I don’t know what happened. I had just arrived at Yorksland and was immediately stuck in this situation, despite not having done anything yet. Still in a daze, I could only hear some muffled voices but was not able to make out what they were saying.
Besides feeling afraid, I was sad that I was so helpless. I didn’t even manage to find Christopher. Rumor had it that Yorksland was a mess. Did I encounter human traffickers, or maybe organ traffickers?
I got more scared the more I thought about it. When I finally woke up, I saw that I was in an abandoned warehouse. A group of men was playing cards together when one of them noticed that I was awake. He then tossed a bottle of water and a piece of bread at me.
I took the food and studied them as I ate. “Who are you guys. Why did you kidnap me?”
“For the money, of course. You’re the famous new school artist, after all. Tsk, tsk. You’re an artsy young woman too,” someone said and laughed. “Luck is on our side. We were at a loss originally. But now that we have you, it seems like there’s an eighty percent chance that we’ll succeed.”
I was confused about the situation when he mentioned money. Unsure of how to react, I said, “You kidnapped me for money, but we’re in Yorksland now. I don’t seem to recall that I’m famous in Yorksland. Who are you going to ask for money here? Are you telling me that you want my family to come all the way from Avenport to send you money? Or do you want them to send you the money online? These options aren’t realistic at all.”
“Hehe. I heard that you’re Lyle Smith’s ex-wife. He still hasn’t gotten over you, you know? I wonder how much you’re worth,” a man said with narrowed eyes as he scrutinized me.
“Lyle?” I was even more confused now. “You must have been mistaken. He has nothing to do with me now. If you’re going to threaten Lyle, shouldn’t you be looking for the woman he loves? Do you really think he’d give his money because of me? Back then when I was kidnapped, the kidnappers demanded one billion but he didn’t give them a single cent. He just left me to rot there.”
“What?” Not many people knew about this incident anyway. Upon hearing my words, the kidnappers started to panic. One of the men kicked me and scolded, “You should just die if you’re not worth anything, then.”
I felt a shiver down my spine in an instant. This really was an unexpected disaster. I haven’t even done anything in Yorksland but was met with something like this all because of Lyle. Is he the bane of my life?
The man who threw the bottle of water at me snatched it back right then. He threw it on the ground, and water spilled everywhere. It was such a pity as I was actually feeling thirsty and had only gotten to take a sip of it.
“Don’t worry, boss. It’s rumored that Lyle’s woman cheated on him. Now, he regrets it and has been pestering his ex-wife. He must have a thing for her again.”
I sighed and curled up in the corner. I didn’t dare to say anything else, afraid that those men would do something to me if they were to find out that I was of no use to them.
As if there weren’t enough miseries in my life, this was the most serious one yet. If I were to meet Lyle, I wanted so much to give him a slap across his face and then kick him on his shins. Why did I have to come across so many unfortunate events?
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I was hungry and thirsty. It was unbearable. So I shouted at the people playing cards, “Can you please give me some food and water? Even if I’m a hostage, you can’t possibly leave me here to starve to death before you meet Lyle, right?”
“What’s with the noise? Shut up or we’ll sell you off.”
Right then, the man, who seemed to be the boss, received a phone call. He walked over to me and gave me a cup of water and a piece of bread. I instantly gobbled down the bread and drank the water. However, I started to feel dizzy a moment later.
I lost consciousness a while later. They had added drugs into the water. I thought that I would still see the kidnappers when I open my eyes again, but I saw Lyle instead. I was shocked to see him. He really is in Yorksland.
“Lyle?” My eyes widened, and I continued to stare at him. What on earth is happening?
Then, I realized that he and I weren’t the only ones in the dark room. There were a bunch of other people whom I didn’t know. Lyle was standing in the middle of the room, and everything else was just like when I was kidnapped back then. The only difference was that Crystal wasn’t with me now.
