down and crushed the serum under his heel.
Any chance of saving my mother-in-law was gone. My team had spent three full years in the lab developing that single vial of serum. Over a thousand failed attempts. Enough funding to buy ten Nightmare Estates. And that was the only finished dose. Silas hung up the phone with a smug grin still plastered on his face. "Go ahead and let your broke-ass mother rot in that hospital bed. If it weren't for that face and the fact that you put in work between the sheets, you think you'd have ever set foot in the Vane household?" Bella stood on her tiptoes and kissed his jaw. "Honestly, Elara, your mom dying is a blessing. No more scheming for handouts. Last time she actually begged me to help her find a job sweeping parks so she could collect an extra twenty bottles a day. I almost died laughing." I did laugh. The trust fund under my mother's name generated enough interest every single year to buy ten Vane families. Who did they think they were? The Vane family's entire business was a charity project I'd propped up because I felt sorry for him. After I was kidnapped as a child, the trauma stuck with me, and my mother made me hide my identity from everyone. And Silas turned around and used my money to buy Bella gifts, then mocked me to my face. Where did they get the nerve? "If someone's dying and you don't want to help, that's your business. But insult my mother one more time and see what happens." Silas whipped around, sneering. "Did you just threaten me?" "Your mother dying on opening day? That's good luck for us. She should be honored." His friends joined in. "Yo Silas, the opening's tonight and we still haven't tested that new extreme room." Silas glanced at me and snapped his fingers at the bodyguards. "Since you want to run your mouth, you can be Bella's test dummy." I fought as hard as I could but they pinned me down on a surgical table inside one of the bio-lab themed rooms. The overhead light was a sickly green. Fake organs hung from the ceiling on hooks, swaying slightly in the air conditioning. Everything smelled like fresh paint and latex. Bella picked up an enormous syringe from the tray beside me. "Welcome to my horror laboratory!" "Today we'll be conducting a thrilling live experiment!" Everyone burst out laughing. "Not gonna lie, the scare factor is insane. I'm streaming this. Tonight's opening is gonna blow up." Right then the phone in my coat pocket started ringing nonstop. Silas was clearly pissed that his little show was being interrupted. Then he saw the name on my screen, "CEO Thorne," and smashed the phone straight into my head. "Look at you, Elara. Moving up in the world." Bella jabbed a finger into his chest. "A CEO? Wow, Elara, you're really something. Stringing along my man with one hand and hooking some rich old guy with the other?" "Bet you killed your own mother on purpose so you could scam some money and run off with this sugar daddy." Bella moved closer as she talked, drawing a tube of strange liquid from one of the containers. "Let me teach this shameless little whore a lesson." Silas was thrilled. "That's my girl. When you're done, strip her and lock her in a cage so every guest tonight can get a good look." Bella grinned and drove the needle straight at my neck.
I broke free of the restraints in one move. All those years of escape training hadn't gone to waste. I grabbed the syringe and jammed it right into Bella's hand. Bella screamed. The skin on her hand started to corrode and dissolve, white smoke rising off the flesh. "My hand! My hand!" She shrieked in pure terror. Everyone around us panicked and stumbled backward. "What the hell? I thought that was a prop!" "Is that... is that real acid?" Silas lost it too. He saw the damage spreading up Bella's arm and pulled her close, kissing her and cooing over her. Then he turned around and slapped me across the face. "You bitch! You hurt my Bella!" "Get on your knees and beg her for forgiveness right now, or I swear your mother won't even have ashes left to bury!" Just then a commotion broke out near the entrance. "Professor Thorne! We've been calling you nonstop. We had to track your phone to find you!" "The patient was still hanging on, waiting for your serum, but on the way here..." A few of the staff members sighed. "She's gone. We've brought the body to the family. You should start making arrangements." Silas looked disgusted. "Your mother really doesn't know when to quit, does she, Elara?" Bella's face twisted with venom. "They brought the body here? What is this, a grand opening gift? One free corpse with every ticket?" The friends around them howled with laughter. "Holy shit, Silas! A real body delivered to the castle on opening night? Marketing genius!" "Kinda smells though. What is that?" Silas pinched his nose and kicked the stretcher over. "Disgusting piece of trash. Can't even die in peace." The body tumbled off and hit the concrete hard. The face was bloated and purple beyond recognition. Somewhere above us a prop skeleton swung on its chain, creaking. The green overhead light flickered once. Nobody was laughing anymore. But nobody was leaving either. Silas looked like he'd just found a new toy. He grabbed me by the hair and shoved my face down toward the corpse. "Get on your knees and bark like a dog for Bella, Elara. Apologize like you mean it and maybe I'll spare your mother. Otherwise she becomes the Nightmare Estate's first real ghost." My scalp burned from the pulling. But all I could think was how perfectly this was playing out. I knocked his hand away. "You're the one who loves barking. Go ahead. Let's see how you little dogs sound." Silas was livid. "You still have the nerve to talk back?" He lifted his foot and stomped down on the corpse's head. I smiled. "Silas, all I said on the phone was that Mom had been poisoned and was dying." "What if the head under your foot isn't my mother's? What if it's yours?"
Watch? https://cps-front.novelix.live/app-api/ext/new/20260619MvkZmo9XWt ? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "Novelix" app ? search for "ni815992", and watch the full series ✨! #Novelix