Chapter 3
I turned around, grabbed my phone, and got ready to call my ride.
As I barely took a few steps, a sudden blow struck the back of my head.
When I came to, I found myself suspended over the edge of a cliff.
My wrists and ankles were tied, leaving me dangling in midair, and my head was pounding with pain.
Out of habit, I tried to bite down on the signal transmitter hidden in my tooth, only to realize, with a jolt of panic, that it was gone.
"Looking for this, Your Highness?" A man in a suit walked up and tossed the transmitter off the cliff without a second thought.
As my vision cleared, I spotted Wendy a few feet away, tied to a chair.
Her head hung low, blood at the corner of her mouth. She looked like she'd been knocked out for a long time.
"What did you do to her?" I demanded, my voice shaking with anger and disbelief.
But to my shock, Wendy, who'd been out cold, suddenly started laughing like a maniac. "What a fool."
"Wendy, you really are something," the man in the suit smirked. "But what did she do to you that's worth all this effort?"
Wendy's voice turned ice-cold, and then she broke into another laugh. "That's not your business, but whatever, I'll tell you anyway. Because the guy I like is totally into her.
"If I don't fight for him now, after she dies, she'll be the one he'll never get over. I'll be a total loser then."
Too much info. My brain couldn't keep up.
I could only latch onto her last words. "Wait, after I die? You know I don't have much time left?"
"Of course," Wendy sneered. "Who do you think doctored your test results?"
"Why would you do that?" I blurted out, unable to stop myself.
But Wendy didn't answer. She shot a look at the man in the suit behind her.
*****
When Eugene and Richard arrived with a convoy of armored vehicles, the first thing they saw was me and Wendy dangling high above.
The waves below churned, so dark that they looked almost black.
"Back off. Take one more step, and neither of them makes it out alive," the man in the suit shouted.
Two laser sights were trained on our foreheads, glowing so brightly that it made my skin crawl.
The guy in the suit yelled from behind cover, "1 billion 500 million dollars for one hostage."
Richard's voice floated up, calm as ever. "Here's three billion dollars. Let them go, now."
The man in the suit sneered, "Didn't you hear me? I want 1 billion 500 million dollars, and I'm only letting one of them go. So, who's it going to be? Make your choice."
*****
I thrashed around, desperate to warn them this was all Wendy's plot. But the man jammed a rag in my mouth, silencing me completely.
On the other side, at some point, Wendy managed to spit out the rag gagging her. "Save Jasmine."
Right after that, she used the small knife in her hand to slice through the last strand of rope. Then she dropped like a severed kite, plunging straight into the sea below.
The red dot on my forehead vanished. By the time I was rescued, the kidnappers had already vanished without a trace.
A heavy slap sent me sprawling to the floor.
I covered my face, looking up at the person in front of me in disbelief. "Richard, you hit me?"
All my life, no one in my family had ever laid a finger on me, especially not Richard. He was always the one who loved me most.
He looked panicked for a moment and bent down to help me, but I instinctively flinched away.
His hand froze in midair, and he slowly straightened up.
"You shouldn't have escaped." His voice was cold. "Everything that happened today is because you ran away. If your actions end up costing Wendy her life, do you really think you could live with that?"
Eugene led a search team out to sea, but they came back empty-handed.
When he heard Richard's words, he stepped forward and said to me, "You were way out of line this time. If it weren't for you, Wendy wouldn't have gotten caught up in this mess."
I had a million things I wanted to say, but now, I didn't feel like explaining anything anymore.
How did Wendy know where Eugene dropped me off? Seriously, how was that possible? He left, and right after, I got grabbed.
But they clearly didn't have the patience to hear me out.
"Take the Princess back to the small manor outside the city. She doesn't leave her room until Wendy is found," Richard said coldly.
"No!" I cried.
The small manor outside the city was where traitors were taken care of. I stumbled across it once as a kid. It traumatized me for life. After that, the name of the place was forbidden in our house.
"Are you deaf? Do I have to spell it out for you?" Richard shot them a look.
His men muttered an apology to me and then marched me to the car, holding me tight.
The memories from my childhood were so overwhelming that I couldn't help but shout out, "This is all Wendy's plot. She set up the kidnapping, and my illness is real."
The men holding me hesitated, waiting for Richard's next move.
"Richard, please, don't lock me up." I was practically begging.
But all I got in response was a long, heavy silence from behind me.
The grip on my arms clamped down harder.
As the car door slammed shut, all my cries were trapped inside, muffled by the glass.
But to everyone's shock, I still managed to slip away.
On the way, I threatened to end it all if they didn't let me go.