Chapter 2
I thought she'd be crucified.
But I was dead wrong.
The thread exploded with insane replies.
[Man, I wish my mom would just drop dead so that I can snag her inheritance!]
[Let my dad's company go bankrupt! I am so done with these stupid tutoring sessions!]
[I hope the girl who sits next to me gets food poisoning tomorrow so that I can be first in the class rankings!]
Line after line of pure malice converged online into a disgusting black tide.
Lily read them aloud to me, one by one, giggling maniacally, unable to hide her glee.
"See, Mom? My top patron says the more people who make a wish, the stronger the energy gets! When something really happens to Dad, I'm going to be rich!"
Her words were still hanging in the air when Charles' phone rang.
I could just make out the voice on the other end. It was his assistant, and she was sobbing.
The easygoing smile on Charles' face instantly froze, replaced by a ghastly pallor.
I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I could see Charles trembling slightly.
After he hung up, he collapsed onto the couch like a puppet with cut strings. His eyes looked vacant.
"It's over," he whispered to himself. "It's all over."
His most important project, the one he'd worked on for a whole year, hit an unbelievable snag at the most crucial moment.
It wasn't a technical glitch or a market shift.
A junior employee at the partner company had misplaced a decimal point while entering data.
Because of that one tiny dot, the entire project was facing ruinous compensation claims. It was on the verge of complete collapse.
It all happened without a single warning.
Charles buried his face in his hands, clutching his hair in agony.
But my blood turned to ice.
I slowly turned to look at Lily standing beside me with shocked wariness.
She was looking back at me with the triumphant smirk of a predator who had just watched its trap spring shut. There was not a shred of concern in her eyes.
She leaned in, whispering in a voice only I could hear.
"See, Mom? The power of Wishcraft is amazing."
Those words were the last straw that broke me.
There was no way I could call this a coincidence anymore.
I stormed into Lily's room, grabbing her phone without any warning.
She didn't even fight me. She just watched with that same cold expression, as if observing a pathetic animal in its death throes.
My hands trembled as I opened the DarkWish Live link.
Sure enough, I found the replay from last night's stream.
A malicious wish was pinned at the top, and the donation alerts were going off nonstop.
[I wish Charles Carter's project would fail. I wish for it to ruin him completely.]
Guess who posted the wish? It was Lily.
And the top donor's username was "Top Patron."
I took the phone and marched back to Charles, who was still slumped on the couch in a daze.
"Look! Look at this! It was her! It was our daughter who cursed you to lose everything!" I shouted.
He looked up, blank stare shifting from the screen to me, still reeling from the project's collapse.
"What are you talking about? What curse?"
"This live room! It was Lily! She wished for this to happen to you!"
I was rambling, my words tumbling out, desperate for him to finally believe me.
But he just slapped the phone out of my hand and yelled at me with frustrated rage.
"Enough!" he roared. "Look at me! I'm already destroyed, and you're still talking about this crap! Are you insane? Is this what you wanted? For me to fail?"
His words froze the very hope inside me.