Twisted Ties of Love
Chapter 134

Izabella walked up to Lucas with a cold expression, giving off a chilling vibe. "Lucas, you think that blaming me for our dad's death will make you feel better and help you pretend that you didn't play a part in it? If you were a little more reasonable and kept an eye on dad instead of leaving him to sign that contract, he wouldn't have died, and the Salotti family wouldn't be ruined!"

Throwing the blame around wasn't something new. Words could be like a knife, piercing people until they're bleeding heavily.

At this moment, when Lucas made eye contact with her, he subconsciously stepped back, his heart filling with fear and anxiety, like a trapped beast struggling in vain.

The woman holding his hand clearly felt him shaking. Hearing Izabella's cold questioning, she was a little scared as well.

Now that she saw Lucas being afraid, the differences between them became very apparent, making her think that he was utterly useless, even afraid of his own sister.

She pinched Lucas's arm forcefully. "Lucas, she's just shifting the blame, putting the cart before the horse!"

The sudden pain in his arm brought Lucas back to reality. After being goaded by the woman's words, he raised his hand immediately.

Izabella didn't panic at all. With cold eyes, she stared at his raised hand, thinking that if he slapped her, she would cut off all ties with him from now on!

At that moment, her father's last words to her on the phone kept replaying in her mind.

"Izabella, you take good care of your brother."

Lucas's slap never came down as she wished.

He withdrew his hand with a cold expression, saying word by word, "Izabella, who do you think you are? Everyone who has anything to do with you ends up being miserable. You're like a disaster magnet. You know Presley, right? Do you know why he had to go abroad? He was forced out by Brett! His company was going downhill because no one dared to work with him, and he was about to end up like the Salotti family. He had to go abroad to save the Felton Group."

Lucas sneered, "You should know better than anyone why Brett was targeting Presley."

Izabella stiffened in disbelief, her voice trembling as she asked, "What did you say?"

Lucas paused for a moment, mocking her with a smile. "I see you didn't know. How do you even have the courage to live in this world? You think you've married a good man and enjoy all the things that he brought you, while everyone around you is stripped of everything they have."

Izabella's mind was in a daze, and after hearing the earlier part, she couldn't help but cover her mouth, biting her lower lip hard to suppress the trembling sound.

So that was the real reason why Presley left the country.

How could she believe that he went abroad just to study? He was researching all along in the country, and he already had achieved some results. Going abroad meant having to start everything from scratch.

Lucas laughed mockingly. He knew his sister better than anyone, and he knew that breaking her heart would bring her more pain than any physical harm.

Biting her from the inside out would make her feel unbearable. Whenever Izabella saw Brett in the future, she would think of Presley and she would be in pain!

Lucas revealed a triumphant smile, wrapping his arm around the waist of the woman beside him. She glanced at Izabella, her elbow hitting her brutally as she walked past Izabella.

Izabella staggered and hit the wall.

"Oops, I didn't mean it."

Lucas glanced at Izabella, though he couldn't see her face. He just saw her slender figure slightly leaned forward, holding onto the wall.

Feeling a sense of strangeness, he turned his head and said, "Serves her right, let's just ignore her and go."

Little did Lucas know, Izabella was covering her mouth while her back was turned, but she couldn't stop herself from vomiting blood.

The thick, red blood fell through her fingers onto the floor. Her stomach twisted with pain, tears blurred her eyes, and her ears buzzed like bees had flown into them.

She looked at the blood on the floor, realizing she had almost forgotten the taste of blood, as it had been so long since she last coughed it up.

Izabella stumbled into the bathroom and began to dry-heave over the sink. Soon, the bit of beef that she had just eaten along with the blood came back up.

She hadn't eaten much, and by the end, all that was left was stomach acid. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing herself with her red, swollen eyes, tearful gaze, and makeup smeared all over her face. Her skin was as pale as a sheet, resembling a ghost.

Izabella leaned on the sink and forced a smile at her reflection, but it only came out uglier than crying.

She grabbed a tissue, moistened it, and wiped off the dirty makeup on her face, then reapplied some powder and lipstick. No matter how much she tried to fix her appearance, she still looked haggard, just like her stomach---broken beyond repair, no matter how many pills she swallowed.

When Izabella left the bathroom, the blood stains on the floor were already cleaned up. She threw the tissues into the garbage bin and left to find Brett.

She had been in the bathroom for so long that Brett was about to get up and look for her, fearing she was lost. Just then, he saw her walking back slowly. "What took you so long? I thought you got lost." Brett only noticed Izabella's pale face after she sat down again.

"What happened?"

Izabella was out of energy and couldn't even manage to question him. But what would happen if she did? Would things change? Would Presley come back?

If she questioned him for Presley's sake, Brett would only get angrier.

For the first time, Izabella felt such disgust for power and influence. It was great to have in your own hands but it was horrible when wielded by others---It gave them control over you, making you as helpless as a fish on a cutting board.

"I ran into Lucas just now." Izabella rarely shared with Brett what she went through, but this time her voice was so weak that one could barely hear her.

"Lucas? He's here too?"

"Yes."

"What did he say to you? You look terrible."

"We talked about the old days when I first inherited the Salotti Group. You know, when I was seventeen, and after my grandfather died, I left school to go to the company, and for a while the Salotti Group almost collapsed."

Brett nodded. He had met Izabella during that time, so he could vividly remember that period. In some ways, Izabella and he were alike---they both had a tough and aggressive working style, a sharp personality that easily offended people. But they didn't care about that, because they were good at their jobs.

If there was one big difference, it was that he hadn't met his match so far, while Izabella had met him and she had lost for the first time.

"So, you managed to keep the Salotti Group going for six years, which is already pretty impressive." Brett sincerely complimented her.

"But it was still gone, didn't it, Brett? I actually thought about giving the Salotti Group to you before. You're stronger than me, so instead of letting it die in my hands, I should pass it on to you. Who knows, maybe it could even stand side by side with the Windham Group and reach new heights?"

Too bad she overestimated the Salotti Group. Brett didn't want to cooperate with them for mutual benefit; he wanted to swallow the Salotti Group whole and make it vanish from the business world.

Sᴇarch the FindNovel.net website on G𝘰𝘰gle to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.