Twisted Ties of Love

Chapter 301

On the seventh day of Izabella's death, the Salotti family in R City was in chaos.

Liam had the police inform the Salotti family about Izabella's death, asking them to come and sign her death certificate and claim her body.

Izabella definitely wouldn't want her body to be treated this way by Brett.

...

When Lucas received the call from the J City police, he was dumbfounded. Izabella was dead? How could a menace like her die?

Lucas couldn't believe it. He stood there, stiff as if struck by lightning, holding his phone.

It had been a long time since he had asked about Izabella's whereabouts, so long that he had almost forgotten his only sister.

How old was Izabella?

Lucas never remembered. He only knew that his mother had been dead… for 27 years.

When Izabella was at home, he cursed her with the vilest words. He said she was a menace, that she had killed his mother, and why wasn't she the one who died first!

And now someone called him to tell him.

—"Mr. Salotti, your sister's body is in J City. Please come and claim it. She died in a fire…" The police officer said.

Lucas, like a boneless snake, collapsed on the floor. The pain in his head quickly spread throughout his body, and even the prosthetic on his right wrist was trembling.

He couldn't even stand up, and his vision gradually blurred. Short-term blindness plunged Lucas into helpless fear. Like a scarecrow that had lost its support, he stared blankly with wide eyes, then suddenly laughed and hoarsely muttered, "She's dead, really dead. Good riddance. the curse that killed our parents. I won't claim her body. I never had a sister like that."

Izabella was dead. He should have been happy. It was because of her that his hands were crippled, his parents died, and the Salotti family was in ruins. She should have died long ago.

But why were his eyes wet, his vision blurred, and tears kept falling from the corners of his eyes. It ran down his cheeks to his chin, finally dropping cold on his right prosthetic hand.

Now the sister who he hated had really become a cold corpse.

Lucas didn't know when the call had ended. He sat on the floor dully from afternoon to night and then to dawn. The freezing temperature made his soul tremble.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting there, with his eyes blurred and swollen.

Ever since he became handicapped, Lucas spent his days moping at home and rarely went out, his face becoming increasingly pale.

The housemaids had gone home for vacation, and the empty house was eerily quiet. So the sudden knocking on the door startled him.

He staggered to his feet, crawling and walking to the door, his whole body practically hanging off the door when he opened it. Looking at the person knocking, Lucas asked in confusion, "Why are you here?"

Standing outside was Presley, whom he hadn't seen in over two years. He had returned to the country and saw a piece of news about Brett's engagement on his phone.

Presley looked at the disheveled Lucas and couldn't help but frown, "What happened to you?"

He had been busy with research abroad for the past two-plus years and was unaware of many things in the country—part of the "news" about Izabella came from his family.

Izabella had cut off contact with him a year and a half ago. Presley worried about her but couldn't do anything. He wanted to contact her but was afraid of causing trouble for her if Brett found out.

He could only turn his longing into motivation, work hard on his research, and hope to find a cure for Izabella soon.

Now there was new progress in cancer research, and he returned to R City with the results, only to lose Izabella's updates. He asked his family, but each person he asked gave vague answers.

With no other choice, he came to find Lucas, hoping to find out where Izabella was so he could take her away for treatment.

Lucas didn't answer his question directly. He caught a cold after being out all night. His throat felt like it was stabbed with a thorn as he hoarsely asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Where's Izabella? Do you know where she is?" Presley asked.

As soon as Presley asked the question, he saw Lucas' eyes turn red. This is the property of Nô-velDrama.Org.

Presley felt a sense of uneasiness in his heart but hadn't even had time to think about it when he heard Lucas' next words,

"She's dead."

Presley blinked his dry eyes, stiffly pulled the corners of his mouth into a cold smile, and sneered, "I didn't come here to listen to your curses. Where is she?"

Lucas stared into Presley's eyes with never-before-seen seriousness and said word by word, "I told you she's dead! Just yesterday, the J City police called me saying she died in a fire and asked me to sign her death…"

"Boom!" Lucas hadn't even finished speaking before Presley hit him hard in the face. Weak as he was, the blow knocked him straight to the ground. Before he could react, Presley grabbed his collar and yanked him up forcefully,

"You're lying! How could she be in J City? How could she be dead?!" Presley's heart trembled violently, the pain pulling at every muscle and even making his lips quiver as his breathing became erratic.

Lucas slowly lifted his left hand and placed it mechanically on Presley's wrist, saying, "It's better that she is dead. She deserved to die. My hands were cut off because of her, and my parents died because of her. I won't take her body. You can contact the J City police department and deal with her body however you want. I never had a sister like that."

"What the fuck you’re saying!" Presley trembled with anger, his eyes wide with rage. He couldn't take it anymore and slapped Lucas twice, trying to wake him up.

Lucas had a bad temper and once took advantage of the Salotti family's power to unleash all his negativity on Izabella.

Lucas, who tended to become irritable at the slightest provocation, now appeared like a puppet, limp in Presley's hands, allowing him to hit and scold him as he pleased.

The more Lucas acted like this, the more frightened Presley became. He was afraid that what Lucas said was true, that Izabella was dead.

Hearing all those crappy things Lucas said, he just wanted to beat the crap out of him.

Presley grabbed Lucas's collar tightly, panting as he asked, "How do you think your hand got broken, huh? Don't you have a clue? You tricked Izabella into going to the casino just to save your sorry ass. She's been so good to you, and that's how you treat her?

She's your own sister, not your enemy! She's been nothing but heart and soul to your whole family, and all she gets in return is shit!

You know what? Three years ago, she was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer, and she doesn't have much time left! She went for check-ups alone, got IV drips and injections at the hospital, and passed out coughing up blood all by herself. You guys didn't even know about her miscarriage and the critical condition notice!"

Presley gasped for breath, his eyes bloodshot, and the tears he shed looked more like blood than actual tears.

Lucas's eyes widened, and he clenched his left hand tightly. He had a severed tendon in his left hand, and it hurt whenever he clenched it, but now it felt numb as if he had lost all sensation. Unable to hold back the tears, they rolled down his face.

"Three years ago, Izabella was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer?" Lucas couldn't believe it. At that time, she was with Brett, and everything seemed fine.

Lucas shook his head in confusion and choked back a sob, whispering, "If she had stomach cancer, why didn't she divorce Brett?"

Presley said, "If it weren't for you, her useless brother, she would've divorced Brett and spared herself all the torment he caused. Lucas, you really don't deserve to be her brother!"

As Lucas's tears kept falling, Presley let go of him. Lucas collapsed to the ground, looking panicked as if he had lost something irreplaceable and precious.

"Presley, you think you're such a good guy? Have you ever asked how Izabella's doing? On the day of her divorce trial with Brett, she nearly smashed her head into a wall!" With trembling hands, Lucas pointed at Presley and said word by word, "It was your Dad who provided fake testimony for Brett, claiming she embezzled eight billion from marital assets and accusing her of being mentally ill!"