Not A Small-Town Girl

A sinister smile curled on Ivan’s lips.

"Why do the dirty work ourselves when we can have them kill their own children? That would be so much more entertaining."

Judy glanced over at Vivian and Howard, who stood frozen to the spot, and exchanged a knowing look with Ivan.

"Agreed," she said, her voice cold.

"Listen up," Ivan continued, his voice dripping with malice. "You two, follow my orders. In ten minutes, drench this entire villa in gasoline, especially the second and third floors. Got it?"

Vivian and Howard nodded stiffly. "Yes."

Ivan and Judy exchanged one last glance before turning to leave.

"Let’s go," Ivan said, his voice steady as they slipped out of the basement and vanished into the night.

Ten minutes later, Vivian and Howard were standing in the hallway, pouring gasoline everywhere. The air thickened with the sharp, suffocating smell.

Meanwhile, Danielle had been riding the rides at the amusement park, grinning mischievously as she checked her phone. Her smile was devious. She tapped in a video call, and in no time, the screen lit up.

"Danielle, can we start now?"

"Danielle, we’ve been waiting for your signal. Is the show about to start?"

"Danielle, where are you? You’re out?"

"Danielle, you went to the amusement park? Why didn’t you invite us?"

The moment the call connected, her brothers bombarded her with excited questions, talking over each other so fast she couldn’t even get a word in.

"Yeah, I’ve already left the Darling family," Danielle replied, her voice calm but urgent. "My people are in place. Mom and Dad are under control and they’re spreading gasoline in the hallways. If you don’t stop them now, the house is going up in flames."

Her brothers immediately froze. They could already smell the gasoline wafting from the phone’s speaker. In a panic, they rushed out into the hallway, only to see their parents, Howard and Vivian, holding gasoline canisters, pouring fuel all over the place.

"Mom! Dad! What are you doing?" Austin shouted, his eyes watering from the overwhelming stench.

Howard and Vivian looked up, but their eyes weren’t filled with concern. No, to them, their sons weren’t family—they were obstacles, standing in the way of their mission.

Howard quickly dumped the rest of the gasoline in his hands, while Vivian hastily did the same. Matthew lunged forward to stop them, but Howard, without hesitation, threw him into a shoulder throw. Matthew hit the ground hard, his teeth gritted in pain. He groaned to himself, "What is this? It’s bad enough getting captured and poisoned, now my own dad is tossing me around like a rag doll."

The guys were stunned. Matthew’s fall seemed to snap them out of their shock, and they rushed to intervene. But Howard wasn’t done. After tossing Matthew aside, he went straight for Austin.

"No, don’t!" Austin shouted, but it was too late. Howard used all his strength to throw Austin over his shoulder, and Austin was sent spinning, his vision flashing with stars.

He could’ve sworn he heard the sound of his dignity shattering. He wanted to cry—his own father throwing him around like this? What did he ever do to deserve it? Why not go pick on Joseph or Elliot instead?

The noise woke a servant, who rushed to the third floor. When she saw the scene unfolding and smelled the gasoline in the air, she froze, her mind scrambling to make sense of it.

"Get all the other servants to clean this up!" Joseph barked, his tone sharp.noveldrama

"We can’t let this go unchecked," he added, giving the servants no time to stand in shock.

The servants scrambled to grab cleaning supplies, but Howard still wasn’t finished.

He swung at them, but his sons had finally had enough. Together, they subdued both Howard and Vivian, dragging them to the study. The guys stayed close, eyes trained on their parents, worried that they might do something even worse.