Blood seeped from Hannah’s palm where her nails had dug in, buat pain was nothing compared to the fury and helplessness ripping through her chest.
“I’m going to kill you,” she growled through clenched teeth.
With no one holding her back anymore, she lunged at Leon like a woman possessed.
“Go ahead and try. Let’s see who’s faster–you rushing over or me shoving this pill down the kid’s throat!” Leon burst into arrogant laughter.
Hannah felt like her legs were set in concrete, frozen in place. She could only stand there helplessly, watching as Leon held Chloe hostage. His smug, twisted smile stung her eyes.
The bitterness rising in her chest crept all the way to her throat, making her body sway.
Leon was thrilled with her reaction. He pried open Chloe’s mouth, ready to shove the pill down her throat.
Just then, Anathea–who’d silently slipped out of his line of sight reached into the bag and yanked out a stack of tightly bound cash.
While Leon was too focused on Hannah, she launched it straight at his face.
Leon cried out in pain as the stack hit him square in the jaw. The pill flew from his fingers and rolled across the rooftop.
Before he could even react, Anathea hurled another stack at him. “Don’t you love money? Then take all of it!”
Leon instinctively dodged, releasing his grip on Chloe. Her small body instantly lost support and collapsed toward the ground.
“Chloe!” Hannah’s heart skipped a beat. She lunged forward and crashed her knees against the rough concrete as she caught Chloe and pulled her into her arms.
The overwhelming relief of getting Chloe back made her heart race uncontrollably. All she could focus on was her daughter. Nothing else mattered.
And in that moment, a glint of metal streaked across her back.
Leon’s face twisted with rage as he raised the knife. “Go to hell!”
“Hannah!” Anathea tried to throw another stack of cash, but this time it was useless.
Leon knocked it away. Gripping the knife in his hand, he lunged straight for Hannah’s back and drove the knife forward with full
force.
Hannah wrapped her arms tighter around Chloe. She closed her eyes, and her breath hitched. Even her heartbeat seemed to stop
in that instant.
And just before everything froze around her, she seemed to catch a fleeting glimpse of herself as a little girl.
Back then, Leon hadn’t fallen into gambling yet, and Celeste hadn’t left him. Sebastian and Isla still wore kind faces and spoke
in gentle tones.
At that time, Leon and Celeste would wait for Hannah outside the school gates. Leon would lift her onto his shoulders, and Celeste would feed her her favorite cotton candy.
But those memories faded quickly, slipping through her fingers like water. That once–happy little home shattered overnight.
Hannah seemed to relive that stormy night all over again. After fleeing the house, she ran on the streets, drenched to the bone. The sharp screech of tires echoed in her ears. Just before she closed her eyes, a comforting amber scent wrapped around her.
Suddenly, a loud gunshot rang out.
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Chapter 575
+25 BONUS
”
Hannah flinched. Her whole body tensed as she instinctively shielded Chloe in her arms. However, the pain she was bracing for
never came.
She wasn’t the one who got shot?
Leon’s eyes went wide in disbelief as he looked down at the gaping hole torn through his chest by the bullet. Blood poured from the wound in thick, steady streams.
A metallic taste filled his mouth as blood bubbled up over his lips.
He stared at Hannah with bitter unwillingness in his eyes. But in the end, his body gave out. He crumpled like a rag doll as he fell backward off the rooftop, hitting the hard concrete below with a sickening thud.
“Target neutralized,” came a deep voice.
Anathea turned around. The second she met those amber eyes, she let out a breath of relief and managed a smile.
But Dominic didn’t say a word to her. He only glanced at her for a second before striding toward Hannah.
At the same time, the sky darkened. Amid the rumble of thunder, rain began to fall.
Hannah sat curled on the ground with Chloe in her arms. Her eyes were blank and unfocused. The only thing she could feel was the cool touch of raindrops falling on her skin.
It was another rainy day.
She’d never liked the rain. But because of a certain memory and person, it now carried a different weight.
Hannah thought bitterly that maybe she really was beyond saving.
But in the very next moment, an umbrella came to a stop above her shielding her from the rain completely.
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