Chapter 645
Chapter 645:
“Janice, let’s play a game,” Leonidas suggested.
“What game?”
“Hide and seek.”
Those three words sent ice crawling down Janice’s spine.
The implications were crystal clear—Stephen was the hidden prize in this twisted version of a childhood game, and she was being forced to play the seeker.
“The fire earlier was just a demonstration. You have only one hour. If you can’t find Stephen within one hour, he will perish in the flames.” Madness and zealous excitement danced in Leonidas’ every word. “Janice, you better hurry! Finally finding your brother but only to lose him again must be painful, right?”
“Leonidas, you’ve succeeded in angering me.”
“I’m glad I have angered you! Now, let the game begin.” The line went dead.
Janice’s knuckles turned white as she gripped her phone, her ethereal features hardening into a mask of ice.
“Leonidas is truly insane,” Aiden muttered, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits as frost seemed to emanate from his very being. “Despite the surprise checks today, he still dared to do such a thing.”
“He’s always been a loose cannon since childhood, consequences be damned. He’d commit murder on a live broadcast if the whim struck him. Now he’s using Stephen as his pawn, trying to throw me into chaos and bend me to his will.”
His strategy was working with surgical precision.
Unease clawed at Janice’s composure. Despite her typically unshakeable demeanor, knowing her brother, her only remaining family, might be dancing with death had cracked her carefully constructed walls.
Even a saint would find their resolve tested in the face of such stakes.
𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓻𝓸𝓸𝓽: 𝓰⍶𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀﹒𝓬𝓸𝓶
“Janice, this is clearly a trap.” Aiden gripped Janice’s shoulders, his emerald eyes swimming with concern. “He’s laying out his web, waiting for you to stumble right into it.”
“I know.”
Janice lifted her gaze to meet his, a bitter smile playing across her lips. “But do I have a choice?”
Her words pierced Aiden’s heart like shards of glass.
In one fluid motion, he pulled her into his embrace—a gesture so sudden it made Janice’s breath catch, her body tensing like a startled deer.
“Janice, I understand the tempest raging in your heart. If you were the one taken, I’d charge headlong into that trap without hesitation. You’ve always been a lone wolf, tackling every battle solo. But this time, let me be with you. Let me stand beside you. I’ll move heaven and earth to help you bring Stephen home.”
A wave of warmth bloomed in Janice’s chest, melting her frozen fears. Aiden was her perfect paradox—a man whose frosty exterior masked a soul that burned with passionate intensity. It was this duality that had captured her heart so completely.
“Alright!”
Meanwhile, in a space touched only by wavering shadows, a single bulb cast its sickly glow.
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