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!”