At Melody Summers’s words, a desperate look flickered in Clara Hayes’s eyes.

She looked at Melody Summers anxiously, frantically trying to defend herself. "Everything I did before was because I was tricked by that bitch Sylvia Lancaster!"

"Melody Summers, think about it! If it weren’t for Sylvia Lancaster, I never would have targeted you. We had no reason to hate each other! This is all Sylvia Lancaster’s fault!"

Melody Summers heard this, her expression unchanging, but inwardly, she couldn’t help but sneer.

’Even if the main culprit is Sylvia Lancaster, the one fanning the flames from behind the scenes, does that make Clara Hayes innocent?’

’Didn’t Clara Hayes herself enjoy the thrill of bullying others? Why is she trying to wash her hands of it all now?’

Seeing that Melody Summers had no intention of helping untie her, Clara Hayes began to panic.

She spoke to Melody Summers again, her voice laced with anxiety. "Melody Summers, you must hate that imposter Sylvia Lancaster for stealing your family, right?"

"It’s the same for me now! Sylvia Lancaster stole my family too. We’ve both been victimized by her! Sylvia Lancaster is our common enemy!"

Every word from Clara Hayes was laced with sincerity as she tried to pull Melody Summers into an alliance.

She felt that since they had both had their families stolen by Sylvia Lancaster, Melody Summers should be able to sympathize with her.

"Melody Summers, untie me! I’m going to go settle the score with Sylvia Lancaster and Lily Adler! Do you have any idea what they did to me? They actually..."

As Clara Hayes spoke, she trailed off, her wide eyes filling with humiliation.

Hearing this, Melody Summers didn’t offer the sympathy Clara Hayes hoped for. Instead, she scoffed. "Clara Hayes, didn’t you used to love finding people to bully girls you didn’t like? What, now that it’s your turn, you can’t take it?"

Melody Summers remembered clearly. In her past life, the siblings Clara and Hugh Hayes had tried to drug her multiple times. They even hired people to try and rape her, but she had managed to escape each time.

The two siblings were accustomed to using this tactic, and many girls had fallen victim to them.

But Clara and Hugh Hayes just thought of it as a game. Not only that, they would even mock the girls who committed suicide because they couldn’t bear the humiliation: "We were just messing around, why can’t you take a joke?"

Now that Clara Hayes was experiencing it herself, Melody Summers felt it was nothing but sweet, sweet karma. She was getting what she deserved.

Clara Hayes glared at Melody Summers, her voice trembling as she asked, "Melody Summers, what do you mean by that? Are you just here to watch me suffer? Are you going to help me or not? Hurry up and untie me!"

Of course, Melody Summers had no intention of helping Clara Hayes. For someone like Clara, it was a mercy that Melody wasn’t kicking her while she was down.

If she didn’t want to keep Clara Hayes around to cause trouble for Sylvia Lancaster, Melody Summers would have killed her on the spot and let her be reunited with Hugh Hayes in The Underworld!

Melody Summers snorted coldly. "Of the two people outside, I killed one and tied up the other. You’re safe for now. I’m about to call the police, so just wait here for them to arrive!"

Clara Hayes’s eyes went wide. She said frantically, "No! Don’t call the police! No one can see me like this! Melody Summers, don’t call them! Untie me first, and you can call the police after I’m gone!"

Seeing Melody Summers’s unmoved expression, Clara Hayes burst into tears. "Melody Summers, I’m begging you! If anyone sees me like this, I’m finished!"

Melody Summers watched Clara Hayes coldly, her voice low as she asked, "So you’re afraid of this too? I thought you didn’t care... Since you’re so afraid of being seen, why didn’t you ever think about this when you were bullying other people?!"

At these words, Clara Hayes finally broke down completely, crying as she spoke to Melody Summers. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was wrong! I really know I was wrong now! Please, just let me go! I beg you, I promise I’ll never do it again!"

Melody Summers watched Clara Hayes’s tear-streaked face with cold eyes, feeling not a shred of pity.

She didn’t care whether Clara Hayes’s apology was sincere. She felt that people like Clara didn’t deserve forgiveness; otherwise, it would be an insult to all the girls she had bullied.

Melody Summers had originally planned to just walk away, but...

If the police arrived and found Clara Hayes tied up, she might be treated as a victim.

There was no way Melody would let Clara get a lighter sentence because of that!

She felt the entire Hayes Family had to pay the price, every last one of them!

At this thought, Melody Summers sneered. She said nothing more, simply tossing the dagger in her hand to the ground. "Here’s the knife. For everything else, figure it out yourself."

With that, she paid Clara Hayes no more mind and walked straight out the door.

After Melody Summers left, Clara Hayes frantically propped herself up on her elbows, struggling and scraping against the ground as she painstakingly crawled toward the dagger.

Once she reached it, she turned her back, fumbled to position the blade, and began sawing at the ropes that bound her...

******

Melody Summers wiped the blood from her face, stepped outside, and was about to call the police.

But as soon as she walked out the main door, she ran right into several bodyguards who had come looking for her!

The bodyguards breathed a collective sigh of relief when they saw her. "Miss Summers! We finally found you!"

Melody Summers was taken aback. "Why did you follow me in? Didn’t I tell you to wait for me outside the alley?"

The bodyguards replied, a hint of lingering fear in their voices, "You were gone for so long, everyone was terrified. We had to go door-to-door to find you."

Hearing this, Melody Summers gave them an apologetic smile. "I’m fine. Let’s get out of here first."

As she walked toward the alley entrance, Melody Summers took out her phone and composed a message for Roman Rhodes.

She recounted the day’s events to him. "Officer Rhodes, I found Hector Hayes’s base for illegal organ harvesting..."

...

Melody Summers walked out of the alley with the bodyguards, only to be surprised by the sight of Ronan Rhodes waiting at the entrance.

Ronan Rhodes had originally arranged for several bodyguards to pick up Melody Summers and Sophie Thorne after the banquet.

But the thought that Melody Summers might become his aunt made Ronan Rhodes a little uneasy, so he canceled his work for the night and came along himself.

He hadn’t expected, however, that Melody Summers and Sophie Thorne had already left the event early.

When Ronan Rhodes arrived to pick them up, he saw Sophie Thorne looking frantic, waiting near a small alley with the bodyguards.

Upon learning that Melody Summers had ignored all advice and insisted on taking a suspicious pregnant woman home, Ronan Rhodes nearly had a heart attack and immediately sent a group of bodyguards in to find her.

Now, seeing Melody Summers walk out safe and sound, both Sophie Thorne and Ronan Rhodes finally let out a sigh of relief.

Sophie Thorne rushed forward and grabbed Melody Summers’s arm. "You’re finally out! We were about to call the police..."

Then, Sophie Thorne’s words caught in her throat. Her eyes widened as she stared at the dark bloodstains on Melody Summers’s gown, her face a mask of shock. "You... why are you covered in blood?!"

Ronan Rhodes also hurried forward. "Are you hurt? Should we go to the hospital?"

Melody Summers glanced down. There was a patch of blackish-red blood on her dress, spattered in a way that almost looked like a dark red pattern.

She’d been sprayed with blood when she killed one of them. She had wiped her face clean, but there was nothing she could do about her clothes.

Sophie Thorne nervously pulled at Melody Summers, looking her over, trying to find the wound.

Melody Summers quickly reassured her. "It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s not my blood. Let’s get in the car first, I’ll tell you what happened on the way."

Back in the car, Melody Summers omitted the part about the basement and told Sophie Thorne how she had turned the tables on Ms. Archer and Young.

"The pregnant woman was a fake. They use that trick to lure in passersby. I’m sure I wasn’t the first one to fall for it..."

"The ’Lily’ they mentioned is almost certainly Lily Adler! ... I just chewed out Lily Adler and Sylvia Lancaster in the banquet hall. I can’t believe they acted so fast..."

"But how did they dare to kidnap Clara Hayes? Aren’t they afraid of retaliation from Hector Hayes?"

Ronan Rhodes sat in the passenger seat, listening silently to Melody Summers’s story, his heart pounding in secret shock.

He finally understood why his uncle had told him to bring a few extra bodyguards.

’Melody Summers really has some nerve... She knew it was a trap, but she walked right into it!’