Chapter 18
After lashing out at Giselle, Anne dashed after Donovan. Tonight, the Holt family was supposed to meet with the Kane family to finalize the wedding details. But seeing how things had escalated, Renee was furious. Giselle, having just narrowly escaped death, remained slumped on the floor, too weak to stand. Yet, Renee felt not the slightest bit guilty.
“You bitch! You really know when to make a scene, huh?” she hissed. “Listen. If this affects my daughter’s marriage, you’ll be very sorry!”
“Enough!” Torry couldn’t bear it anymore. He swerved toward Renee and bellowed, “Can’t you see she’s injured? Can you just shut up for a second?”
He was Giselle’s father, after all. While he had always disapproved of her rebellious behavior, he still felt bad for what she had endured.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside,” he urged. “I’ll treat your injuries.”
As a neurosurgeon, Tony had a fully equipped infirmary at home, and the family usually handled minor illnesses or injuries there. But just as he reached out to help, Giselle recoiled violently and shoved him away. Clenching her jaw, she forced herself to stand.
“Renee, Tony…” She glowered at them, then snarled, “One day, you’ll regret not finishing me off today. It’ll be the biggest mistake of your lives.”
Before they could react, Giselle dragged herself out of the living room, limping toward her car. She scrambled into the driver’s seat, dazed. Realizing Sebastian’s flashy sports car was carelessly parked in front of hers, blocking her way, she jammed on the accelerator without hesitation. She crashed into the rear of his car, ramming it several yards forward before speeding off.
On her way home, Giselle drove slowly, lost in thought. Her mind kept returning to the disaster at the Holt residence. A dull ache bloomed in her chest, the agony suffocating her. Memories of her mother and grandparents, who had died long ago, flooded her mind. Her mother was Rebecca Moore, and Renee was Rebecca’s older sister. But Renee was adopted, while Rebecca was the Moore family’s biological daughter.
Still, the Moores treated both girls equally. The sisters got along—until Tony appeared. Tony held a PhD in medicine from overseas, came from a wealthy family, and possessed striking good looks. That year, everyone sent blessings to the newly married couple—Tony and Rebecca. And the following year, Giselle was born.
Little did Rebecca expect that, just before Giselle turned three, she would discover Tony’s affair with Renee—worse still, they already had a child together. Utterly devastated, Rebecca was later diagnosed with severe depression. Ultimately, she jumped from a building, ending her life at just 28 years old.
The loss of their biological daughter shattered Giselle’s grandparents. Grief wore them down, and two years later, another tragedy struck. Both died in a strange car accident. With that, the Moore family was all but wiped out.
At the time, the Moore family owned a mid-sized pharmaceutical company worth over a billion dollars. With no direct heirs, everything naturally fell into Renee’s hands. Just like that—after stealing her sister’s husband and indirectly causing her death—Renee became the rightful heiress to Moore Pharmaceuticals.
Over the past two decades, she and Tony had a son and a daughter, completing their picture-perfect family. Tony had also risen from a young doctor to one of the country’s top neurosurgeons, wielding considerable influence in the medical field. Meanwhile, Renee leveraged her inherited wealth to invest in pharmaceuticals. She now owned a nationwide chain of drugstores and private hospitals, her net worth multiplying hundreds of times over. Now, she was a prominent figure in high society.
With the Holt family's successful marriage alliance with the pharmaceutical giant, Kane Group, the Holts would undoubtedly climb the social ladder once the marriage was finalized. Giselle figured karma was a myth. The world’s most ruthless people always seemed to thrive.
Snapping back to the present, she felt her chest tighten again. Her breathing grew labored. As she recalled the Holt family’s cruel and shameless behavior over the past few days, all that remained inside her was hate.