She leaned against the wall tiredly, her injured body sliding limply down the door.
Looking at the night view outside the window, Niamh felt her eyes grow wet.
‘Your Nia can’t do this much longer, Kendrick.
‘Won’t you come and get me soon?’
In the study.
The more Ryan thought about it, the more pissed he felt. He had never expected Niamh to be so obdurate.
She would rather bleed than let him touch her.
Did he pale in comparison to Kendrick Waldburg?
He scoffed at a sudden epiphany and took his phone next to the study desk. Scrolling, he looked for a specific number on the contact list and dialed it.
Kendrick was currently checking every piece of surveillance footage Ryan’s car had passed to pin the man’s last location when his phone suddenly rang.
He glanced at the display and was stunned for a moment in disbelief. He picked up the phone and was even more surprised to realize that it was a video call.
“Ryan?”
“It’s me.” Ryan’s voice echoed over the line, and Kendrick’s screen then clearly showed Ryan’s sinister smile. “Surprised that I video called, aren’t you? That’s because I have something nice here that I’d like you to see.”
Unease crept into Kendrick’s heart at the sight of Ryan’s malicious smile through his phone screen.
He could tell that whatever Ryan wanted to tell him through the video call was definitely related to Niamh.
“What did you do to Nia, Ryan?” Kendrick found it hard to keep his calm.
He questioned fiercely only for the man to reply with a chuckle. Ryan then turned the camera to the floor.
“Talk, Ryan!” Kendrick grew frustrated.
Ryan watched Kendrick’s reaction in satisfaction. The more distressed Kendrick was, the better he felt.
Ryan ignored Kendrick and walked toward the room Niamh stayed in. Then, he pointed the camera at the bloodied mattress.
Kendrick felt his heart being torn into pieces at the sight of the large pool of blood-red. The color of his irises seemed to be dyed the same color now.
“Do you see this, Kendrick Waldburg? Don’t you think the bright red on this mattress looks absolutely stunning?” Ryan provoked Kendrick. “It’s all blood from your beloved woman.”
He watched Kendrick’s expression turn into one of thundering shock. He could imagine how much the sight hurt and tormented Kendrick’s heart.
“What did you do to Nia? Ryan! Where is she?”
Kendrick thought he was about to go mad!
He could not possibly imagine how Niamh was doing right now, let alone think about how much Niamh had suffered when Ryan tortured and hurt her.
“Ryan Jones.”
He spat out the two words from his thin lips, his tone laced with the frost of the coldest winter that could chill one to their bones.
“For every drop of blood Nia bled today, I’ll make sure that you pay it back in double.”
Ryan disagreed and turned the camera back to him. He met Kendrick’s furious and icy gaze with belittling ones of his own. His tone was disdainful when he spoke, “You can tell me this again if you manage to find me at all, Kendrick Waldburg.”
“I will find you, Ryan. Very soon.”
Ryan scoffed at Kendrick and provoked him again. “While I can wait for you, I don’t know if I can say the same for your beloved woman.”
“Ryan!” Ryan’s words had easily fueled Kendrick’s flames of fury. “Don’t you dare touch Nia again! Don’t you dare!”
“But what if I do? What if I do touch her again, and in front of you too?”
“What?” Kendrick hated the fact that he could not grab Ryan by the collar through the screen. “What more do you want to do?”
“Aren’t you digging up my past to look for me?” Ryan smiled evilly. “With every step deeper you delve, I’ll increase your wife’s torture by two degrees. I wonder who’ll give in first, hmm?” Ryan threatened.
“I know that you’re spending every moment looking through surveillance footage to look for my location, Kendrick, but I suggest you stop.”
Kendrick looked up at the computer screen in front of him that was replaying multiple road surveillance footage.
How did Ryan know he was checking the surveillance footage?
However, Kendrick was not in the right headspace to focus on such topics. He forced himself to calm down.
“Where’s Nia, Ryan? What did you do to her? Why did she lose so much blood?”
“I suppose you’ll find the reason behind her injuries sweet, won’t you?”
Ryan paused before he delved into it with a sneer. “To keep her purity, she’d rather die than let me do as I wish. Aren’t you satisfied with such a reply?”
Kendrick felt as if the inside of his chest was being stuffed with cotton, expanding inch by inch until it suffocated him.
Nia.
“Keep searching for my whereabouts if you want Eveline to keep bleeding. As long as you’re fine with the consequences, you’re free to do as you wish.”
Ryan then hung up the phone.
Kendrick called again, but his number had been blocked.
His grip on his phone tightened. He felt the sudden urge to smash his phone to placate the surging fury within him. Still, he managed to keep it in check.
He could not let his emotions cloud his judgment. What he needed to do now was be calm and collected.
Kendrick returned to the study table and continued to scan through the surveillance footage, but he found himself unable to focus.
His mind kept feeding him images of Niamh being forced to a corner and fighting back against Ryan with all that she had. She would always end up with wounds and be drenched with blood before Ryan would let her go.
“Nia.”
Kendrick paced before the French windows with unease as he wore the ground below him down with his maddening frustration.
He left the house and stopped his car where the surveillance footage showed Ryan’s last known location.
Kendrick was about to survey the area when he suddenly received an anonymous text with a simple sentence: [Rest assured, she’s alright for now.]
There was no doubt that the ‘she’ in the text referred to Niamh.
Kendrick’s frantic heartbeat slowly settled.
Still, he was confused as to who had sent the text. Was it the same person who did emergency aid on him and sent him to the hospital from the warehouse?
…
Niamh remained locked in Ryan’s room for the entire night. The man did not go to bother her either.
As far as Niamh was concerned, it was a good thing.
However, the moment the sky brightened, Adam and the maids entered the room.
The maids helped Niamh wash up and change while Adam approached Niamh with his medical kit to redress her wounds.
Niamh used to reject Adam’s approach, but she resorted to staring at the man this time.
Adam knew that Niamh was staring at him but remained unfazed as he cleaned Niamh’s wounds and redressed them.
The maids brought Niamh’s breakfast. Adam spoke meaningfully without raising his head, “Let your wounds heal and recover first if you want to fight back.”
He spoke nonchalantly, then took his kit and left.
“Adam,” Niamh called out to him and got on her tiptoes. She was about to stand when she saw Ryan walking toward them outside the room.
She swallowed the words that were already at the tip of her tongue back down.
Adam turned to glance at Niamh who fell silent and pushed his glasses up with a shadow of a smile before he turned to look at Ryan. “Her wounds are alright. I’ll be going now if there’s nothing else.”
“Wait.”
Ryan stopped Adam in his tracks just as they brushed past.
Adam’s footsteps came to a halt as a spark flashed through his eyes that were behind his glasses.
Ryan glanced at him. “Give me the bottle of reagent for her injection.”
Adam looked at Ryan confusedly but went back to the lab to fetch a bottle of reagent for him without asking questions.
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.