In the suburbs, the taxi screeched to a stop in a cloud of dirt along a secluded road.
Screech! The taxi stopped.
“Get the hell out!” Elissa and Kieran were ruthlessly pushed down the taxi. They rolled on the ground and onto a patch of grass beside the road. They struggled for a while before they managed to break free from the loosely tied ropes around them.
As soon as Elissa sat upright, she began to berate Kieran, “Damn it, God damn all of them! I’m being killed by those loan sharks, then all of you are accomplices!”
Kieran sat dejected on the grass and was overcome with hopelessness.
Accomplices? What a joke! How could she blame her actions on others? He was married to Elissa for decades and found that she had turned into a different person. She had tens of millions of yuan and could live in luxury for the rest of her life. But how long did it take Elissa to squander those millions? To think that now she even owed several million yuan. All these were her own doing and how could she put the blame on others?
Bash!
Elissa became so overwhelmed with anger that she kicked Kieran down, “You scumbag! Why don’t you just fall dead? You are a man and can’t even compare to a woman like me. Why didn’t you beat them up?”
Kieran laughed and his eyes became bloodshot and welled up with tears. He stood up slowly, felt dejected, and looked hopelessly at Elissa. It was as if his heart was shredded.
“Enough! It’s enough already!” Kieran said as he broke down in tears, “The family was destroyed by you. Our daughter’s marriage and the family were destroyed just because you had to help Tommy. You forced Katherine for the money that Jack needed to save his mother’s life. You had always been biased against your own daughter and forced her to do things against her wishes. Now it is all destroyed by you!”
As Kieran bawled, his eyes revealed his fury. He gradually turned ferocious and then erupted.
Smack!
Kieran forcefully slapped Elissa. The slap was so forceful that Elissa staggered a couple of steps and almost collapsed onto the ground. Half her face became swollen.
“You bitch! You just destroyed a family! How could you leave with yourself? Why don’t you just die?” Kieran yelled in fury.
Elissa was stunned. Kieran had always given in to her but now suddenly he retaliated.
She froze in place for several seconds and then she shrieked, “You hit me? How dare you yell at me? How dare you ask me to die? What kind of man are you? The family is in this state and you want your wife to die? Why don’t you drop dead? The person who should die is you!”
Elissa yelled as she lunged at Kieran and started clawing. Her face was full of fury as she ground her teeth.
“I’ve had enough!” Kieran pushed Elissa off and demanded, “Let’s divorce!” The cold words were full of hopelessness.
After he said, Kieran turned to walk away without stopping.
Elissa was stunned and looked helplessly at Kieran as he walked away.
The word “Divorce” continued to echo in her ears. She suddenly became horrified and panicked. Divorce? How could they divorce after so many years?
She had been used to having her ways. She continued to berate Kieran, “You’re not a man. Do you want a divorce? Dream on! I know what your intentions are. If you divorce me you will not have to bear the millions of debt! You want me to shoulder it all! Fuck! Even if I die, I’ll make sure you die with me!”
“Ha…” When Kieran heard this, his expression darkened and scoffed with disdain. His heart was overcome with grief and despair but when he thought about these, it became nothing but disgust.
“Come back here you fool! Come the hell back here!” Elissa squatted and started to cry as she ground her teeth and said, “What did I do wrong? Am I not doing this for the family? Do you think that I want to do this? It’s all that useless Jack’s fault. He’s a conman! He said that his mother was close to death and then what happened?”
Suddenly Elissa’s eyes lit up and started to laugh like a psychopath, “Yes, his mother! Sophie that bitch! If I can’t get to see Jack, why can’t I look for that bitch Sophie?”
“Jack is the cause of my family’s downfall. It’s the fault of Sophie’s upbringing. Once I get to Sophie, I’ll be certain to get the money!”
It was as if Elissa was grasping her final hope. Her devastated mood suddenly turned for the better. She wiped off her tears and then walked towards the city. She knew that Jack was filial to Sophie. If she couldn’t force Jack, then she would force Sophie. Then the money would be a sure thing! The more Elissa thought about it, the more she was excited. She even forgot about Kieran.
Then.
Her joys and hopes were instantly dashed and she felt her world darken around her.
“Dead? How did that slut die?” Elissa looked at her cellphone in disbelief, ruffled her hair as her eyes turned red.
She asked some of her friends about the whereabouts of Sophie when she arrived back in the city. But she found it hard to accept the contents of the message. If Sophie was dead, then what could she use to force Jack?
“Impossible, there must be a way!” Elissa walked as she ruffled her hair looking like a lunatic. People around her tried to avoid her. Before Elissa could think of a way out, her phone started to ring.
“Debt collectors! Forcing me to pay? Are you forcing me to die?” Elissa ground her teeth but had to answer the call.
“Elissa, I don’t care how you do it. You better pay up the debt in ten days even if you have to sell yourself. If not, I’ll make your daughter and son prostitute themselves and then kill you and your husband!”
Bang!
The call ended before Elissa could respond. The tone of the caller was ruthless and merciless. The call was like the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Immediately it was as if Elissa had a mental breakdown. She didn’t care about Katherine and neither was she concerned about Kieran. She was scared of dying, she didn’t want to die. She was concerned about Tommy as he was her son.
“There is a way, there must be a way!” She mumbled as she gripped her cellphone tightly, pacing along the streets.
Then suddenly, she stopped and she seemed to have figured out a way, “If I can’t force the living, why can’t I force the dead?” When a person was forced to the extreme, then everything became simple. Even if it was for a moment!
At the TM Villa.
Jack was happily having dinner with the others. He was celebrating to himself that he had settled the past. But then he received a message on the cellphone and his joy was immediately dashed.
Everyone saw the sudden change in Jack’s expression and felt his bone-chilling mood.
Jack narrowed his eyes as he stared at his phone. The message was simple, “Jack, I’m Elissa. Give me a hundred million yuan. Otherwise, I will desecrate your mother’s grave and scatter her ashes!”