“You think you all can get the money?” I scoffed. “If the police are really searching for me, it’d be better if you send me to the police in Marsingfill and tell them that you’re the ones who rescue me. They might give you a large sum of money as a token of appreciation.”
His brows furrowed as he pondered the option. After a while, he narrowed his eyes and said, “I can consider bringing you there, but not them.”
“Why?” I raised my voice. “As long as you send us back, I can give you the money, as much as you want.”
He let out a scoff. “Ah, you’re indeed different, no wonder Mr. Murphy is interested in you. But he is only looking for you, Ms. Stanhope. Him spending money on you doesn’t mean that he would fork out for the others. These women are too mediocre. I don’t think he would like any of them, so there’s no use in sending them to him.”
Offended by his words, the girls gritted their teeth and glared at him.
Nora, who had a pretty complexion with porcelain skin, got especially mad at him.
She shot him a disdainful look. “Did you not see yourself? You’re the ugliest one here. With your pig nose and small eyes, even plastic surgery can’t fix your looks.”
I laughed inwardly. This might be the best retaliation I’ve ever heard.
On the other hand, the man was so angry that he almost burst a blood vessel. He was about to slap Nora when the driver turned around and said something to him.
Then, the man dropped his hand.
Seeing his reaction, Nora rolled her eyes and continued to rebuke, “Stop acting like you’re some kind of big shot. You’re just a traitor who betrayed the country for money.”
“You…” The man had nothing to say to her accusation.
Glaring at Nora, he looked like he was going to tear her apart. But he eventually calmed down and sneered all of a sudden. “Look at you, you can be smug all you want. Don’t you know that all of you are going to meet your end soon? Once we reach Eastsummer, you would know what a living hell is.”
Nora wanted to talk back, but I stopped her and looked at the man. “Since you know who Mr. Murphy is, you should know that the Murphys had plenty of money to spare. Besides, if you send all of us back, not only the Murphys will give you money, even the Featherstones, the Moores, and the Stanhopes will give you a fortune. You just need to bring us back safely to the police, and you can live an easy life in K City. It’s very simple.”
He gaped and asked disbelievingly, “What did you say? Even the Featherstones, the Moores, and the Stanhopes will give me money, too?”
I nodded. Realizing that the girls were staring at me as well, I hesitated for a while before saying, “Yes. If you don’t believe me, give me your phone and let me call Anthony Featherstone. I’ll turn on the speaker.”
He looked at me doubtfully. “How did you know him?”
I pursed my lips and told him the truth. “Not only do I know Anthony Featherstone, but also John Stanhope and Zachary Moore. I believe you know who they are.”
He paled instantly. After a long while, he finally responded, “Who are you? Why are you human trafficked to Venria to be a mule?”
I was stunned. I did not expect that they abducted us for smuggling purposes.
The others froze as well. After wandering around without a roof over our heads, we had known that we were human trafficked, but we never had the slightest idea on why we were brought here.
Now that we finally got the answer from him, we were shocked beyond words.
If we did not run away at that time, we would be mules by now. I could not help but feel relieved at the thought. I said to the man, “I can only tell you that I came here by accident. So, can you please let us go? I can give you whatever you want.”
It was an earnest request from me.
He hesitated for a while and went to discuss with the driver.
The driver glanced at me with a flicker of doubt in his eyes. He then said something to the man and went back to driving.
After they finished discussing, the man looked over to me and said, “We will consider sending you to Marsingfill but not the others.”
As soon as he spoke, the car came to a stop. Before we could say anything, several people tape our mouths shut and dragged us out of the car.
We were then brought into a beachfront villa. It was heavily guarded.
Initially, I thought that the five of us would be locked up together, but we were immediately separated after entering the villa.
I was brought into a clean room on the second floor.
Closing the door, the man motioned the driver just now to untie the rope on me. Then, he looked at me and said, “Ms. Stanhope, rest for a few days here and we will ask people to come and send you to Marsingfill.”
It took me a second to understand what had said. “How about my friends?”
He gave me a shrug and frowned. “Ms. Stanhope, you should stop thinking about them. Save yourself first. Their fate is not in your hand.”
At that, he turned and left.
For the next few days, I was locked in my room, and a middle-aged woman would come and bring me food every day. To my dismay, I did not get any information from her due to the language barrier.
My room had a balcony. Standing on the balcony, I could see the vast ocean nearby and the scenery outside the villa.
However, every night in the wee hours, I could hear ear-splitting screams rang out in the villa as the waves rolled and crashed against the rocks. I was not sure if it was just my illusion.
And whenever I woke up to check on those voices, they would vanish again.
One night, I was once again awakened by the screams, so I went to the balcony to find the source of those screams. Suddenly, I saw a few black luxury cars parked in front of the villa.
In the front yard stood a row of men in black. They seemed to be bodyguards. The man and the driver who brought us to the villa that day were now standing by the cars. The woman who brought me food daily said that the name of the driver was Danny while the man who spoke to us was Dante.
The people in Venria normally did not have last names. Besides, I was not fluent in their language, so I was not sure if those were their real names.
Then, a man with a comb-over hairstyle came out from one of the cars. He looked grim in his white suit.
Danny stepped forward and said something to the man in white. Then, the man in white looked at Dante.
Dante reported something to him and pointed towards the villa.
Only then did I realize that Dante was pointing at my room.
Before I could react, the man had turned his head over and looked towards me.
Although we were far apart, I could see that he had striking facial features. Currently, he was glancing at me coldly with his thin lips pressed together.
Our eyes met. I tensed up and stared at him, wide-eyed.
After a few seconds, he finally retracted his gaze and entered the villa. It was only then I could move my legs and went into my room.
Slumped onto the bed, I raised my hand and placed it against my beating heart. My heart almost stopped just now. What a scary man.
Just then, someone knocked on the door and a female voice came from the door. “Ms. Stanhope, I’m coming in.” It was the woman who delivered my meal every day.
From my observation these past few days, it seemed like she only knew how to speak this sentence.
The woman opened the door and bowed respectfully at me. “Ms. Stanhope, please freshen up and go downstairs.”
Finally, she said something different.
I pursed my lips and looked at her. “You want me to go downstairs?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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