Chapter 2: The Phone That Changed Everything
He made it in time.
Barely.
His hands locked around his wife's arms just as the rope slipped.
She was shaking so hard she couldn't speak.
The maid collapsed onto the balcony floor, exhausted, her knuckles torn from holding on.
For one moment, the whole terrace went silent.
Then his mother's voice cut through the wind like ice.
"You just threw away everything I built for thirty years.
For her."
He didn't turn around.
He held his wife tighter and said, "Then it was never worth keeping."
The matriarch stepped forward.
Her expression didn't break — not even slightly.
She looked at his wife the way someone looks at a problem that hasn't been fully solved yet.
"She'll never be safe in this family," she said quietly.
"Not her.
Not that child."
The maid slowly raised her head from the floor.
Her eyes moved to the matriarch's hands.
One hand was still gripping the rope she had cut.
The other was holding a phone.
The screen was lit.
Someone was already on the line — listening to everything.
The son finally turned around.
He looked at the phone.
Then at his mother.
"Who is that?" he whispered.
May you like
She smiled.
And that smile was worse than anything she had said.
