The Mercenary’s Wrath You Tortured My Daughter, Now Pay in Blood

To give my children a better, wealthier life, I resolutely resigned from my commission as a Special Forces Major and spent the last five years working as a private military contractor in the war zones of Africa. Now, having finally retired and returned home, I saw all the familiar faces—except for my daughter, Lily. I quickly turned to my two sons and asked where she was. They merely pointed to the girl standing beside them. "Dad, that’s Lily." I took one look at her and erupted in fury. "You bastards! Do you think I wouldn’t recognize my own daughter?" The girl was dressed in expensive, designer clothes and wore the jewelry I had specifically sent from abroad for Lily. But her face—this face was absolutely not my daughter’s! "Tell me! Where the hell is Lily?!" The color drained from everyone’s faces. They started stuttering, not daring to look me in the eye. The day I returned home, my boys had prepared a grand welcome-home party for me. "Dad, Lily personally planned this entire party for you. She put so much heart into it," Carter and Ethan said, smiles plastered on their faces as if begging for praise. Having fought and bled in the trenches of Africa for five years, the only thing keeping me going was my sweet girl, Lily. Hearing that she had arranged all of this warmed my heart to the core. Looking at my two sons and seeing how well they seemed to care for their sister, I couldn't help but smile with relief. "My sweet girl, Daddy missed you so much. Come here, give me a hug—" But the moment I looked past them at the girl standing in the foyer, my smile froze. She wasn't Lily. The dress she was wearing was the exact limited-edition birthday gift I had shipped from Europe for Lily. The necklace around her neck was the only heirloom my late wife had left for Lily before she passed away. Yet here was this complete stranger, wearing Lily's things, standing in Lily’s place. A terrible, suffocating feeling gripped my chest. I glared at my two sons, my voice turning icy. "Where is Lily? Who is this girl? And why is she wearing Lily's dress and necklace?" The stranger stepped forward timidly. "Dad, I am Lily..." Carter forced a stiff smile, trying to smooth things over. "Dad, you've been away for five years. It’s normal that you don’t recognize her right away..." "Yeah, Dad," Ethan chimed in, though his voice was trembling slightly. "Lily has grown up. Her face changed a lot recently..." "Cut the crap!" Seeing the two of them colluding to lie to my face, my anger boiled over. "I brought my daughter into this world. Do you think I wouldn’t recognize her?" "Speak! What the hell is going on here? Where did you put Lily?" The three of them flinched under my roar. Seeing that he could no longer hide it, Carter steeled himself and spoke up. "Dad, she is your daughter too. Her name is Cynthia. She is gentle, sensible, and a hundred times better than Lily ever was." Ethan nodded frantically, quickly handing over a designer garment bag. "Look, Dad, Cynthia bought this custom suit for you with her own savings. She spent every penny of her allowance on you." He even sounded a bit heartbroken for her. I stared at them, cold as death. "So? Where is Lily?" Faced with my relentless questioning, my two sons opened their mouths, but their eyes drifted guiltily. Neither dared to make a sound. Suddenly, Cynthia’s eyes welled with tears. She bit her lower lip, looking incredibly pitiful. "Dad, please don't blame my brothers. It’s all my fault. If Lily hadn't kept bullying me, they wouldn’t... they wouldn’t have sent her to The Velvet Lounge..." As she spoke, tears rolled down her cheeks, her face a mask of deep guilt. Seeing her cry, Carter and Ethan looked devastated and rushed to comfort her. "The Velvet Lounge?" It felt as if I had been plunged into a frozen lake. I stared at them, pronouncing every single word with lethal intent. "You... sent Lily to The Velvet Lounge?" Carter pointed a finger at me, filled with self-righteous indignation. "Dad, Lily was completely out of control! She had everything, yet she kept tormenting Cynthia." Ethan joined in, disgust written all over his face. "Exactly. We only sent her to the Lounge to teach her some humility. We wanted to break her spoiled, arrogant attitude." "You absolute monsters!" I roared, my lungs burning. "A sketchy, underground strip club is where you send someone to 'teach them humility'? You wanted to destroy her!" The Velvet Lounge was the most notorious, filthy underground club in the city, heavily associated with human trafficking and sexual abuse. If a young girl was dragged in there, she would face an endless living nightmare. Cynthia stepped forward, crying like a tragic heroine. "Dad, please don't blame Carter and Ethan. It really is my fault..." "Shut up!" I slapped her hard across the face. "You think you're qualified to call me Dad? Just because these two bastards brought a stray dog like you into my house, you think you can replace my daughter?" I glared at my sons. "As for you two—I’ll deal with you when I get back!" Without another word, I spun around and slammed the door behind me. Every second was precious now. I had to find Lily immediately. I only prayed to God that my daughter hadn't been completely ruined yet. But deep down, I knew. I was already too late.The moment I arrived at The Velvet Lounge, my desperation made me bypass all pleasantries. I demanded to see the manager, but the bouncers at the door thought I was just some random troublemaker. I didn't have time for their games. I raised my fists and fought my way in. The entire club, which was in the middle of busy hours, was thrown into absolute chaos as I tore through their security. Seeing that things were getting completely out of hand, the manager finally showed his face, shaking with fear under my physical threats. He hurriedly searched his database for my daughter's records. Finally, he found her location. Lily had been assigned to a private VIP room. When I rushed to the room, two middle-aged men were just stepping out, buckling their belts and laughing. "That chick was wild, but she couldn't take much." "Tell me about it. Passed out before we even got warmed up. But honestly, that fragile, broken look of hers... really had a special flavor." The blood in my veins turned to liquid ice. I kicked the door open with a thunderous crash. Lily lay on the sofa, her clothes torn and disheveled. Her body was covered in dark bruises and filthy stains. "Lily... Daddy's home..." My hands shook violently as I touched her pale cheek. My voice was completely broken, tears streaming down my face. But she didn't react. Her face was deathly white, and only the faint rise and fall of her chest proved she was still breathing. Seeing this scene, the manager of the Lounge looked as if his soul had left his body. He spun around and screamed at the floor supervisor, "Didn't I tell you to keep her in the hospital to recover? Who gave you the permission to bring her here?!" The supervisor’s face turned white as paper. He fell to his knees, trembling. "A... a woman gave me ten thousand dollars. She told me to make sure this girl serviced clients ahead of schedule." "I thought... we have so many girls here anyway, no one would notice one more. So I..." I grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off the ground. "Who was the woman? And what do you mean, recovering in the hospital?" The supervisor stammered, saying the woman had her face covered, but her only defining feature was a distinct red birthmark on her arm. The manager quickly explained that when Lily was first delivered to them, her body was covered in severe wounds and she was severely malnourished. Seeing her pretty face, the manager had decided to put her in a private clinic first, intending to wait until she recovered before putting her to work. He hadn't expected someone to bypass him. Hearing this, my heart felt like it was being shredded by a chainsaw. Covered in wounds... malnourished... How much had my baby girl suffered while I was away? I had wired over a hundred thousand dollars home every single month, yet this was how my daughter lived! The manager cried out in panic. "Those two brothers swore up and down that she was just a thief of a maid who committed a crime in their house... Those goddamn liars!" "A maid?" My body shook, my knuckles cracking. Lily was the treasure I had raised in the palm of my hand. Those two boys were just adopted orphans I had taken in, yet they dared to treat her like trash! The luxury and wealth I had provided them all these years had made them forget what kind of vermin they actually were! Forcing down the towering rage that threatened to consume my sanity, I gently scooped up my unconscious daughter and rushed her to the nearest hospital. Once she was safely admitted, I immediately called those two ungrateful beasts. But the bastards actually hung up on me and blocked my number! Laughing from pure rage, I drove straight back to the villa to settle the score face-to-face. At that moment, back in the villa, Carter and Ethan were carefully applying ointment to Cynthia’s bruised face. Cynthia sighed, her voice soft and sweet. "Carter, Ethan, you shouldn't have hung up on Dad. What if he had an emergency?" "What emergency could he possibly have?" Carter sneered. "Lily must have complained to him. Dad always favored that bitch. Instead of listening to him yell at us, blocking him is much easier." Ethan nodded, his expression filled with righteous anger. "Exactly. Cynthia, you are just too kind. You got beaten up like this, and you're still worried about him." "He actually laid a hand on you! If it weren't for the fact that he raised me, I would have beaten the old man up myself!" A fleeting look of smug triumph flashed in Cynthia’s eyes, but she quickly masked it, biting her lip tearfully. "But Dad really seems to hate me... The only one he cares about is Lily..." Seeing Cynthia on the verge of tears, the two brothers panicked. They held her, making grand promises to soothe her. "Don't worry, Cynthia. He doesn't have a choice. Lily is a vicious, spoiled brat. How could she ever compare to you?" "Exactly. If he doesn't accept you, then we won't accept him as our father either!" "He can't afford to lose us anyway. He doesn't have any other sons. He has to rely on us to inherit his company. If we walk away, he'll be the one begging on his knees." To hide my mercenary identity, I had always lied and told them I ran an overseas corporate business. Standing just outside the open door, I heard every single word of their conversation. The fury in my chest exploded, and I kicked the front door off its hinges with a deafening bang! "Well, well. It seems I’ve spent the last decade raising a pack of ungrateful vipers!"The three of them froze instantly. Carter and Ethan turned pale; they had never seen me in such a terrifying, murderous state before. But Cynthia suddenly stood up, rushing toward me. She grabbed my sleeve, her eyes welling with tears. "Dad, please don't blame them. It’s all my fault..." "My brothers were just too worried about me, that's why they spoke without thinking..." I had survived countless battlefields. Her cheap "innocent victim" act was so transparent it made me sick to my stomach. "Who the hell do you think you are? You are not my daughter! Lily is my only child! Get the fuck off me!" I violently threw her hand off. *SLAP!* A heavy backhand landed squarely on her face. The force sent her spinning, crashing onto the marble floor. Half her face swelled instantly, and blood gushed from her nose. The two brothers went wild with rage. "Marcus Vance! You’ve gone too far! Beating your own daughter—are you even human?!" Roaring, they lunged at me, but Cynthia threw herself forward to hold them back. "Carter, Ethan, no! You can't fight Dad because of me!" "Dad must have some misunderstanding about me... that’s why he doesn’t like me..." She looked utterly devastated, crying so pitifully it made me want to vomit. But the two idiots fell for it completely. "Dad, look at how sensible Cynthia is! Lily is a toxic, malicious brat who doesn't deserve a single drop of your affection!" "Cynthia is a thousand times—no, ten thousand times better than Lily! Why can’t you just accept her?!" "Shut your mouths!" Hearing them insult Lily again set off my final fuse. I lunged forward, instantly slamming all three of them to the ground. A brutal, relentless beating commenced, and the villa was filled with their agonizing, bone-chilling screams. "Marcus! Why are you doing this to us?!" "Stop! If you touch Cynthia again, we will disown you!" "When that happens, even if you beg us on your knees, we will never come back!" I laughed from sheer absurdity. "Threatening me? You’ve lived in my house for ten years, and you've already forgotten your real names? Let me remind you: you are just two stray mutts I picked up from the streets!" The two ungrateful bastards kept screaming, having completely forgotten the oaths they swore when they knelt before me years ago. Back then, they were dressed in rags, looking like starved stray dogs. I was the one who gave them a life of luxury. "You swore back then that you would love and protect Lily as your own sister. But what did you do?!" "I sent you tens of thousands of dollars a month, and you let Lily starve and suffer while you gave all her things to Cynthia!" "And if that wasn't enough, you actually sold her to The Velvet Lounge!" Ethan shrieked, "Lily brought that on herself! She constantly bullied Cynthia and almost broke Cynthia's leg! She deserved to be punished!" Carter chimed in, "Cynthia has suffered so much already, yet Lily kept bringing up her past! She needed to be put in her place!" Those words completely snapped my last thread of sanity. I stared at them, my voice dripping with pure venom. "But Lily was brutally raped because of you! She is lying in the ICU right now! Is this what you call 'putting her in her place'?!" Carter and Ethan gasped, their eyes widening in sheer terror. They had never imagined things would go that far. Realizing the gravity of what they had done, they began to shiver uncontrollably. Thinking of Lily’s broken body, my heart bled. She was at an age where she should have been enjoying her youth, but she was destroyed by these two vipers. I felt a crushing wave of regret. My kindness in adopting them had brought wolves into my home. Even if I tore these three to pieces, it would never cure the pain in my heart. As I wallowed in agonizing regret, my eyes suddenly landed on Cynthia's arm. There, right on her forearm, was a distinct red birthmark. In an instant, my blood ran cold, then boiled with absolute fury. "It was you!" I lunged and grabbed her throat with one hand, lifting her off the ground. Her feet dangled in the air as she thrashed frantically like a fish out of water. "Cynthia! You vicious snake!" "What did my daughter ever do to you that you had to hire someone to destroy her?! You deserve to die!" The mastermind behind Lily’s nightmare was standing right in front of me. I felt an uncontrollable, murderous urge rise from the depths of my soul! Suddenly, loud sirens wailed outside. Several police cruisers screeched to a halt right in front of my villa! "Abusing your kids, and now you want to murder your own daughter? Marcus Vance, do you think you are above the law?"