Harlyn stepped directly into Maya’s personal space, the overwhelming scent of her expensive perfume clashing with the sterile smell of the hospital.“You talk about your brother as if he were a victim,” Harlyn purred, her voice dripping with venomous amusement. “I didn’t force a single credit into his hands. I simply provided the house of cards, and he chose to sit at the table. If he was stupid enough to wager his family’s safety on a bad hand, that is his fault. Not mine.”Maya shook with rage, her breath hitching as she stared into Harlyn's unblinking eyes. "He was weak, and you preyed on him! You knew he would lose!""Of course I knew," Harlyn snapped, her cruel smile returning. "That is how business operates. We filter out the trash. Your family belonged in the dirt of the slums, and that house was the last remaining asset you had to offer.”“Did you honestly think I would let a prime piece of real estate sit underneath a decaying old lady just for sentimentality? Your lives wer

And now, instead of dying in the gutter, they were surviving. The old woman was resting in a premium intensive care unit, the massive hospital bill had vanished into thin air, and this bleeding little rat was looking up at her with pure defiance. Every single trap Harlyn had set was failing because of some invisible force shielding them.Harlyn gritted her teeth until her jaw ached, a low, murderous hiss escaping her lips. The fact that they were recovering, right under her nose was an absolute insult. She could not stand the thought of losing to a bunch of slum rats."You think you're clever, don't you?" Harlyn spat, stopping right in front of Maya. She reached down, forcefully grabbing the girl's collar and yanking her upward. "You think whoever threw this money at the hospital is going to save you from me? I don't care whose pockets you dug into. I will find out who is backing you, and I will ruin them along with your miserable family!"Maya gasped for air as the tight fabric

One side of her face was already severely swollen, an angry purple bruise blooming across her pale skin where the heavy blows had landed. A steady trail of bright red blood smeared beneath her nose, staining her lip. She hunched over, instinctively guarding her cracked ribs.A heavy, suffocating silence filled the corridor. Slayde’s chest rose and fell in a ragged rhythm as his gaze locked onto her injuries."You were beaten that badly," Slayde muttered, his voice dropping into a dark, dangerously quiet register, "and you still decided to plead for him?"Maya flinched, taking a half-step back from the sheer intensity radiating off him. The raw mix of guilt and fury in his expression was terrifying. Pressing a hand against her aching side, her breath hitched as she realized her safety was the only thing keeping him from tearing the entire room apart."I’m not pleading for him," Maya wheezed. The words tore at her throat, tasting of iron. "I'm... I'm pleading for you."Slayde did

"I am running from a person who wields the power of a god in this city," Mrs. Lin said, her voice dropping into a raspy, solemn whisper. "Her father... he won't stop until he reclaims what he thinks belongs to him. And the creditors he left behind will bleed Maya dry until there is nothing left. If destroying her face is the only way to give her a future, then it is a price I will gladly pay."Slayde stared at the old woman, measuring the absolute certainty in her eyes. He knew the grim realities of the streets better than anyone, and he knew that sometimes, mutilating the present was the only way to protect the future."Alright," Slayde said quietly. "I’ll get it done. I know a street doctor in another sector who can safely alter her features. He doesn't ask questions, and there will be no digital footprint." He paused, his gaze drifting from the frail woman back to the ruined doorway of the ICU ward. "But that only solves half the problem. If Maya changes her face and identity, s

Slayde knew tracking down Maya’s father wouldn't be easy; after all, the local gangs hadn't even managed to catch a whisper of him.But the more he thought about it, the more suspicious it became. How had a debt-ridden gambler managed to completely vanish in a city wired with thousands of surveillance cameras and biometric checkpoints? If the Red Fangs and the local syndicates, with all their deep-rooted informants and brutal efficiency, had been unable to track him down, the man wasn't just hiding in a gutter. Someone with serious power was shielding him, or he had scrubbed his digital footprint using a black-market encryption method no one else possessed.But Slayde didn’t care how deep the man was buried. He would tear the city apart layer by layer until he unearthed him.He glanced through the reinforced glass partition of the operating room one last time. Maya was sitting quietly on the edge of the surgical table, looking smaller than ever under the harsh blue surgical light