Chapter 689

The only comfort in Isabella's life had been Alexander's kindness.

Despite his own struggles, after joining the police academy, he'd consistently sent her money and encouraged her education. She was like a drowning woman grasping at the last lifeline, desperately clinging to that faint glimmer of hope above the dark waters. Isabella held onto Alexander with everything she had, determined to claw her way out of the abyss.

To the outside world, she was a promising music graduate. No one knew the true cost of that achievement.

Her emotional dependence on Alexander ran dangerously deep.

It was an obsessive attachment she couldn't even rationalize to herself.

When the man who'd always been her anchor suddenly tried to establish boundaries because of another woman, Isabella couldn't accept it.

Alexander had been her guiding light. She'd fought so hard to reach that brightness, only to have it snatched away without warning. Lost in sudden darkness, terror consumed her.

She never truly meant to harm Evelyn. Every desperate act was just to recapture Alexander's attention, to reclaim even a fraction of his focus.

Was this twisted obsession really love?

Isabella stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling her world collapse around her.

Fresh out of college, her life should have been beginning. Instead, she saw only endless despair ahead.

Why? Why was this happening to her?

She'd done nothing to deserve this!

Her fists clenched until her nails drew blood, but nothing could dull the excruciating pain radiating through her body. During the illegal surgery, she'd lost consciousness multiple times from the agony. These monsters had nearly killed her.

Isabella's face was deathly pale.

Daniel approached with a cruel smirk, taking in her broken form sprawled across the operating table. His grin widened at her suffering.

He tossed water in her face, jolting her back to awareness.

"Enjoying yourself, princess? My surgeon did clean work, didn't he? I specifically instructed him to be gentle with you."

Blood filled Isabella's mouth. Her unfocused eyes slowly locked onto Daniel, brimming with tears and burning hatred.

Too weak to move, she could only glare.

"Don't worry. Your precious brother should be arriving soon." Daniel patted her cheek mockingly. "You can tell Andrew all about your grievances then."

He leaned closer, voice dripping with malice. "Oh wait - when Andrew comes charging in, he'll walk right into my trap. Then neither of you will be leaving here alive."

Only then did Isabella notice Daniel's men arming themselves behind him, preparing for a bloody confrontation.

After a night of processing this nightmare, she finally believed Andrew might truly be alive.

Daniel kept emphasizing this was all revenge against Andrew, his sworn enemy.

A sudden crash echoed from outside.

Daniel and Eric exchanged knowing glances, silently communicating something sinister.

Right on cue, a thug burst in. "Boss! Andrew's here! He's already taken out three of our guys!"

"Damn bastard! I'll put him down myself!" Daniel snarled, pulling a gun from his waistband. "If he's stupid enough to come here, he won't leave breathing! Weapons ready, boys! Tonight we finish this!" With furious curses, Daniel led his gang outside.

Apparently deeming Isabella no escape risk, they left her completely unguarded.

Isabella's eyes flickered with realization.

Her brother had come for her, but she felt no relief.

If Andrew was truly Daniel's mortal enemy - if this vendetta ran deep enough to justify such brutality - then one terrible truth became clear...

Andrew's hands were just as stained as Daniel's.

That horrific night, Isabella had learned far more about Daniel's operations than she ever wanted to know.

Robbery. Surrogacy rings. Human trafficking. Organ harvesting. Every imaginable depravity.

But the most profitable - and most disturbing - was the drug trade.

Isabella stared numbly at the door.

She couldn't forget the criminals who'd kidnapped Alexander and Andrew all those years ago.

Fugitives who'd snatched the boys from their village as bargaining chips.

If Andrew hadn't died that day... if he'd been hiding all this time... did that mean he'd become one of them?

Was that why he'd never come for her? Never even tried to contact her?

"Andrew," she whispered through bloody lips, "what have you become?"