Chapter 271: The Kidnapping Act
"Congratulations on not being single anymore."
Nina Halloway smiled on the other side of the screen.
Anne scratched her head. "Thanks, Nina. By the way, you look really pale. Haven’t you been sleeping well lately?"
"I manage to get a little sleep."
The moment she closed her eyes, the image of Sean Wright being stabbed twenty times would flash through her mind. It was too gruesome.
Sean Wright’s body had been found by the police, and his family had been harassing her ever since. They blamed her completely for his death, and she had barely left the house for some time.
The family would appear out of nowhere, cornering her wherever she went.
The last time she went to the Heart of the Ocean for work, the Wright Family ambushed her in the underground garage as soon as she got out of her car back at The Metropolis. They pelted her with rotten vegetables and spoiled eggs.
If Ethan Austin hadn’t been there to protect her, that mob would have torn her limb from limb.
The Wright Family was always lurking around the residential complex. Previously, they had somehow managed to sneak in and attack her in the underground garage.
She had even sent her lawyer to negotiate with Sean Wright’s parents, offering one hundred million in compensation, but the Wright Family wasn’t satisfied. They said it was too little.
She didn’t know how to handle the situation anymore. It was a massive headache. On top of that, the harassment from the Wright Family gave her nightmares every night, and she had lost a noticeable amount of weight.
She was supposed to be on vacation to gain weight and recover, but now she was even thinner than when she was working.
Besides this, the divorce between Quentin Blackwood and Mandy Halloway had also been a huge blow to her.
She had been very close to Quentin Blackwood since she was a child. In her heart, her father had always been a perfect figure.
But he had cheated, had an illegitimate daughter, kicked Alaric out of the company, and was letting his illegitimate daughter inherit the family business. He had taken things too far, making his actions impossible to forgive.
Anne could clearly see how much weight she’d lost. "Is it because Ethan’s cooking is bad? Maybe you should hire another helper?"
"There’s no need. Ethan’s cooking has been getting better."
Even though he hadn’t taken any cooking classes, Ethan would watch cooking videos on his phone in his free time. He made different dishes for her every day to change things up.
It was her own mood that was the problem, ruining her appetite.
As she was chatting with Anne, there was a knock on her bedroom door.
Ethan Austin pushed the door open and poked his head in. "Lunch is ready."
"Okay, I’ll be right there."
After ending the call with Anne, Nina Halloway got up, went into the bathroom to quickly wash up, and then walked out in her fluffy pajamas.
Ethan had made a huge spread again. He tried his best to cook delicious food to tempt her appetite, but even seeing the steaming hot dishes on the table, she still didn’t feel like eating.
She sat down at the table and picked at her food for a few bites before putting her chopsticks down.
"You can’t go on like this. You have to eat properly."
Ethan was at his wit’s end. He suspected the immense stress was causing Nina Halloway to develop an eating disorder.
Just as Nina Halloway was about to speak, her phone rang.
It was a call from her lawyer.
She answered. "What is it?"
"Sean Wright’s parents have finally budged. They want one billion in compensation."
"What?"
"One billion."
"One billion is too much..."
’Where am I supposed to get that much money on such short notice?’
While she was on the phone with her lawyer, a knock came from the entryway—or more accurately, a POUNDING on the door.
The heavy security door rattled with a loud, CLANGING sound from the force of the blows.
The noise made her scalp tingle with fear, and every nerve in her body tensed up.
Ethan Austin frowned, stood up, and strode to the door, yanking it open.
He saw two men in hats and masks carrying paint buckets, who immediately took off running. In a flash, they disappeared into the stairwell.
The door had been splashed with a large amount of red paint. On the adjacent wall, the word "MURDERER" was scrawled in huge red letters. He gritted his teeth, quickly put on his shoes, and charged out after them.
"Don’t chase them!"
Nina Halloway tried to stop him, but it was too late.
She quickly hung up on her lawyer, threw on a coat, and ran out of the apartment.
The stairwell filled with the chaotic sound of hurried footsteps. She leaned over the railing and looked down to see Ethan chasing the two men.
"Ethan, come back!"
She shouted down the stairwell, "Don’t chase them!"
Hearing her voice, Ethan’s steps immediately halted.
He was just about to catch up to the two men, but with Nina Halloway suddenly running out, he worried something might happen to her and had no choice but to turn back.
Just as he was two floors away from Nina Halloway, a black-clad, masked figure suddenly appeared behind her. The person struck the back of her neck with the side of their hand, knocking her unconscious right before his eyes.
"Nina!"
He raced upstairs, but the masked person and Nina Halloway were gone. He heard the sound of an elevator door closing and saw that it was descending. He tried to call the adjacent elevator, but it was on the top floor and wouldn’t come down right away.
Without a second thought, he turned and ran for the stairs.
Inside the elevator.
The masked person, carrying Nina Halloway, glanced up at the security camera inside the elevator.
When the elevator reached the fifth floor, he stepped out and, with a swift movement, hid in the fire escape stairwell.
He could clearly hear Ethan’s footsteps running down the stairs. When the other man realized the elevator had stopped on the fifth floor and charged up, he didn’t hide, intentionally letting Ethan see him.
Their eyes met. Ethan froze for a second, then accelerated, charging toward him.
Without hesitation, the man turned and fled, ducking back into the elevator.
By the time Ethan reached it, the elevator doors were just closing.
Seeing the elevator was going down, Ethan once again hurried to the stairs. He called for backup as he ran, and also contacted Officer Young.
But when he got to the first floor and blocked the exit, there was no sign of the masked person for a long time.
That elevator never came down. It stopped on the third floor, then went straight back up, finally stopping on the same floor where Nina Halloway lived.
A terrible feeling washed over Ethan.
’The masked man led me on a wild goose chase... so his goal wasn’t to take Nina out of the building?’
He quickly called building management and told them to send security.
Every second of the wait was excruciating.
Meanwhile, upstairs.
The masked person carried Nina Halloway back to the red-paint-splattered door. He glanced at the word "MURDERER" on the wall, then pulled the door open and strode inside.
He closed the door and locked it from the inside. He carried Nina into the master bedroom, placed her gently on the bed, and then found some rope to tie her hands and feet.
After making sure Nina Halloway couldn’t break free, he pulled out a vial of smelling salts and used it to forcibly wake the unconscious woman.
The sharp scent jolted Nina Halloway back to consciousness.
She was horrified to find herself lying on the bed in her own room, in her own home, with the masked, black-clad man sitting beside her.
"You..."
The man raised a hand to cut her off, then simply removed his mask, revealing a delicate, almost androgynous face.
It was Leon Grant!
So the masked man really was him.
"Nina, I’m sorry you’ve suffered so much."
He hadn’t expected Sean Wright’s body to be discovered by the police, nor had he anticipated that the Wright Family would be so difficult, pushing Nina Halloway to her current state.
His heart ached as he looked at her gaunt face.
"I originally planned to take you away from here, to make the kidnapping seem more convincing. But that personal bodyguard of yours never gave me a chance to leave the building, so I had no choice but to bring you back here."