Hansen’s muscles tensed up, and he instinctively pulled Jenna into his arms.
What was going on?
With a scream on the stage, a muffled voice sounded as if something had fallen heavily to the ground.
The air was dead silent for a second. It was as if a pot had exploded.
“Oh, God. Someone’s been murdered.”
“Let’s run. There’s a gangster.”
“Blood!”
…
All of a sudden, all sorts of horrible screams echoed throughout the place, and the scene soon turned chaotic.
“Alvin.” Hansen was the first to react as he roared anxiously.
Alvin quickly jumped onto the stage.
“Mr. Richards, someone assassinated Reid,” Alvin informed Hansen quickly.
Trevor also seemed to be stunned by the gunshot. He, who had experienced many significant events, quickly reacted and immediately ordered Lomen, who was standing next to him. “Lomen, go and catch the murderer. We can’t let him escape.”
Lomen had long reacted. Without waiting for Trevor to finish speaking, he sprung off the stage and ran towards the direction of where the bullet came from.
Trevor picked up the microphone.
“Everyone, don’t panic. A gangster has snuck into the wedding. Don’t worry. There are policemen in Richards Manor. Nothing bad will happen. Please calm down.”
“Uncle Reid, Uncle Reid.” Liya’s heart was torn apart. After the crowd fell silent for a short period of time, her piercing voice reverberated throughout the entire place.
Jenna was in Hansen’s arms from beginning to end. She did not see the bullet tearing through Reid’s body, but when she heard Liya’s sorrowful scream, she was shocked and immediately realized what had happened. She then shivered and covered her stomach with her hands involuntarily.
“Alvin, escort Madam Marissa, Madam Jenna, and the guests to the Ink Garden immediately.” By that time, Hansen had already understood what had happened. He then immediately ordered Alvin with a calm expression. Glancing at Jenna, he walked towards Reid.
Marissa’s face had already turned pale, and her lips were trembling. She had even forgotten to shout.
She would never have imagined that such a bloody scene would happen in Richards Manor.
“Madam, hurry up and bring Madam Marissa and the guests away from this place.” Out of nowhere, Paul had already arrived at Jenna’s side. While Alvin was supporting the trembling Marissa, he calmly reminded her.
When Jenna heard Paul’s voice, she realized that the big event she had imagined was here.
After that, a strong smell of blood drifted into her nose, and she looked around.
On one side of the magnificent stage, Reid was covering his left chest with one hand, and scarlet blood was constantly seeping out from his fingertips. More and more blood flowed out. He then bent down and fell on the stage with his body curled up. His face was terribly pale, and his eyes were full of despair and anger.
“Everyone, don’t worry. Quickly, go to the Ink Garden with the electric vehicles.” Jenna’s mind quickly calmed down. She rushed down the stage and saw several electric vehicles parked at the exit of Central Island. They were the electric vehicles Hansen had prepared to evacuate guests.
After a burst of panic, when they heard Jenna’s calm voice as she walked towards them in a commanding manner without a trace of fear, the guests calmed down a lot. Then, all of them scrambled to get onto the electric vehicles.
“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen. We are now in the midst of catching the murderer.” She comforted the guests with Alvin standing closely by her side while Paul’s eagle-like eyes swept across the surroundings to pay attention to unexpected events that might occur.
After a while, the guests evacuated one after another.
“Madam, please go to the Ink Garden as well in case of any emergency.” After Jenna evacuated the guests, she did not rush back to the Ink Garden. Instead, she walked towards the stage, which made Alvin anxious, and he hurriedly tried to persuade her. It was time for Jenna to leave that dangerous place according to the plan.
“Relax, I have Paul protecting me. It will be fine.” Jenna merely smiled faintly and continued to walk towards the middle of the stage.
She was the host of the wedding. How could she not be present?
“Mr. Richards, bad news. Claude was held hostage by Reid’s men, heading here,” John shouted anxiously at Hansen on the other side of the phone.
According to the plan, when Claude was escorted into Richards Group Manor, he would lead the men he had prepared in advance to surround them before the police took action. He wanted to catch the turtle in the urn before the wedding was held and save Claude quickly. Then, he could then announce to the public that the wedding was invalid. However, everything was disrupted by a gunshot.
John was surprised.
This gunshot was not something they had accounted for. Hansen gave them the order to try their best to capture Reid’s men alive and rescue Claude.
At that time, Reid was still attending the wedding. It was really not right for such a gunshot to ring out at that moment.
What the h*ll went wrong?
There was no time to think about it carefully. Reid’s subordinates soon learnt that Reid had been shot. They then turned hostile in an instant and didn’t want to hand Claude over anymore. Right then, they were all nervous as they realized that something big was about to happen. In order to protect themselves, they hurriedly pushed Claude in front of them and pointed a gun towards his head.
“Don’t move. If anyone dares to move, then I’ll kill him immediately,” One of Reid’s subordinates roared fiercely.
John was at a loss at what to do.
“Don’t panic. Go and flank them immediately.” Hansen’s face was gloomy. After glancing at the scene, his deep and stern eyes fell on Reid, and he immediately ordered John.
Warm, red liquid was constantly gushing out of Reid’s chest, and the blood quickly dyed the carpet next to him red.
The whole atmosphere was gloomy and horrible to the extreme.
“Call the family doctor over at once.” Hansen approached Reid and ordered Maud loudly.
“Uncle Reid, Uncle Reid.” Liya quickly pounced onto Reid’s body and cried miserably. That heart-wrenching pain made her feel like dying. Reid was the person who treated her the best in her life. How could he be shot?
“Liya, don’t cry. I’m about to leave. In the future, you have to learn to protect yourself.” Knowing that his life was about to come to an end, Reid tried to give Liya his last piece of advice while trembling.
“No. Uncle Reid, I want you to protect me for the rest of my life,” Liya cried in agony as her entire body was on the verge of collapse.
Hansen stood with a dark expression as he fixed his gaze on Reid. His mind was spinning rapidly. Just what was going on?
Who was the one who fired the gun?
He had been waiting for John to rescue Claude and capture Reid’s men alive. Then, he could start to take action. In order to buy some time, he and Trevor both prepared gifts for Liya, so that they could delay the wedding procedures. Halfway through the wedding, he finally saw the signal and learnt that Reid’s men had already brought Claude to the designated location.
However, something unexpected happened at that moment!
“Hansen, you’ve betrayed your promise and turned against me.” Reid pointed at Hansen with rage building in his eyes.
Hansen took a step forward and bent down. He lowered his head and said sincerely, “Reid, I didn’t lie to you. My men aren’t the ones who shot you. I’ve already given the order to go after that person. Right now, the police have already surrounded Richards Manor. You must believe that we’re all trying our best to find the murderer. We only wanted to catch you alive and had no intention of killing you.”
Reid’s face was distorted. Blood spewed out of his mouth, dying his teeth red. His mouth was then dyed in a bloody red, making him look horrifying.
“Hansen, if it wasn’t for my niece, and if it wasn’t for her happiness’ sake, then I would’ve killed Claude a long time ago. Today, I took the initiative to send him to Richards Manor and fell into your trap. I admit my defeat, but let me tell you, if you don’t treat Liya well in the future, then I won’t let you off even if I’m in the netherworld,” he said, word for word, gritting his teeth.
His words sounded tragic, and it reeked of blood, soaking into Hansen’s heart, bit by bit, as well as Jenna’s, who was slowly approaching them.
Jenna’s vision began to darken.
What kind of debt was that? Was it a romantic debt or plain revenge? Why did it fall onto Hansen’s head?
“Reid, Reid.” A rough and angry voice came straight from below the stage. Jenna slowly turned around upon hearing that, and she saw a few vicious men holding onto Claude and coming up the stage.
“Reid, they failed to keep their promise and killed you. We’re going to avenge you.” The eyes of the man at the front were bloodshot, and he had already lost his mind.
“Don’t be in such a hurry. We didn’t shoot Reid. Let’s have a proper discussion and save Reid’s life first.” Trevor clenched the rosary beads in his hand as he felt extremely pained by that bloody scene.
“Bah, who are you fooling? Who will believe you?” The eyes of the man in the lead were red as he angrily rebuked, “Right now, we are surrounded by police, and you still say that you hadn’t planned this. It’s obvious that you guys are behind this. We fell into your hands as soon as we entered Richards Manor. How dare you commit such a hateful act like going back on your word?”
Each of them raised the guns in their hands.
“Today, either you let us go, or we’ll die together.” The leading man pushed Claude closer to Reid step by step.
“Reid.” When they saw that Reid was lying on the ground and dying, they growled angrily.
Everyone was forced to take a few steps back due to their guns.
The black muzzle was aimed at everyone present, and the situation had become extremely dangerous.
“You have all been surrounded. Put down your guns quickly, so that you guys can have more lenient punishments.” Christopher, who was outside, was even more anxious. Initially, after rescuing Claude, he had planned to capture all of them alive, but the current situation had changed for the worse.
Right then, they were holding Claude hostage. It was very likely that they would hurt everyone on the stage. After all, they all had real guns in their hands.
Who in the world was the d*mned guy who fired the shot?
Christopher cursed.
If he didn’t handle the matter properly that day, blood would spill onto the grounds of Richards Manor.
There were a lot of lives. If he didn’t handle the case well, then he would bring shame to Mr. Matthews’ name, and it was very likely that he would lose his career.
“Why are you still here?” When Hansen turned his head and saw that Jenna was still behind him. His expression immediately changed drastically.
Jenna’s face was pale, and her expression was slightly blank, but her face remained calm.
There wasn’t a single woman on the scene other than her and Liya.
Paul and Alvin had always been by her side.
She knew that Paul was protecting her, but she didn’t know that even Alvin had received Hansen’s order to protect her.
During the whole process, she got to understand Hansen’s scheme.
Surely enough, Hansen really used that wedding as a trap to save Claude.
He didn’t really want to marry Liya. That was a fact.
“Hansen, it’s fine. I’m not afraid.” She forced a smile at Hansen.
“Have you gone mad?” Hansen frantically pulled Jenna to the side when he saw her. “Do you really not know what danger is? How can you stay in such a place at a time like this? How do you want me to be at ease and fight with them? Why do you constantly make me worry?”
Hansen gnashed his teeth, and the blue veins on his forehead bulged as he said that. He really wanted to give her a good beating on the spot.
How could that d*mned woman be so calm when facing such a terrible and bloody scene? Was she not afraid of death?
Nevertheless, Jenna smiled fearlessly and said half-jokingly, “Hansen, since I had to host this wedding personally, it’s my obligation to stay here from the start to the end. I’m not afraid of anything. I’m just afraid that you will change your mind.”