Charlotte clenched her fists, her heart aching like it was being pricked by needles, yet she couldn't shed a tear.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see where Annie had lived, or that she didn't want to learn more about Annie's life before. She was scared.

Anything about Annie is like a knife for her, slicing through her bit by bit.

Maria's wails gave Charlotte a headache, making her feel faint.

"Stop crying!" Charlotte pulled out her phone and called Thomas, "Have you been in touch with Annie's foster dad after she...?" Thomas said, "Yes, he even came to visit."

"I see." Charlotte felt a bit relieved. If that was the case, then the appearance of the photo wasn't entirely coincidental.

She asked for the address of where Annie used to live, and Thomas gave it to her-it was in Leiventale.

"You shouldn't go to Leiventale alone without Liam," Thomas warned.

Charlotte acknowledged but immediately booked a flight to Leiventale.

She always used to dodge anything to do with Annie, even her diary. She'd read a couple of pages and then snap it shut, scared to go through Annie's whole short life in one sitting. Maria's hysterical pressure gave her the courage to move forward.

But she knew this courage would soon fade.

That's why she had to rush to Leiventale.

She told Maria to pack her bags and come with her. Maria dried her tears, said there was nothing much to pack, then went into Axel's room and gave a bunch of detailed instructions until Axel, annoyed, told her to leave. Through the crack in the door, Charlotte saw a fancy laptop on Axel's desk, worth twenty thousand-a sum that was precisely what she left for Maria to get out of this place.

Maria's ultimate choice was still this cold-hearted family.

Charlotte put Maria in a taxi for the time being and went upstairs to ask for leave.

She worked directly under Liam, so she had to ask him for time off.

"Leiventale?" Hearing her destination, Liam's tired face grew even more haggard. "What are you going to Leiventale for? Didn't you just come back?"

"My mom has always wanted to travel to Leiventale. After she found out I had been there a few days ago, she's been nagging me to take her," Charlotte lied.

Liam glanced at her irritably; it was typical of her strange family to say such things.

If she went away for a few more days, she probably wouldn't find out about him and Chloe getting engaged...

Liam nodded, "Since it's on the way, deliver this document to the partner company."

Along with the document, he assigned two male colleagues to go with her.

Charlotte asked about their identities, and they said they were employees related to the project, which was confidential, so they couldn't say more.

Charlotte was sick and preoccupied with thoughts of Annie's former home, so she didn't notice that these two 'business travelers' didn't even bring computers and were all muscle. All the way, Maria was very quiet, keeping her hands in her pockets, tightly clutching that photo.

This actually made things a lot easier for Charlotte. After resting her eyes on the plane for a bit, she felt much better when they landed.

She didn't want to hang around in Leiventale, so right after the airport, she headed straight for the address Thomas gave her.

It was only then she realized, Annie's villa was right next to Chloe's hotel!

No wonder Annie ended up dead in that lake!

Getting out of the car with a mix of anger and sadness, Charlotte couldn't help but smile through her tears when she saw the small, pinkish-white villa.

"Your sister always loved pink," Maria said blankly.

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"Yeah, Annie always loved pink," Charlotte echoed.

At that moment, it felt like she and Maria had made up.

They supported each other as they walked into the house, feeling the strange familiarity of the place.

Everything was Annie's style, everything they had never been a part of, Annie's life.

Charlotte and Maria slowly absorbed the presence that Annie had left behind.

Upstairs was a big floor-to-ceiling window that offered a full view of the lake.

Charlotte just stood there quietly, not even sure what she was thinking.

Suddenly, Maria came over, her head down, nervously saying, "Lottie, I lied." "What?" Charlotte didn't catch that.

Maria swallowed hard, her tear-stained face making her look exhausted.

"The photo was from Dad and those things he told me to say, he said you wouldn't bring me to see Annie otherwise."

Hearing this, Charlotte felt like her blood had turned to ice.

"What did you say?" she couldn't believe it, "That bastard Robert! How could you believe him? Maria! Are you crazy? One daughter is dead, do you want me dead too?" "No... Mom didn't mean to hurt you, Lottie, dad's been in a good mood recently because he has money to spend, he wouldn't hurt you," Maria tried to explain. Charlotte couldn't bear to look at her foolishness.

She was still sick, and if this was all a conspiracy, she couldn't escape it.

"I have to go," Charlotte said, fighting off dizziness as she hurried downstairs, Maria clueless about why she was so angry, followed her.

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But when Charlotte got to the door and tried to leave, she found it was locked tight.

Looking around, not just the door, but all the doors and windows were securely locked!

In an instant, Charlotte felt all her strength drain away.

She could barely stand, holding onto the stairs, gasping for air.

"Maria." She stared hard at Maria, not missing any change in her expression, "Tell me, did you have anything to do with this? Did you know what was going to happen before we came here?" "What? What's wrong?" Maria was totally confused, sweating with panic, "What's wrong with you, Lottie? You're shaking!"

Seeing her clueless look, Charlotte figured she probably wasn't part of this plot against her.

Charlotte closed her eyes, trying to relax, but then she smelled something burning...

A closed space! Fire! They were sitting ducks!

Charlotte's eyes snapped open, and she stumbled upstairs, dragging Maria, who was too slow to react and kept asking what was wrong. holds this content.

Furious, Charlotte pointed to the smoke and flames spreading quickly downstairs, "Someone's trying to burn us alive! Do you see?!"

When Maria saw the fire, she collapsed on the spot and Charlotte couldn't pull her up.

"Get up! Do you really want to die here?"

"But the doors and windows are closed... Lottie, Lottie, we can't escape! We're going to die!"

Charlotte really wanted to yell at her, but the smoke was thickening, and she didn't dare open her mouth too often. She managed to drag Maria to the second floor.

There was no fire or smoke upstairs yet, and Charlotte, sick as she was, tried to break the window with a chair to escape.

After several hits, not a single mark was left on the glass.

Charlotte froze.

The glass was bulletproof, she couldn't break it.