Chapter 7
“Ariana, since you and Eric share a child, why don’t we make a wager? Let’s see who holds a more significant place in Eric’s heart. You and your child, or me and the baby I’m carrying?”
Mandy’s abduction and disappearance had been nothing more than a performance orchestrated by her!
Yet, Eric didn’t believe anything Ariana told him.
He gazed at her with disappointment.
“A life is in jeopardy, Ariana. When did you change so much?”
Ariana felt utterly frustrated as well.
“I never did anything to Mandy. She’s orchestrating this entire drama on her own.”
As night fell, Eric’s search party still hadn’t found Mandy.
Eric’s patience wore thin.
“Did Mandy mention you adopted a child from an orphanage?”
Ariana’s posture instantly became rigid.
Eric lifted his hand, and someone hauled in a burlap sack, inside of which a living being was struggling incessantly.
He picked up a metal rod, his face hard with resolve.
“Ariana, this is your final opportunity. If you refuse to speak, this child won’t make it!”
11 HD
Chapter
“Oliver…”
Ariana’s eyes immediately flushed crimson. She surged forward, but was abruptly yanked back.
Eric lifted the iron rod high and smashed it down.
“No!”
Ariana’s pupils dilated, her eyes turning bloodshot, as if the rod had hit her own back.
A soft cry emerged from the sack. The person inside was jarred by the impact and then abruptly went limp and quiet.
Bright red blood began to spread out from the sack.
“Ah!”
Ariana felt as though she was losing her mind. Everything around her seemed to turn a dark shade of red.
The second strike was lifted high once more.
“No, please! That’s your child. He’s your son!”
Ariana was being pulled back and forth, shouting desperately. Tears mingled with blood on her face, and her eyes were filled with overwhelming despair and devastation.
Eric paused with his raised hand.
“Sweetheart, quit playing games. We’ve never had a child all these years. Why would you deceive me with such claims?”
Ariana’s clothes were rumpled, and her hair was a mess.
Chapter 7
Ignoring everything else, she desperately crawled over to Eric, tears pouring down her cheeks.
“He truly is your child. Oliver is really your son. I beg you, please, release him now, call a doctor immediately, save him.”
Eric crouched and gently raised Ariana’s chin.
“Sweetheart, please cooperate. If you tell me where Mandy is, I’ll release him.”
Ariana shook her head, tears scattering.
“I truly don’t know, I swear. Please, let Oliver go.”
Eric’s eyes turned icy, and he slammed the rod down once more.
From the burlap sack, a stifled groan emerged, then everything went quiet.
“Oliver, don’t…”
润
Ariana suddenly coughed up blood, her body shaking uncontrollably.
Tears poured from her eyes like a breached dam, cascading down and mixing with the blood.
The third blow, the fourth…
Ten blows in total!
There was no sound from inside the sack.
“Oliver…”
As the activity within the sack came to a halt and the earth was dyed a bright crimson, Ariana fell to her knees.
Chapter 7.
11
It was as if she had been struck by lightning, her body went rigid in an instant. She attempted to reach out to touch it, but then began to tremble uncontrollably, vomiting more blood.
Eric watched Ariana’s condition, her utter devastation bringing a moment of hesitation to his eyes.
Her bloodshot eyes and cries of breakdown and despair cut into his heart repeatedly, like a knife.
However, as soon as Eric thought of Mandy, who was pregnant and whose fate was uncertain, any hesitation he felt disappeared completely.
After all, the sack didn’t contain an actual child. It was just a stray dog with its mouth tied shut.
How could Eric stoop to using a child as leverage?
At the very least, once he located Mandy, he planned to personally apologize to Ariana and reveal the truth.
With that in mind, Eric moved ahead, his black leather shoes sinking into the pool of blood, as he pressed down forcefully on the sack.
“Ariana, you’re still not going to speak?”
The pressure from his shoe must have shattered the stray dog’s limbs, as Eric distinctly heard the crack of bones.
The dog inside the sack appeared to jolt awake from the pain, trembling slightly.
“Daddy…”
A soft voice seemed to emanate from within the ragged sack.
Eric stopped in his tracks.
