Chapter 4

My mother threw me out of the trailer, slamming the door in my face.

"Get your ass to work and bring me money! I don't want to see your ugly face!"

The last bus back to campus had already left. With nowhere to go, I hid in the dim stairwell of a nearby building, planning to shiver through the night.

But around midnight, I heard a click.

I peeked through the gap in the fire door. My mother was sneakily leaving the trailer in the middle of the night.

A dark suspicion crept into my mind. I quietly slipped out and followed her.

She navigated through the shady back alleys of the town, eventually slipping into a dingy, abandoned-looking warehouse at the end of a street.

Strangely, the warehouse was dead quiet from the outside.

What was she doing here at this hour?

I crept inside, following her footsteps down a dark hallway. But when I reached the end, it was a dead end.

She had vanished.

Suddenly, I noticed a loose brick on the wall with a hidden toggle switch behind it. I flipped it, and a section of the wall swung open, revealing a hidden room.

As I stepped through, it felt like entering a different world.

The underground room was massive, filled with thick cigar smoke and shouting people. Dozens of tables were set up, and everyone was gambling like manic devils.

It was an illegal underground casino.

I quickly blended into the crowd and spotted my mother at a high-stakes poker table.

In front of her sat a mountain of high-value chips. The people around her were shamelessly flattering her.

"Wow, Sarah! You’re playing big tonight! Must be nice having a filthy rich ex-husband!"

My mother laughed loudly, tossing a two-thousand-dollar chip to one of her cronies.

"Take it! My treat! I’m in a great mood today."

"My rich ex-husband just wired me another two million dollars. I have more money than I know how to spend!"

She threw money around like water, placing massive bets without even blinking. Within thirty minutes, the entire two million dollars was completely gone.

Not only did she blow all the cash, but she also borrowed on credit, owing the house over five hundred thousand dollars.

Several heavily tattooed thugs with bats wrapped in barbed wire walked up, looking incredibly hostile.

"Pay up, Sarah. Otherwise, things are going to get very ugly."

But my mother didn't even flinch. She waved her hand carelessly.

"Chill out, boys. I’ll just make up another excuse and get my ex to wire more."

"I’ll tell him our daughter has stage-four leukemia and needs ten million for chemo. Trust me, he’ll send the cash within minutes!"

I shook with absolute rage. I wanted to storm over and rip her face off.

My father’s hard-earned money—money meant to secure my future—had been fed into her bottomless gambling addiction.

I watched as she pulled out her phone and dialed my father. After a quick, tearful performance, she hung up and smirked at the thugs.

"See? The money will hit my account in ten minutes."

"Deal me in again! I’m going to win it all back!"

Realizing how dangerous the situation was, I slipped out of the casino as fast as I could.

Once outside, I dialed the number Leo had given me. The call was answered almost instantly.

"Vance residence. How can I help you?" Arthur’s polite voice came through.

"Tell William Vance that his daughter, Elena, is on the line."

Ten seconds later, my father’s frantic, breathless voice blasted through the speaker.

"Elena?! Where are you?! We need to meet right now!"