Ula’s heart softened when she heard this.

“Fine, let Faye out—”

Just then, Jordan’s voice came through the phone.

“It’s Eira’s birthday today. Put the phone away. Are you worried about Bernhard and Faye? They will be fine. We installed a new light in the basement, remember? Come on, blow out the candles with Eira.”

There was a light down there, but it was always sabotaged and never worked when Faye was locked in.

Ula let out a cold snort.

“What could possibly go wrong? There’s a light down there. You are still trying to trick me. You just want to get out and ruin Eira’s birthday party! How can you be so cruel? I’m telling you, you need to get your act together. If you don’t, Faye is going to end up just as rotten as you are.”

She then hung up without hesitation.

After my call with Ula, Eric became even more determined to ignore both Faye and me.

I could only hold Faye tightly and keep talking nonstop to stop her from falling asleep.

As I spoke, my voice began to choke up.

I was scared, too.

I was terrified of losing my beloved Faye while I held her in my arms.

I pressed my forehead against hers to be closer to her, and I suddenly felt something sticky on Faye’s forehead.

My heart instantly started racing with panic.

Through the sliver of light from the crack in the door, I saw blood.

...

Just then, I recalled that Ula had struck Faye on the forehead with the stainless steel cake knife she had been holding in her fit of rage.

I screamed, and tears streamed down my face. I pounded on the door incessantly, crying out for help again.

The door swung open.

A glimmer of hope flashed before me, and I crawled out while holding Faye in my arms. However, Eric returned with an electric baton that Ula usually used to capture people during her night-time operations.

My eyes widened in horror as I scrambled backward, clutching Faye tightly against my chest. The next instant, the numbing pain of electric current surged through my entire body, and I cried out in agony.

Eric said harshly, “I told you to keep your mouth shut, and you’re still howling like a dog! Ms. Grove said that I could do whatever was needed to make you shut up and keep you from ruining the birthday party!”

I lost all strength the moment I was shocked. Bearing the pain all over my body, I showed the wound on Faye’s forehead to Eric.

“Ula injured Faye’s head. She’s just a little kid. She can’t handle it. She’s losing too much blood. Please, I’m begging you, take Faye to the hospital.”

I pleaded him for help.

That baton was extremely powerful. When typically used to catch people, two jolts were enough to put a person’s life at risk.

The single shock I was given had had a tremendous impact on my internal organs.

When Eric saw the blood on Faye’s face, his eyes widened in terror. He knew that Faye was not allowed to get hurt.

He hesitated for a moment before calling Ula again.

“Ms. Grove, Faye’s head is bleeding. Should I take her to the hospital?”

Ula massaged the muscle between her eyebrows. She was visibly annoyed.

“Why is Bernhard so full of tricks? That was just some red frosting from the cake that the brat stole from Eira. He’s just trying to pass it off as blood! Tell Bernhard this, if he wants to keep on making a fuss, he can rot in that basement for the rest of his life.”

After she hung up, Eric turned his anger on me.

“Ms. Grove was right about you. You’re nothing but a liar. Sit tight and don’t try anything else!”

With that, he kicked both Faye and me back into the basement.

The moment the door locked shut behind us, we were plunged into pitch darkness again.

Faye, unconscious in my arms, shuddered in fear.

She then began to cry and thrash with her eyes tightly shut. She was frowning hard, and her body trembled nonstop in my embrace, as if she were trapped in some terrible nightmare.

No matter how much I coaxed or called her, she would not wake up. I was so frightened that I did not know what to do.

I could only babble incoherently, “Faye! Oh, my little Faye. Can you hear me? I’m right here. It’s okay, sweetheart. Don’t be scared.”

I sank into despair.

If we truly had to wait for three days, we would probably not survive.

Faye was getting weaker by the minute, and after that shock, I was coughing up blood. I could barely move. I felt like any second could be my last.

But what other choice did I have?

Ula was such a fool. No matter what I said, she simply refused to believe me. All I could do was hold Faye tightly and silently pray to God over and over again in my heart.

“God, please. Don’t take my little girl. She is still so young. She has always been good. She’s never bullied anyone. She doesn’t deserve to die because of this.”

...

Soon, it was evening. To make Eira happier at this birthday party, Ula moved the celebration to another venue.

It was not safe at night, so Eric went out with them to protect them.

Faye’s breathing was faint in my arms, and I no longer had the strength to speak.

That was when I heard footsteps outside the door.

It was our housekeeper, Wanda Rockhold.

She opened the door and slipped some food through the crack to me.

I became hopeful again.

I took the chance to grab Wanda’s hand and called out, “Wanda, please! Help us!”

Wanda was kind-hearted. Whenever she saw Jordan and Eira falsely accuse me in front of Ula, she would usually speak up for us.

She was my only hope of getting out of the basement.

But this time, Wanda hesitated.

“Mr. Elwood, my whole family depends on this paycheck. If I let you out, Ms. Grove will fire me, and we’ll have nothing. Please, just eat something first. You need it...”

With that, she set the food tray down, looked away with a pained expression, and left.

My hope vanished once again. I forced myself to accept the fact that I was going to die. But I still could not bring myself to accept what would happen to Faye.

I wiped away my tears, picked up the food, and fed Faye.

I shifted backward a little, hoping to lean against the door and rest with my eyes closed.

However, the moment I leaned back, the door creaked open.

Wanda had deliberately left it unlocked for me.

I did not have time to feel grateful. I grabbed Faye and stumbled out.

A few steps were enough to exhaust me. I quickly ran out of breath. I had never truly realized how enormous the villa was.

I gritted my teeth and kept going.

Finally, I reached a crowded area. My strength gave out, and my legs buckled beneath me. I collapsed to my knees and fell forward.

People passed by in both directions. They gave both Faye and me strange looks, but no one came near us. Just then, Margaret Jerome, a business partner who had a good relationship with Ula, appeared in front of the villa.

“Mr. Elwood? How did you and Faye get so badly hurt? Hang on, I’m calling Ms. Grove right now.”

She hurriedly took out her phone and called Ula.

“Ms. Grove, your husband and Faye are badly hurt. Didn’t you invest in a medical team? Please send a helicopter to get them right now. They look like they’re barely hanging on!”

After Ula finished fawning over Margaret with exaggerated concern, her voice turned ice-cold as she said, “Ms. Jerome, don’t worry about him. He’s faking it. All he cares about is finding ways to go after Jordan. Don’t let him fool you. Just leave them in the basement. I’ll come back for them in three days.”

After she hung up, Margaret could not bear to see Faye and me in that state. She called her secretary, Taylor Clark, and told him to come pick us up.

Margaret still had business to attend to, so she told Faye and me to stay put and wait for Taylor to arrive.

I kept checking on Faye’s breathing, terrified that she might not make it.

Fortunately, Taylor arrived quickly.

“Mr. Elwood, Ms. Grove blocked off all the roads to the hospital for Eira’s birthday party. The whole area up ahead is nothing but amusement rides. We can’t get through.”

While trying to calm us down, he got out of the car and explained the situation to the security guard in charge of the entertainment facilities, John Flint.

But John refused to back down.

“Ms. Grove is currently inside celebrating with Mr. Loof and Eira. We only recognize one man as Ms. Grove’s husband.”

It turned out that, to the public, Ula’s husband was Jordan.

I was seething with rage. I opened the car door and shouted at John.

“I am Ula’s legal husband!”

I pulled out the locket that Ula had given me at our wedding from around my neck. Since it was extremely valuable, the locket she gave me had gone viral on the day of our wedding ceremony.

John’s eyes widened when he saw it. I thought he would recognize me. However, he lunged forward the very next second and snatched the locket right off my neck.

He yanked so hard that my neck was scratched, and it started bleeding. Seeing this, Taylor rushed forward to defend me and started fighting John. But Taylor was no match for John at all. John beat Taylor unconscious.

John then pinned me to the ground so I could not move.

Just then, Ula appeared with a toy in her hand.

John immediately asked in a fawning tone, “Ms. Grove, I got someone here pretending to be your husband and daughter. What do you want me to do with them?”

Ula was used to dealing with desperate young men who would stop at nothing to cling to her. She assumed I was just a random man trying to use her husband’s identity to get into the entertainment venue and take advantage of her while she was drunk.

So, she ordered harshly, “As long as you don’t kill them, I don’t care what you do.”

“Ula... Grove!”

Ula’s assistant, Alex Quill, who was beside her, was stunned when she heard me call out Ula’s name.

She whispered, “Ms. Grove, I think I heard Mr. Elwood’s voice. The child underneath him kind of looks like Faye, too.”

Ula snapped back coldly, “No way. If it were him and that little brat, they would’ve already barged in and wrecked the birthday party without a second thought!”

She then hurried into the birthday venue in a fluster. It was a lavish party thrown by her with many giveaways.

As the event was about to begin, John was so eager to grab some giveaways that he kicked me away.

I mustered every ounce of strength to prop myself up. Faye, beneath me, was not physically hurt, but her face was deathly pale as she lay completely motionless on the ground.

My body gave way completely when I thought of the worst-case scenario. Still, as long as we had not reached that point yet, there was still hope.

I forced myself to stay calm and crawled unsteadily over to Taylor.

I found his phone to call for help, and luckily, it had no passcode.

My hands trembled as I dialed a number I had not called in a very long time.

“I accept your offer. Just save Faye and me.”

The female voice on the other end sounded as aloof as ever. She asked for my location without questioning me any further.

After hanging up, I struggled back to Faye’s side.

I pulled her back into my arms. Seeing her state made me sob uncontrollably. What could a three-year-old ever do to deserve this? What kind of sick joke was this situation?

I carefully brushed away the blood-stained strands of hair from Faye’s forehead.

In less than half an hour, the woman’s medical team arrived by helicopter.

The facilities were fully equipped. Faye and I were placed on separate helicopters. I could not rest easy with Faye away from me, so I got up to go to her, but the elderly doctor beside me held my shoulder.

“Your condition is different from the child’s, and the equipment we use is different, too. Don’t worry, we’ll do everything we can.”

I gradually felt at ease and lost consciousness once the anesthetic took effect.

When I woke up, I had already landed abroad.

By then, three days had passed, and Ula had already arranged everything for Jordan and Eira to live overseas.

She only remembered us after spotting Eira’s forgotten toy doll.

Faye also loved that brand.

She went to the mall and bought over a dozen of them, along with many luxury watches for me. Only then did she instruct Alex to release us.

However, Alex soon called back to say, “Mr. Elwood and Faye are gone!”