Dark Romance: A Cruel Obsession

Emmert instinctively felt it was impossible. Richard had been imprisoned by Alajos, tortured beyond recognition.

Emmert felt uneasy and asked in the calmest voice possible, “What do you need me to do for you?” He was in Los Angeles, and even if he turned around and went to the airport now, by the time he flew back to Houston, Shelley’s body would likely be cold.

Festus didn’t need Emmert to give up his own mission for him. “I need a computer and a gun.”

“Okay.” These were minor things that Emmert could easily handle with a phone call. What worried him now was Festus’s condition. “Where are you right now? Are you okay, Festus?”

“I’m fine, brother. Please don’t worry,” Festus said in the most cheerful tone possible. “Wish me luck, brother.”

After hanging up the phone, Festus no longer held back his overwhelming emotions. He pressed the accelerator to the floor, with only one destination in mind-the abandoned warehouse at the Houston port.

…

At the same time, inside the abandoned warehouse at the Houston port.

Shelley woke up from a hazy daze. She lay on the cold ground, with only a pair of black shoes on dusty cement in her sight.

Experience and fragments of memory before she lost consciousness told her that she had been kidnapped.

Shelley tried to move her hands and feet, but she was tightly bound. She was indeed kidnapped!

Shelley secretly shed tears in her heart.

“Oh, awake now?” “Emilija” kicked Shelley’s buttocks.

This was unbearable!

Shelley glared at “Emilija” in anger.

“So fierce.” “Emilija” pinched Shelley’s face.

Shelley winced in pain and tried to bite “Emilija’s” hand, but she was slapped backhandedly.

A burning pain spread across her cheek, and a trace of blood trickled from Shelley’s mouth.

Damn it, her face must be swollen!

Shelley spat blood at “Emilija” in resentment.

Such actions were undoubtedly provocative to “Emilija,” and Shelley would only receive more brutal treatment. But Shelley couldn’t bear to swallow her anger.

“Damn it!” “Emilija” grabbed her light golden hair and slapped her face twice. Feeling unsatisfied, she yanked her hair, lifting Shelley’s upper body.

“Pain!” Shelley cried out in pain, feeling like her hair was about to be torn out by “Emilija.”

“Shelley,” she threw her to the men guarding the warehouse, “Strip her clothes off. She’s all yours.”

The unfamiliar men caught her with their hands all over her, roughly touching her through the fabric.

“No!” Shelley was terrified, desperately wriggling and struggling her body. “Let go of me, take your hands off, get away!”

“Emilija” watched Shelley’s despair with great satisfaction. The dim light in the warehouse fell into her eyes, turning into cold, sinister rays.

The warehouse door burst open amidst Shelley’s desperate screams. A wheelchair rolled over the dusty cement floor, and moonlight couldn’t reach this gloomy corner.

“Signia, you scared my lovely niece,” said the fake “Emilija,” whose real name was Signia. She was a killer from the dispersed Bratva organization in Houston and also Richard’s lover.

“Darling, your niece is being so naughty,” Signia complained to Richard in a coquettish manner. She walked quickly to Richard’s side, cupped his face, and gave him a kiss. Then, she took over from the assistant pushing the wheelchair and assumed control of Richard’s wheelchair.

Shelley shivered uncontrollably, unsure whether it was because Signia’s flirtatious tone disgusted her or because she heard Richard’s voice. She couldn’t believe it. With her head lowered, she stared at the ground with wide eyes.

“Shelley, won’t you look up at me?” Richard’s voice, filled with a smile, was so kind. It was just like the love he had shown Shelley all those years ago, and it didn’t seem fake.

Tears welled up in Shelley’s eyes and fell onto the concrete ground, mingling with the dust and appearing so dirty.

“Uncle Richard?” Shelley wanted to ask him why, but as soon as she looked up and saw Richard’s current condition, her words were incoherent with shock. “You… your legs, and your ears… what happened to you, Uncle Richard? Who…”

Shelley widened her eyes in horror, thinking of one possibility.

As soon as Richard saw her expression, he knew she had understood something. Richard had always been fond of Shelley, and he never hid his praises for her. “You truly are a smart child, Shelley. Now, tell me, who severed my tendons and cut off my ears?”

“No! No!” Shelley shook her head, tears streaming down continuously. She didn’t want to answer Richard’s question. She was too foolish, and she couldn’t figure it out. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”

“You know, Shelley.” Richard’s expression suddenly turned fierce. He bent forward, futilely pounding the armrests of the wheelchair with his fists. “It was my own dear brother, Charles. He leaked my escape route to Alajos. He turned me into this ghostly state. It was him, him!”

“No, it’s not like that, it’s not like that.” Shelley struggled fiercely, and it took a great deal of force from the two men restraining her to push her down to the ground.

Shelley refused to believe this cruel reality no matter what.

“So, Vivian’s attack is related to you?” Shelley seemed to understand the question that Festus had concealed.

Richard was not some insignificant pawn. He was his father’s capable assistant, the second-in-command of the Benoist family wielding real power. Richard’s imprisonment and torture were orchestrated by his own father, not handled directly within the family, but handed over to Alajos.

There was only one possibility: Richard had betrayed Houston!

Shelley was pinned to the ground, trembling uncontrollably. At this point, Shelley couldn’t fail to understand what Richard intended to do.

As the daughter of the Mafia, Shelley had already anticipated her own fate.

“Why betray Alajos?” Shelley couldn’t understand.

In return for Charles’s unwavering support, Alajos had treated the Benoist family exceptionally well. He even entrusted the management of the two most important shipping routes to the Benoist family, relinquishing almost half of the business rights.

Alajos had shown considerable favor to Richard and Charles. What more could he want? Why would he betray them?