Cramps and Cheating: A Ski Trip From Hell

"Brooke, you vicious woman!" Owen roared.

I caught his wrist mid-air.

I might not be as strong as him, but I had trained in grappling for self-defense for several years. Using leverage, I flung him hard.

Owen lost his footing and staggered a few steps before crashing into the cabinet in the entryway.

"Owen, are you seriously trying to hit me?"

I looked at him coldly, my eyes devoid of any warmth.

Owen stared at me in disbelief, as if he didn't recognize me.

In his mind, I'd always been that submissive pushover who'd only cry and beg for mercy.

He pointed at Sandy, who was being supported by a waiter at the door, and yelled at me, "You almost killed Sandy! We walked through the snow for three hours! Sandy's feet are frostbitten! Have you no heart at all?"

Sandy leaned weakly against the doorframe and looked at Owen with big, sad puppy dog eyes.

She said, "Owen, don't be mad at Brooke. It's my own fault for being useless. As long as it helps Brooke feel better, it doesn't matter if I suffer a little."

As she spoke, she deliberately revealed a patch of bruise on her ankle.

Owen's heart ached terribly for her, and he turned to glare at me.

"Brooke, look at what you've driven Sandy to! Apologize to her right now! After that, you're to go to the hospital to pay for her treatment and compensate, then compensate her for emotional distress. Otherwise, I won't let this slide!"

Watching these two shameless liars twist the truth like that pissed me off so much I just had to laugh.

"Apologize? Compensate?"

I walked up to Sandy.

She instinctively shrank back, and a flicker of guilt flashed across her eyes.

I roughly yanked off the pink turtle protective cushion hanging from her waist, and she let out an exaggerated scream.

"That hurts!"

Owen tried to push me away, but the two bodyguards in black suits Alfred had arranged for me stopped him.

"Brooke, what do you think you're doing?" Owen roared.

Ignoring him, I reached into the filthy turtle cushion right in front of them and pulled out the protective charm.

Then, right in front of Sandy, I threw the turtle cushion into the nearby trash bin.

"Trash belongs in the trash bin. As for this protective charm…" I looked at the slightly worn charm in my hand. "It won't work anymore now that it's been contaminated with something dirty."

I casually tossed it, and the charm landed at Sandy's feet.

I continued, "It's yours now. After all, you need all the protection you can get to avoid karma catching up to you."

Sandy bit her lip, tears streaming down her face in big drops.

"Brooke, how can you humiliate me like this? I may be poor, but I still have my dignity."

Owen was heartbroken.

He yelled at me over the bodyguards, "Brooke, you think you're hot stuff just because you're rich? You're nothing without your family's buyout. For your information, I'm worth plenty now, too. So, I couldn't care less about your filthy money!

"From now on, you're not spending a single cent of my money. I'm canceling all your supplementary bank cards!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Is that so?"

Owen froze.

His phone suddenly rang. It was his company's financial department calling.

"Mr. Schultz, it's bad! The investors have suddenly pulled out! The bank also called to demand early repayment of the loan! And both the company's and your account have been frozen!"

The phone was on speaker, and the accountant's panicked voice was especially piercing in the room.

Owen's hand, holding the phone, trembled violently.

He looked up sharply, his eyes full of fear as he stared at me.

"You're behind this? How do you have that kind of power? I thought your family just got lucky with a buyout."

I straightened the collar of my pajamas and smiled at him.

"Owen, my last name is Greer—as in the Greer family of Cruxby. You've always bragged about being a self-made man, but I was the one who begged my father, Vernon Greer, to invest in your company.

"And all those clients of yours? They only agreed to do business with you because of my family's name. Now I'm done playing, so I'm taking back everything that's mine."