CHAPTER SIXTY–SEVEN: Payroll.

“Tell your boy toy to let your father go, Aella! How could you be this wicked!?” Kate asks me in a tone laced with anger.

“Mother, I'm not holding his hands now, am I?” I asked in an innocent tone as I give Ethan a subtle sign to let my father go.

“We should have indeed sent you down to a nondescript orphanage deep in the woods all that time ago. All you've done since you grew up is insult us and punish us for all the good we've done for you!” Kate says with teeth bared as Ethan finally lets my father go.

“Why didn't you?” I ask in an angry emotion-filled tone. At this point, anything would have been better than growing up under their care.

“You ungrateful bitch!” Kate says as she takes a threatening step towards me, stopping short when I don't cower back in fear. I see the uncertainty in her eyes and I can't help but feel smug about it.

Ethan finally lets go of my father and he drops to the ground, coughing violently while clutching his chest.

“When you sleep at night, let Aell