65

-Third Person's POV-

-Twelve days after Aera left-

"So, are you going to comply with us or are we going to have to do it the harder way? Cause I'm fine doing it the harder way." Giovanni, Aera's father calmly asked Ronald Stoll.

"W-what is this behavior, Mr. Whitfield?! I am the mayor and you have no right to do this to me. I will sue you, no, I will put you in prison!" He yelled at him.

"Come on, Ronald. We've been schoolmates since freshmen year..you know perfectly what my attitude is. It's either things will go my way or nothing at all. And did you really think that I'll just come here without anything up in my sleeves? I got you by the balls, motherfucker." He growled and pressed his cigarette into Ronald's palm.

He hissed in pain and stared at Giovanni with fear reflecting in his eyes.

"Now, what's it gonna be?" He tipped his head to the side and raised his brow.

" F-Fine. I'll tell you everything. "

. . .

Hwan and Hyun opened the door for their father as he stepped inside Revere's office where the rest of Aera's soulmates and their siblings were waiting.

Giovanni sat down in the middle with his legs crossed and he puffed out a cigar. He then threw a filled envelope in the middle of the table.

" There's everything you need. Meredith Lucinda Hendrix, is your aunt correct? She's alive, after the Wilson couple found her they sent her to the hospital in xxx then transferred her to a private hospital in Greece. " He said.

" Thanks to the information you gave me about Ronald Stoll, I was able to uncover plenty of deleted security camera footage. One being the tracks and identity of Aera's fucking stalker." He gritted.

" I-Is it.." Madeleine stuttered.

" Lykos Michele Stoll, his son and my daughter's ex-boyfriend. "

" Wait but that doesn't line up with this, who chased after her in Korea? Lykos Stoll was having a shooting in Germany. " Viktor raised.

" I've been pondering about that for a while now, but that's easily explained by this doesn't it? " Extending his hand, he forwarded the security footage into a different room.

It was a shot of the stalker, there was a black car waiting for him. The person in the car handed him a small bag and drove off. The stalker seemed to be beyond upset and even wore gloves.

He bumped into Aera on the Elevator and was extremely displeased with her when he had his back turned at her. When the clip of him knocking on her door repeatedly, he slipped in a note that was from the small bag and soon left after he got a notification on his phone.

It skipped to a different clip of him inside the car, wiping his hands with Alcohol over and over again and yelling at the person with him. When he finally removed his mask, they all gasped.

" Maro?! " Calixto stared at the screen with widened eyes.

" Oh trust me, that's not all. " He zooms in to the person beside him and there stood out, red hair.

"Does this person looks familiar to you?"

Madeleine paled in comparison to their looks of hatred etched onto their faces.

"That fucking bitch, I knew cruel people don't die easily. " Vesna griped.

It was Meredith rolling her eyes at Maro while driving off the scene.

"I'll cut to the chase since I'm wasting time. These three fuckers are the ones causing all this crap. Now, I really don't want to know what the fuck happened between you all and these two fucks but they want to harm my daughter and that is all I know."

"She was spotted inside the university ground for three days straight, going unnoticed by your fucking guards. She did something and I can't find out what." He finished.

They immediately went to the university to find out what Meredith was and what was her goal to snoop around the campus grounds. As Lippe was in Norway, she couldn't leave since she needed to wait for her students so she gave permission for her brother, Calixto to do whatever he pleased.

It didn't take them long to find footage of her going inside the Principal's office but what was suspicious is since Lippe wasn't in the university those days, how could she go in when the door was supposed to be locked?

" The Vice Principal. "

She was then caught to be bribing the Vice Principal as she stamped on the letter. They searched for hours and when they pulled out the same letter on the footage, it was a letter that stated that they were allowed to switch the cruise ship to a different ship.

" Why would they need to switch ships though?? There has to be a reason for it." Alicai stressed.

" Is there anything special about that ship?? " Vera asked.

"Absolutely nothing. It seems to be a relatively old ship but in a good condition nonetheless." Seth read through the information about the ship.

" When was the last maintenance check? " Devereux asked.

"...Nine years ago."

"What?! How did that get through maintenance checking?? They even have to do pre-embarkation testing so how?" Madeleine questioned.

"There's something inside the ship," Hwan stressed.

"What?"

"There's something inside the ship, I know there is. I mean, why would they just skip it for no reason? Why would they suddenly use this specific Cruise ship out of the blue? It means there's something fucking in there."

Believing what Hwan implied, they went to look if there really was anything on the ship. Hyun then contacted Jerome, the guard that worked for their company and he was appointed to guard Aera.

Calixto did the same and contacted Adam but it the line didn't even go through.

"Ah, Jerome. How was the investigation?" Hyun asked.

"Don't worry sir, there's nothing wrong here."

Meanwhile with Calixto, he tried a couple of more times but all ended with it going straight to voice mail.

"There's something wrong, I can feel it."

. . .

Fluttering her eyelashes, Aera opened her eyes. She tried moving her arms but she was sat down with her arms tied from the back and she was strapped in by ropes.

"Sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up." A male voice spoke from behind her.

Her voice failed to come out as her mouth was taped shut.

She couldn't see through the dark but the sharp pain of something like a whip smacked her face.

Refusing to groan in pain, the man became displeased. He smacked her repeatedly and when she groaned accidentally, a smirk came across his face.

"Don't hide it. I don't have enough time to enjoy this so stop hiding it." He laughed and continued on hitting her.

Aera was fuming in anger as she was bound in ties, she recognized his voice anywhere. The tape got wet and she finally was able to talk.

"You fucking bastard! I know it's you, Torrin Maro! Only a coward like you would tie me up cause your weak ass can't fight for himself!" She gritted.

The lights switched on and a displeased face was etched on his face once more. Aera glared at him but her eyes shook once she saw the person behind him.

"Hm? Can't catch your tongue? I wonder why the most beautiful actress suddenly shut her beautiful-ugly mouth? Oh my, is it because..of her?" He pushed the stick on the side of Charm's face.

"You lowly shit, don't bring her into this. Charm has nothing to do with our situation."

"But it sure does make you docile doesn't it?" Maro laughed sadistically and smacked Charm with the whip-like stick.

"N-NO! STOP! JUST HURT ME INSTEAD!"

"SHUT UP AERA, I CAN HANDLE IT!" Charm groaned and gave a half smile towards her.

"C-Charm.."

"Oh wow, what lovely friendship you have. Disgusting. " He rolled his eyes and created a large scratch on her shoulder down to her arm.

While Maro was distracted, she moved her arms, attempting to break out of the ropes. When she finally found the thread she had to pull, a hand stopped her.

"Ah ah ah, don't do that..my love." Lykos whispered in her ear and kissed her cheek.

"...Fuck you."

To be Continued . . .

Before you ask, I am not taking a break from writing this book.