Chapter 52: Kidnapped.
Charles woke up in unfamiliar surroundings, his chest tightening as he realized he couldn’t move, speak, or even breathe properly.
Panic surged through him as he attempted to flutter his eyes open, only to find that something was tightly covering them, trapping him in darkness.
Charles mouth was sealed shut, leaving him no choice but to remain still, his heart pounding against his ribs.
He strained to recall what had happened—he had been on his way to Augustine’s mansion, everything had seemed normal, and then... the dizziness.
The fog. And now, this.
’Wait! I passed out after I drank the bottle of water.’
As realisation truck Charles, his heart began to beat rapidly, pondering on the possibility that he had been kidnapped.
’But who would want to kidnap me?’
As the question drew on Charles, the only person he could think of was Aubrey. She was the only one he had offended.
’Or could it be Anna?’ Charles thought within himself, beads of sweat forming in every area of his body.
Earlier that morning, while doing the laundry, Charles reached into the trousers he had worn the day he visited Anna with the diamond ring, jewelry, flowers, and cake.
That day, after catching Anna with another man, Charles had collapsed to the floor, his world shattering in an instant. But through the haze of heartbreak and humiliation, he forced himself to rise.
His hands trembled as he scrambled to gather the jewelry he had bought for her.
He didn’t think, didn’t sort through what he was grabbing.
In Charles desperation to leave, he simply scooped up whatever his hands could reach, stuffing them into his trouser pocket before turning away.
Charles had believed he had secured the diamond jewelry that night, but as he did his laundry, reality struck him like a blow to the chest.
The only thing he had managed to take was the necklace.
The diamond ring—the most expensive piece, worth a fortune—was gone.
That explained everything.
The reason Anna had never called him was because she had the ring.
And that meant she had moved on without a second thought, without regret.
He chuckled inwardly at his foolishness because he had walked away heartbroken, while Anna had walked away with a prize.
Now, trapped in a dangerous situation, Charles could only think of two possibilities—either Anna wanted the diamond necklace, or Aubrey was behind his kidnapping.
Besides, she was furious when Augustine threatened to ban her from all his company buildings if she didn’t submit an apology.
Charles could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, each thump echoing his rising panic.
The more he struggled to move, the more he realized he was completely trapped.
"Well... well... well," a familiar, dangerously smooth voice purred as the light flicked on. "You’ve been having quite the time with my Augustine, haven’t you?"
Despite the voice filling the room, no footsteps followed—whoever it was had been there all along, watching him.
It was a woman’s voice which was smooth and laced with malice.
The voice tugged at something in Charles’s memory, yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t pinpoint where he had heard it before.
Slowly, the lady began to walk up towards Charles and as she was just a few inches away, she aggressively kicked Charles’s stomach. "You disgusting thing," the woman spat, her voice dripping with venom.
Another brutal kick landed against his stomach, this one more punishing than the last.
"Arrrgh,"
Charles wanted to scream, to plead, to demand answers, but his sealed lips rendered him powerless.
It felt as if his mouth had been stapled shut, leaving him with nothing but the silent, desperate cries echoing in his mind.
All he could do was cling to the faint hope that this nightmare would end soon.
"I heard you’ve been driving Augustine insane," the woman sneered, her voice dripping with resentment. "Because of you, he have lost focus on his work, on everything that matters. And most importantly..."
She breath in for a second before continuing her phrase. "You’re the one who threw his entire company into chaos, yesterday."
The woman’s words sent a sharp twist through Charles’s stomach, a mix of fear and anger tightening inside him.
"Are you so rude that you can’t answer my questions?" she hissed. "Or did your parents not teach you manners?" she seethed, her voice laced with venom.
Without hesitation, she delivered another brutal kick to his stomach, knocking the breath out of him.
The impact was much stronger than the previous one so blood began to roll out of Charles’s nose and likewise from the side of his mouth.
Tears slipped from Charles’s eyes as a wave of helplessness washed over him. His body ached, his strength drained, and no matter how much he wanted to fight back, he was completely at her mercy.
’Why am I drugged and tortured in such a manner?’ Charles inwardly questioned himself in agony.
He came to the conclusion that the only reason why he was unable to speak, move or do anything was definitely because he was drugged. ’It has to be from the water I drank in the car.’
Tears of pain and frustration kept streaming down Charles’s cheeks as he struggled to regain his breath.
Meanwhile, the lady, exuding a sneer of contempt, lowered herself to a squatting position on the floor, bringing her face level with Charles’s. "I heard you’re an orphan. That explains why you’re such a worthless piece of shit." The words dripped from her lips like a string, stinging Charles to his core and with that, she snapped her fingers.
The snap of the lady’s finger made the sound of a door opening to be suddenly heard as footsteps began to approach her.
"Take the sack off him," she ordered.
One man lifted Charles’s head while the other yanked the sack away from his body.
They tossed him back to the ground, and the lady scoffed, prying his eyes open with her fingers, forcing him to look at her.
’Gasped!’
The lady was none other than...