Later on, whenever she tried to boss him around, she would always get the same reply.

"As you wish, my little princess."

Then he went abroad to study. By the time he returned, they had both grown up and

drifted apart.

That affectionate nickname and those playful teasing moments had vanished entirely.

But now, that long-lost title washed over her, carrying with it a wave of indulgence and the exclusive memories of their youth.

Lizetta's heart softened into a puddle of warmth. She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Remington's waist.

"Yeah. No one is worth you getting blood on your hands."

A surge of warmth pooled in Remington's eyes at her words. He cupped her delicate face in his palm.

"Don't worry. I'm just making sure she understands exactly who she should never dare to touch!"

He also wanted Andrea to taste the sheer, inescapable despair of being submerged in freezing water, unable to break free.

Hearing that Remington hadn't actually taken Andrea's life, Lizetta didn't press the matter any further.

Whatever Andrea went through now, she had brought it entirely upon herself. At Mirror Lake.

Rescue teams had arrived, and someone in the crowd had called the police, who were now swarming the scene.

The onlookers had been pushed back, and the road was cordoned off once again.

"What's going on these past few days? Why is this area so cursed lately? They just closed the road a couple of days ago for some car crash, right? We should avoid driving this way from now on. It's too eerie."

"No kidding. The car went in, and the person just vanished? This lake isn't even that big, how can they not find her? Let's get out of here, this is definitely creepy. I'm done watching this."

The crowd behind the police tape murmured among themselves before slowly dispersing.

By the lake, Eartha's face was streaked with tears.

"Honey, do you think Andrea is already..."

An hour had passed since the accident, and even the submerged vehicle had been hoisted out of the water.

Aside from the rescue divers, the lake was swarming with men Conrad had called in, yet they had scoured the entire area and found no trace of Andrea.

She had vanished without a trace, leaving neither a survivor nor a body.

The driver, trembling violently, huddled behind Conrad, clutching a thick coat around himself.

Eartha turned to him. "Are you absolutely sure Andrea was in the car when it went into the lake? Didn't you say you hit something and stopped before it went over? Could she have gotten out then?"

"Miss Andrea was in there. When we went over the edge, she was screaming in the back. Later, in the water, I saw her she clearly escaped the car, but... but I don't know how, I just turned my head, and she was gone... Could there be something sinister in the water..."

The driver kept his head down, stammering out his words. His face was deathly pale, clearly consumed by paranoia.

He had managed to force his door open just as the car was sinking completely, and he vividly remembered seeing Andrea follow him out.

He had been holding his breath to his absolute limit by then, so he had just focused on kicking desperately toward the surface.

By the time he dragged himself onto the shore and coughed up a lungful of water,

he looked back at the calm surface of the lake, only to realize Andrea was nowhere to be seen.

Just thinking about it sent a chill down the driver's spine, draining whatever color was left from his face.

Eartha looked at Conrad beside her. "If I had known this would happen, we never should have brought Andrea back from abroad. We shouldn't have. It's my fault. It's all my fault..."

Tears streamed down Eartha's face as she spoke, and Conrad's eyes reddened slightly as he supported her.

"What are you saying? We raised

Andrea by our side. She's practically our only daughter She couldn't survive abroad on her own, 1 could we, as her parents, just abandon her? We absolutely have to get justice for her over this