Chapter 184: The Game Begins
Sean Yates quickly complied. Asher Keating pinched the bridge of his nose and returned to his office without another word. By the time Sean got back, it was already evening. Asher was standing silently by the window, smoking.
Sean Yates updated him on Tiana Vaughn. There were no problems, except... she’d bought another handbag, one that cost over a hundred thousand.
Asher Keating hummed in response. After a moment of silence, he asked, "How has... she been these past few days?"
"She’s been fine. She doesn’t go out much, just to the supermarket occasionally. A couple of days ago, she bought a ton of pens and paper, presumably to work on her drawings. She also bought... a lot of alcohol," Sean Yates said quickly. He knew Asher was asking about Leah Sinclair.
"...Mm."
Sean Yates hesitated. "Sir, are you sure we shouldn’t tell Leah Sinclair?"
"She’s probably already guessed."
"Huh? She... How do you know?"
"A gut feeling."
Sean Yates was speechless. ’A gut feeling? What the hell is that supposed to mean?’
Asher Keating turned, put out his cigarette, and a smile touched his lips. "My girl is very smart."
"..."
By the time Leah Sinclair woke up, it was already afternoon. She’d been busy the past few days. Even though her graduation thesis was submitted, she still had to do research and work on her drawings before returning to Eldoria for her defense. Last night, she had pulled another all-nighter drawing.
After washing up and grabbing a quick bite, she started modeling and rendering on her computer, hoping to power through and finish it quickly. If she had time afterward, she could invite Sheila Hughes over for a meal. Sheila knew she was busy and hadn’t disturbed her these past few days.
By the time she was nearly finished, the sky was already starting to dim. Leah Sinclair gathered the trash from the past couple of days, glanced at the render on her computer that was just about complete, and ambled out the door to take it out.
On her way back, just a few steps out of the elevator, the hallway lights flickered and died.
Leah Sinclair froze. Holding her breath, she slowly backed toward the elevator, her hand stealthily finding the power button on her phone.
A few seconds later, the lights came back on. The sudden glare made Leah Sinclair squint. She let out a soft sigh and walked quickly toward her apartment.
Just as her hand touched the door, the lights went out again. Leah Sinclair’s pupils constricted, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
In the darkness, she heard someone breathing right behind her. She tried to press her phone’s power button, but a cloth was already being pressed over her mouth and nose.
Right before she passed out, a single thought flashed through Leah Sinclair’s mind: ’Asher, in an emergency, I really can’t press it five times!’
"Take her downstairs. Be careful. Don’t let anyone see you."
"Got it."
One person picked up Leah Sinclair and hurried into the stairwell. Another picked up the phone from the floor, a cold sneer on his lips. "Asher Keating, the game has begun."
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Leah Sinclair would wake only to pass out again. She had no idea where she’d been taken, nor how much time had passed since her abduction.
Her hands and feet were bound, her eyes blindfolded, and her mouth gagged. Her captors did nothing else, aside from forcing some water down her throat from time to time—likely to keep her from dying. Even when she tried to speak to the person giving her water, they remained completely silent.
The water must have been drugged, because Leah Sinclair felt herself pass out again not long after drinking it.
When she next awoke, Leah Sinclair listened carefully for any sound from her surroundings. The place was utterly silent. She had no idea whether it was day or night.
But waves of dizziness washed over her, and Leah knew her hypoglycemia was kicking in. She had to eat something. Otherwise, she might die from low blood sugar before Asher Keating could even rescue her.
After leaving Asher Keating’s office that day, she had cried herself to sleep, haunted by nightmares of his deeply sorrowful eyes. The memory stung her heart. Then, after talking with Ethan Shaw, a startling thought had occurred to her.
Tiana Vaughn: poor, stubborn, refusing to admit defeat, with those beautiful phoenix eyes... she was too similar. Even her name felt eerily similar to her own.
When she’d first told Sheila Hughes that Tiana Vaughn was just like her, she had only meant their circumstances were similar. But thinking about it calmly now, she realized it was too much of a coincidence.
One similarity might be a coincidence, but with so many stacked together, could it still be a coincidence?
And if that were true, everything Asher Keating had done suddenly made sense.
It explained why Asher Keating would publicly dock Tiana Vaughn’s salary, only to privately promise to reimburse her.
It explained why he didn’t stop Tiana Vaughn from calling him ’Third Brother,’ even though he knew full well how much it bothered her. In fact, one could say he was deliberately siding with Tiana.
And when she’d tried to break up with him, Asher Keating hadn’t said a single word to stop her. He wanted to distance her from something, and that something had to be related to Tiana Vaughn.
Realizing this now, Leah was filled with regret. The memory of Asher’s expression in her dream made her heart ache. ’How could I have gotten so swept up in the moment? I was too close to see the full picture.’
Asher Keating wasn’t the type to fall for someone easily. He had seen right through Madeline Sterling, so how could he not see Tiana Vaughn for who she was?
Although Leah couldn’t guess the exact details, she figured that if Asher didn’t want her involved, the best thing she could do was stay put and not hold him back.
She had been so careful. For days, she hadn’t left her apartment for any reason other than to go to the supermarket or take out the trash. ’Who could have guessed that something would happen anyway?’
As Leah was mulling over the events of the last few days, she heard the faint click of a door opening.
"Stop pretending. I know you’re awake."
A jarring, high-pitched voice scraped at Leah’s ears. She guessed the person was using a voice changer.
She couldn’t see, so she could only make a few muffled whimpers. The tape was ripped mercilessly from her mouth, making her face contort in pain. This was the first time one of her captors had spoken voluntarily.
"Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?"
"Take a guess."
The distorted voice was grating. Leah frowned. The person reached out and patted her cheek. "This little game, Leah... who do you think will win, you or me?"
With that, the person ignored her and prepared to tape her mouth shut again. Leah quickly cried out, "Wait! I... I have hypoglycemia. You must have a reason for kidnapping me. You can’t let me die. If I die, you get nothing."
The person fell silent, apparently considering the truth of her words. And indeed, Leah’s face and lips were far too pale.
After a moment, Leah sensed the person stand up and leave. Not long after, someone else entered.
Leah heard the CRINKLING sound of a wrapper, followed by an impatient man’s voice. "What the hell is this? Hypoglycemia? Pampered little princesses are so damn dramatic."
As he spoke, he roughly shoved a piece of something into Leah’s mouth. It was chocolate. She wracked her brain. ’I don’t remember ever hearing this voice before.’
Before she could think it through, the man was forcing water on her again. Caught off guard, Leah choked and began to cough violently. The man paid her no mind. Once he was done, he sealed her mouth tightly with tape again and left.
In the struggle, Leah felt the blindfold over her eyes shift slightly. She tried desperately to glimpse her surroundings through the tiny sliver of light.
But the gap was too small; she still couldn’t see a thing. She scooted herself backward. During her earlier struggle, she remembered her foot kicking something solid in this direction. As she’d suspected, it was a wall.