Filed to story: A Second Chance with My Billionaire Love
Because no one had been in there for a long time, the water prison gave off a nasty rotten stench, like the smell of dead rats or even human corpses. She could not bear to be inside the water prison for long, because as soon as she took a breath, she would be overcome by an urge to vomit!
“Don’t panic,” Chase assured her. “My idea is to let you stay in the water prison for a while and act as if you’d been tortured. Then I’ll send a picture of you here to the impostor Mr. Q and tell him that the real Mr. Q had returned and demanded that he come here to save you. Even the impostor knows how terrifying water torture is, so I’m convinced that as soon as he sees a picture of you here, he would come to your rescue at full speed!”
“This way,” Chase added, “not only can we make him show up, we can also prove if he truly loves you. It’s a brilliant plan, don’t you think?”
At that moment, Chase felt that he was simply a genius for having thought of such a perfect plan that managed to solve two problems at once.
“I think…” Flossie stroked her chin as she was lost in thought. “Your plan sounds pretty good!”
She really wanted to know who in the world the impostor actually was, and whether his feelings for her were genuine.
“Great! Then let’s start right away, because the sun is coming up soon…”
Chase then proceeded to test every switch and mechanism of the water prison with full enthusiasm, looking as if he was eager to try them all out.
Meanwhile, Flossie stood in front of the water prison in a seemingly dejected mood.
“Is this really going to work?” she asked, full of hesitation. “He’s… He’s such a cunning and cautious man! Perhaps he wouldn’t even show up!”
“That’s fine too,” replied Chase. “If he doesn’t show up, then it proves that his feelings for you were all lies, and it also proves that I have a poor eye to judge a character. In that case, you may just scoop my eyes out because I won’t have any use for them!”
“Then I hope he doesn’t show up!” whispered Flossie.
She really did wish that he would not show up, because if he did risk it all and turned up just to save her, and in the process putting himself in grave danger, she would regret it for the rest of her life.
“He will decide for himself whether or not he is going to show up,” said Chase. “All you have to do now is to act as convincingly as possible. My guess is that… he’s going to be here within thirty minutes, because in half an hour, all kinds of snakes and centipedes will be released from the holes in the walls. He would never let you suffer such a gruesome fate!”
“Okay,” Flossie nodded and gritted her teeth before going into the water prison. “Let’s do it then!”
Right now, the water level in the water prison merely reached her ankles, but the water was flowing continuously into the water prison through the holes. Flossie’s hands were then chained to the walls, making her look frail and extremely pitiful.
“Very good!” Chase pulled out his phone and began to direct Flossie on how to act as he recorded a video, “Now just maintain this posture and try to squeeze out some tears and cry for help…”
Soon afterwards, they successfully shot a ten-second video, and it was immediately sent to the impostor Mr. Q.
Chase’s guess was right on the money—Halston did indeed plan to completely distance himself from Carmine Pawnshop, so he would never turn up anyway under the guise of “Mr. Q” ever again. He even intended to discard the SIM card with the hidden IP address. But as soon as he saw the video of Flossie being tortured in the water prison sent by Chase, he instantly lost his mind, retaining not the slightest trace of reason.
At the moment, he was accompanying Seraphina as they attended a very important family banquet of the Murphy family where they discussed the cooperation between the Guajardo family and the Murphy family for the next season.
Seraphina’s father, Ethan Murphy, was fully satisfied with the agreement he had reached with Halston, and all throughout the evening, he had been dropping hints every now and again that they should start planning for the wedding between Halston and Seraphina.
“You must be aware of how I’ve treated you all these years, Halston. You and my darling Sera have been childhood sweethearts—both of you basically grew up sharing the same pants, so it’s only natural that you’d be sharing the same bed now!”
“Daddy!” With face flushed red, Seraphina hastily stopped her father from continuing on, fearing that if she was not careful, Halston might suddenly stop keeping up the act. “Stop it! You’re drunk! How can you say such embarrassing things? Didn’t I tell you that Halston and I are only dating now? We’ll only think about marriage when the time comes.”
“What embarrassing things? I worked my *ss off my whole life to turn the Murphy family into what it is now, and I intend to hand it all over to you one day. If you’re with Halston, then it means that the Murphy family will be in Halston’s hands one day too. Halston’s a talented man, so I’m sure that with him at the helm of the Murphy family, we’ll certainly get richer and richer…”
Ethan patted Halston’s shoulder with eyes full of admiration and added, “My son-in-law, the Murphy family’s future is in your hands. Just think about it, with the joining of the two great families—the Murphys and the Guajardos. Who would even dare to touch us?!”
“That’s right! Who else in the whole of Beach City besides Halston is worthy of becoming the Murphy family’s son-in-law?”
“Come on, let’s stop talking and start drinking!”
The other Murphy family members started joining in, each of them eagerly raising a toast to Halston.
“Excuse me,” Halston began with a stony face. “I have to leave now.”
And then, without even glancing at the glasses raised in his name, he got up and was ready to leave.
Seraphina quickly grabbed his wrist and tried her best to put on a gentle smile before persuading him, “But the banquet has only started, Halston! Everyone’s still drinking happily! It might be inappropriate to get up and leave in the middle of everything, don’t you think?”
“I’ve got an urgent business to attend to.”
“What could be so urgent that you have to leave now?” Seraphina asked with a lowered voice as she smiled and continued pleading, “Please, I beg you! My daddy is a proud man. You’ll embarrass him if you leave now! Just endure another ten minutes, okay? Just ten minutes!”
“I can’t stay even for another minute,” Halston replied sternly as he shoved Seraphina’s hand away and immediately left the banquet hall.
“Halston, wait! Halston, please don’t go!”
At first, Seraphina was still able to keep her composure, but now she could not pretend anymore and just started to sob uncontrollably with her face buried in her hands.
The lively banquet now suddenly became so silent that only the sound of breathing remained.
“This is ridiculous! The Guajardo family is clearly on the brink of collapse and he still has the audacity to be so arrogant! He’s clearly stomping on the honor of the Murphy family! I’ll never forget this!”
Ethan Murphy was so enraged that he saw red. In one violent shove he overturned the table as he threatened to fight the Guajardo family.
But Halston ignored all this as he hurried out of the Murphy residence and headed straight to his supercar. He put the pedal to the metal and sped towards Carmine Pawnshop as quickly as his car could take him.
“Where is she? Where is Flossie?!”
Still wearing Mr. Q’s black and white mask, he headed straight to the water prison courtyard and sharply questioned Chase of Flossie’s whereabouts as soon as he saw him guarding at the door.
“She’s inside,” replied Chase cautiously. “Our boss said he wants you to unlock the chains yourself and exchange your life for Ms. Ellsworth’s.”
Although Chase knew that the man in front of him was an impostor, he still instinctively became respectful and deferential when facing him, not least due to the naturally powerful aura that he exuded.
“In that case,” said Halston, “tell him to keep his word!”
Without hesitating for another second, he then pushed the door open and tried to head inside.
“Wait!” Chase stopped Halston just as he was opening the door, frowning. “Think carefully before you barge in! This is the water prison. Once you go in there, you might never come out alive again, or worse, you might suffer a fate far worse than death!”
“As long as she’s safe, I don’t care.”
Halston took a deep breath and still pushed the door open without any hesitation.
Inside, the water level had already reached Flossie’s waist, and in less than five minutes, when it would reach her shoulders, at least 500 snakes, bugs, and rats would be released automatically through the holes. There would soon be plenty of venomous snakes in there, so the situation was dreadfully urgent right now.
“Flossie!” Halston’s heart tightened as soon as he saw Flossie all chained up, and it made him shout out her name at the top of his lungs.
“You… You really came?”
Flossie had been waiting for so long that was about to doze off. She thought that the man was definitely never going to show up, so she was just about to give up when the man really came to save her! She was moved to tears. All the doubts about how he might have just been playing with her heart in the past vanished in an instant.
“I’ve been looking for you for so long! Why weren’t you willing to see me? Why did you have to give me up to Halston Guajardo? I’ve got so many things to say to you, and so many questions to ask. I…”
“Stop talking! The water level will reach a dangerous level soon! You have to get out of there right now!”
Halston knew more than anyone else how barbarous water torture actually was, so in the four years that he ran Carmine Pawnshop, he ordered for this area to be sealed off completely. If he had known that the psychopath Q would resume the torture technique so soon after he returned, he would have ordered for it to be destroyed a long time ago!
Without taking off his clothes, Halston dived straight into the water prison and rushed to Flossie’s side. He then tried to unchain her with all his might.
By then, Flossie was so cold that her lips had turned pale, and her whole body was soaking wet, yet her eyes were shining brightly as she looked at Halston with great stirring emotions and told him, “You must’ve known that you’re walking into a trap, yet you still came to save me! This proves that your feelings for me were genuine, so you must have a really good reason for not showing up when we were supposed to get married, right? Were you coerced by that bastard Halston Guajardo?”