They Took My Daughter I Took Everything.

The day the Wilson family came to take back their biological daughter, Mrs. Elena said in front of everyone:

Don't worry. I'll be a better mother than you, her adoptive one, ever were.

I didn't say anything. I signed the papers and let go.

After that, my daughter Aria called me once a week, her tone ten times sweeter than before.

"Mom, the Wilsons hired a nutritionist for me. I've gained several pounds."

But the collarbones in her video call looked even sharper than when she left.

"Mom, Blake took me to the amusement park. I had so much fun."

But there was a band-aid over her right eyebrow. She said she bumped into the carousel.

"Mom, they transferred me to a private school. All my classmates are really nice to me."

But when I looked up the school, there was no enrollment record for her at all.

The last time we spoke, she said the Wilsons were taking her abroad to study, so it might not be convenient to stay in touch.

Right before hanging up, she suddenly lowered her voice and said quickly:

"Mom, there's a diary in the second drawer of my closet."

I found the notebook that same night. Inside was a photo of the Wilson family's son.

On the back, in Aria's handwriting, were four words:

"He's not human."

"Who is he? What inhuman thing did he do?"

I stared at those words in the diary"He's not human."

My fingers wouldn't stop trembling. My fingertips pressed so hard they nearly tore through the thin photo.

"Mom, what's wrong? Why aren't you sleeping?"

My son Adrian rubbed his sleepy eyes and pushed open my bedroom door.

"Adrian, go get dressed."

I snapped the diary shut, my voice hoarse like I'd swallowed sand.

"Where are we going this late?"

Adrian looked at me, confused.

"New York."

I stood up and grabbed my jacket from the couch.

"To find your sister!"

Adrian froze for a moment, then panic flashed in his eyes.

"Did something happen to Aria?"

He didn't ask another question. He just turned and went to grab his backpack.

The 3 AM flight. The entire cabin was so quiet it made me anxious.

I stared out at the pitch-black sky.

All I could think about was Aria's trembling voice at the end of our last call. "Mom, I miss you so much."

That was the only time she hadn't forced a smile since the Wilsons took her away.

The plane landed in New York just as dawn broke.

I pulled out my phone and sent Aria a message.

"I have some work that suddenly brought me to New York. Mind if I stop by to see you?"

My heart was in my throat.

A full half hour passed before she replied with a single line.

"Oh Mom, bad timing. My parents took me on vacation. We're not in New York right now."

I looked at those words, my hands and feet going ice cold.

She didn't even send an emoji. That wasn't like Aria at all.

"Mom, what did Aria say?"

Adrian leaned over to look at the screen, his brow instantly furrowing.

"She says she's not in New York."

I pocketed my phone and strode toward the exit, dragging my suitcase.

"So where are we going now?"

"To the Wilson estate."

The Wilsons lived in New York's most exclusive neighborhood.

Their standalone villa halfway up the hill had its gates shut tight.

The security was intense. They wouldn't let outsiders in.

Adrian and I stored our luggage at a convenience store at the bottom of the hill and changed into plain workout clothes.

Following the landscaped perimeter of the estate, we circled around to the back wall of the Wilson property.

There was a bamboo grove here that didn't get much foot traffic.

I crouched in the grass, eyes fixed on the closed wrought-iron back gate.

"Mom, is Aria really in there?"

Adrian kept his voice low, his fists already clenched tight enough to crack.

"Wait here. I'll go ask around."

I spotted a middle-aged woman in a cleaning uniform walking past with a bag of trash.

I immediately approached her.

"Excuse me, did the Wilsons go on vacation today?"

The cleaner looked startled and sized me up.

"Vacation? No, the whole family's inside."

My heart dropped.

Aria had lied. Or someone had been lying with her phone.

"I bet the Wilsons are thrilled to have found their biological daughter. They must spoil her rotten, right?"

I forced a smile, trying to sound casual.

The cleaner looked around, then curled her lip.

"Spoil her? That house is a living hell!"

My blood turned to ice. "What do you mean?"

I pulled two hundred dollars from my pocket and discreetly slipped it into the cleaner's glove.

Her eyes lit up and her voice dropped even lower.

"You don't knowthat son of theirs, Blake, he's got something wrong with his head."

"He used to enjoy torturing small animals. When he got bored of that, he started torturing people."

"Several housekeepers have been beaten so badly they quit!"

I dug my nails into my palm, forcing my voice to stay steady.

"What about their biological daughter?"

The cleaner sighed and shook her head.

"They say they brought her back to live the good life, but really she's just a toy for that psycho!"

"Just yesterday I heard her screaming in the yard. They said she fell down the stairs."

"Mrs. Elena even yelled at her for not watching where she was going and ruining the new carpet."

My head erupted with a deafening buzz, like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull.

My baby, the one I'd raised for eighteen years, the one I couldn't even bring myself to yell atin their house, she'd become a plaything for a lunatic?

"I'm gonna go in there and kill them!"

Adrian had crept up beside me, his eyes bloodshot, already lifting his leg to kick down the door.

"Get back here!"

I grabbed him around the waist and dragged him into the bamboo grove.

"Mom! Let me go! They're hurting Aria!"

Adrian struggled violently, tears streaming down his face.

Just then, a piercing siren wailed closer and closer.

Not a police caran ambulance!

The ambulance screeched to a stop at the Wilson estate's front gate.

I shoved Adrian aside and looked over.

The gate was violently pushed open from inside.

Blake walked out in expensive designer pajamas, cursing under his breath.

"Hurry up! Don't let her die in the house, it's bad luck!"

"So disgusting. All that blood. Makes me sick."

He walked while shaking water droplets off his hands in disgust.

Those droplets had an unmistakable tint of red.

Right behind him, Mrs. Elena followed in high heels, clicking rapidly.

Her hair wasn't even mussed. Her makeup was flawless.

"Blake, watch your step. Don't let that filth touch you."

She pulled out a handkerchief, looking at him with nothing but sympathy, and wiped his hands.

"It's all that damn girl's fault. Couldn't even cooperate with a simple game. Ruined everything!"

Blake kicked the doorframe.

"It's okay, sweetie. I'll buy you that new sports car. Don't be upset."

Mrs. Elena coaxed him gently, her tone dripping with indulgence.

Two paramedics rushed out pushing a gurney.

The person on it was covered by a white sheet already soaked halfway through with blood.

A lifeless hand dangled off the side of the gurney, so thin it looked like it would snap in the wind.

Around the wrist was a deep ligature mark.

In that moment, I felt my breathing stop.

That was my Aria! The Aria I'd raised from a tiny baby with my own hands!

I'd thought being reunited with her biological parents would be a blessing.

"Move! The patient has lost too much blood and needs a transfusion immediately!"

The ER doctor, drenched in sweat, shouted at Blake, who was blocking the path.

"Are you blind? How dare you talk to my son like that?"

Mrs. Elena's eyes flashed. She pointed right at the doctor's nose and started screaming.

"Do you know who we are? One phone call and I'll make sure you never work in New York again!"

The doctor's face went pale with rage, but a life was on the line. He could only grit his teeth and bear it.

"Family needs to come with us. We need signatures!"

The nurse pushed the gurney into the ambulance and urged them anxiously.

"I'm not going to that depressing place!"

Blake took a step back, his face full of revulsion.

Mrs. Elena frowned and covered her nose.

"Why would we go? Blake's been traumatized. He needs rest. Just take her. I'll pay double the medical bills!"

"Are you even human? That's your biological daughter in there!"

The nurse finally couldn't take it anymore. Her eyes red, she shouted.

"Smack!" The sharp sound of a slap rang out in the quiet morning.

The nurse clutched her face, staring at Mrs. Elena in disbelief.

"Who do you think you are to lecture me? I gave birth to her. Her life belongs to me. Whatever I tell her to do, she does!"

Mrs. Elena shook out her hand, sneering.

"Get lost! Stop blocking my view! I'll go to the hospital myself later."

The ambulance doors slammed shut and it roared away.

I hid in the bamboo grove, shaking like a leaf. My teeth bit into my lip until it bled, the taste of rust spreading through my mouth.

I clamped my hand over Adrian's mouth.

He was already crying so hard his whole body convulsed, like an injured animal desperate to break free.

"Don't move! Going out there now won't change anything!"

I pressed my mouth to Adrian's ear, my voice shaking but carrying an undeniable ferocity.

"They have money and power. You can't beat them, and you'll just get yourself destroyed!"

Adrian looked at me in despair, tears falling in fat drops onto my hand.

The Wilsons turned and went back into the villa. The gate slammed shut with a bang.

I let go and pulled Adrian to his feet, running down the hill.

"To the hospital!"

We flagged down an Uber and headed straight for New York Central Hospital.

In the car, the driver kept glancing at us in the rearview mirror.

"Going to the ER this early in the morning?"

I forced down the churning in my gut and nodded.

"Did you see that ambulance just now?"

The driver sighed and jerked the wheel.

"I saw it. What a tragedy. That came from the hillside estates, right?"

"You know about it?" I asked tentatively.

The driver snorted.

"Anyone who drives Uber in New York knows about that bastard from the Wilson family."

"That Blake kid is a born psychopath."

"I heard when he was little he liked torturing animals. As he got older, it only got worse."

"Too bad they're rich. They can throw money at any mess he makes and it all goes away."

I gripped the hem of my jacket.

"No one does anything?"

"Do anything? Alexander only cares about money, and Mrs. Elena only has one son. She loves him like he's the center of the universe."

The driver lowered his voice.

"I heard from a driver who worked for themthe Wilsons recently found their biological daughter."

"They call her their daughter, but really they just brought her back to be that psycho's punching bag."

"After all, beating outsiders causes trouble if it gets out. But your own family? Even if you beat them to death, who's gonna say anything?"

My heart felt like it was being fed through a meat grinder, crushed over and over.

My Aria, that sweet angel who felt sorry for stray cats.

In that house of horrors, she'd been treated like a toy for an animal!

"Mom."

Adrian grabbed my hand. His hand was freezing.

"I'm going to kill him."

I squeezed Adrian's hand back, staring at the hospital building ahead.

"You don't have to."

"I'll send them to hell myself."

The light outside the ER was blindingly bright.

Adrian and I sat on a bench around the corner of the hallway, wearing masks.

Less than thirty feet away, I watched Alexander arrive in a hurry.

He wore a sharp suit with a perfectly knotted tie. He didn't look like a father called in the middle of the night for his daughter's emergency. He looked like he was heading to an important business meeting.

"What happened? How did she end up in the hospital?"

The moment Alexander saw Mrs. Elena, his brow furrowed deep enough to crush a fly.

"There's a major acquisition this morning. Don't you know we can't have any negative press right now?"

He didn't ask if Aria was dead or alive. His first concern was his stocks.

Mrs. Elena rolled her eyes and shot back defensively.

"Why are you yelling at me? Blake had a little too much to drink last night and got a bit rough, that's all."

"Aria's usually pretty tough. Who knew she'd be so fragile today? One bump into the coffee table and her head split open."

Her breezy tone made it sound like she was talking about a broken vase.

My nails dug deep into my flesh, my palm sticky with blood.

"Aria's a curse. We never should have brought her back after abandoning her."

Alexander irritably loosened his tie.

"Should've just let her rot with that poor excuse for an adoptive mother."

"This is all for Blake, isn't it?"

Mrs. Elena lowered her voice, but it carried right to my ears.

"Better to have a sister at home for him to take his anger out on than have him kill someone on the outside!"

I shot to my feet, the last thread of rationality in my mind snapping with an audible crack.

Adrian wanted to rush over and tear those inhuman mouths right off their faces!

I grabbed Adrian's arm and shoved him back down into his seat.

"Patience! Don't ruin the plan!"

Adrian sobbed. I clenched my fist, nails digging into flesh, suppressing my own urge to charge forward.

I had to save Aria. And I had to make them pay a price worse than death!

The ER door opened. A doctor walked out, exhaustion written all over his face.

"Who's the family for Aria?"

Alexander walked over impatiently.

"I am. She's not going to die, is she?"

The doctor froze, a flash of anger in his eyes.

"The patient has multiple soft tissue contusions, a mild concussion, and most seriously, a fractured ulna in her right arm that requires immediate surgery with pins!"

"And..." The doctor paused, his tone turning severe.

Alexander let out a cold laugh. He pulled a check from his pocket and stuffed it directly into the doctor's white coat.

"Dr. James, don't say things you shouldn't. Be careful what comes out of your mouth."

The doctor's expression changed several times. Finally, he let out a deep sigh and didn't return the check.

"Go pay for the surgery." The doctor dropped the words coldly and turned back into the ER.

Alexander turned to Mrs. Elena.

"Go pay the fees, then have Tom take her to the old villa in the suburbs."

"Having her at home is an eyesore. Don't let Blake see her and get upset."

Mrs. Elena pursed her lips.

"I know. You better get to the office. This place is filthy."

Alexander left without looking back.

Mrs. Elena glanced disdainfully at the line at the payment counter and walked toward the VIP lounge.

The hallway was left with only a few scattered family members of other patients.

This was my only chance.

I pulled Adrian up and walked quickly toward an empty patient room.

Inside were isolation gowns and masks the nurses had changed out of.

I quickly pulled one on and pressed a nurse's cap down low.

"Adrian, go downstairs and call a car. Park it in the alley behind the ER back door."

"Keep the engine running and wait for me in the car."

Adrian looked at me with worry.

"Mom, can you do this? Let me go in with you!"

"You're too conspicuous." I pushed him away.

"Remember, no matter what happens, protect Aria!"

I took a deep breath, picked up a stainless steel tray from the hallway cart, and walked toward the ER observation room with my head down.

The door was slightly ajar. The moment I pushed it open

My tears fell uncontrollably.

"Don't come near me... Please don't..."

The person on the bed shrank into the corner.

She held her head in her hands like a cat traumatized beyond reason, shaking like a leaf.

Her once-beautiful long hair had been hacked off unevenly, and there were even a few bald patches on her scalp.

The face I'd kissed a thousand times was now swollen, with dried purple-black blood crusted at the corner of her mouth.

The oversized hospital gown couldn't hide the purple and blue whip marks covering her entire body.

Her right arm hung limply, secured in a temporary splint.

This was the Aria the Wilsons said they'd hired a nutritionist for, the one who'd gained several pounds!

"Aria..."

I threw down the tray, ripped off my mask, and rushed to the bed.

Her body went rigid. She looked at me timidly through her fingers.

In that moment, I clearly saw the disbelief and extreme fear in her eyes.

"Mom..."

Her lips trembled as she let out a sound as faint as a mosquito.

"Mom! Why did you come? You need to leave! They'll kill you!"

She suddenly pushed at me frantically, though she had no strength at all.

Tears mixed with blood streaked down her face.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here. I'm taking you home."

I pulled her tightly into my arms, feeling her skeletal body trembling violently.

My heart was torn into pieces.

"No... we can't leave..."

Aria clutched desperately at my clothes, her eyes fixed on the door in terror.

"Blake will get angry. If he finds out you came, he'll kill you. He'll kill Adrian!"

"He's insane. He's really insane!"

She sobbed incoherently, clearly suffering from severe psychological trauma.

"Listen to me, Aria."

I cupped her face and looked directly into her frightened eyes.

"Adrian's waiting for us downstairs. That animal BlakeI'll deal with him myself!"

"Right now, we're leaving. Understand?"

I didn't dare delay. I threw back the covers.

Around her ankles were raw, chafed marks from iron shackles!

Animals! Worse than animals!

I gritted my teeth and lifted her onto my back.

She was as light as paper. My tears flooded out again.

I wrapped her tightly in an oversized white coat and put a mask on her.

Head down, I walked quickly out of the observation room.

Mrs. Elena was still in the VIP lounge making an appointment for a manicure.

The nurses in the hallway were busy resuscitating another patient.

No one noticed me carrying a patient toward the fire escape.

The stairwell was long. I carried her down step by step.

My knees ached from the weight, but I felt nothing.

All I felt was the warmth on my backAria's silent tears.

I pushed open the ground-floor safety door. A blast of cold morning air hit us.

Adrian's Uber was parked thirty feet away, doors wide open.

"Aria!"

Adrian rushed over and took Aria from my back.

The moment he saw her condition, he dropped to his knees and wailed.

"Aria! How could they... how could they do this to you!"

"Adrian, don't cry..."

Aria weakly lifted her uninjured left hand and touched Adrian's head.

"Get in the car!"

I shoved them both into the back seat.

"To the train station! Fast as you can!"

I threw a stack of cash at the driver. Without a word, he floored it.

After a few blocks, I confirmed we weren't being followed.

I let out a long breath and turned to the back seat.

"Adrian, I booked the next train out. Take Aria to Houston in the south."

"I had an old friend rent us a place there. I've also contacted a discreet private clinic."

"You don't need to worry about anything. Just take care of Aria."

Adrian's head snapped up, staring hard at me.

"What about you?"

"I'm not leaving."

I looked out at the passing streetscape, my voice cold as a knife dipped in ice.

"They tortured Aria like this and think no one will touch them?"

"Mom, don't do anything stupid!"

Aria struggled to sit up, panic written all over her face.

"The Wilsons have connections everywhere. You can't fight them! Can't we just go to the police?"

"The police?"

I turned around and looked at Aria's scarred face, letting out a cold laugh.

"The police would be letting them off too easy."

What I wanted was their ruin.

Their family destroyed.

To see them on their knees, begging like dogs for my forgiveness!

"Adrian, take Aria and go."

I opened the car door, preparing to get out at the red light.

"But"

"No buts!"

I cut him off sharply, my gaze fierce.

"If you think of me as your mother, take Aria as far away as you can!"

The car door shut. I stood in the cold morning wind and watched the Uber disappear around the corner.

The game was officially beginning.

I was going to make the Wilson family suffer, starting today!

"Just wait, Mrs. Elena," I murmured.

"I told youif you couldn't be a good mother to Aria, then let me, her adoptive mother, do it."