The Day the Tragic Heroine Chose Herself Chapter 07

The Day the Tragic Heroine Chose Herself Chapter 07

Elias’s hands tightened around her throat, choking the air out of her. But instead of begging, she

started laughing.

“Blame me? You let me do it! All of you stood by and let it happen, and now I’m the villain?”

Something in Hazel snapped. She had nothing left to hide. She pointed a shaking finger at my

father.

“Weren’t you the one who said Celine didn’t deserve her position? That she’d ruin everything you built? You’re the one who told me to take her power. You wanted me to play your convenient little puppet!”

She turned on Elias next, tears streaming.

“And you, Elias! You hated living in the Ashford family’s shadow. You couldn’t stand feeling controlled by her. You know what scared you most? The whole syndicate whispering behind your back that you only made it to the top because you rode your wife’s coattails!”

Each word hit like a slap. Neither man could meet her eyes.

Elias went white. He tried to speak.

“I… I might’ve said those things… but I never wanted her dead…”

“I just wanted her to fall back in line! To learn her place and be my wife! That was all I wanted!”

The advisor laughed. It was the coldest sound in the room.

“Every single one of you is a coward. You wanted it done, but you didn’t have the guts to do it

yourselves.”

“Arthur, you conspired against your own flesh and blood. And Eleanor’s accident all those years ago? I’m starting to think that wasn’t an accident either.”

Every trace of mercy left the advisor’s face. He delivered his sentence.

“You used those hands to betray her. So we’ll take them from you. Sever the tendons. Make sure you never hold a scalpel again.”

My father screamed. The hands people had once called God’s gift to surgery were ruined in seconds. Then they threw him out like garbage.

The bodyguards held Hazel down. They filled a syringe with the same drugs she’d pumped into me. One hundred times the dose.

Her body gave out in under a minute. She died on the floor, right next to my corpse.

The advisor stepped past Hazel’s body, his cane clicking against the floor.

“Celine, it’s done. They’ve paid for it. You can rest now.”

“As for you…” He turned to Elias.

“The Ashford family is done with you. Every deal, every alliance, every arrangement is officially

severed.”

“Because Celine loved you once, you get to keep your life. What you do with it is your problem.”

The Ashford guards lifted my body and turned to leave. No hesitation.

But word traveled fast. The second Elias no longer had the Ashford name behind him, the wolves

came.

Every rival he’d ever made, from every dark corner of Ravenwood, flooded into the villa.

Elias was a fighter. He could’ve fought his way out.

Instead, he threw himself at the Ashford guards. Not to save himself. To get my body back.

“Give her back! Give Celine back to me!”

Then Elias did something no one expected. He pulled Leo close and dropped to his knees in front of

them all.

“Give her… back to me.”

His enemies smelled weakness. They descended on him, tearing into him, breaking him down while he knelt there.

Leo was curled in his father’s arms, shielded by Elias’s battered body, screaming.

“Mom! Mom!”

They didn’t stop until Elias gave out. He collapsed, barely breathing.

He kept mumbling through the blood. “Give Celine back to me… whoever brings her back… I’ll give

you everything… all of it… just bring her back…”

In two days, Ravenwood City’s entire underworld fell apart.

I watched it all. I didn’t look away once.

The system’s voice came through, quiet. [Is this the ending you wanted?]

I went completely still.

I answered aloud. “What about you, Celine? Is this the ending you wanted?”

The system fell silent.

Dead silent.

When the voice came back, it was shaking. For the first time since I’d known it, the system sounded

afraid.

[How… how did you… find out?]