Those kidnappers broke three of my ribs and whipped my back until it was raw and bleeding. I had always suffered from claustrophobia, so they locked me in a small, dark room for a full twenty-four hours. Just when I was losing hope, Brian Herbert and his men found me.
His eyes were filled with tears as he looked at my bloodied body.
"Lilian, please don’t close your eyes. We’re almost at the hospital. Just hold on a little longer."
I clung to his scent, comforting myself with it until we reached the emergency room. The moment I was on the hospital bed, I fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up, my entire body trembled with pain as if my bones were being broken apart and pieced back together again.
As I was about to call for help, I overheard Brian speaking with his assistant just outside the door.
"The kidnappers who originally took Miss Wyatt have been caught," the assistant reported.
"They confessed. It really was Miss Wyatt who hired them to stage the whole thing."
Brian’s face went grim. He then sneered with his voice dripping with mockery as he said, "Adeline was right then."