Chapter 481
The bodyguards hoisted Lacey Quinn Mercer out the front door, popped the trunk, and on the count of three, tossed her inside like a sack of garbage.
Her bones felt as if they had shattered on impact, every inch of her body screaming in agony, but she lacked the strength to even cry out. Two silent trails of tears slipped down her cheeks. As the former matriarch of the Mercer family and the eldest daughter of the Quinn family, she had never been treated with such degrading cruelty, utterly stripped of her ability to fight back. Without her maiden family’s protection and her children’s support, she was absolutely nothing.
A suffocating wave of despair washed over her. She regretted it all. She regretted severing ties with the Quinn family-the people who had truly loved her—all for Adrian Mercer. She regretted standing by as her biological children were banished from the house, all for the sake of Mara. If she had just spoken up for them back then, things wouldn’t have shattered so completely. This was pure retribution, a punishment straight from the heavens.
Parched, starving, and paralyzed with weakness, Lacey realized that even the beggars on the street had their freedom. She, however, was left to the mercy of others, treated like discarded trash.
The very moment Lacey was thrown out of the house, Mira received a live update on her phone. In truth, Mira had been kept in the loop regarding every single thing Lacey had endured inside the Mercer household, yet she had not lifted a finger to intervene. Any debt of gratitude for Lacey raising her until she was seventeen had been wiped clean the moment Mira died in her previous life. Everyone had to pay the price for their actions.
However, this time, she still had someone tip off Ethan. It wasn’t out of familial love, but purely out of basic human decency. Having her legs broken was one thing, but if Mira sat back and allowed Lacey to be stripped and humiliated by those guards, she would be no better than Adrian and his lackeys. Lacey’s abuse was her own fault, but Mira couldn’t just watch her biological mother be sexually assaulted. If word got out, it would humiliate all of Lacey’s children, even if their ties were officially severed.
By the time Ethan arrived at the scene, Lacey had just been dragged out of the trunk. The two bodyguards were raising their clubs when Ethan shouted them down. Without hesitating, he called the police and reported them for intentional assault. The authorities arrived swiftly, taking the
bodyguards away in handcuffs, and Lacey was escorted to the station to give her statement.
Before the next day even dawned, the vicious actions of Adrian, Fiona, and Mara were blasted all over the internet. Though Mira hadn’t been directly involved in the rescue, she kept a close eye on the situation. She knew Ethan wouldn’t just abandon Lacey, even though Lacey had previously chosen Mara over him. At the end of the day, Lacey was still his biological mother, and they didn’t share the same life-and-death grudge that Mira carried from her past life. For Ethan, forgiveness was still on the table.
Mira decided to fan the flames. She leaked everything that had happened in the Mercer dining and living rooms-everything Lacey had confessed, and all the humiliating details she had tried to hide to save face. It all went online.
Meanwhile, Adrian and his two favorite women were still basking in their hard-won ‘family of three’ dynamic. Fiona was lost in her fantasies of officially becoming Madam Mercer, while Mara reveled in her dream of being the sole heiress. But their blissful night was cut violently short. Long before dawn broke, the police were banging on the Mercer mansion’s door.
The so-called masters of the house were dragged out. Adrian and Fiona, in particular, were hauled straight out of bed.
Though Adrian and Lacey had signed their divorce papers, the documents wouldn’t officially take effect until they were filed with the civil registry the next business day Legally, Adrian and Lacey were still married. Therefore, his night with Fiona was classified as illegal cohabitation—an act the internet quickly and ruthlessly mocked as soliciting a prostitute.