Chapter 230: Chapter 230: Mutual Destruction

The group returned to The Metropolis Residences. Melody Summers thanked Sophie Thorne and Ronan Rhodes. "Thanks for everything. I’ll be heading home now!"

With that, she opened the car door to get out.

After a moment of deliberation, Ronan Rhodes decided to help his uncle, Roman, score some points. "Don’t mention it," he said. "It was mainly my uncle. He was so worried about you that he insisted I bring bodyguards to come get you!"

Melody Summers’s heart sank. ’Oh no,’ she thought. ’For Officer Rhodes to do this... it must mean he sees me as a total troublemaker. I’d better stay far away from him from now on.’

Melody Summers forced a smile at Ronan Rhodes, her heart pounding. All she could hope for now was that Roman Rhodes wouldn’t ask her to return the two handguns.

After Melody Summers got out, Ronan Rhodes and Sophie Thorne headed home as well.

Ronan Rhodes hesitantly started asking Sophie Thorne a lot of questions about Melody Summers’s preferences.

Sophie Thorne gave Ronan Rhodes a confused look, which then turned to one of dawning realization. "Did Yuri Walsh put you up to this?"

Sophie then said, a displeased look on her face, "You shouldn’t be playing matchmaker. Melody doesn’t like people meddling in her business."

Ronan Rhodes was completely baffled. "Why are you suddenly bringing up Yuri Walsh? What does he have to do with any of this?"

Sophie Thorne’s eyes widened. "You mean Yuri Walsh *didn’t* put you up to this? Don’t think I haven’t noticed—it’s written all over his face how he feels about Melody. Not that it matters. Melody has absolutely no interest in him!"

Sophie then frowned in thought. "Yuri Walsh himself is decent enough, but his family... each one is more difficult than the last. You probably didn’t know this, but Zara Walsh actually picked a fight with Melody at the banquet today. Seriously, you should stop trying to play matchmaker!"

Her words finally made Ronan Rhodes realize what was happening. He blurted out, "What? Yuri Walsh? How could he possibly be into Melody Summers!"

Ronan Rhodes buried his face in his hands, despairing. ’It’s hopeless,’ he thought. ’My uncle is over forty. How is he supposed to compete with a guy in his twenties or thirties...’

While Ronan was fretting for Roman, Roman himself was completely oblivious to his nephew’s inner turmoil.

Upon receiving Melody Summers’s message, Roman Rhodes immediately arranged a plan to arrest the Hayes Family and their accomplices.

With the evidence Melody Summers had sent, the entire chain of evidence against the Hayes Family was complete. It was time to close the net, and sooner than planned.

...

******

Before the police could arrive, Clara Hayes frantically sawed through the ropes binding her with the dagger.

Her wrists were scraped raw and bleeding from the blade, but she paid it no mind. ’I can’t let anyone see me like this! Not even the police!’

Though Clara Hayes had the outward appearance of a brazen, wild delinquent, she was, at her core, a deeply conservative woman.

From the time she was a little girl, her mother, Mrs. Hayes, had relentlessly drilled into her that a woman’s virtue was her most important asset.

Mrs. Hayes had taught Clara that a woman must save herself for her husband, giving herself to him completely only after marriage, and that she must then remain faithful to him for the rest of her life.

Lily Adler had devised this plan against Clara precisely because she knew how deeply this would affect her. She was certain that after being assaulted, Clara would never want anyone to find out, and would not even dare tell Hector Hayes.

Once dressed, Clara ignored Young’s corpse in the main room and Ruby in the other, hastily fleeing the house.

Clara clutched the dagger Melody Summers had given her, not even daring to call for her driver. Her only choice was to run home under the cover of darkness.

What she couldn’t have known, however, was that while she was racing desperately for home, armed police had already surrounded the Hayes villa and taken Hector Hayes, Raymond Hayes, and the others into custody...

******

「It was the next day by the time Clara Hayes got home.」

When she finally stumbled back to the villa, looking utterly disheveled, the entire Hayes household had been thrown into chaos.

Hector Hayes, Raymond Hayes, and Lily Adler had all been taken into custody. The police announced they would be back the next day to seize the villa. Upon hearing the news, the maids and housekeepers had packed their bags and scrambled to leave.

The last remaining housekeeper was just about to leave with her bags packed when she ran into Clara returning home.

Seeing Clara’s state, the housekeeper’s heart went out to her. She grabbed Clara’s arm and said, "Miss, the police are about to seize the villa. You need to pack your personal things quickly. You and the other young miss should find a place to go!"

With that, the housekeeper scurried away, lugging two large bags.

Clara stood alone in the main hall, staring blankly at the empty villa. It felt like a dream.

’Did I fight my way out of one hell just to fall into another?’

Clara knew her family’s business wasn’t clean. As a child, she had even seen her older brother, Raymond Hayes, disembowel an enemy’s relative and use their entrails to feed the fish.

Now, the police were arresting people with lightning speed and were about to seize the villa. They must have concrete evidence...

’So, what awaited the Hayes Family?’

’Asset seizure? Execution? The end of our entire family?...’

Once the reality of it all sank in, Clara’s heart turned to ash. She stared blankly into space, muttering, "It’s over... It’s all over..."

She knew there was no hope for the Hayes Family now.

In a single night, Clara felt like she had lost everything...

She took a few dazed steps into the living room before her legs gave out, and she crumpled to the floor, where she remained, lost and unmoving, for a long time.

Clara sat numbly on the cold floor, her mind replaying the events of the past few months. It seemed her nightmare had started the day Sylvia Lancaster moved in.

Ever since Sylvia came, she’d lost the doting affection of her father and brother...

Ever since Sylvia came, Lily Adler had started tormenting her, and that mother-daughter duo had even arranged for her to be kidnapped and shamed...

Ever since Sylvia came, in the span of just one or two short months, she had gone from the pampered young lady of the Hayes Family to this... her family destroyed, her home in ruins...

At this thought, a firestorm of rage erupted in Clara’s heart.

’It was all Sylvia Lancaster’s fault!’

’She was to blame for everything!’

’Sylvia Lancaster was a plague! The root of all this suffering!’

Clara’s eyes were bloodshot with hatred. Forgetting all about packing, she instead hid the dagger behind her back and crept silently upstairs toward Sylvia Lancaster’s room.

...

Clara quietly pushed open the door to Sylvia’s room. Inside, Sylvia was busy sorting through her luggage.

Sylvia had, after all, only recently been acknowledged as a daughter of the Hayes Family. Her official residence hadn’t even been transferred over yet, so she had been left out of the police roundup.

Before being taken away, Lily Adler had quietly instructed Sylvia to retrieve the money she had stashed away—assets the police wouldn’t be able to find immediately.

She told Sylvia to take the money, find a place to hide, and if she herself didn’t make it out, Sylvia should use the money to build a new life for herself somewhere else...

Sylvia had just finished counting a stack of gold bars and was about to place them in her suitcase. But as she turned, she saw Clara standing silently in the doorway!

Clara’s gown was a wrinkled mess, her makeup was ruined, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was disheveled. She looked like a vengeful wraith that had just clawed its way out of hell, staring at Sylvia in cold, dead silence.

"Ah!" Sylvia cried out, startled.

Seeing the guilt on Sylvia’s face, Clara spat through clenched teeth, "Sylvia Lancaster, you bitch! You and that homewrecker mother of yours actually dared to set me up!"

Sylvia quickly tried to calm her down. "...Claire, now really isn’t the time to fight. You don’t know, do you? The family is in trouble! Hurry and pack your things. Grab anything valuable, we need to get out of here and lay low for a while..."

But Clara wasn’t listening. Glaring at Sylvia, she roared, "Shut up! Bitch! It’s all your fault! You and that homewrecking mother of yours! This is all because of you two!"

Clara’s glare was so intense it looked as if her eyes would split. She shrieked hysterically, "Sylvia Lancaster! Not one good thing has happened to this family since you arrived! You got my younger brother killed! You stole my older brother and my father from me! You bastard daughter of a homewrecker! How dare you!"

Sylvia stared at Clara’s crazed, wraith-like expression, her own heart seizing in panic. Every hair on her body stood on end. "Claire, y-you need to calm down!" she stammered. "This isn’t the time to talk about that! Dad and our brother were taken by the police. We have to stick together now..."

Clara, however, ignored her words. She advanced on Sylvia step by step, her voice a low chant. "Bitch... it’s all your fault. You destroyed my home and my family! Now that my family is gone, don’t think you can get away! I’m dragging you down to hell with me!"

Sylvia tried to run, but Clara blocked her way.

In a panic, she grabbed a glass decoration from a table and smashed it over Clara’s head, screaming, "Get away from me! Clara! Have you gone mad?!"

CRASH! The decoration shattered. A bloody gash immediately opened up on Clara’s forehead.

Blood trickled down her forehead from the wound, but Clara didn’t seem to feel it. She just kept walking until she was right in front of Sylvia, then shot out a hand and grabbed her arm!

"Ah!" Sylvia screamed, terrified, and began to struggle. "Let go of me! You psycho!"

A twisted laugh escaped Clara’s lips. "I am a psycho," she said to Sylvia. "And you’re the one who made me this way! Bitch! You ruined my family! Now I’m taking you with me!" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Then, as Sylvia watched in horror, Clara drew the dagger from Melody Summers and, with lightning speed, plunged it deep into Sylvia’s torso.

"Aargh!" Sylvia shrieked in pain.

Then, before Sylvia could react, Clara seized her, dragging and shoving her toward the balcony behind them. With a final heave, she pulled Sylvia over the railing with her as she leaped.

Sylvia’s room was on the fourth floor. The two of them plummeted down, slamming hard onto the concrete below.

The instant they landed, a pool of blood began to spread from beneath them. Both women groaned in agony for a moment, and then, before long, they both fell silent, their breaths gone.