Chapter 213 - 212: Kidnapped
What do you mean, Joanna Kennedy is gone?
Simon Lockwood didn’t understand. What did she mean, Joanna Kennedy was gone? How could a living, breathing person just vanish?
On the other end of the line, Julie was still crying, incoherently explaining what had happened.
She had gone to park the car and was planning to go straight back to her room to rest. But after a moment’s thought, she decided to check on Joanna and bought some honey at the convenience store downstairs.
She’d heard that drinking honey water after alcohol was a good idea, that it prevented a headache the next day.
She took the honey to the hotel room door and knocked several times, but there was no answer. She tried calling, but no one picked up.
’She fell asleep already?’ Julie used her spare key card to open the door. The room was silent, and there was no sign of Joanna.
’Where could a celebrity like Joanna go so late at night? What if she got recognized and mobbed by fans?!’
Julie started to panic. She rushed to the front desk to ask, but the answer she got was that they hadn’t seen anyone come in during the past half hour.
How could that be? Julie was stunned. She contacted everyone she could think of but found no trace of Joanna. Seeing how frantic she was, the hotel staff agreed to let her check the security footage.
It was only then that she discovered the security cameras had been broken since five in the afternoon.
Julie was, after all, a young professional new to the workforce. Faced with such a situation, she was in a panic and didn’t know what to do.
In her panic, she remembered that she had saved the President of Southland’s phone number back when she was his "informant." With trembling hands, she dialed the number. Fortunately, he picked up quickly.
It all happened too suddenly, with almost no warning. No one passed by, and the security cameras just happened to be broken. It was as if it had been planned all along.
Simon Lockwood’s mind went blank for a moment. A single phrase echoed in his head: ’Joanna is gone.’ The panic of history repeating itself washed over him like a tidal wave.
That night, in an unprecedented move, Aethelburg’s Southland Group and Marinus’s Valentine Group joined forces, mobilizing all their power to investigate something.
Teams of people were dispatched overnight to airports, high-speed rail stations, train stations, and even seaports to scrutinize departure and arrival manifests.
An inside source revealed they were supposedly searching for a woman, but not many people believed that story.
「A remote fishing village in Marinus.」
When Joanna Kennedy woke up, her head was still groggy. She could hear the sound of the sea breeze outside.
The moment she moved, she realized her hands and feet were bound. Her eyes were covered by a blindfold, plunging her into total darkness. The salty, damp scent of the sea lingering in the air told her she was still in Marinus.
’A kidnapping or revenge?’
Joanna Kennedy tried hard to think of who she might have offended. Racking her brain, she realized the list of people she’d crossed... was actually quite long.
But there were very few who had the guts to do something like this.
’Playing these games in a society ruled by law... They must have a death wish.’
As she was lost in thought, her stomach began to GRUMBLE, the sound echoing clearly in the quiet space.
Joanna frowned. She hadn’t eaten much last night before being abducted, and now she was starving. Her stomach felt painfully empty, and her head ached.
’Damn it. If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have eaten more. I wonder if this damn "kidnapper" will even feed me.’
Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly heard footsteps. Someone was approaching. Then, something was offered to her lips.
’This person... has been watching me.’
The thought flashed through Joanna’s mind. Her lips were touched, and a man’s slightly distorted voice asked, "Why aren’t you eating?"
In the small, shabby but tidy room, the curtains were all drawn, but the window was open, causing the sea breeze to make them billow.
A new, pure black carpet covered the floor. In the center of the carpet, the girl sat in an awkward position, her hands and feet bound.
A small patch of skin exposed at her ankle was fair and smooth, like the finest white jade. It seemed to glow against the pure black carpet.
The ropes binding her had dug in, leaving red marks.
On her pale little face, a black strip of cloth covered her beautiful eyes, revealing only the tip of her elegant nose and her full, red lips. They parted slightly with his movement.
His eyes darkened. The pressure from his hand unconsciously increased, almost crushing the soft flesh of her lips.
Joanna felt the strange sensation and turned her head away, her lips pressed tightly together.
After a long moment, she heard the man sigh faintly. "Don’t you like it? What do you like to eat, then? Can you tell me?"
The man was using a voice changer, but she could still detect a hint of doting in his tone. A chill ran down Joanna’s spine. She kept her lips sealed and shuffled backward.
She had just moved back a little when the man moved forward a little, as if deliberately teasing her. This continued until Joanna felt her back hit the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.
But she still wouldn’t speak, her posture one of absolute refusal to communicate.
"You don’t want to talk to me?" The man’s voice sounded a little disappointed, but if you listened closely, you could hear the teasing amusement within it.
’Pervert.’
Joanna remained silent, committed to her disgust. After several failed attempts to feed her, the man chuckled. "Joanna, if you don’t eat, I might have to feed you something else..."
His fingers gently caressed her cheek, his voice laced with a smile. "Eating something from a strange man... are you scared?"
"Do you know how to eat it?"
"Has Simon Lockwood taught you?"
"Hmm? Speak up."
The last sentence was accompanied by a sudden increase in pressure. Joanna’s jaw throbbed with pain as he gripped it.
A thick wave of nausea rose from the pit of her stomach, and she felt her insides churn violently.
’Disgusting, vulgar threats, a condescending tone... Does he want to see me scared, or does he want to see me cry and beg for mercy?’
’Hmph. The disgusting hobbies of a maggot.’
"Not as well as you," Joanna sneered, her composure laced with sarcasm. "Eldest Young Master Jennings."
......
The same black blindfold, the same kidnapping method, the way he always stressed the last syllable of her name... that nauseating feeling. Joanna had figured it out long ago.
The air was silent for a few seconds, and then came the man’s laughter. This time, there was no voice changer. Charles Jennings laughed uncontrollably, his clear, handsome face seemingly transformed.
He seemed genuinely happy. He laughed as he removed the black blindfold from Joanna’s eyes.
Suddenly exposed to the light, Joanna frowned and squinted, her eyes focusing on the smiling face of Charles Jennings before her.
"How did you recognize me?" Charles Jennings’s eyes were bright as he asked, puzzled. He didn’t seem to actually want an answer, for he continued without waiting for her to reply, "I thought you’d forgotten all about me..."
"......"
His face was all smiles, but Joanna remained cold and unmoved. "In fact, I really did forget."
Charles Jennings: "......"
"I was just taking a wild guess. Why did you admit to it so easily?" Joanna leaned back lazily, her tone mocking. "Eldest Young Master Jennings... oh, no, I should call you Jennings the Kidnapper. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you..."
The girl’s expression was cold, her eyes filled with contempt. The corners of her eyes were slightly red from the pressure of the blindfold. Despite being in such a vulnerable position, she still refused to look at him properly.