Chapter 117: Chapter 88: Knight and Princess

"You actually found out," Li Wei said, feigning surprise. "Looks like I can’t keep my identity as Spider-Man a secret anymore."

Anya laughed and playfully smacked him, then leaned in to kiss him again and again. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

He was so captivating. She couldn’t kiss him enough, even wanting to burrow into his body and become one with him.

"Seriously," Anya said, "are you sure you don’t need my help? A thousand USD isn’t a lot of money for me."

"No, it’s fine," Li Wei said, shaking his head. "I just can’t stomach the thought of giving that woman money."

"Okay," Anya said. "It’s your call."

They drove back to Riverdale in the Bronx. The upscale community where they had just seen Catherine now looked unremarkable again.

Anya waited by the elevators for a few more minutes, not heading upstairs until Li Wei’s car had disappeared around the corner.

In the foyer, she kicked off her boots and tossed her coat onto a chair for the maid to pick up.

She changed into a long, silk nightgown and sat at her vanity to remove her makeup.

When she was done, she rubbed her eyes, raised her arms over her head, and gave a big stretch.

’My god, this feels so good, so amazing.’ Suddenly, she had become the very kind of boring character she always hated in the movies: the happiest person in the world.

「Meanwhile」

Li Wei drove back to the Bayside Community, observing Catherine’s house from afar.

’Giving her money? Not a chance. Not in this lifetime.’

On the way, he’d looked up New York’s custody laws and discovered that the damn divorce statutes were shamelessly biased toward protecting women’s rights.

However, he had also done a quick search and found that, on paper, legal custody in the United States of America tended to favor the child’s own wishes.

In other words, if Lily expressed a desire to live with Don Quixote, and if Don Quixote were to call Catherine in a timely manner, they could get the family court on his side. Not only could they hold Catherine accountable for negligent supervision, but they could also legally add holiday visitation rights to the divorce settlement.

If Lily agreed.

He parked in a blind spot, out of sight of Catherine’s house. He put on his new Spider-Man mask, activated [Stealth], and vaulted into her backyard. Grabbing hold of a drainpipe, he easily scaled the wall to the second floor.

Through the window of a small room on the second floor, he could see Lily playing with building blocks by herself. Her eyes were red, and beside her, Catherine was losing her temper with her.

’This is a perfect opportunity,’ Li Wei thought.

He quietly took out his phone and started recording audio and video to gather evidence, making sure not to physically enter the house and commit an actual illegal entry.

As Lily stacked her blocks, tears plopped down onto them, but she didn’t wipe them away or cry out. She just let them fall in silent protest.

"Lily Cervantes," Catherine said sternly. "Stop crying."

Lily ignored her, however, and continued to stack the blocks before her—a gift from Don Quixote two years prior.

"I said stop crying!" Catherine slammed her hand on the little table, sending the carefully stacked plastic blocks scattering across the floor with a harsh clatter.

Lily’s shoulders trembled violently in fright, but she only clenched the hem of her clothes, her tears falling silently like broken strands of pearls onto the scattered blocks.

"You need to understand something, Lily," Catherine said, taking a deep breath to smooth over the ferocious anger on her face. Her tone became grave. "In this world, it’s every man for himself. Especially for a woman. If you don’t learn to fight for your own interests, you’ll end up just like that father of yours—rotting in the mud for the rest of your life."

"Daddy’s not mud," Lily finally whispered in protest, her voice faint.

"He is! What can he give you now?" Catherine shrieked hysterically. "I’m your mother! I could have let you live in a basement with him! I’ve raised you all these years, given you the best clothes, let you live in this community! Why aren’t you on my side? Why do you only care about that good-for-nothing piece of trash who can’t do anything but sell his own blood and pick through garbage?!"

"Because you spent all of Daddy’s money! And you were so mean to him!" Lily shouted back. "What did Daddy do wrong? All he ever wanted was for me to be happy!"

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

Catherine shot up as if someone had stepped on her tail. The raw truth of it left her feeling a suffocating wave of humiliation.

She looked at Lily’s face, a striking mix of her own features and those of Cervantes, and a twisted sense of possessiveness and frustration churned within her.

"Fine. Since you want to go so badly, since you think he’s so wonderful," Catherine sneered, backing toward the door, "then I’ll make sure you can’t. You can just stay in your room and think about what you’ve done until you learn how to be a grateful daughter!"

"Happy Thanksgiving," she added sarcastically.

"BANG!"

The door slammed shut, followed by the distinct click of the lock turning.

Just then, a very faint, rhythmic tapping came from the windowpane.

"TAP. TAP, TAP."

Lily froze. She looked up and saw a strange face pressed against the windowpane—

"Spider-Man?" Lily held her breath and rubbed her eyes. "Am I dreaming?"

"Hey," Li Wei said, taking off his mask to reveal a face Lily remembered well. "Remember me?"

"Mom will find you here," she whispered, crawling closer and glancing over her shoulder. "You have to leave, quickly."

"Do you want to go see your dad?" Li Wei asked. "I need to confirm that it’s what you want to do."

"Of course!" Lily blurted out.

"Okay, first, try to open the door," Li Wei said, pointing toward the door through the glass. "It looked like your mom locked it from the outside."

Lily didn’t know why Li Wei was asking her to do this, but she ran over and jiggled the doorknob anyway. The door didn’t budge, only rattling in its frame.

"I can’t open it. Mom locked it."

"Okay, look around your room. Do you have a fire escape ladder?" Li Wei asked. "You know, the kind that lets you climb down from the second floor."

"What’s that?" Lily asked, shaking her head in confusion. "My room is just full of dolls."

"Do you feel safe right now?" Li Wei asked, still standing outside the window. "If you don’t want to stay in this locked room, and you want to come with me to see your dad, you need to nod your head and tell me."

"I want to see my dad," Lily said. "I don’t want to be locked in here."

"Good," Li Wei said, hitting the save button on his phone. "Now, open the window and come out. I’ll get you out of here."

...

"So, do you understand now?"

After they had driven a couple of blocks away, Li Wei asked, "Do you understand why I needed you to confirm everything yourself? It’s because your mom locking you in your room is a very dangerous thing to do."

"What if there was a fire?" Li Wei asked, looking at Lily in the rearview mirror. "You’re locked on the second floor; you wouldn’t be able to get out. In the laws of the United States of America, that’s called a ’serious safety hazard’."

"How do you know so much?" Lily asked, looking at Li Wei with admiration. "You’re amazing, Li Wei."

"You’ll be this amazing too, once you have a phone and can look things up online," Li Wei said, holding up a finger. "So, this isn’t us sneaking away, and it’s not you running away from home. This is called an emergency evacuation. If anyone asks you about this in the future—even a police officer or a judge—you don’t have to lie. You just have to tell them the truth. For example: Mom locked you in, you were very scared, and Li Wei helped you get out. Got it?"

"Got it!" Lily nodded emphatically, then added with a hint of worry, "But... will Mom be angry?"

"She might be angry, but that will be her fault, not yours," Li Wei said with a smile. "Locking a child in a room that’s a fire hazard is against the fire code. To reward you for cooperating with our ’rescue operation,’ how about we go get a ’Frozen 3’ frozen hot chocolate?"

"Yay!" Lily cheered, the unpleasantness from before instantly forgotten.