The helicopter plunged ten meters . The rotor wash whipped my hair back . Rancid mud splattered down , filling my mouth and eyes with the taste of rotting plants . I squeezed my eyes shut , my body shaking violently . I'd been stable on the surface before , but now I couldn't keep my balance . One side of my body kept sinking . It was evening now . Zander had them turn on the floodlights . The glare burned my eyes . Whoa , she's shaking like crazy ! ] Is she crying ? No way . ] Zander's brutal . Hitting her right where it hurts . ] She's halfway under . Ten more seconds and she's buried . ] desperately clutched at plants nearby to steady myself . They were all waiting for me to beg . To squeeze the last bit of value out of me . lover cooed with false sympathy . Lyra , is money really that important ? I don't care about your money , but you need to show Zander you're sorry . " The helicopter dropped another half meter . The rotor blast felt like invisible hands shoving my shoulders down into the muck . The grass I'd been holding snapped . I lurched sideways , sinking fast . Mud surged to my chest . Icy water filled with dead leaves poured down my collar . Every breath felt suffocating . Lander's laughter crackled through the speaker , cutting through the wind . Lyra , wasn't cleanliness your thing ? Keep sinking and mud's gonna fill your mouth . Let's see you act high and mighty then ! " lover chimed in , dripping with fake pity . ' Lyra , look how pathetic you are right now . " " Zander said if you transfer the winery money to my account and admit in front of everyone on the dark web that you were wrong - that you were petty- " " He'll pull you out right away . And I won't press charges for you sabotaging my files and adding all those errors . " Zander's voice exploded . 14.02 Chapter 2 " So that's it , Lyra ! " " I thought you were just jealous . Turns out you were sabotaging her ! " " Do you have any idea how many people's livelihoods depend on Clover's decisions ? " Pinning crimes on me I didn't commit ? I struggled to lift my head , ready to argue back - only to have a bucket of what looked like blood dumped over me from above . " Splash- " Red liquid splashed across my exposed neck , mixing instantly with the cold mud . The stench hit my nose like a punch . The dark web chat exploded . Even the laughter from the helicopter sounded disturbingly gleeful . ' Zander , that's genius ! The blood smell's gonna attract all kinds of nasty stuff ! " The co - pilot shoved his phone against the window , zooming in on my blood - soaked figure . ' Lyra , scared yet ? Beg Zander now , or what comes next won't just be leeches ! " wiped blood and mud off my face . The slick texture triggered a visceral wave of disgust from my germaphobia . But more than that - bone - deep cold . Lander would really go this far for Clover . lay in the swamp , feeling leeches crawling all over me . heir sucking sounds were faint , but the rapid blood loss left me growing colder . struggled to shake them off , but it only made me sink deeper . Despair crept in . No tears . Just emptiness . More and more people noticed my condition . She's gonna die , right ? ] Stop messing around . This is turning into a murder scene . ] The helicopter crew didn't want a death on their hands either . ' Zander , Lyra looks like she's not gonna make it . " Zander watched me stop struggling , his voice devoid of emotion . ' She won't die . Cockroaches always survive . " " If she wasn't vain and greedy , she wouldn't be here . It's just a little lesson . " The comments urged me to beg . Chapter 2 But I did nothing wrong . Why should I beg ? I forced myself to remember survival tricks , shook off most of the leeches . Slowly , I peeled off my clothes and crawled to a cleaner patch of mud to wash the blood off my body . Chapter 3 Chapter 3