"Rip off her clothes!
Otherwise, the photos will not be compromising enough!"
A sultry, sweet voice poured out.
The noises were hazy to Daphne. She heard them but couldn't properly make out what they were saying, as she lay unconscious.
Daphne managed to blink open her eyes, meeting her gaze with four men. She gasped, eyes widening as she crawled back.
"What are you doing?!" She kicked one of the men with her unstable legs as he tried to approach her. She moved further back but hit a dead end when her back slammed against the bedside table. A window was behind her.
"Get away from me!" she said shakily, her eyes crazily running over the room and the figures in it.
"Daphne," the sweet voice started again, "if you just let me take these photos of you, it'll make things a lot easier for you."
Daphne stared up at the speaker, and her eyebrows shot up to her forehead.
"Angela?!" Daphne gasped.
Angela stood a few steps away from her, a sly smirk on her face, camera positioned firmly in hand.
"You are my sister! What in hell's name are you doing?!" she continued. "If your mother knew about the vile things you're doing, she'd be so disappointed in you!"
Angela chuckled darkly. "My mom? Well, you must be surprised to know that it was Mom's idea to drug your drink in the first place."
Daphne paled.
"Once we have these photos, you'll have no other option but to marry that living corpse so that I don't have to!" Angela growled, her sly expression turning into a wicked one. "If I'd known the head of the Sinclair Group had become a vegetable after that car crash,"
She paused to rub her temples, then continued, "I would have never agreed to an arranged marriage with him. I refuse to be shackled to a patient who's in a coma for the rest of my life!"
"No. No, no, no, no. That can't be…" Daphne chanted as realization dawned on her.
"Did you really think Mom cared about you?" her sister continued. "She was only pretending to be kind to you to manipulate you, you motherless fool!" Angela spat, her expression that of a crazed woman. "And as for the company shares your mom left you? Dad has already transferred all of them to me!" She ended her words with stomach-churning laughter.
"How…" Daphne's voice cracked, tears falling like a dam breaking. "How could you both be so cruel?!" she cried out. "I treated you like family, and this is how you pay me back?!" She gasped as the tears continued falling, her heart hurting from the betrayal.
"I've spoiled you, protected you, and loved you like a real sister. And yet you ruin me like this just because I refused to marry that man in your place?!"
Angela scoffed. Not a word out of Daphne's mouth had moved her. She still held the camera in place, positioned at Daphne's teary face.
"Oh, I know how softhearted you are. You've always treated my mom like your own, so of course you'd cave if she played the victim and begged you to marry that man in my stead." Her face twisted into a scowl. "But if you just married into the powerful Yi family, you'd slip right out of our control.
The only way to keep you obedient forever is to make sure that you're so tainted and broken that you could never possibly defy us! And then everything that your mother left you will be rightfully mine!"
Daphne's guts twisted as she realized this wasn't her sister but a madwoman driven by an insane lust for power.
"Drag her away from that window!" Angela ordered the men.
The men stalked toward Daphne, ready to complete the order.
"This is the 25th floor. There's no way she'd actually jump," Angela convinced herself and the men.
One of the men grabbed her wrist while Angela continued, "Have as much fun with her tonight as you wish, boys. Just don't kill her or maim her too badly. I still need that pretty face." She chuckled.
The man pushed Daphne away from the window, and she landed with a thud right before Angela. Pain wracked through her whole body.
"Thanks so much for this, Angela," one of the men said as he crouched down to be on face level with Daphne. "Come on, sweet girl. Let's have some fun." He gripped her wrist.
With a burst of energy and courage, Daphne yanked her hand away from his hold and kicked him. "Get away from me!"
She crawled again, her back to the window, when she felt a full-body flush. Her heart began palpitating as her face reddened.
Why's my heart suddenly racing? she thought.
Angela broke into laughter. "I slipped six doses of aphrodisiac into your wine. Six times the amount people normally take. Oh! Looks like it's kicking in! Soon you'll lose all your self-control and start writhing like an animal in heat! Haha!"
Daphne checked the height of their room to the ground from the corner of her eyes.
"Stop struggling, sweet sister. This entire loft is mine. Everyone here answers to me. There's no escaping!"
The room was quiet. Daphne rose onto the window ledge. Angela noticed this, and her eyes widened. "Why are you all just standing there?! Grab her now! I don't care if she gets hurt. Just pull her down from the ledge!"
Lightning struck and thunder boomed in the background.
Daphne, her expression one of defiance and profound will, spoke:
"Angela Lu! I'll haunt you from my grave!"
With those final words, Daphne fell back before any of the men could touch her. She fell out the window and landed on the ground with a thud.
Lifeless.