Ken was wary of how Carol had been behaving, the things she was asking. But he couldn’t tell what was wrong. He thought about that for a while, then decided to call Brian.
“Boss, I have taken Miss Jefferson home.”
Diana heard this and rolled her eyes. Brian, who had asked Diana to hold his phone as he was so wet, replied angrily, “Okay, come back quickly!”
“Why are you angry with Ken? He didn’t do anything wrong.” Diana looked at Brian and said.
Ken heard Diana’s voice and knew this couple was quarreling with each other again. He thought it was funny and worried about Diana.
And his worry was right. Brian was irritated. “He is my servant. I can say anything I like. It’s none of your business.”
“What’s wrong with a servant? He is also a man like you.”
Ken was eager to hang up the phone; he didn’t want to get in the middle of their discussion.
But out of sheer politeness, he stayed listening to it in silence. After ten minutes, they finally stopped, not after finding a solution to their disagreement, but because they’d arrived at Brian’s house.
Seeing Brian’s luxurious villa up ahead, Diana recalled her plan. When Brian stopped the car, she would open the door and run away. Unfortunately for her, he had already thought about that. So, no matter how hard Diana tried, she couldn’t open the passenger door.
“Hey! What kind of man are you? You think it’s funny to kidnap me?”
Brian walked out of the car slowly and took off his wet shirt. He threw it at Diana, and the damp shirt stuck to Diana’s face.
“Of course, I am a man. As for you, you were hiding from me because you did something wrong. Right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t leave me, your rich boss.”
Diana couldn’t believe what she was hearing and shouted, “You did something wrong!”
Brian didn’t want to quarrel with Diana. He opened the car door and grabbed Diana by her collar, as if seizing a baby chick, and pulled her into the villa. Diana fought back with her hands and feet. She screamed and kicked at Brian’s body.
Brian thought his ears were going to explode. He never knew Diana could be so noisy! He couldn’t bear it anymore and put his handkerchief into Diana’s mouth again.
At last, the world was quiet again.
However, Brian wasn’t finished there. He pushed Diana toward the entrance of the basement, before gently pushing her inside.
“You stay here and think about what you have done!”
Brian took the chance to avoid listening to Diana, scold him, and closed the door.
Diana kicked at the door and called out Brian’s name, but there was no reply.
Diana was silly. She knew that if she kept shouting, he would just keep her in the basement even longer.
So, she gave up and turned to look for another exit out of the basement. Alas, all she could see was a sturdy looking, wrought iron window. There were certainly no other escape routes out of there.
Diana sighed deeply and sat down on a small, old chair. To her surprise, the chair collapsed the moment she sat on it.
“Jeez… how old is this chair?” Diana wondered aloud.
She never thought there would be such a basement in Brian’s house. He always threw away anything he didn’t want to keep. So why would he keep this old piece of furniture? Diana was so confused.
Diana squatted down on the ground and noticed that it was, in fact, an old, children’s chair. Was this something Brian had when he was a child?
She picked up to examine it further and found it was a wooden chair in the shape of a pony.
For some reason, Diana felt sorry for the old, discarded chair. Seeing that it was easily fixable, she spent a few minutes putting it back together.
Bored again after fixing the chair and curious to see what else was down there, Diana turned on the flashlight in her phone and directed it around the basement.
The entire space was full of kid’s kinds of stuff: old toys, books, school awards.
The more Diana looked around, the more complicated a feeling she had. She had always imagined that Brian had a super luxurious childhood. But seeing these things reminded her strongly of her own childhood.
Diana felt sad, reminiscing of her forgotten youth.
The sound of knocking interrupted Diana’s trip down memory lane.
“Diana, are you there?” It was Brian. He seemed to be anxious.
Diana rolled her eyes and said nothing.
Brian kicked at the door, forcefully. “Diana! Are you in there?”
Hearing Brian’s worried voice, Diana thought something might be wrong. She couldn’t help saying, “What do you want, you crazy fool?”
“You are crazy!”
Diana bit her tongue, determined not to start another argument.
The voice of the butler broke the rhythm of their back and forth exchange. “Miss Anderson, the lock on this door is broken. But don’t worry, we’ve called the locksmith, he should be here soon. Please don’t be scared.”
Was the lock broken? Diana was stunned, and then she banged on the door and shouted, “Brian, is that true? Why are you trying to trick me again?!”
Brian was also on edge. “Why do you think everyone in the world is out to get you? You think everyone tries to hurt you intentionally. You brought this on yourself!”
“What did I do?!” Diana screamed in exasperation.
There was a group of servants now gathered outside the basement door. In an attempt to calm things down, they helped convince Diana that what Brian said was actually true, the lock just broke by accident.
Diana tried to stay optimistic about the situation. It didn’t matter that she was locked in the basement. It would be easy for the locksmith to fix the lock; she’d be out in no time.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out, as Diana hoped.
Brian’s staff set about trying to find a locksmith. However, it proved very difficult to find one that would come out as far as the downtown area. Diana was down there for what felt like hours before the locksmith finally arrived. By that point, she was on the verge of tears.
Brian was very anxious. He had wanted to punish Diana, but he never expected that this would happen. He felt something that he wasn’t used to feeling very often, guilt.
The locksmith stared unconvincingly at the lock for a long time, shaking his head. It was quite clear that he was no expert.
He continued poking around at the lock for a while, then turned nervously to Brian, “No, I’m sorry. The lock has been broken for a long time. The keyhole has been blocked. The only way is to saw it off.”
“Then do it!” Brian said impatiently.
The locksmith couldn’t bear to make eye contact with Brian. Instead, he murmured quietly under his breath, “I didn’t bring my saw with me.”
Brian was speechless. He was about ready to kill the poor locksmith.
Luckily for him, the butler intervened on his behalf.
“There is a carpenter’s saw in the garden,” he said to Brian. The butler liked Diana; she was very easygoing and always treated them nicely. Seeing her in trouble, the butler was eager to help.