The cave mouth gaped black and bottomless.

Sophia Laurent crashed onto the ground, a sharp pain shooting through her tailbone. Instinctively, she clutched her right ankle—already swollen like a loaf of bread.

Her face burned.

She wiped it with her hand. Blood stained her fingertips.

"Dominic!" Sophia snarled, looking up to see his greedy face peering down from the cave entrance.

"Sweetheart, hand over the treasures down there," Dominic Durand rubbed his hands, eyes glinting with avarice.

Sophia grabbed a sharp branch. "Come down here, and I'll gouge your eyes out!"

"How dare you!" Dominic exploded. "After all I've done raising you, this is how you repay me?"

"Raised me?" Sophia scoffed. "You don't deserve to say those words."

Dominic vanished momentarily, reappearing with a massive boulder. "Move! Or I'll crush you!"

Sophia's pupils contracted.

This was her biological father.

At the critical moment, bodyguards rushed forward and pinned Dominic to the ground.

When pulled back to the cave entrance, Sophia couldn't put weight on her right foot. Each step felt like walking on knives.

"Miss Laurent, let's get you to the hospital," a bodyguard said, voice trembling.

Sophia shook her head. "Wait for the archaeological team."

Under the tree shade, she examined her swollen, shiny ankle. The bloodied gash on her right cheek glared back from her phone screen.

"Don't tell Ethan," she murmured.

At dusk, a helicopter roared as it landed.

Michael Gao paled at her injuries. "Junior, what happened—"

"It's nothing." Sophia forced a smile. "Got any Yunnan Baiyao?"

In the hospital room at midnight, IV drops fell one by one.

"Where?" Ethan Sullivan's voice crackled through the phone, fury barely contained.

"Hospital. Just a sprain—"

Something shattered on his end.

Thirty minutes later, the door burst open.

Kyle Grant stood by the bed, gaze fixed on her facial wound. "Will it scar?"

"No." Sophia instinctively glanced at the doorway.

Following her line of sight, Kyle gave a bitter smile. "I'll come back tomorrow."

As he opened the door, he froze.

Ethan dragged in a battered Dominic, eyes glacial.

Thud!

Dominic was flung onto the floor.

Ethan smashed a glass, then kicked Dominic onto the shards.

"Ahhh—" Dominic howled like a slaughtered pig.

"Mr. Sullivan! I'm your father-in-law!"

Ethan stomped on his wrist, voice arctic. "Touch what's mine, and you'll pay."