"What do | want?" Yolanda cackled wildly, her voice thick with malice. "You've ruined my life, destroyed my family. What do you
think | want to do?"
"If you're out for revenge, let them go," Arabella said calmly, her eyes locked on Yolanda's. "This is between us. There's no need to
involve innocent people."
"You think | don't see through your little games, Arabella? Do you think this is my first rodeo? Guards, tie her up!"
Perhaps fearing Arabella might not comply, Yolanda pressed the blade of a switchblade against Joyce's throat. "If you don't
cooperate, she dies!"
"Murder carries a heavy price," Arabella warned.
"Better to drag a few down withthan to wander alone as a lost soul," Yolanda shot back.
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Two henchmen stepped forward and bound Arabella's hands behind her back, tying them tight and secure.
Yolanda's maniacal laughter morphed into sobs as tears welled up in her eyes. She screamed into the void, "Dad, Mom, can you
see this? This wretch is in my hands now. Watch closely from heaven because today, she will pay! She will kneel and beg for your
forgiveness!"
Tears streamed down Joyce and Mya's faces as they shook their heads, their muffled cries a testament to their unwillingness to see
Arabella suffer.
Yolanda's eyes blazed with hate. "You're a Collins now, aren't you? So why the need to grind us into dust? Why couldn't you leave
us a sliver of hope? That old fool left her entire fortune to you, a stranger, and not a penny to her own son or grandchildren."
She was beside herself with rage. "If she weren't so cold-hearted, would we be in this mess? You want revenge for her, but what
right do you have? You plunged us into deep debt, got my parents executed, turnedinto a laughingstock. You ruined my
engagement party, my future, all the happiness | could've had. And you? You just waltz back into town, throwing your fancy
comeback parties?"
Yolanda's hatred cut deep. "While I'm living off bread and water, you're feasting on delicacies. | wear rags, and you're dripping with
jewels. I'm mocked wherever | go, and you? You're the belle of the ball. I've lost the family that loved me, yet you still have
relatives who dote on you. | no longer have Zachary, but you have Romeo! Why? Why do you get to live better than me? Why do
you get to trample over us? If we hadn't taken you in, you'd be dead!"
Arabella remained silent, letting Yolanda vent her fury.
"You're a traitor, ungrateful, with the heart of a beast! You have no idea how much it hurt to hold my parents’ ashes, how broken |
felt."
"You're wrong," Arabella interjected quietly. "Seeing Grannie Grace breathe her last before my eyes hurtmore than you can
imagine. My pain comes from the loss of family, yours from losing the privileged life of a Murphy. We grieve differently. If we must
compare, your grief is no greater than mine."
"Nonsense," Yolanda spat out, enraged by Arabella's words. "Do you think | didn't love my parents? That | saw them as nothing but
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"The affection was partly because they provided a life of luxury, a world you dreamed of but never knew. If we talk about pure
feeling, your foster mother Yvonne's love was no less than theirs, yet | don't see you share the sdepth of feeling with her."
Arabella's words struck Yolanda like a thunderbolt.
Her foster mother had been a cleaner for years to support her. Even after the Murphy family's fall and the mountain of debt,
Yvonne never abandoned her, offering the warmth of a home.
No, it must be Arabella's deceit!
"How can my foster mother compare to my own parents? She's just a stranger with no blood ties! She was childless, and | graced
her with eighteen years of calling her 'Mom'. She should be grateful!"
Arabella stared, somewhat speechless. "Do you think raising a child is easy? If she just wanted company, why not find a friend?
Why pick up a newborn and struggle to raise her?"
"Don't change the subject—it's all your fault she's suffering now!" Yolanda, seething, brandished the knife at Arabella.