Chapter 3

However, after a few rings, a robotic automated voice came through:

"The person you are trying to reach is unavailable at the moment..."

Miller froze, hastily redialing, but the result was the same.

"Mr. Zhou might be in the middle of a meeting..." Miller tried to explain.

The woman pulled out her own phone, her expression dripping with smug confidence. "Let me do it. Brandon told me that no matter how busy he is, he will always answer my calls immediately."

The call connected almost instantly.

The triumphant smirk on her face stretched wider. She even cast a provocative, mocking glance at my mother-in-law and me.

"Hey baby, what's wrong?" Brandon's familiar voice drifted from the speaker.

Her tone shifted instantly into a sickly sweet, cloying whine. "Brandon, two crazy old women are harassing me at the aquarium! Come over and back me up, please!"

"What?! The nerve! Wait right there, baby. I'll push the meeting back and come straight over. How dare anyone mess with my girl..."

His doting yet furious reply felt like a poison-laced dagger thrust straight into my chest.

My blood turned to ice.

My mother-in-law gripped my hand with a crushing force, trembling from head to toe. Throughout her entire life of grace and decorum, she had never suffered such humiliation—let alone humiliation brought upon her by the very son she had raised.

Unable to endure it a second longer, she stepped forward and struck the woman across the face.

"Smack!"

"A cheap home-wrecker dares to act so brazen?!"

The slap was crisp and loud, carrying all her long-suppressed rage and degradation. It landed squarely on the woman's delicate face.

Time seemed to freeze.

The woman's head was knocked to the side, distinct red finger marks blooming on her pale cheek.

Holding her face, her eyes widened in utter disbelief. That shock morphed in an instant into venomous, murderous malice.

"Good. Very good." She lightly rubbed her swelling cheek, her gaze sweeping over us as if looking at two lambs waiting to be slaughtered. "You old bag, you dare hit me? Impersonating Brandon's mother and you dare lay hands on me? Today, I'll make sure you learn what happens when you cross me, Chloe Li!"

She spun toward Manager Miller, who was paralyzed with shock, her voice turning shrill:

"Manager Miller! What are you standing there for?! Arrest this crazy bitch right now!"

Remembering Brandon’s fiercely protective words over Chloe Li, Miller weighed the pros and cons and gave the order.

"Grab the old one!"

The moment the words left his mouth, two security guards grabbed my mother-in-law by both arms.

"Let go of my mother-in-law!"

My eyes burned red with panic. I fought desperately to reach her, but another guard held me back with an iron grip.

Chloe Li watched with immense satisfaction. Rubbing her cheek, her eyes wandered toward the deepest, most prominent exhibit in the aquarium—the colossal shark tank.

There, an eerie blue glow reflected through the thick glass, casting the dark, slow silhouettes of massive sharks patrolling the deep water.

A truly sinister idea took shape in her mind.

With a cold, cruel smile, she ordered the guards:

"Hoist this old hag above the shark tank!"