Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1466

Though Debbie acted as if she was perfectly willing to drag this out until they all rotted, deep down, she wasn't truly ready to forfeit the money.

If she had an ounce of freedom, she would have ruthlessly hoarded the entire $1.2 billion for herself.

But the glaring issue remained: Sebastian Blake would never give her the chance to breathe, let alone spend it.

Trapped without freedom, the massive sum was entirely out of reach. With Bella blocking her only path forward, her only viable option was to divide the funds exactly as they had originally agreed.

Bella seemed remarkably patient.

"If neither of you is terrified that the bodyguards might burst through that door at any second, then I certainly have nothing to worry about. Judging by how entirely relaxed you both are, those guards must be gone for a very long time, right?"

If the security detail was returning soon, there was no way these two could maintain this level of calm.

No matter how bitterly resentful they felt, they would be frantic to get the cash secured.

Bella understood the depths of Debbie's greed intimately.

Even if she couldn't rake in the astronomical sum she had planned with Lucas, the original payout still left her with a vast fortune to blow on gambling and luxury.

For a degenerate gambler like Debbie—a woman capable of losing $1 billion without blinking—taking a haircut of a few hundred million was practically irrelevant.

In the eyes of an addict, money was merely a fleeting illusion anyway.

Lucas finally shot a desperate look at Debbie. Forty million was fine, as long as it actually landed in his hands.

Four hundred million sounded spectacular in theory, but if it remained out of reach, it was nothing but smoke and mirrors. Securing cold, hard cash was the only thing that mattered.

"Debbie, should we just... split it? We honestly don't know when those guards will march back in. Just to be safe, let's divide the money now, and then—"

Before he could even finish the sentence, Debbie grabbed a pillow with her good hand and viciously hurled it straight at his face.

But dealing with these two world-class idiots left her utterly exhausted.

The bodyguards could return at any given second. What if they were caught red-handed?

Even a hospital visit wouldn't excuse sneaking into a heavily guarded room in the dead of night.

If caught, none of them possessed a lie good enough to explain it away.

That was precisely why Lucas had finally spoken up in Bella's favor.

He was the one who had physically chopped off Debbie's hand—Bella didn't have the brute strength for it. That was a calculated part of the plan.

But if they were discovered and questioned now, how on earth could he justify his presence here?

Only Debbie remained entirely consumed by her own bitter resentment.