In a small alley beside The Nimbus Hotel, Ethan Sutton lay on the cold ground, barely breathing, his body trembling slightly.

His trench coat was a crumpled mess, covered in footprints.

His face was black and blue from the beating. One eye had been punched so hard it was now red, swollen, and sealed shut.

Raymond Hayes and a few of his men stood before Ethan Sutton. Watching his half-dead state, mocking smiles spread across their faces.

Raymond Hayes held a half-smoked, lit cigarette. He leaned down, took a drag, and then viciously ground the butt out on Ethan Sutton’s face.

Ethan Sutton’s body convulsed from the searing pain, and he let out an agonized scream. "AH—!!!"

Ethan Sutton tried to struggle to his feet, but his legs felt broken. He couldn’t stand at all. He could only lie on the ground, groaning and begging for mercy, "Please, let me go. I’m telling the truth..."

"...It was Clara Hayes! She told me to go on stage when the banquet started and announce that Sylvia Lancaster was having an affair and got knocked up by some other man... She said she’d give me five million if I did it..."

"...I really didn’t know Sylvia was your actual sister! If I’d known, I never would have agreed to do this for Clara..."

After the Sutton Family went bankrupt, they were kicked out of high society. On top of that, ever since Elias Sutton’s death, Mr. and Mrs. Sutton had become erratic and superstitious. Over time, all their old relatives and friends cut off contact with the family.

Ethan Sutton had always been arrogant and loved to cultivate the image of a devoted romantic. Many people couldn’t stand him, so he had few real friends to begin with. The sycophants who had once flattered him for the Sutton family’s resources all scattered to the winds after their bankruptcy.

That was why, even now, no one had told the Suttons that Sylvia Lancaster had been officially welcomed back into the Hayes family.

Ethan Sutton was filled with overwhelming regret. ’If I had only known that Sylvia is now the second daughter of the Hayes family, I never would have agreed to Clara’s plan!’

Enduring the pain that wracked his body, Ethan Sutton pleaded with Raymond Hayes, "I... I’m telling the truth. Please, just let me go..."

Raymond Hayes said nothing, simply staring at Ethan Sutton with a grim expression. The scar on his face looked particularly ghastly in the dim light.

He toyed with Ethan Sutton’s phone. The call log did indeed show calls with Clara Hayes.

Just yesterday, Sylvia had come to him in tears, saying she’d accidentally overheard Clara conspiring with her ex-husband, Ethan Sutton, to plot against her.

Sylvia had looked at Raymond with tears in her eyes, her voice choked with sobs. "Brother, if our sister hates me this much, maybe I should just leave... It would be better than being humiliated like this..."

Looking at Sylvia’s face, so similar to his late wife’s, the memory of her murder surged back, completely igniting his fury.

Raymond had held Sylvia, comforting her and stroking the birthmark on the nape of her neck, promising that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.

At his words, Sylvia had thrown herself into Raymond’s arms and burst into tears, as if she had finally found an anchor. She poured out all the miseries she had suffered with the Sutton family...

Recalling this, Raymond’s voice grew heavy. "I heard you started cheating on my sister while she was pregnant. And you let your parents torment and abuse her in your own home? Tormented her until she miscarried?"

Ethan Sutton’s gaze faltered. He wanted to argue that he’d only been sleeping with prostitutes while Sylvia was pregnant, which wasn’t *really* cheating. ’I didn’t love those women,’ he thought. ’It doesn’t count as an affair.’

But he was afraid that if he actually said that, Raymond would just beat him again.

Besides, it was true that his parents had hired a spiritualist charlatan to torment Sylvia during her pregnancy... To ensure his younger brother Elias would be reincarnated in Sylvia’s womb, his mother had even forced her to drink copious amounts of Talismanic Water mixed with ash...

Still, he gritted his teeth and tried to defend himself. "Her miscarriage had nothing to do with me! I wasn’t even there... And-and she cheated on me, too! I have the paternity test to prove it!"

Ethan Sutton looked at Raymond with pleading eyes, continuing to beg, "We both cheated, so we’re even. Please, let me go. I promise I’ll never appear before Sylvia again, and I’ll never say a word about this to anyone..." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Ethan Sutton tried to reason with Raymond, but Raymond was not a reasonable man.

He slammed his foot down on the cigarette burn on Ethan’s face, grinding it in as he spoke. "You couldn’t even protect your own wife. You just stood by and watched your parents torture her. What kind of man are you?"

A pained groan escaped Ethan’s throat as he apologized over and over. "I... I was wrong. I’m scum. Please, just let me go... Do it for my parents’ sake. My parents and Mr. Hayes used to be friends... Please..."

Raymond stared at Ethan for a long moment, then removed his foot from his face. He nodded. "You have a point. For the sake of my father’s past friendship with your parents, I’ll spare your life this time."

Ethan Sutton breathed a sigh of relief.

But then Raymond added, "But did you know? The miscarriage damaged my sister’s body. The doctors say it’ll be very difficult for her to ever get pregnant again."

Ethan’s heart, which had just settled, leaped back into his throat. His voice trembled. "I-I was wrong... Tell me how to compensate her. I’ll agree... Just let me go, and I’ll go home right now to get money..."

Raymond ignored him, continuing as if talking to himself. "Since it will be difficult for my sister to have children, then you shouldn’t be able to have any either. That’s only fair. Wouldn’t you agree?"

Then, as Ethan stared in utter shock, a cold smirk spread across Raymond’s face. He gestured to the thugs standing by and ordered, "Castrate him. Chop it up and feed it to the dogs."

At the command, the thugs lunged forward. Two of them pinned down Ethan’s arms and legs while a third began to yank off his pants.

Ethan began to struggle, screaming, "No! Don’t! HELP ME—"

But a thug brutally gagged him with a dirty rag, muffling his screams into, "MMPH—MMPH—"

As Ethan watched in terror and despair, the thug moved with practiced ease. With a swift fall of the blade, blood instantly stained the ground beneath him...

Excruciating pain shot from his groin up his spine to his brain. Under the dual assault of agony and despair, Ethan Sutton blacked out.

The thug expertly bandaged Ethan’s wound to stop the bleeding, preventing him from dying of blood loss.

After tending to Ethan’s wound, the thug stood and said respectfully to Raymond, "Boss, what do you want us to do with this guy?"

Raymond glanced at Ethan in disgust and said coldly, "Tie him up. Dump him back at the Sutton house."

The thugs acknowledged the order and carried the unconscious Ethan away.

Raymond picked up Ethan’s phone and sent a message to Clara, telling her to meet him in the underground parking garage of The Nimbus Hotel...

******

In the banquet hall, Clara Hayes waited and waited, but there was still no sign of Ethan Sutton. She grew anxious, muttering, "This Ethan Sutton... Is he reliable at all?"

Suddenly, with a DING, Clara’s phone lit up. It showed a new message from Ethan Sutton.

Clara read the message and felt a little confused.

She tried calling Ethan, but he didn’t answer.

Clara frowned. Resigned, she stood up and, pretending to go to the restroom to adjust her clothes, headed for the underground parking garage.

Watching Clara’s retreating figure, Lily Adler and Sylvia Lancaster, who were standing by the terrace garden, exchanged a look. A knowing smile was reflected in both their eyes.