Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1316

Lillian instantly dispatched Dr. Celine to book the exact same hotel room, armed with a forensic kit to photograph the scene, swab for DNA, and secure the evidence.

In her wildest nightmares, Bella could never have imagined that her every move was being meticulously cataloged by Lillian.

The only reason Bella hadn't been thrown directly into Sebastian's destructive path was that Lillian was deliberately running interference, ensuring Sebastian didn't crush Bella too quickly.

That evening, a nondescript package was delivered to Sebastian's office. Inside was Debbie's severed hand.

The metallic stench of blood hit him first. Sebastian gagged, a wave of intense nausea rolling through his stomach.

Just then, Lester burst through the doors, his face pale. "Mr. Blake, it's a disaster. A video of your mother's mutilation just surfaced on the dark web..."

Sebastian's fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white. The veins at his temples throbbed.

The dark web. But with her name and his attached to the footage, it would inevitably bleed into mainstream networks. His pristine reputation was on the line.

He forced himself to glance at the severed hand again and immediately clamped a hand over his mouth, fighting the urge to vomit.

"Get that away from me!" Sebastian roared. "One billion dollars, was it? Wire the money immediately and scrub that video off the face of the internet!"

He had spent the entire day on edge, his security teams standing by. He was fully prepared to trace the live broadcast, raid the location, and slaughter everyone involved. He hadn't planned on paying a single dime.

But they had outsmarted him. There was no livestream. They recorded it, edited the footage to conceal their identities, and dumped it online.

He couldn't allow a scandal of this magnitude to see the light of day.

Lester swallowed hard. "Mr. Blake, it's not a billion dollars anymore. It's $1.2 billion."

He couldn't hand it over to the police, he couldn't throw it in a dumpster, and putting it in his refrigerator was absolute insanity.

He wasn't a psychopath, and he had never killed anyone. He didn't even know the legal definition of this—did it count as human remains if the person was still breathing?

But the biological reality was that the flesh would start rotting soon.

After confirming the wire transfer with Lester, Sebastian grabbed a shovel from the estate grounds, threw the bloodied box into the trunk of his car, and drove deep into the mountains outside the city limits. He hiked into the dense, uninhabited woods, dug a deep hole, and buried the hand and the fingers together.

It was the only way to ensure the smell wouldn't alert anyone.

As he packed the dirt down, a heavy weight lifted off his chest.