Chapter 391 Judgment

The man did not miss a beat. He betrayed his own daughter without batting an eyelid.

“Rebecca, you’ve seen what happens to the ones who break this family. Two options lie ahead of you. You do it yourself, or I’ll do it for you.”

He opened the small box sitting in front of the family shrine. Inside was a knife sharp enough to slice bone. He raised it to the flame until the steel turned red like fire.

“You broke three rules. First, you lost to the enemy. Second, you let the video get out. Third, you dragged the Bells into shame. By our law, I have to cut off three of your fingers. Since you’re my granddaughter, I’ll let you pick which ones.”

Abram held the knife out in front of her.

“Grandpa, I … I can’t … I just can’t…”

Rebecca’s face twisted as tears and snot smeared together. If she had known it would come to this, she never would have stood up for Kyla. She never would have gone after Tilda. Now she was broken.

“If you won’t do it yourself…”

Abram pulled out a handkerchief. Before Rebecca could move, his arm came down. Her left pinkie was gone before she realized it.

For half a breath she froze, then the pain tore through her body like fire and filled her veins with panic and heat. Her scream shook the chapel walls. She clutched her bleeding hand and rolled on the floor, writhing in agony. Jarrett was already curled in the corner with his palms pressed to his ears.

He couldn’t make himself watch the bloodshed. Preston and Daphne flinched hard and turned their faces away. Ryan and Nathan never looked away. Tilda kept her eyes on Abram too, silent as stone.

“Can’t believe Abram would do this to his own granddaughter,” she whispered. The Bells aren’t any different from the Jensons. One shatters the body, the other crushes the mind.

She understood it then. This was their philosophy. To the Bells, the worst sin is letting the enemy make a fool of you while you wear their name.

“That’s why this punishment has lasted for generations. If you’re weak, if you drag them down, they take your strength away.”

Her voice dropped. “It makes sense in a twisted way. And since your family accepts it, who am I to say anything about it?”

Families like the Bells stood tall even in the world’s eyes. No soft hand could guard something that massive. Mercy would only bury them. Only savage lessons could keep them alive.

“That’s why you made it through, Jude. You must have suffered more than anyone knows.”

Her words slid into Jude’s chest like a clean breath of air, breaking through years of darkness. His eyes locked on her face, and a fire rippled inside him. For a moment he wanted nothing more than to pull her close.

To the world, Jude was born to rule and inherit DY Group. They praised him, revered him, and called it respect. But behind every smile he felt nothing but disgust. They never knew the sneers, the pain, and the despair he had swallowed to stand here. They only knew him as the heir. They never knew he carried the blame for his mother’s death. They never knew his father had turned silent and cold after the woman he loved was gone. His father never struck him, never cursed him, but he never gave him love either. His grandmother had raised him. In that brutal house, she had been his only warmth.

She had kept him human when the world tried to make him a monster. But she died when he was ten, and then Abram’s grip closed around him. Abram never saw a grandson. He saw talent. He saw the heir. From that moment, Jude’s life was carved into stone.

If not for his grandmother shielding him while she lived, Abram would have thrown him into the fire even sooner. She had begged that he live like a normal boy. She had begged for fewer scars. But when she died, no one could stop Abram.

From ten to twenty, Jude was forged in fire. Abram’s training was merciless, a torment no ordinary person could have survived. Jude bore it all. He bore it for the two women who had loved him and died because of him.

Now, inside this chapel, he looked at Tilda, and realization struck his mind. In the middle of his endless night, she was the only light that had ever touched him.