“She was locked up here. Mr. Frank said she’d be released once she gave in. I slept in the small room next door, bringing her three meals a day. At first, before they fell out, I was even told to prepare meals for her as a pregnant woman. Later, she was only given one meal a day, whatever it was. I felt sorry for her, so I gave her more fish and shrimp to make sure she and the baby had enough nutrition.”
“I tried talking to her, but she wouldn’t listen. She even hit me and tried to run away. After she was moved here, the conditions got worse. She had a difficult labor-the baby wouldn’t come out. She was in pain all night, so thin and weak, her eyes wide open. It was terrifying to watch.”
“How did she eventually give birth?”
“Mr. Frank found a doctor-I don’t know where from, probably some small clinic. The baby was born, a tiny girl, frail like a kitten. They said she wouldn’t survive, barely breathing. Mr. Frank had someone take her away immediately. I think the clinic doctor felt sorry and tried to resuscitate the baby, but I never told Mr. Frank. I don’t know if the child survived. I… I was just doing my job for the money.”
“What happened that made him leave?” George asked.
“It was probably during her postpartum recovery. One day, a woman showed up, claiming to be Mr. Frank’s wife. It caused a huge scene. I always thought it was strange to lock someone up in a basement-she must have been taken against her will. When the wife showed up, Mr. Frank immediately took her away. And then he never came back?”
“Not a trace?”
“Not a trace. His phone was unreachable. After a while, his wife came again, screaming and yelling at me like a madwoman. How would I know where they went? For all I know, they ran off together.”
Clearly, something unexpected must have happened along the way, which led to Lillian escaping alone and eventually meeting Ethan.
“Do you think something might have happened to Frank?”
Otherwise, Lillian would never have escaped, and that psychopath didn’t seem like the type to let go so easily.
“I don’t see many exits here,” Conrad said, his mind now clearer, no longer clouded by the earlier emotions. Once his thoughts were sharp, his reasoning followed.
“Right, they only built one new road a few years ago. Before that, there was just one way out.”
“How do we get to that road?”
“That road collapsed during an earthquake years ago. It’s completely blocked now, and no one uses it anymore.”
“If people can’t get through, a plane can.” Conrad narrowed his eyes.
Whether Frank was alive or dead, he needed answers, and those answers might lie on that road.
Evan sent a satellite location to his father, and half an hour later, two planes arrived with a team of scouts. Conrad suited up, determined to join them in exploring the canyon.
“That place used to be called Devil’s Gorge, and it’s still treacherous.”
“No matter how dangerous, some answers can only be found by going there myself.”
Five years ago, he hadn’t been able to find her. Now, five years later, was he really going to make her explain everything herself?
Conrad boarded the plane and took off. George and the others couldn’t just sit idle. They connected to a signal in the military vehicle and tasked their assistants with investigating Frank’s past.
The findings were damning. Frank had risen by exploiting wealthy women, targeting affluent heiresses and using emotional manipulation to trap them. This had been his method since he was 17. After getting close, he would use coldness, emotional abuse, and PUA tactics to break them down, driving them to obsession. Once he achieved his goals, he would discard them.
In school, he had used the same tactics. Later, in business, there were always women around him-some driven to madness, others dead or left in vegetative states.
That man couldn’t withstand scrutiny.
He had indeed married six years ago, a quiet, sudden wedding to the daughter of a business partner. She had been pregnant and married Frank in a rush, utterly devoted to him. But their child was lost, and within six months of the marriage, Frank had stopped coming home.
Sarah, his wife, had never remarried. She had spent years searching for Frank, bankrupting herself on false leads. Once a wealthy heiress, she had become a paranoid, superstitious wreck, squandering her parents’ fortune on online fortune-tellers and charms. Now, she could barely make ends meet.
“Damn, this guy really fed off people’s misery. What kind of monster is he?”
“Someone who crawled out of the gutter will cling to any resource they can find,” Lionel said emotionlessly, closing the file.
“It’s been an hour since they went down. Any news yet?”
With the collapse and the earthquake, even if there were clues, they’d be hard to find.
“His wife came looking for him, right? Maybe there’s nothing to find here.”
Just then, the satellite signal flickered, and Conrad’s voice came through. “We found tire tracks. We need to locate the vehicle.”
This godforsaken place was so desolate that even getting here was a challenge. Moving all that rubble would be no easy task.
But if Conrad wanted it done, they had no choice.
George and the others followed, descending via the helicopter’s ropes.
Conrad was caked in dirt and mud, his long legs relentlessly kicking at the twisted car door.
Finally, with sheer force, he tore the damaged door off, revealing a contorted skeleton in the driver’s seat.
The decayed clothing suggested it was likely Frank, the man they had been searching for.
The remains were grotesquely twisted, the legs crushed and severed by the car door. The high-altitude fall painted a picture of a horrifying and chaotic crash.
How had Lillian, a woman weakened from childbirth, managed to escape?
Conrad yanked at the bones, scattering them across the ground. He stomped on the skull, crushing it under his foot.
His hatred for Frank ran bone-deep.
He wanted to grind his remains to dust!
No one stopped him.
A man like Frank deserved no pity.
Kick after kick, until he was exhausted and the car was reduced to rubble. Finally, Conrad collapsed onto a pile of dirt, spent.
But no matter how much he vented his rage, it didn’t change the fact that his Lillian had endured those dark days alone.
How had she survived those five years by herself?
As Ethan had said, without Quincy, she might have lost the will to live altogether.
Even in her dire state, she had come to Hillside Villa to find him.
Sitting there, Conrad alternated between laughter and tears, teetering on the edge of madness.