She Married A Nobody, And Nobody Dared Touch Her Again

Chapter 002

The Caldwell Estate stood grandly at the end of a private road lined with old trees. From the outside, the tall iron gates always felt like a fortress, cold and formal.

But tonight, the fortress was glowing.

Lights blazed from inside. Music drifted out, mixed with laughter and the clink of glasses. Sera slowed the car, staring at the house through the windshield.

A party?

They were throwing a party?!

Her jaw tightened.

Sera killed the engine, stepped out of the car, and shut the door calmly. Too calmly for someone who had just lost the only person she had left.

Who the hell let them into my house to throw a party?!

She walked to the front door, took a short breath, then shoved it open hard.

BRAKK.

The door slammed into the wall. The music stopped. The laughter stopped. The clinking glasses stopped.

A dozen pairs of eyes turned toward the door, and the moment they saw who was standing there, the expressions on those faces changed one by one. From happy to shocked.

Among them, a young woman stood with a champagne glass half-raised in her hand. She was pretty, expensively dressed, and in a split second, her face shifted from shock into something that was trying very hard to look like relief.

"Sera..." Lara, Sera's cousin who was close to her in age, slowly lowered her glass. "You're still... alive. I mean..." she blinked, "what happened to you? We were worried."

Worried? Sera almost laughed.

Her eyes slowly swept the room. Decorations. Music. Food piled high on the long table. Champagne. All of this had been set up in no time at all, which meant it had been planned well in advance. Prepared for tonight. For the moment the news of her death arrived.

The ache in her chest turned into something far colder.

"I knew it," Sera said. Her voice didn't shake. Not even a little. "You planned all of this. You sent those killers after me tonight!"

She looked at them one by one, slowly, like a judge reading out a verdict.

"Uncle Caden is dead. His blood is on your hands. And you're going to answer for it."

An uncomfortable silence hung over the room.

Then someone cleared his throat, and a young man stepped forward. Daniel, twenty-five, wearing the thin smile Sera had stopped trusting a long time ago.

"Sera," he said, his tone patient, like he was talking to a kid throwing a tantrum. "You're accusing us again? This has always been a bad habit of yours. If you don't have proof, please don't go spouting nonsense in front of everyone."

"Nonsense?" Sera narrowed her eyes. "Look around, Daniel. This party was planned. The food's already out. The glasses are already full. The only thing missing was the news of my death, which apparently never came." She smiled coldly. "You all thought I'd be dead tonight, didn't you? This party was to celebrate it."

Daniel's face twitched, but nothing came out of his mouth.

From the corner of the room, someone stood up.

Arthur. A middle-aged man with a gut and a loosened tie around his neck, holding an almost empty glass of whiskey. He snorted, looking Sera up and down like she was something unpleasant.

"It's just a party, Sera. A family get-together." He raised his glass as if making a toast. "As usual, you're way too uptight and paranoid. I never understood why Victor handed the entire Caldwell fortune over to a daughter like you."

His smile widened, but his eyes didn't smile with it.

"Uptight. Useless. Ungrateful. The only thing you know how to do is sit pretty on an inheritance you didn't build yourself. That fortune should've gone to us. At least we'd know how to use it."

The room went silent.

Sera stared at her uncle without blinking.

"Use it," she repeated quietly. Then her lips curved. "The way you used your own inheritance, Uncle Arthur?"

Arthur frowned.

"You think I forgot?" Sera went on. Her voice didn't rise, but every word was like a knife being laid calmly on the table. "The inheritance Grandpa gave you fifteen years ago was gone in three years. Not on business. Not on investments. On gambling tables, and debts you covered with loans from people you don't even dare mention in front of the family."

She lifted her chin.

"The only reason your family is still standing today, still living in a decent house, still wearing clothes like that and drinking whiskey that expensive, is because my father carried you. For years. Without a single word of complaint." Her eyes didn't leave Arthur's face. "And now you're saying he was wrong to leave his fortune to me?"

Arthur's face turned red.

Then...

KRAK.

His whiskey glass hit the floor and shattered into dozens of pieces.

"Watch your fucking mouth, you bitch!" he roared, his voice exploding through the room. "Know your goddamn place! You don't deserve any of it! You're nothing but a disgrace to this family, acting all smart, acting all tough, but you can't do shit! You worthless piece of trash!"

Not a single muscle in Sera's face moved.

From the other side of the room, Aunt Megan, Sera's father's younger sister, took a step forward. Unlike Arthur's explosive rage, Megan spoke in a sweet voice that somehow felt more disgusting than screaming.

"Now, now," she said, as if trying to calm things down. "Arthur, don't be so harsh." Then she turned to Sera with a smile. "Sera, listen to me carefully. We don't want to be enemies. We're family. So it's best if you just hand over all of the Caldwell family's assets to us. In return, we'll give you one percent. That's more than enough to live on for the rest of your life. You can live in peace, and you won't have to deal with all this on your own."

Lara, standing beside her mother, gave a soft scoff.

"One percent is way too much, Mom," she said, eyeing Sera with contempt. "She doesn't need that much. Zero point zero two five percent is already more than she deserves."

Sera looked from one to the other.

Then, for the first time that night, she laughed. Short, quiet, but it landed like a slap.

"One percent? Zero point zero two five percent? Is that an offer... or an insult?"

She took one step forward.

"Listen to me very carefully!" Her voice wasn't loud, but it filled the room. "You won't get a single cent from the Caldwell family. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. As long as I'm still standing, not one of you is laying a finger on what my father built!"

Arthur's face changed.

The anger shifted into something darker, more dangerous. He stepped forward, closing in on Sera with heavy strides.

Sera didn't back down.

She stayed right where she was, watching Arthur approach with unmoving eyes. Her hands didn't shake. Her knees didn't buckle.

This wasn't the first time.

She already knew what was coming. Arthur's hand and her cheek had been well acquainted for a long time, ever since she was too small to fight back. Every time Arthur didn't like her answer. Every time she refused to obey. Every time she spoke up a little too boldly for his taste.

But Sera wasn't going to back down.

If the price of protecting the Caldwell family was standing here without flinching, then she would do it. She was used to swallowing pain, and pain had never killed her.

Arthur raised his hand, ready to deliver a hard slap, but froze when a voice came from behind.

From the door that was still wide open.

A man's voice. Calm. Unhurried. But somehow, the entire room seemed to stop breathing the moment it came in.

"Is this Sera Caldwell's house?"