The Reaper's Redemption

Chapter 004

"John Campbell? Does this dead man want to speed up his trip to hell?"

Robert’s eyes narrowed into dangerous, icy slits. A suffocating, almost physical aura of killing intent instantly flooded the small, dilapidated clinic. Viper, feeling the sheer, concentrated pressure, immediately snapped to tactical attention. "Boss. Just give the order. I will go and take care of him right now."

"Hold," Robert rasped, forcing the violent aura down into a tightly coiled spring. "This particular problem... I will handle him personally. Later. Right now, your priority is Lily. Orchestrate a new job for her immediately. It must be entirely covert. If she suspects my shadow is attached to this arrangement, she will burn the offer to the ground. Move."

"Understood, Boss," Viper confirmed with a sharp nod, vanishing completely into the pitch-black night.

The clinic fell into a heavy, oppressive silence.

"Jenna! Where did you go?!"

A panicked, shrill scream suddenly shattered the quiet. Lily Lohan stood in the doorway, wild-eyed and deathly pale, gasping for air. Right behind her stood Brit Lohan, whose tired eyes locked onto the phantom-black Rolls-Royce parked silently on the cracked pavement outside. For ten seconds, she just stared at a magnificent vehicle she had never ridden in, even at the absolute height of her wealth.

Inside, Jenna’s innocent smile evaporated instantly. Pure panic flared in her large eyes as she shoved the heavy plastic bag of bottles behind her back. Lily closed the distance in a second, grabbed Jenna by the arm, and without a word, delivered two sharp, desperate swats to her daughter’s behind.

"Didn't I tell you?!" Lily screamed, her voice cracking violently with stress. "Unless I am standing right there at the school gates to pick you up, you do not wander off!"

Despite the stinging slaps, Jenna didn't cry. She didn't throw a tantrum. She just gritted her teeth, her face scrunched up. "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry."

"Stop! I brought her here!" Robert shot up from the sofa, his massive frame moving to block Lily, his face contorted with heartache.

Lily’s head snapped toward him. Her terror was instantly incinerated by an explosive, world-ending rage. She looked at him with the feral intensity of a wounded animal backed into a corner.

"I am disciplining my own daughter! What right do you have to take her anywhere?!" she roared, her voice echoing off the clinic walls. "Did eight years in a cage fail to fix you? If you come near her again, I swear I will throw you right back into a cell!"

"Mommy, it's not his fault! He helped me!" Jenna cried out, desperate to explain.

Hearing her daughter defend this monster snapped the final thread holding Lily’s sanity together. The sheer weight of the day’s humiliations crashed down on her all at once. Earlier today, she had walked into her boss's office, swallowing her pride to beg for a loan. He had slid a bank card with twenty thousand dollars across his mahogany desk—and demanded she accompany him to a tropical resort for a week in return. She knew exactly what that pig wanted from her. She had rejected him outright and was instantly terminated on the spot. In her absolute lowest, most vulnerable moment, she discovered her daughter was missing from the school gates. To find Jenna here, defending the very beast who ruined her life, was a fatal blow to her psyche.

Her legs completely gave out. She collapsed onto the cold floor, curling into a tight ball and weeping hysterically, completely disregarding Robert's presence.

Jenna scrambled forward, dragging the heavy plastic bag of bottles in front of Lily. "Mommy, please don't cry! I heard Grandpa asking for medicine and rent money. I knew you didn't have any left. I just wanted to go outside and pick up some bottles to sell so you wouldn't be so tired!"

The absolute innocence and desperation behind her daughter’s actions acted like acid poured directly onto Lily's guilt. Her weeping escalated into a raw, guttural wail that tore through the room.

Watching Lily sob on the dirty floor, Robert tasted ash in his mouth. The broken sound of her weeping painted a devastatingly clear picture of exactly how brutal and unforgiving the last eight years had been for this woman.

"Mom," Lily choked out between ragged sobs, her face suddenly devoid of expression. "Take Jenna outside. Wait for me."

"Fine," Brit spat, shooting Robert a glare saturated with toxic hatred before leaving with the child.

Robert stood frozen, his throat locked tight. Defeated, he reached into his heavy black coat for a cigarette. Before the spark could even catch, Lily lunged forward, snatched the unlit cigarette straight from his lips, lit it herself, and took a long, desperate drag.

Her terrifyingly practiced movements were a physical blow to Robert. It suffocated him to see what he had reduced her to.

"Stop smoking," Robert growled, his hand shooting out to rip the cigarette from her fingers.

Lily didn't fight back. She just let out a cold, hollow laugh. She sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the blank wall, utterly detached. Her eerie composure was far worse than her rage; it meant her heart was already completely dead.

"I'm sorry," Robert whispered into the heavy silence. His voice was raw. "This is my debt to you."

He pulled out two items from his coat and thrust them toward her. "This is a deed for a luxury villa in Phoenix Heights, and keys to a brand-new Maserati. It's a token of my sincerity. I beg you, take this."

A slow, terrifyingly bitter smile crept across Lily's face. A Maserati? A villa in Phoenix Heights? Does this animal actually believe he can buy away ten years of absolute hell? Because of him, a shining prodigy was branded an erratic lunatic. Because of him, her family was violently exiled, forced to scavenge for survival, her father crippled in a wheelchair, and her mother reduced to a street vendor.

Every single tragedy traced back to this one monster.

Without a word, she snatched the keys and hurled them violently onto the concrete. Then, her hands clamped onto the thick property deed. With her face twisted in a terrifying grimace, she began to savagely rip the document to shreds, tearing the paper as if she were trying to tear Robert himself limb from limb.

"Lily, stop!" Brit rushed back through the door, desperately grabbing at her daughter's arms to salvage the heavy paper. "This animal owes you this! If it weren't for him, our family would never be in this gutter! Take them!"

"I don't want a goddamn thing from this animal!" Lily screamed through clenched teeth, fighting her mother off and furiously tearing the deed into confetti.

Robert just stood there, completely silent, taking the abuse without a flinch.

Brit dropped to her knees, staring blankly at the shredded pieces of the multi-million dollar property deed. She knew this monster ruined them, but ten cars and ten villas wouldn't be enough to erase the trauma he inflicted on her daughter.

Lily stood over the shredded paper, her chest heaving. She pointed a shaking, tear-stained finger directly at Robert’s face.

"Listen to me very carefully," she hissed, her voice dripping with poison. "I do not care how much money you have. I don't need any of it. There is only one thing I want from you. I want you to never, ever look at Jenna again. She is my daughter. She has absolutely nothing to do with you. Do you hear me?!"

"Mommy..." a small, trembling voice broke the tension. Jenna stood near the door, holding back her tears. "Is that Uncle really my daddy?"

"HE IS NOT!" Lily spun around and screamed, entirely losing control. "He is an animal!"

Jenna flinched violently. Yet, despite her terror, the little girl looked up with a fierce, heartbreaking defiance. The tears finally broke, pouring down her face as she wailed, "Mom! All the other kids have daddies! Why don't I get to have a daddy?!"

"We are leaving. Now. Don't look back at him."

Lily didn't answer her daughter's desperate plea. She grabbed Jenna by the wrist with a vice-like grip and roughly dragged the sobbing child out of the clinic, forcing her into the freezing, unforgiving night.

As she forcefully pulled her wailing daughter down the desolate, shadowed street, a fresh wave of agonizing guilt crashed over Lily. The hot tears finally spilled over her own eyelashes, streaming silently down her pale cheeks.

But her hatred for Robert Depp burned hotter than ever. She had given Jenna every ounce of love she possessed, but she knew that because of her own fierce, selfish pride, Jenna would forever be deprived of a father's love.

It broke her heart, but she would never—not in a thousand lifetimes—forgive the man who had destroyed her world. My beautiful daughter, I am so sorry, she thought, dragging Jenna further away from the clinic. Please forgive your mother's selfishness.