The men still remained silent and Bella thought that her words were effective, she continued, “Celeste is like a fly cornered in the glass bottle with a gloomy prospect and no way out. Following her is like cutting your own throat. You both have a family. Have you never thought that your stupid behavior might make your wife lose their husband, your kids lose their father and your parents lose their son?”
“I believe that you are just losing your head for a moment. If you pull over the car now, you can take the bank card in my bag. The money is much more than what you get by risking your life to kidnap me. Gentlemen, please, pull over, please?”
“Seal her mouth.”
A man finally spoke. But Bella was shocked as she had talked a lot but the two men weren’t stirred at all, instead, they stop her from speaking. Now it seemed that she was doomed not them.
They were outlaws who cared about nothing.
“Fine, I’ll stop talking. Please don’t touch me.”
When the man was approaching her with tape, she was smart enough to cover her mouth.
The car pulled over in front of a tall building. Bella’s two arms were grabbed by each of them. Before getting off, the man warned her, “If you dare to call out for help, then you better watch out for the children in your belly.”
They weren’t bluffing as evilness was sparkling in their eyes. Bella looked pale and nodded obediently. Looking askance to the front, the big golden letters of Pegasus Group testified that she guessed right.
Celeste resorted to the extreme as expected.
Bella was dragged off from the car and looked around—nobody could ask for help. Even if there was, she wouldn’t dare to call out under such a perilous circumstance.
Once the outlaws were irritated, they would hurt her children in the belly.
The two men took her into the lift. It went upright to the top floor. With the lift open, she was taken to the rooftop.
She shuddered as a gust of chilling wind blowing by. Soon, she saw someone standing in the dark place, who turned her head slowly, revealing a ferocious face akin to the old witch in the fairy tale. Her eyes were vicious.
“Celeste, are you that desperate? Why you kidnap me here? You think there are not enough lawsuits bothering you and you want to add a charge of kidnapping?”
Celeste laughed ghastly, her laugh was gruesome and creepy.
“Since I have lots of lawsuits, I don’t care to add one or two.”
Celeste ordered the two men behind Bella, “You can go back now. Lock the rooftop door from the outside. Not even a mosquito wants to escape from here!!”
The men nodded and put Bella’s handbag at the corner. After they turned around and left, she heard a rustling sound, knowing that the glass door was locked.
“What do you want?”
Bella was flabbergasted that Celeste was approaching step by step with a knife in her hand.
She had no way to retreat but moved backward, “Celeste, please calm down. It was just a bankruptcy, you don’t have to be so extreme. Please calm down, we can talk…”
“Just a bankruptcy? Hmm, how lightly you put it, just bankruptcy, then you ask Kevin to go bankrupt, you thought it was easy to build a business empire?”
“Since you know it’s not easy, why didn’t you take care of your business? Instead, you were just doing opportunistic businesses. It is your own fault, it is you who corners yourself.”
“No, it’s not me, it is Kevin, it’s Kevin who corners me to the dead end. I’ve warned him before, don’t go too far on his revenge, he ignored. Then, ok, he didn’t listen to my words, then don’t blame me for being ruthless today, blame on your husband who is too cold-blooded, blame your father-in-law who is not a committed man. The Jones-Sharp’s father and son ruined my life, I’ll let them know how it feels to lose one’s beloved person.”
Kevin suddenly received Freya’s call, he picked it up with a frown, “Hello?”
Over the other side of the phone was completely silent, so he repeated again, “Hello? I’m gonna hang up if you don’t talk.”
“Kevin, about the thing you want to confirm, I have thought it over and decided to tell you the truth.”
Kevin suddenly tensed up, “Tell me, tell me the truth.”
“Here is the thing…”
Freya recounted the story. When she finished, she heard a relieved sigh clearly over the other side of the phone.
“Why are you suddenly willing to confess?”
Kevin was surprised as she wouldn’t speak up the truth no matter what methods he had used for the last few times
“Everyone would come to their senses at some point, So would I. But it is just later than others. Kevin, I’m sorry that I let you down. I really am. Actually, I felt regretful long ago, I just don’t know how to go back. It was the time when you said you didn’t want to see me forever two years ago that I found myself feel remorseful. I wanted to go back to who I was, the one you appreciated. But looking back to what I have done, I found that there was no retreat at all. I had to go on, go on the rotten road. It took me a lot after I embarked on this road. I did the things I didn’t want to do, things I shouldn’t do. And I gradually lost control of myself, hoping someone would stop me. But I didn’t realize that I didn’t have anyone around me anymore. I didn’t just let you down, I let all the people who loved me down. Not only did I go down a rotten path but turn myself into a loner. In the past two years, I just let myself go into a downward spiral, sleeping in daylight and drinking fiercely at night. Then, I dated different men, thinking that nobody would care about me, nobody would think that my life was rotten. So I went even further. Until yesterday, I went to the spicy noodle restaurant that we used to go there often. The wishing wall was full of left messages. I saw the sticky note you wrote a year ago, “Freya, you are the most beautiful angel in my heart.” I cried, I realized I was insanely wrong. From head to toe, I didn’t have anything like the angel. I regret why didn’t find that sticky note earlier, maybe if I did, I wouldn’t have gone this far…Out of the noodle restaurant, I stood alone on the cold and windy street for 6 hours. I smoked two packs of cigarettes, recalling for all those misconducts I have done in the past few years. Then it became clear that a rotten person is unforgivable even though she has a reason. I should love myself more when nobody loves me…”
Kevin was moved after hearing her words. He didn’t know what to say, to scold her that she came to her senses at a late time, or to praise her that she found her way back.
“Kevin, at last, I want to say I’m sorry. And I want to tell you that Bella is kidnapped. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you until now, because I know if I told you Bella’s news first, you wouldn’t have listened to what I just said.”
Then the phone was hung up as expected. Kevin kept calling Bella, but nobody answered. Out of great anxiety, he called Freya again, roaring to the other side of the phone, “Who? Who kidnaps her? Where she is kidnapped? How is she?”
“Don’t worry, she was just kidnapped to Celeste’s company.”
The phone was hung up again. Kevin drove madly to Pegasus Group…
The wind was getting more fierce blending with few drops of snow, Bella was cornered to the verge of the rooftop. She looked at the remaining space behind her, feeling dizzy suddenly. There is no likelihood of survival to fall from such height. What should she do? What should she do…
“Keep moving backward, come on. If you don’t move back, then move forward to my knife. I’m wondering whether it is your heart I stab through first or it is your children?”
Bella was shivering, she kept telling herself to calm down, calm down. Celeste has lost her mind, she couldn’t be panicked. She had to control her emotions.
At the corner, her phone in the handbag kept ringing, she knew it must from Kevin, which gave her some hope in this desperate situation. If the phone kept ringing and nobody answered, Kevin would realize that something might happen to her. As long as she could hold the time, Kevin would come to save her.
On the contrast of the quiet night, the phone rang especially loudly. Finally, Celeste couldn’t stand the noise. Hurrying to the corner, she grabbed her handbag and threw it off the rooftop. And at the same time, Bella who stood behind her snatched her knife and quickly threw it off the rooftop.
Celeste went berserk, grabbing her hair and dragging her to the border of the rooftop.
“You thought you would be safe after throwing off my knife? I only need to exert a little bit of force now, and you and your children will all be killed!!!”
Bella’s tears were welling up. She started to get a little scared that Celeste would push her out of it if she lost control. Bella didn’t want to die like this. She has never been a mother for one day. Her babies were kicking in her belly. They must be frightened, too. Bella wiped off her tears, saying in her mind, “Don’t worry, my children. I will protect you. Mom will protect you and dad will do, too. Dad is coming soon. We shouldn’t be frightened…”
She tried hard to hold back her fear. Thinking about her children, she said composedly, “Celeste, you can push me down, but you better realize that you have to pay with your life for it. It doesn’t matter if you die, but have you ever thought about Louis? You abandoned him when he was eight and never performed a mother’s duty for a day. Now he has to worry about your situation. I met your daughter-in-law an hour ago. She said, as long as you listen to your son to settle down in France, he will clean up the mess for you. Your ex-husband was the head of the police station. It is just a matter of money to get rid of all the lawsuits you have. And as long as money can solve the matter, it won’t be a problem. It’s not too late to stop your folly. All you lost is just the company you built, but what you will get is a happy life with your son and daughter-in-law. Don’t you think this is a wise choice? So listen to me, where there is life, there is hope.”