Robert rarely chased Heather out of his study directly, but he drove her out mercilessly this time because of Matthias. Heather thought to herself, I didn’t act unworthily of Matthias this time.
The butler was waiting outside the study, and Heather shot him a glance since he was the one who snitched on her. She glowered at him in displeasure, but she couldn’t place all the blame on him for this since he had always been loyal and devoted to Robert. In the end, she could only blame herself for failing to take notice last night.
When she switched on her cell phone again, Heather saw that Matthias had made several calls to her. However, she was in no mood to answer his phone calls right now.
Meanwhile, Matthias was busying himself in his office. After the conversation with Robert just now, he was having a profound self-examination. Right now, he couldn’t get through to Heather on her cell phone, and this distressed him terribly. What Robert had said was still fresh in his mind, and he realized that he was in the wrong. However, he just couldn’t understand why Robert had disconnected the call so abruptly.
Matthias wanted to call Heather and ask her why, but he never managed to get through to her. Furthermore, he heard over the phone that Heather’s cell phone had been switched off. He wondered if his remark had displeased Robert. He knew how important Robert was to Heather, so he naturally didn’t dare to slight Robert. If he wanted to win Heather’s heart, her grandfather was the first person whose favor he had to win. At the thought of this, he panicked even more. He didn’t know what attitude Heather would take if he had displeased the old man.
Matthias’ desk was piled high with documents. His productivity had been seriously affected these days, and now such a thing happened. He wished he could grow a pair of wings and fly to the Langston Residence directly.
Meanwhile, Heather’s cell phone was finally silent for a while, only to beep again with a notification from her Messenger. She looked at the series of text messages on her device with a long face. It seems like Matthias will never let me off until I have a good talk with him, she thought to herself as she opened dozens of messages from him. However, she couldn’t expose Robert’s previous lies, so she could only go along with what Robert had told Matthias. ‘I’m awake, but I’m feeling a little unwell right now. Don’t text me.’
Matthias asked concernedly, ‘Are you unwell because you drank too much alcohol last night, Heather?’
How could Heather be in the mood to talk to Matthias at this moment? She replied briefly, ‘Nope.’ She didn’t want to continue the conversation since her head was also in a whirl right now.
Matthias could tell the perfunctoriness in Heather’s words. Everything was fine last night, so he should have received a lovey-dovey phone call in the morning if things progressed normally. Unfortunately, Heather was always a loose cannon. She was giving him the cold shoulder right now, and it made him wonder if he had really done something wrong.
When she saw that Matthias had gone silent, Heather worried that he might be reflecting on his mistakes again. Therefore, she sent him another message to reassure him. ‘Don’t think too much. I’m just feeling a bit out of sorts, but this has nothing to do with our drinking session last night. I need some quietness right now.’
Upon seeing Heather’s message, Matthias calmed down temporarily, but he couldn’t help feeling that there was a hint of reluctance in her words. However, just as Evan had said, he needed to give each other enough space. This was what he had been lacking in; he often placed great strain on his relationship with Heather, and it caused the both of them to feel suffocated. ‘Okay, have a good rest then.’ He stopped pushing her since such a problem couldn’t be solved any time soon. Moreover, he still had no idea what exactly had happened.
Upon seeing Matthias’s reply, Heather finally heaved a sigh of relief. She didn’t sleep well in the first place and was told off by Robert early in the morning. Her head was throbbing, and she just wanted to lie in bed at this moment. When she was working hard outside, she would think about how blissful it was to go back to her room.
If it weren’t for the phone call at 10.00AM, she would have probably slept until that afternoon. She was surprised to see the caller ID displayed on her phone’s screen, for she didn’t expect Myra to call her on her own initiative. She immediately answered the phone, but what she heard over the phone was a man’s sepulchral voice. “Hello, Heather Langston.”
Heather could easily tell from the voice that this man was not Tony, and every cell of her body tensed up. “Who are you? Where’s Myra?” she asked in a stern voice.
The man responded unhurriedly, “Myra is in my hands.”
Heather didn’t expect such a thing to happen, but she couldn’t get flustered at this moment. Hence, she tried her best to sound calm. “What’s your purpose?” There was something fishy about this matter. After all, if he kidnapped Myra, Tony should be the first person he called, so why would he call her instead?
The man answered contemptuously, “Tony has been too much of a hindrance lately, so I can only invite his wife over for a chat.”
Even so, Heather still didn’t dare to be certain that Myra was in the hands of this man. Therefore, she asked, “Where’s Myra? How can you prove that she’s with you?”
The man let out an ear-piercing laugh. “Since you have doubts, Miss Langston, I’ll let Mrs. Hart make some sounds.”
Heather clenched her fists upon hearing how insulting the man sounded. At this moment, she wished she could kill this *sshole himself. There was a brief silence over the phone as she tried to look for clues from the other end of the line. However, it didn’t take long before Myra’s voice was heard over the phone. “Heather.” It was a brief sentence with no words to follow.
Heather shouted at her cell phone, “Myra!”
Just then, the man’s voice was heard over the phone again. “It seems that you two are really on the best of terms.”
Heather was very displeased upon hearing the man’s tone of voice. However, she had to be even more imperturbable at this moment. So what if she heard Myra’s voice? She still couldn’t confirm that Myra was really in their hands. She thought about how Tony had always taken good care of Myra by all means possible. How could he possibly let Myra fall into someone else’s hands? This didn’t make sense. “Her voice can be faked.” She continued to voice her doubts to confirm Myra’s actual situation, as well as to stall for time to gain more useful information.
“You are rather meticulous as they say, Miss Langston. I have sent you a video, so you may enjoy it.” The man’s rough voice sounded unusually unpleasant to Heather’s ear.
“I’m warning you—don’t do anything reckless!” Heather unconsciously threatened the man as she was flustered by her concern for Myra’s safety.
Heather didn’t hang up the phone while watching the video. Instead, she tried to hold the phone conversation as long as possible. In the video, Myra was locked up in a room surrounded by transparent glass walls. Luckily, Myra was spotless all over, and she didn’t seem to have suffered any injustice. Even so, Heather couldn’t control herself anymore when she saw the video’s beginning—she wished she could tear these kidnappers into pieces.
Heather still wanted to stall for time, but unfortunately, the man no longer wanted to keep talking to her. He said directly, “Don’t let anyone know that I’ve talked to you, Tony included.” Judging from the kidnapper’s words, Tony was currently still unaware that Myra had been kidnapped.
“What exactly do you guys want?” Heather thought that the kidnappers wanted nothing more than money and power.
“I haven’t made up my mind on what to exchange Mrs. Hart with,” the man suddenly remarked, seeming as though he was making fun of Heather. It even felt like this kidnapping was carried out on a whim.
Heather tried to tempt the kidnappers with money. “You can ask for as much money as you want.”
The man had wanted to hang up at first, but upon hearing Heather’s words, he replied in resignation, “Is money the only thing that rich people like you care about? We’re all desperados; we’re only afraid that we can’t live to spend the money.”
Now that the kidnapper had finally revealed a piece of key information, Heather decided to keep it up; she mustn’t let the kidnapper hang up no matter what. “What do you guys want then? You guys didn’t kidnap Myra for no reason, did you? Don’t tell me that you guys aren’t after anything.” She continued to deal with them.
“That will be up to us.” The man burst out laughing again.
Heather told herself to calm down and never to provoke them. “I can help you guys if you want to be exempted from punishment for your crimes.” She tried to persuade them with this.
“Haha! That’s interesting. There really is nothing that you can’t do, Miss Langston. It’s too bad that we can’t care less about it, though.” The man was essentially making a fool of Heather as he strung her along.
As she suppressed her anger, Heather tried to sound calm as she asked, “What on earth do you guys want then?”
“Why don’t you play with us then, Miss Langston? I heard that you’re still a virgin,” The man insulted Heather directly. Heather gnashed her teeth while suppressing her rage. She hated nothing more than to come across such bandits, but she could do nothing right now. Just when she was silent, the man continued arrogantly, “It seems that you’re unwilling to sacrifice yourself, Miss Langston. Who will sacrifice themselves for the sake of others at the critical moment?”
What the kidnapper said sounded quite convincing on first hearing, but his words were actually pure sophistry. Heather tried to analyze the kidnapper’s background in her mind, but just when she was ready to respond to him, the man hung up on her directly.
Heather looked at the cell phone in her hand and suppressed the urge to fling it away. After all, there was still important information on her cell phone; she had recorded her conversation with the kidnapper just now, so this cell phone was very important right now.
At this moment, Leon was the first person who came into Heather’s mind, for she believed that he must be able to track down the kidnappers. The kidnappers didn’t allow her to let Tony know about the kidnapping, but she was considering whether to give Tony a phone call. She didn’t know what capabilities those kidnappers had, but they probably weren’t ordinary people since they managed to abduct Myra from the Hart Residence. After some careful consideration, she decided not to find Tony. Instead, she would seek help from Leon first. Leon was an expert hacker, so his superb skills would definitely come in handy.
However, it didn’t take long before her cell phone registered a text message. It read, ‘Do not seek anyone’s help. I know that you want to ask Leon for help.’
Heather was surprised that the kidnappers had even thought about this, and she couldn’t help feeling that someone was keeping a close eye on her in the dark. Now that she was at a loss for what to do, she didn’t know where to start. ‘In that case, what can I do right now?’ she texted back.
The person soon sent another text message. ‘Just stay in the Langston Residence and pretend as if nothing has happened.’
It seemed that the kidnapper had planted a hidden stalker near the Langston Residence, so Heather would definitely be noticed once she went out. She bit her lower lip hard as the problem was now serious.
Now that she couldn’t ask Leon for help, she thought about what to do at this moment. Even though her hacking skills weren’t as outstanding as Leon’s, she could actually be considered a skillful hacker. However, she hadn’t tracked anyone down using a computer for a long time, so she didn’t know if her skills had become rusty.
