He didn't elaborate. He just opened the door and stepped out into the cold.

Joanna watched Boris disappear down the block. Staring out at the freezing concrete, she felt like her head was going to split open.

A hysterical laugh bubbled up her throat. The news was absolutely explosive.

It was so chaotic she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

She had always believed Wendy was blindly devoted to her father. Now she realized it was all a pathetic joke-Wendy had made a complete fool out of him too.

Joanna's mind began racing, trying to figure out how to weaponize this information. But what was the point? Wendy had already lost everything.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, her phone buzzed with a call from her mother.

She groaned in frustration. Every time Sophia called, it was either to beg for money or to dump a crisis on her.

Seeing the caller ID made her want to throw the phone out the window.

"Mom," she answered anyway. She was still her mother, after all.

Sophia sounded hysterical and furious. "Joanna! Why have you been dodging my calls?!"

Joanna rubbed her temples. "Spit it out, Mom. You know I'm injured, right?"

"I've been stuck in a hospital bed for days, and you haven't bothered to visit once. You just call to scream at me. Do you even care if I'm alive?"

In that moment, Joanna immediately thought of Wendy. If she so much as scraped her knee, Wendy would have rushed her to the emergency room.

Wendy would scour the city for the best ointments to ensure she never had a single

scar.

The contrast was a brutal slap in the face.

Hearing Sophia's shrill voice forced her to compare her biological mother to Wendy, and Sophia failed on every front.

Sophia shrieked through the

speaker, Joanna, how the hell am I supposed to know which hospital you're in if you don't tell me you don't pick up the phone, how can I take care of you?"

"I'm calling to tell you that Wendy played us all! She set you up on purpose. There is no way she's broke!"

"And your brother's company

overseas? She stole it! She sold the local business to you just to clear her own name and leave you with no leverage. She stashed all the cash!"

"Joanna, that money belongs to me! You have to get it back!" Sophia wailed in utter

despair. She had been living in absolute misery lately.

Joanna was frozen in shock. She had always felt that the hostile takeover of her

brother's company was suspiciously orchestrated.

But she never imagined Wendy was the mastermind behind it.

It took several seconds for the reality of her mother's words to fully sink in.

Wendy had conned her. Her brother's international firm had been hijacked by the woman she thought was harmless.

The revelation made her want to tear her own hair out. She had spent years meticulously plotting her ascent, only to be outplayed by Wendy.

Outplayed by Natalie!

"No, that's impossible. I don't believe it. Who told you this?" Joanna refused to

accept that Wendy had the brains to slip out of her trap.

She had investigated the financials thoroughly-how the hell had Wendy pulled off the deception?

Sophia sobbed hysterically. "She told

me herself on New Year's Eve! And your brother getting busted at the casino? It was Evelyn Carrington! Onge Evelyn found out the truth, she set your brother up! How could that little bitch do that? He's her brother too!"

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Sophia gasped for air between sobs, absolutely terrified of the retaliation that the Wilson family might unleash.

"Joanna, I'm so scared. Evelyn is a total psycho. You have to help me!"

Joanna screwed her eyes shut in agony and aggressively ended the call. She didn't understand. Where exactly had her flawless plan fallen apart?