Chapter 107 – His Second Chance Love: The Freezing Silence

I was completely focused on the car in front and simply told him not to lose the car.

The black Maserati eventually made its way into a neighborhood in the North District. The taxi driver stopped and turned to talk to me. “Only residents can enter the Gold Scale Estate. I won’t be able to follow them from here.”

I paid him and got off the taxi.

I walked to the guard post to see if I could talk my way in but alas, it was to no avail.

I then decided to give Mrs. Ludwick a call. The moment the call was connected, the other woman greeted, “Hi, Mrs. Featherstone.”

“Hi, Mrs. Ludwick. I’m sorry to bother you at this time. But I have some personal affairs that I need your help with. Would you help me?” I asked.

“Oh, you’re too polite. Tell me about it, and I’ll try my best.” I could tell from the background noise that she was probably at a beauty salon.

I took a brief look at the estate before me and said, “Well, Anthony and I are planning to move and I heard about you living in the Gold Scale Estate. So I was just wondering if you could tell me more about the place. I’m pregnant and can’t really move around checking out the area too much, and Anthony’s really busy too.”

“Oh, really? To tell you the truth, the Gold Scale Estate is actually not as good as the Peakville Estate. I only bought a villa there for Felix so that he could move out after he gets married. The whole process is quite problematic, honestly. If the two youngsters weren’t so keen on getting married this quickly, I would have sold the house off!”

Felix’s house? Felix works at AC Credit. Maybe that middle-aged man also works there?

After some thought, I said, “Actually, I’m nearby the area right now. Can you tell the security guards here to let me in? I want to take a look around here.”

“Sure thing! Pass the phone to the security guard, and I’ll talk to them!”

In no time at all, I was able to get into the estate.

I got the block number of Mrs. Ludwick’s villa from the security guard and I started searching for it.

Because the villas were built in an urban area, it had a relatively limited area, couple that with the fact that there were several other buildings in the vicinity, the people that were living in the Gold Scale Estate was quite a substantial amount.

When I finally found Mrs. Ludwick’s villa, I saw the black Maserati parked before it.

I took down the numbers on its license plate, took a look around me, and was about to leave.

To my horror, Felix’s voice sounded from behind. “Hi, Mrs. Featherstone. Since you’re here, how about you take your time and have a good look inside the villa?”

I turned around stiffly. Felix was standing on the stairs, looking down at me with a cold face.

My heart sank. Flashing him an unnatural smile, I replied, “Did Mrs. Ludwick tell you about my visit? It’s just a casual visit, really. I don’t think I’ll be going in.”

“Mrs. Featherstone, how would you know how the villa is if you don’t come in? Besides, it’s a little rude to reject my invite, isn’t it?” Felix narrowed his eyes at me, his gaze looking hostile.

I fidgeted around, feeling uneasy. “Alright then. Please pardon my intrusion.”

He pursed his lips and ushered me in. “Please come right in!”

It was just as Mrs. Ludwick said. The villa was less spacious than I imagined, at only about two hundred and five meters square. The middle-aged man was sitting there in the living room.

Upon seeing me step inside, he gave an unsettling smile and said, “Mrs. Featherstone! You have sharp eyes! And you’re good at remembering faces too!”

His behavior and words confirmed my suspicions about him.

As I stared at him, my face turned a little pale. “And you are?”

“You can call me Mr. Tuffin.” He seemed to be really calm. Gesturing for me to sit down, he said, “Mrs. Featherstone, you’ve been tailing us this entire time. What are you trying to do?”

“I have some questions for you, Mr. Tuffin. We are not actually acquainted with each other, are we? I was just wondering why would you kidnap me because of a trivial public tender?” I asked.

He made a nasty expression and leaned back against the sofa. “Mrs. Featherstone, if you really want to talk, how about you stop your voice recording first? Don’t you think that’s rude?” He uttered in a displeased tone.

Breaking out in cold sweat, I almost dropped my phone. How did he find out? I hid it in my coat!

Forcing out a calm front, I took out my phone and switched off the power right in his face. “Can we talk now?”

He sat up straight and replied, “Of course!”

“So, Mr. Tuffin, why did you kidnap me for no good reason?” Though that incident was kept hidden for a few months now, it was something difficult for me to get over without an explanation.

Mr. Tuffin lit a cigarette and took a few puffs. “About that… I was just acting on someone’s orders for the sake of money.”

I remained silent as I listened.

“AC Credit used to be in charge of Featherstone Corporation’s audit. However, Mr. Featherstone suddenly chose Harrison Credit to do it instead. AC Credit needed to take action, you know? And another thing, someone did want you to leave Mr. Featherstone. Those are the reasons why I did what I did. I apologize if I caused you any trauma, Mrs. Featherstone,” he continued.

I laughed bitterly, “You’re making all of it sound so normal and justified, aren’t you? What a joke. From what I know, you’re not related to AC Credit in any way. Are you seriously telling me that you risked your life and went through all the trouble of setting me up just for the sake of AC Credit?”

Mr. Tuffin snubbed out his cigarette and smirked, “How are you so sure that AC Credit’s survival is in no way related to me? About your kidnapping, why don’t you go and ask Mr. Quinn instead? I bet he has a lot more to say.”

“Joe Quinn?”

He chuckled, “To be honest, threatening you to host the public tender was not a difficult matter, and I had thought about all the different ways I could achieve that. However, due to some external factors, I had to go for the more unpleasant method. Sorry about that!”

External factors?

Joe must have been involved because of Rylee.

So, all in all, Rylee is the mastermind behind the kidnap?

After all, the incident did create a crack in my relationship with Anthony, and I…

After leaving the Gold Scale Estate, I was overwhelmed by nausea. I felt as if I was still trapped in that dark space, drowning in the sounds of Anthony and Rylee intertwining with each other.

Since the incident, I had been trying to remove myself from all that agony, but I simply could not recover from the trauma no matter what I did.

Staring blankly into space, I called Jackson.

“Sienna, what’s wrong?”

“Jackson, I need to talk to you.” I was scared about falling back into the trauma of the past.

I had kept everything to myself for too long, and it felt like my heart was about to burst.

“What going on? How are you lately? Are you getting enough sleep?” Jackson sounded tired. He had probably just gotten off work.

I inhaled deeply and placed a hand over my chest. I was struggling to breathe. “A lot is going on for me right now. Can you come to visit me in J City sometime? I’m pregnant, and I can’t go all the way to find you.”

“What the hell? You’re pregnant? Are you married? With whom? Who did you marry?” His voice went up by an octave.

I blinked. Gosh, he’s asking too many questions at once. ”It’s a long story. When can you come?” I replied.

“I’ll definitely go. As for the exact time, I’ll follow you up on it, but can I just say. Sienna, how can you hide all of that from me? Seriously? A pregnancy?” He rambled on.

My head was starting to hurt even more. “I’m sorry. A lot has happened over the past two years. I…” I trailed off weakly.

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