"But of course, we are partners, aren't we, Raymond?" Gerald said brightly, pulling his shirt back together and casually re-buttoning his cuffs. "I know you'll make the right choice on those permits by midnight."Gerald picked up his glass of scotch, clinked it gently against Vance’s frozen, shaking glass, and took a smooth sip."Have a pleasant evening, Senator."Gerald turned, knocked twice on the heavy wooden door, and walked out as the lock disengaged, leaving the powerful politician paralyzed in a pool of his own terror.Meanwhile, miles away on the dark, damp outskirts of the city...Nancy quickened her pace, clutching her jacket tight against the cold night wind.Instead of going to Anna’s apartment, she had changed her mind after receiving Carl’s text message. It had sounded urgent, and in her lonely, heartbroken state, the thought of someone actually caring enough to meet her made her ignore her safety.She turned down a narrow, trash-littered alleyway behind an old abandoned

Tina froze dead in her tracks, her face instantly draining of all color.She recognized the woman standing in the pouring rain immediately. It was Nancy’s mother—the quiet, pathetic woman who had dropped to her knees on the principal’s floor just yesterday, groveling for mercy like a weak, desperate beggar.A sudden wave of intense panic washed over Tina. She instinctively scrambled backward, hiding her shivering body behind the large, imposing frame of the tattooed thug.The thug—a local gang leader named Jax—was caught off guard by Clara’s sudden appearance, but as his eyes scanned her soaked, simple clothes, a dark, arrogant smirk returned to his face. To him, Clara looked like nothing more than a harmless, lower-tier bank teller who could barely afford to survive, let alone pose a threat.Jax stepped forward, tossing his metal crowbar into the air and catching it, his posture oozing cheap aggression. "Hey! We haven't seen your brat, old woman! We don't know where the hell she is,

What have I done? Tina thought, her breathing turning into wild, frantic gasps. Oh God... what have I done?!She was seventeen years old. She wasn't even an adult yet, and she had just killed someone. Her mind raced with terrifying visions of her future: handcuffs snapping around her wrists, mugshots being taken, her father's empire ruined, and her spending the rest of her life rotting in a cold steel prison cell.Jax grabbed Tina by her shoulders, shaking her violently to bring her back to reality. "Tina! Look at me! Calm down!"Jax relied heavily on Tina’s rich family for money, and he frequently did her dirty jobs in exchange for thousands of dollars. He couldn't let her fall, because if she went down, he went down too."I'll handle this," Jax grunted, pulling out his own burner phone while keeping a tight grip on her.Jax quickly dialed a number, putting the phone to his ear. He was calling a underground contact named Marcus—a notorious local fixer who specialized in disposing of

She boarded no taxis. She took no buses. Clara moved on foot, her body gliding through the shadows of the city with supernatural, blinding speed.Ten minutes later, she stood across the street from a rundown, two-story brick house situated in an isolated industrial suburb. The paint was peeling from the walls, and the windows were covered with thick sheets of black plastic. To an ordinary person, it looked like a regular, abandoned suburban residence.Clara stood motionless on the pavement, her crimson eyes scanning the structure. Her sharp, heightened senses picked up heavy footsteps, harsh laughter, and muffled cries of agony coming from inside the ground floor.Inside the house, a scene of pure, vile cruelty was taking place.The main living room had been stripped down to bare concrete. Standing near a rusted sofa were several teenage gang members and young criminals—some of them high school students who worked under Jax.In the center of the room, a middle-aged local shopkeeper la

All around the room, the other gang members lay groaning in agony, their bones shattered, their bodies paralyzed with pain, utterly unable to move a single muscle.Clara stopped in the center of the room.The shopkeeper was sitting near the wall, holding his sedated daughter tightly in his arms, tears streaming down his bruised face. He looked at Clara with a mixture of profound gratitude and overwhelming awe, as if he were looking at an angel of vengeance sent from heaven."Thank you..." the father sobbed, clutching his child to his chest. "Thank you so much... you saved my daughter... you saved my life..."Clara looked down at the weeping man, her crimson eyes softening for a brief second."Take your daughter and get out of here," Clara said softly, her voice carrying a quiet, maternal warmth. "And never do business with these kinds of people ever again."The father nodded rapidly, crying tears of relief. "I won't! I swear I will never touch loan sharks again! Thank you, ma'am! Than