Mia Kendall’s eyes widened, and in the next moment, she began to struggle desperately.

But Eric Kendall was a man. How could she possibly overpower him?

He forcefully pinned her hands to her sides—a punishment and a humiliation—and bit her lips until they bled.

"Mmph..."

Fat tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. She had no idea how long it was before Eric Kendall finally released her lips. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The moment he let go, Mia instinctively slapped him across the face.

"Bastard!"

She trembled with rage, choking out, "I apologized to you, and this is how you treat me? I’m your sister! Are you insane? Eric Kendall, you really are worse than an animal. Mr. Kendall was right about you!"

Her words were like pouring gasoline on a fire for Eric Kendall.

Strands of his messy hair fell across his forehead, obscuring his bloodshot eyes.

He enunciated each word, "You’re my sister? What kind of sister? If it weren’t for your shameless mother, my own mother wouldn’t have died in bitterness! Mia Kendall, do you have any idea what today is?"

Mia Kendall, trembling with fear, shook her head.

Eric Kendall’s thin lips parted as he spat out a few words: "My mother’s death anniversary!"

Mia felt as if he was about to crush her shoulder, but she forgot to struggle, only apologizing over and over. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry..."

"Get out!"

Eric Kendall suddenly shoved her to the ground and headed straight upstairs.

Thoroughly terrified, Mia didn’t even dare to go back to her room. She hastily straightened her disheveled clothes and fled the house into the night.

...

Later, because of the incident at Crimson Spring Resort, Mr. Kendall froze all of Eric Kendall’s bank accounts.

Word of this also reached Mason Lawson’s ears.

He fronted Eric Kendall some money to deal with the Crimson Spring Resort issue first.

He then told Eve Vaughn about it as well.

"That bad?" Eve Vaughn sighed. "In that case, let’s just forget about the renovations for my villa. If he’s already resorting to borrowing money from you, I don’t want to make things worse for him."

Mason Lawson found her innocent concern adorable. He pinched her cheek and said, "Silly girl, you still have me, don’t you?"

And so, the renovations on the Vaughn family villa began in earnest.

The designer was a young woman named Lucy.

Lucy seemed intellectual and elegant, a recent graduate from a top international design school.

Eve Vaughn discussed the original house’s decor and layout with her. Lucy quickly drew up the blueprints, and after Eve confirmed them, construction on the villa began.

This news soon reached the ears of Eve Vaughn’s uncle and aunt.

They were utterly shocked to hear that Eve Vaughn had begun renovating the villa.

Lana Chambers said bitterly, "I put so much effort into remodeling that villa exactly how I wanted it. Now this damn girl dares to renovate it again! Does she really think it’s already hers for the taking?"

Jason Vaughn added resentfully, "I went to the villa the other day and asked the construction workers. Apparently, Eve told the designer she wants to restore the house to how it looked when her father was alive."

"She wouldn’t dare!" Lana Chambers was so furious she ground her teeth. "If Charlotte weren’t about to marry Julian Lawson, I’d be worried that making a scene right now would look bad and affect the wedding. Otherwise, how could I possibly let that little slut cause all this trouble?"

Jason Vaughn glanced cautiously at his wife. "Why don’t we bring my mother over?" he suggested. "I know you don’t like her, but right now, she’s the only one with the legal right to claim that house. It’s a temporary solution!"

At the mention of her mother-in-law, Lana Chambers’s face filled with reluctance.

Jason Vaughn tried to persuade her. "The company’s in a slump right now. We’ve laid off more than half the staff, and we can barely manage our finances. On top of that, our Charlotte signed a prenup with Julian Lawson, so we won’t see a single penny of the Lawson family’s money. If we don’t fight for this villa and let Eve swallow it whole, it’ll be the final nail in our coffin!"

Lana Chambers was deeply conflicted. Ever since she got married, she had never been able to stand her mother-in-law.

Her husband was utterly henpecked, and his mother doted on him. To make her son’s life easier, the mother-in-law had eventually moved out to live separately.

Now, to have to invite back the very person she had driven away, Lana felt as though she’d swallowed a fly.

Jason Vaughn thought of his eighty-year-old mother, living all alone in the countryside. Even with a hired caregiver, her living conditions were still far too poor compared to his own family’s.

Normally too afraid to defy his wife, he saw this as the perfect opportunity to bring his mother to live with them.

Lana Chambers finally caved to the pressure of their situation. "Fine," she said reluctantly. "Let her come back. But as soon as we get our hands on the house, you have to send her right back where she came from. Understood?"

Jason didn’t dare show his happiness about bringing his mother over. Instead, he cautiously instructed, "Right. When we go to pick my mother up, you have to be on your best behavior. Otherwise, knowing her temper, she absolutely will not come with us."

"I know, I know!" Lana Chambers agreed impatiently.

To stop Eve Vaughn from claiming the house as her own, the couple drove to the countryside that very day and brought Eve’s grandmother to Rivaster.

...

「Rivaster University.」

Eve Vaughn was in the middle of a lecture when she was startled by a familiar voice from outside the classroom.

Lana Chambers was shouting at the top of her lungs, "Is Eve Vaughn in this classroom? Where’s Eve Vaughn?"

All the students turned to look at Eve with curiosity, and the professor at the front of the room stopped the lecture.

The familiar, grating voice made Eve’s head ache.

She was about to go out and see what on earth Lana was up to.

But in the next instant, Lana Chambers and Jason Vaughn had already stormed into the classroom. "Eve Vaughn, get out here!" Lana shouted. "Your grandmother had an asthma attack because of you! How dare you just sit here in class!"

Eve Vaughn was completely stunned, staring at them in utter confusion.

’Grandmother?’

’Isn’t my grandmother in the countryside?’

Besides, Eve had never been close to her grandmother. To take care of her younger son, her grandmother had left Eve’s father with relatives when he was just a child, only bringing him home for major holidays.

So even after her father became successful, Eve and her family had never been close to her grandmother.

’I have no idea what Lana is trying to pull.’

She wanted to tell Lana Chambers and Jason Vaughn to take this outside—it was a classroom, after all.

But it seemed they were determined to make a scene. They stood at the classroom door and announced loudly, "We’ll say it right here! Let your professor and your classmates be the judge!"

Eve said coldly, "I haven’t seen my grandmother in months. How could she possibly have had an asthma attack because of me?"

Lana’s face was red as she yelled, "Your grandmother was missing your father today, so she went back to the house to have a look. Who would have thought that you, his unfilial daughter, would be tearing the place apart? There was dust flying everywhere! Of course she had an asthma attack!"

The professor, anxious to resume his lecture and end the drama quickly, spoke up. "Eve Vaughn, why don’t you go with your family and check on the situation? I won’t mark you absent for this class. Go on!"

Eve was mortified. She had no choice but to bite the bullet, thank the professor, and leave the classroom.

The moment they were outside, Eve demanded, "Why would Grandma suddenly go to my house?"

"Your house?"

Lana Chambers snorted. "And here I thought you’d have learned some basic legal knowledge after being with Jonah Spencer for so long," she sneered. "Just because your father died, the house is automatically yours? Did he have a will? If there’s no will, your grandmother has a right to half the inheritance. What makes you think you can do whatever you want? From now on, you will stop these renovations immediately and restore the villa to the way it was!"

Jason Vaughn chimed in, "Exactly! Let me tell you, as long as your grandmother is alive, you’ll never win this in court! No matter how you look at it, half of that house belongs to your grandmother."