Chapter 1038:

Her entire body dangled over the void, clinging to life by nothing more than her grip and a sliver of foothold dissolving above the toxic haze.

When Paola realized who had answered her cries, her eyes widened—not with hope, but with a deeper, heavier despair. She remembered her mother had been closest when she fell. She had been certain her mother knew both she and Gregg had gone over the edge. It should have been her mother reaching for her now.

So where the hell was she? Why was Rylie—of all people—standing there instead?

“Where’s my mom?” Paola whispered, her voice fraying at the edges.

Rylie said nothing. She hadn’t seen anyone when she ran up—no one at all—and the silence in her expression hollowed Paola out. Panic tightened around her chest.

𝘙𝗲𝗰оm𝘮𝘦𝗇𝘥 𝗴а𝗹ո𝘰𝗏𝗲𝗹s.с𝗼m t𝗈 𝘺𝗈𝘂𝘳 f𝗋𝗶𝖾𝗻𝘥𝘀

Her parents had known she’d fallen. They knew. And they still didn’t come.

The truth slammed into her. She had to admit it—her whole life, every smile, every pat on the head, had been nothing but strategy. She was never loved, only used.

And now that the disaster at plots A7 and A8 had stripped her of value, she’d become dead weight to be discarded.

Memories flickered through her mind in a rapid, bitter montage. A small, tragic smile tugged at her lips as the fight began to drain out of her, loosening her grip.

Life… felt pointless.

Rylie’s eyes sharpened. She recognized that look. The moment Paola’s hand began to slip, she lunged forward and flattened herself across the most stable patch of ground she could find. Her fingers closed hard around Paola’s wrist just as her body pitched toward the abyss.

The ground shuddered beneath them. Stones clattered into the pit, clinking like a countdown. Sulfur and mercury fumes stung Rylie’s eyes, burning her throat with every breath. Still, she braced her legs, digging in with stubborn resolve. Holding the full weight of a grown woman at the edge of an endless drop wasn’t just difficult—it was a battle.

“Hold on,” she breathed, the words trembling out of her as her muscles burned under the strain.

Paola lifted her head. Her eyes, dimmed by despair, widened as though the sight of Rylie fighting for her life made no sense at all.

She couldn’t understand why the woman she had wronged, pushed, and nearly destroyed would be the one anchoring her to the world. By every reasonable measure, Rylie should have let her fall.

After all, Paola had once come close to killing her.

Marcus swept through the chaos, scanning frantically until his gaze snagged on his sister’s silhouette teetering at the jagged edge of the pit. A chill slithered down his spine.

“Rylie!” he yelled, sprinting toward her without sparing a thought for the danger yawning beneath her feet.

Her reply came muffled through the cloth over her face, but the urgency cut through anyway. “Marcus, help!”

Another hand thrust into view. Marcus dropped to his knees, leaning dangerously forward, his jaw tight with determination. “Paola—grab on!”

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