Filed To Story: Returning to Her Not-So-Poor Family
“Martin, stop playing dumb with me. Besides you, everyone in the Cooper family is against this engagement!”
At that moment, the bodyguard noticed that the patient on the bed was waking up, and quickly said, “Miss, Sir, Mrs. Florence is waking up.”
The siblings stopped their quarrel and gathered around the bed.
Florence slowly opened her eyes, and when her gaze finally settled on her son, she mustered all her strength, her voice filled with sorrow and anger, as she tearfully asked, “Do you believe in your mother?”
Martin took her hand and said, “Of course, I do.”
“She’s a calamity. Leave her.” Florence’s voice was weak, and even her grip was feeble, but she clung to her son’s hand, tears streaming down her cheeks, “I will never agree to this engagement.”
“Mom.” Martin, somewhat helpless, was about to say something.
Florence angrily cut him off, “If you insist on engaging with her, then you are no longer my son!”
Martin saw his mother’s desperate state and realized she had aged; not just her hair had turned white, but her forehead was lined with wrinkles.
He remembered the “mission” given by the mysterious person.
Not to mention the McMillian family backing Mirabella.
His mother was old now, and he really didn’t want to burden her or the entire Cooper family any further.
With these thoughts, he suddenly fell to his knees, apologizing, “Mom, I’m sorry, but I have to marry her.” Florence’s eyes widened, tears still on the brink, unable to believe that her son would sever ties with her over a woman.
Martin’s ears were ringing, and a trickle of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
“You’re dead to me—you hear that? From now on, you’re no longer our son. Get out—just get out!”
Ansel was livid, his voice reaching a fever pitch, “Get out!”
Florence closed her eyes, her heart breaking, tears streaming down her face.
Diana watched the scene unfold in disbelief. Had her brother lost his mind? Was he really cutting ties with his family for Serena?
What was he thinking?
Martin bowed deeply toward Ansel, his forehead touching the ground three times in a traditional sign of respect, but Ansel wasn’t having it. He lashed out, kicking Martin’s shoulder and bellowed, “I said get out!”
“Dad, don’t get yourself worked up,” Diana, noticing her father’s rage seemed like a towering mountain about to crumble, quickly stepped forward to support him and glanced at her brother. “Martin, are you really willing to cut off Mom and Dad for Serena? Did they mean nothing raising you all these years?”
Martin slowly got to his feet, bowed to the three of them, and turned to leave the hospital room.
“Martin?”
Diana hadn’t expected him to be so resolute. Ansel collapsed, and Diana, panic-stricken, called out, “Dad, Dad? What are you two standing there for? Come over and help, quickly!”
Two bodyguards rushed forward to assist Ansel.
Diana hit the call button for the nurse and then dashed out after Martin.At that moment, Martin was standing in front of the elevator. The doors dinged open, and he was about to step in when…
“Martin.”
Diana caught up with him, her fury unchecked, and she slapped him hard across the face.
“Are you even human?” She pummeled his chest with her fists, “Mom’s in the ICU fighting for her life, and Dad’s been struck down by your selfishness! Even if you want to marry Serena, even if you want to cut ties with the family, did it have to be now? Are you trying to kill them?”
Martin let her vent her rage until she was too exhausted to continue. Only then did he gently wipe the tears from his sister’s face with his sleeve.
“Don’t pretend to care!” Diana pushed his hand away, tears flowing freely, “If you have any conscience left, cancel the engagement party on Friday. Out of respect for the years mom and dad raised you, I’m not asking for a lifetime of gratitude, just don’t be the last blow that kills them!”
With that, Diana turned and walked away, her heart shattered.
Martin watched his sister’s retreating figure, realizing he was in too deep to turn back now.This process could take a month at least, or years at its worst.
During this time, he would have to bear the burden in silence. Reаd at For now, he could only apologize to his family.
The next day in the afternoon, Mirabella received a call from Jack.
Jack had been piecing together the puzzle of Mirabella’s aunt and uncle’s business troubles. It seemed their subsidiary companies had run into a mysterious sabotage, likely the work of an enigmatic figure known as Stinger. The only details Jack had unearthed about Stinger were frustratingly vague: a man with a youthful voice, on the lean side, and taller than average. His facial features remained a complete mystery.
“The auctioneer mentioned that Stinger has shown up a few times, bidding on some jewelry. I’ll send you photos of the pieces,” Jack said without ending the call, swiftly sharing a dozen images with Mirabella via WhatsApp.
As Mirabella flicked through the photos, a knot formed in her stomach. Each piece was unmistakably linked to the Collins family, exuding opulence and history.
If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, these were the very jewels that Serena, when she was still the golden girl of the Collins family, had received as gifts from her family.
Mirabella spoke in a measured tone, “Back when Erik and Martha were still with us, they had a side business selling off Serena’s jewelry, designer clothes, and luxury bags in exchange for cash. Looking at this, it’s almost certain that Stinger is one of Erik’s guys.”
Jack continued, “The auction house doesn’t have any surveillance since the clientele prefer their privacy, and auctioneer didn’t want to risk scaring them off with cameras. There’s no footage of Stinger.
But the owner did say that he always shows up wearing a black balaclava and a black baseball cap, with just his eyes showing – sharp and full of malice, almost devoid of human emotion, cold. The night he came to the auction, he didn’t bid on anything. He just showed up for a bit and left.”
“That means he wasn’t there for the auction items,” Mirabella deduced. “He was probably meeting someone, using the crowd and the lack of surveillance to his advantage. Now we can be sure that Stinger is connected to Erik, and he might know who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes.”Since Erik had been coerced into taking his own life with poison on the orders of this shadowy puppeteer, capturing Stinger became crucial. He might be willing to avenge Erik by spilling what he knew about the mastermind.
Yet there was also the chance that Stinger was now answering to Serena, viewing the Collins family as a thorn.
“Keep tracking Stinger’s whereabouts,” Mirabella instructed. “See if there’s any trail leading to or from the auction that could be linked to him.”
“Will do.”
No sooner had Mirabella hung up than another call came through.
“Ms. Bella, it’s me,” the voice on the other end belonged to the precinct, “Protocol dictates we inform the next of kin when we take someone into custody, but… you better come down here.”
It was at the precinct that Mirabella learned Yolanda’s foster mother, Yvonne, had been dead for several days. She examined the body, shared her findings with the officer in charge, and then accompanied another officer to see Yolanda.
“The girl’s tight-lipped, won’t say a word, just keeps cursing you out, making a fuss about wanting to see you.””I’ll go in,” Mirabella said, pushing open the door to the interrogation room. Upon seeing Mirabella, Yolanda lunged forward, nearly breaking free from the officer’s grasp in her frenzy to reach Mirabella.
“Yolanda, this isn’t the place to throw a tantrum!” the officer barked.
“Go on. I’ve got this,” Mirabella said, her voice steady as a rock and her expression unflappable.
The lead investigator and the stenographer exchanged worried glances. “Ms. Bella, just be careful, okay? We’re right outside if you need us,” they cautioned.
Mirabella nodded in affirmation.
Once the two had left the room, Yolanda glared at Mirabella with eyes blazing with hatred, as if she wished she could strike her dead right there and then.
“Don’t say I never gave you a chance,” Mirabella suddenly declared, producing a small folding knife from her jacket and tossing it before Yolanda. “I won’t fight back. You’ve got three minutes.”
Yolanda eyed the knife on the ground, her mind racing with doubts about whether this was some sort of trap Mirabella had set.
“You wanna kill me, right?” Mirabella taunted with a disinterested tone. “Here’s your shot.”
Yolanda wasn’t about to let an opportunity slip by. She was already locked up, and her charges were heavy enough to put her on death row.
So, trap or not, she lunged for the knife, flipped it open, and thrust it at Mirabella.
Mirabella coolly started the stopwatch app on her phone.
Blinded by rage, Yolanda attacked with all her might, but Mirabella effortlessly dodged every attempt.
Not once in those three minutes did Yolanda manage to so much as nick Mirabella’s clothing, let alone harm a single hair on her head.On the contrary, Mirabella watched Yolanda’s self-doubt grow, her breath coming in ragged gasps, and said calmly, “Do you know why I gave you this chance? To show you that even though I was unarmed and standing still, you can’t hurt me. You’re not, nor will you ever be, in my league.”
Enraged, Yolanda felt the previous wound on her leg, inflicted by Mirabella, reopening due to her frenetic movements. The bandage was soaked with fresh blood, and the pain made her forehead sweat profusely.
“If you hadn’t slashed my hand and wounded my leg, it might have been a different story!” Yolanda spat back defiantly. “Stand still if you dare!”
Mirabella asked indifferently, “Do you know where I’ve just come from? Your foster mother, Yvonne, died five days ago. I’ve just seen her body.”
Yolanda’s expression flickered with panic before she quickly composed herself.
Yolanda’s eyes, red with fury, bore into Mirabella.”My guess is, on that day, you decided to kill me, but your foster mother found out. She tried to stop you, and in the heat of the argument, you killed her.” Her discomfort only solidified Mirabella’s suspicions.
“Do you know what I found on her clothes? In her dying moments, when she feared you’d take the blame, she scrawled ‘suicide’ with her own blood. She didn’t finish the last stroke of ‘suicide’ before she passed.”
Yolanda’s eyes snapped open in disbelief, unable to fathom that her adoptive mother, Yvonne, had left behind such a message.
“No, you’re lying, you’re making this up!” Yolanda’s emotions surged.
Mirabella pulled out her phone and showed Yolanda the message written on Yvonne’s clothes, saying indifferently, “You recognize her handwriting, don’t you?”
That hit Yolanda like a ton of bricks, sending her collapsing to the floor.
“You stabbed her with a knife, and the murder weapon was found near the river by your house, matching the wound on her body. It was your family’s kitchen knife.”
Yolanda looked at Mirabella, stunned that she could find and infer all this.
“When you stabbed her, it wasn’t fatal. She died from suffocation. I’m guessing when you saw her bleeding, you didn’t dare take her to the hospital, afraid they’d ask too many questions. And maybe you were scared she’d wake up, stop your revenge, or even call the cops. So, you dug a hole in your backyard and buried her.”
Yolanda couldn’t believe Mirabella had figured it out, shaking her head frantically, “No, it wasn’t like that.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.