Chapter 245: The last thing to do
Nana opened the video message, and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Somewhere, in a dark abandoned place, Yukito and Yukira were tied up with their mouths gagged by a cloth. Their wrists and feet were tightly tied on the chairs.
“Yukito, Yukira…”
Once again, her phone buzzed with an incoming call.
Nana angrily answered it. “How dare you kidnap my brothers? Where are they? Set them free right now!”
She heard the voice chuckling. “How can you blame me, Nana? Who told you to disobey me and foil my plan last night? Did you forget that you were supposed to do just as I say?”
Nana clutched the sheet in her hand.
“But you revolted against me. And now you have to pay the price. I had enough of this. You will only learn your lesson when I snatch someone dear to you. It’s all your fault. Your brothers are in this condition only because of you.”
“They are innocent! They have got nothing to do with this. Why? Why are you harming them? Your fight and hatred are for me. Leave them alone!”
“I won’t harm them. This is the trailer of what I can do. If you want to see them alive, then come to this address I will text you. If you do as I say instead of using your brain to oppose me, then everyone can happily go back home.”
“You!”
Nana couldn’t believe that her own mother was stooping this low to ruin her.
Just what did she do to warrant so much hatred?
Nana said, “I’m coming. But you will not touch even a strand of their hair. If you hurt them, then don’t expect me to follow your orders.”
The voice chuckled. “Oh, and I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you alert your husband, right? And don’t bring your phone with you.”
It hung up.
Nana was terrified of what would happen to her brothers. Huo Xiao Fan had proved that she could go to any lengths.
‘If anything happened to them, then I would not be able to live anymore.’
Nana had no other option. She kept her phone on the table and peeked outside her ward. There was nobody around.
She quickly went out before anybody would notice her.
As she went out, her phone rang with the hospital’s number where Yu Ichika was admitted.
—
Huo Xiao Fan cut the call on the other end. She stared ahead as she was in deep thought.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. Huo Shen was standing beside her.
“Shen.” She didn’t speak his name with much emotion. There were distance and indifference in her voice.
He smiled. “Were you speaking to Nana?”
She nodded.
“Will it end today?”
Huo Xiao Fan looked at him. “I intend to end it.”
Huo Shen was silent for quite a while. “Will this really make you happy? Will this end your revenge?”
Huo Xiao Fan said in a quiet voice, “Yes. I have waited for this long enough.”
Both kept quiet.
He had come to talk to Xiao Fan because Liwei, as usual, had created a scene at the breakfast table. He poured nothing but poison from his mouth. He thought that she must be feeling hurt.
“Don’t take what Liwei said to your heart. He is still a brat.”
“I understand why he is behaving like that.”
Huo Shen knew that she must have got the wrong idea as to why he was behaving so irrationally.
He beamed, remembering one thing. “Do you know that our daughter Serena is dating a guy? He was there in this banquet, dancing with her.” He pouted. “But, she didn’t introduce him to me.”
Huo Xiao Fan said nothing. She had promised him that she would not involve Serena in her plan. But she broke it. She had to.
She faintly smiled. “I see.”
He sighed. “Tell her to come with that guy in Huo villa one day. We’ll both meet him. After all, she is our precious daughter.”
She nodded.
Huo Shen then hesitated.
“Is there anything else?”
“I…” He was fidgeting with his fingers in nervous anticipation. “When this will be over, can we go on holiday, just the two of us?”
Huo Xiao Fan stiffened. She pursed her lips as she didn’t know what to say.
But that was enough to give him his answer.
Huo Shen laughed. “You are so cute. I was just teasing you. I know you don’t like to travel much, plus I am also busy with Liwei on a project. I was only joking.”
She seemed to want to say something and opened her mouth. But he stopped her. “Xiao Fan. It was a joke.” He looked at her with an assuring gaze.
“Oh, look how late it is. I will head to the office.”
As he stepped out, the light in his eyes dimmed a bit, but he quickly hid it and went back as if nothing happened before.
—
Yukito slowly opened his eyes to see himself tied to a chair. The room was dark and dirty. He saw Yukira at his side, awake.
“Yukira, where are we?” Yukito asked. He was thirsty.
Yukira was looking all around when his brother was asking him. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Yukito couldn’t understand the situation they were in. “Who kidnapped us? We are high school students. What do they want from us?”
He thought back to the time when everything happened. The bell rang, and as the classes ended, Yukito and Yukira came out of the school gate.
“Damn, I almost fell asleep in the class!” Yukira nervously said.
Yukito rolled his eyes. “I saved you, or you were sure to get a punishment most likely a 1000 word reflection essay.”
Yukira stuck out his tongue.
“Why does Serena Nee-chan wants ramen specifically from this almost deserted street?”
Yukito sighed. “Pregnant women and their demands.”
They were walking when a van suddenly stopped by their side. The twins got startled.
Three men came out wearing masks, and they grabbed Yukito and Yukira.
“Hey! Leave us! Who are you!” Yukito yelled.
They pointed a knife at him and said, “Shut up and come with us. Struggle, and we will stab you right here.”
Yukira looked left and right. “No use calling for any help, boy. Now get moving!”
They harshly pushed them inside the van and gagged them. When the van stopped, the men once again dragged the twins and brought them inside an old warehouse. Yukito was struggling, but his strength couldn’t compare to those men. The gag was then removed since the place was quite far, so anybody could hardly listen to their screams.
“What do these people want?”
Yukira was comparatively calm. “I don’t know. Maybe they are brother-in-law’s enemies?”
Yukito was in deep thought. “It could be. Maybe they want to trade our lives with something they want from brother-in-law, or it could be revenge.”
One of the men came inside to have a look and shouted. “Shut up, you brats! If you don’t stop talking, then we will beat you up.”
Yukira saw all around, but there was no other exit or even a window. The room was sealed off other than the door.
Yukito whispered. “I hope brother-in-law saves us soon.”
—
Nana reached at the address texted by Huo Xiao Fan. It was like an old storage area that could look haunted at night.
A familiar voice snickered behind her. “So, you came.”
Nana saw the maid Qian Mei approaching her. She sneered. “Finally, it’s the day when your life is about to be doomed.”
Honestly, she was jealous and raging inside. When Jinhai had brought her to the hospital, there was not even an ounce of dislike for Nana. He still cared for her and had panic written all over his face. It felt like all the effort to sow discord between them was wasted.
Nana said nothing.
Qian Mei let out her frustrations. She grabbed Nana’s arm and roughly started dragging her inside. Her arm hurt when she suddenly pinched her, but she didn’t whimper in pain, not to give her any satisfaction.
Qian Mei pushed her into a room. There was a big monitor hung on the wall. It lit on, and she saw Yukito and Yukira sitting on a chair, tied up.
“Yukito! Yukira!” She gasped, seeing their condition. They looked exhausted.
“Welcome to hell, Nana.” The same altered voice spoke from one of the speakers. “Don’t waste your breath. Your dear brothers cannot hear you.”
Nana screamed. “I came here, as you said. Now, let them go!”
“What is the rush? Not so soon. Before that, I want you to do a small work for me, after which I will set them free. I promise. Heh! You thought that you outsmarted me last night. But now it’s time to pay the price.”
Nana narrowed her eyes. “What is it?”
“Qian Mei.”
“Yes, master.” She sneered at Nana and rushed over to the other side. She seemed too happy excited.
She came back and threw a bunch of papers at her.
Huo Xiao Fan said, “This is where it all ends, your happy life with Liu Jinhai.”
Nana furrowed her brows and picked them up. She read through them and froze.
The papers were a divorce agreement between Jinhai and Nana.