?Chapter 657:

    Kole opened his mouth but backed away, his bravado cracking. A cold sweat broke out on his back. What was up with this woman’s stare? One nce and his legs almost gave out. She was terrifying.

    Cassie tried to recover. “You think we’re scared of you?” she snapped. “We’re just holding back!”

    “Oh?” Christina tilted her head, amused. “Is that so?”

    “Of course! We’re not as uncivilized as you, behaving like uncouth bumpkins,” Cassie huffed.

    Christina slowly flexed her wrist, her gaze sharp as a de. “You want to see what uncivilized really looks like?”

    “You—what do you want to do?” Cassie retreated a few steps at once, swallowing hard in fear.

    “I… I am warning you! Push us, and you’ll pay for it!” she stammered, suddenly panicked. Then a thought hit her—maybe she could flip this. “If you’ve got the guts, let’s make a bet.” She could barely mask her smugness.

    Christina shrugged. “Sure. Just make sure the stakes are worth my time.”

    Cassie held up a finger. “One million. How about that?”

    “One million?” Eloise’s brow arched ever so slightly.

    Cassie gave a smug smile. “You heard me. One million! Don’t tell me you two can’t even scrape that together.”

    Kole let out a derisiveugh. “Hah! Do you even need to ask? Her friends are just as broke and pitiful as she is. I doubt they could muster half a million between them.”

    Christina said nothing, standing still andposed, letting Eloise take the lead. With the weight of the Hubbard family behind her, Eloise had no reason to flinch. Taking on the Delgado and Reed families would be child’s y. But judging from the slight tremble in her frame, the Delgado siblings must have done something cruel—something that still haunted her.

    Cassie leaned in, her voiceced with mockery. “So, my brother’s right, huh? You can’t even cough up half a million?”

    “No,” Eloise replied coolly. “We just think a million is too little. Put up more money if you dare.”

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    The Delgado siblings froze for a moment, caught off guard by Eloise’s sharp reply. Then, they erupted into mockingughter.

    “Kole, can you believe it? It’s been years since we saw this ugly mute—and now she knows how to talk big?” Cassie sneered.

    Kole doubled over. “Looks like we didn’t hit her hard enough back then. Gave her time to grow a mouth and some guts.”

    They took turns hurling barbs at Eloise, their taunts growing nastier by the second.

    “If you can’t even put in more money, we’re done here,” Christina cut in, her voiceced with frost.

    The Delgado siblings’ughter died instantly.

    Kole narrowed his eyes. “Fine. How much are you putting up?”

    Christina’s gaze turned razor-sharp. “You came to us with this little bet. What do you expect us to stake?”

    “I want you dead!” Cassie hissed, venom glinting in her eyes.

    Kole grinned, cracking his knuckles. “Let me have my share of fun with them first until I get bored. After that, we’ll deal with them.”

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