Dad’s eyes started rolling back as Hasan choked him. I cried and climbed onto Hasan’s back, trying to choke him like he did to my dad. “Let go of my dad! Let go of my dad!” But I was too weak to pose any threat. I opened my mouth and bit into his neck with all my strength. Blood filled my mouth, making me feel sick, but I didn’t dare let go. I feared that if I did, he would kill my dad.
Hasan screamed in pain, “Theron!” I knew my desperate effort was working, so I bit down even harder. Soon, a pair of small hands pulled me off. Hasan released Dad and threw me onto the stairs, slapping me hard. My head buzzed, and everything went blank. “Theron, keep an eye on her!” I struggled desperately, but a pair of hands with a black mole on the inside of the arm held me back.
I watched helplessly as Hasan kicked Dad through the gap. Dad’s terrified scream briefly pierced the air. The tower was thirty meters high. I heard a loud thud and then nothing more from Dad. Tears streamed down my face as I stared up at the sky in despair. At that moment, it seemed like even the heavens felt our sorrow as torrential rain began to pour down.
Later, in my mind, I seemed to hear Mom’s voice. When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed surrounded by police officers asking questions. But I had a high fever and couldn’t remember anything. The doctor later said that my brain had chosen temporary amnesia to protect itself from the trauma.
Dad’s death made me silent and withdrawn. Mom was heartbroken but took on the burden of life for my sake. She feared for my safety and kept me close, borrowing money from relatives and friends to start a street stall business. Mom had a keen business sense and paid off the high-interest loans within the first year. She began accumulating funds to start a company and make a comeback.
In less than two years, Mom succeeded. Once her company was on solid ground , she took me to France for psychological treatment and education. To manage both her business and care for me, she traveled between home and France every month. This continued until I turned eighteen; by then, Mom’s business had grown so much that she ranked among the top ten richest people.
Knowing my interest in business, she gifted me a shopping mall for my eighteenth birthday. Later, Theron was hired as our live-in housekeeper. By then, he had undergone some cosmetic adjustments and bore a slight resemblance to Dad in his younger years.
But how could there just happen to be someone who looked like Dad? Mom noticed something suspicious and got close to Theron, announcing their wedding plans meticulously. She scheduled the wedding during the days I would be participating in a jewelry design competition to protect me from getting involved.
However, I was nominated by the competition organizers and exempted from participating early on. I secretly returned home to surprise them with wedding blessings but instead found Theron cruelly beating me, mistaking me for an intruder.
During this abuse, memories from my childhood resurfaced. Hasan Miller’s son had spent years getting close to Mom to earn her trust. Hasan probably thought that after so many years since the kidnapping incident, no one would remember it anymore.
He couldn’t have his lover, so he let his son have her instead. Unfortunately for him, his dream was about to shatter.