Annabelle widened her eyes and looked at Mary. If there was a knife now, she could use it to stab her. âLet her go.â Matthew couldnât believe the fact that Annabelle didnât know Doloresâ whereabouts only because of Mariaâs words.
Their collaboration depended solely on their own benefits and their mutual trust was weak. Therefore, it was very easy to turn them against each other, and it was not difficult to find out something from them.
âBitch, how can you be so sure I donât know?â Annabelle growled. If she hadnât restrained herself, she would have lunged at Mary and eaten her alive. Just like what Matthew had thought, the reason they were collaborating with each other was for their own benefit and to get the things they wanted. Now that they had turned on each other, how could they think of each other? He supposed they just wanted each other dead.
âI followed your brother when he took her. Youâre stupid enough to think I donât know. You think youâre the only one with a plan B? I have one too.â Now that Beulah, her only family was dead, she had to live alone in this world. So how could she not be sensible enough to plan something else for herself?
Boyce and Armand exchanged a glance. Both women had their own thoughts. Matthewâs trick to turn them against each other was truly impressive. Matthew curled his fingers slightly, but did not tighten them. He said, âWhoever tells me Doloresâ whereabouts first, lives.â
âI do.â
âI will.â
They both almost said that at the same time, then looked at each other and wished each other dead. âDolores was taken to Shunbei Village which was not far from B-Town by Sampsonâ¦â Annabelle blurted out the sentence and stepped forward to Mary. Their relationship without any trust and which was based on benefits immediately crumpled in the face of benefits.
Matthew had left without finishing listening to Annabelleâs words. Armand quickly followed. Boyce looked at the two men in the corner and ordered, âLet her go.â
âArenât they going to fight?â It was clear that the two were at loggerheads now.
Boyce smiled, âTheir lives depend on themselves. Take some people and follow me.â Both men understood his meaning and released Annabelle. Then they left the interrogation room with Boyce and closed the door after reaching the entrance.
Annabelle pounced on Mary the moment she regained her freedom. âBitch, fuck you, how dare you betray me!â
Mary was much angrier than she was and she was furious. âYou idiot, Matthew was trying to turn us against each other. We might still have a chance to live if you refuse to tell, do you think you could live after telling?â
Annabelle was startled, but still brimming with rage. She choked Mary hard and screamed at her, âIf you hadnât betrayed me, I could still be by her side. Itâs because of you that you went against your promise and betrayed me first! How dare you accuse me?â
Humans had infinite potential when they were in extreme rage, like what happened now. Although Mary was badly injured and even had trouble breathing, her strength was incredibly enormous and she was able to push Annabelle, who was sitting on top of her, with the strength of her waist. He sat on her and grabbed her by the hair, bawling, âI didnât betray you, he knew long ago, that you are not Dolores!â.
Annabelle felt her scalp was almost torn and bared her teeth from the pain. He retorted with a fierce look, âYou think Iâm going to believe you? If you didnât tell her, how would she know, could she have superpowers to tell?â.
Maria was startled. Yes, even she couldnât tell she was an imposter by the way she looked, how had Matthew managed to figure it out in such a short time? What kind of feelings did he have for Dolores? Since she was playing distracted, Annabelle fought back and took the lead again. âEven if you didnât tell before, you betrayed me just now, and I heard it with my own ears!â
Annabelle snatched her hair and slammed her head into the ground. âHow dare you grab my hair, die, you bitch!â Mariaâs mind went blank from the impact and she went numb from the pain. Her brain seemed to almost pop out of her skull. She hit the ground hard with her hands, trying to attract attention to save her. However, not a single person was coming in today, nor was anyone coming to save her. She wanted to resist, but she ran out of energy.
âDie, bitch.â Annabelle seemed to enjoy beating her and didnât care at all if she was going to die or not. He just wanted to get back at her for betraying her. âAnna⦠belle, if Iâm dead, you wonât live eitherâ¦â
âDidnât you want to kill me? Itâs you who will die first.â Annabelle let out a fierce smile. Maryâs head spun and seemed to snap back. The crazy shadow in front of her blurred more and more. She wondered if she was going to die soon and held on with the last will to live. Suddenly she grabbed Annabelleâs hair and used all her strength to pull on it. Annabelle screamed from the pain and Maria took the opportunity to pull the ribbon from her dress and strangle her with it.
The face that was an exact copy of Doloresâ also showed her hatred for Dolores.
With bloodshot eyes, she tightened the tape. Annabelle moaned and rolled her eyes. Her tongue was hanging out and she tried to cry for help, but could only moan.
âYouâre still too weak to take my life!â Mary seemed to have gone mad. âDie all of you, Dolores and Annabelle. You canât match meâ¦â She laughed hysterically. After a while, Annabelle was no longer struggling. Mary lost her last strength and consciousness, she collapsed.
Meanwhile, Matthew was heading first to Shunye Village. Armand and Boyce followed behind as they led their men. Boyce let them go around the villa as soon as they got there. Shunye Village is not large, there were only two rows of houses in total, and the place was isolated. Many people had left the village in search of more career opportunities abroad and the village looked desolate. Only a few people could be seen on the road.
âSearch from house to house. There are only a few families living here, I donât think Sampson can hide in a mouse hole.â Boyce was outraged and despised what he and Mary were doing. Matthew ignored him and searched from house to house on his own as he trod the muddy, pot-holed path. He only hoped to find her and see her as soon as possible. He hoped he would be the one to find her first, and the first one she would see.
His search through half the town was unsuccessful. They did not discover her or her trail. They entered another courtyard of a brick-built mansion. The owner seemed to have heard that they were looking for someone. They had made quite a commotion since their arrival with so many people. The owner heard from his neighbor that they were looking for someone before they arrived at his house.
Then the village chief arrived. âAre you looking for this woman?â spoke a middle-aged woman. She had dark skin and her husband had gone to work. She stayed in the village to take care of the elderly and the children. She used to work in the fields. People in the village did not care about her skin and she had the appearance of a typical village woman. âI saw her from the balcony of Bessâs house, which was at the end of the village. Sheâs a beautiful woman, but Iâve never seen her leave.â
âWhere is she?â Matthew could almost confirm that the woman he said was Dolores.
âTake us there, weâll give you 100,000 yuan if we find her.â Armand lured her in. The middle-aged woman swallowed saliva. She looked at them. They wore suits and leather shoes, she had only seen the cars they drove here on TV. Those cars looked expensive, and people in town often called them expensive cars. They could fetch 100,000 yuan so easily.
She felt very moved. Her husband was the sole breadwinner of the family and she only did a little farm work at home. Her whole family depended on the low income and they were one of the poorest families in the village. Even Bess, who was a widow, was richer than them. The woman was very excited about the money. âCome with me, itâs not far from here.â
Boyce let the men continue to guard the village and forbade anyone to leave. He then followed the woman to the end of the village. The two-story white house soon rose before them. Matthew looked up at the second floor balcony the woman had mentioned. The breeze was blowing and the curtain was fluttering. However, he did not find the figure he longed for. The closer he got, the more uneasy he felt.
âBess.â The woman knocked on the metal door and called out. âBess, are you there? Please open the doorâ¦â Without having finished her words, Armand and Boyce had already kicked the door open together. The woman was startled and wondered if they were some kind of gangster group because of their violent behavior.
âYouâre going to scare the person by making noises and knocking.â Armand looked at her and seemed dissatisfied with her actions. âNo, no, the windows of the house have been equipped with extra strong anti-theft glass. If youâre inside, you canât escape.â He explained quickly. She didnât want to offend him, as he didnât seem like someone who was easy to mess with.
Matthew entered the house first. The house wasnât huge and it was clean. Just as the woman had said, it was very difficult to escape and, except for the second floor balcony and the first floor window, no one could leave or enter the house except through the entrance. His fingers trembled slightly. Was Dolores locked in here?
He went into the living room. The living room was not large. The furnishings were simple and the living room was clean. The whole house was silent, it could be that there was no one there, or the person was hiding somewhere and their breathing was undetected.
Boyce noticed a bloodstain on the couch and frowned. However, he didnât let out a voice and even tried to keep Matthew from seeing that.
Armand nudged him, âWhat are you trying to hide?â
Boyce shot him a look. âHiding what?â He secretly swore he wasnât observant enough and reproached him for unnecessarily watching him instead of finding Dolores.
Her fuss successfully attracted Matthewâs attention. He looked at them and saw the dried bloodstain on the couch. His gaze deepened like an endless well.
Fearing he was thinking too hard, Boyce spoke, âThat could be Sampsonâs, or Bessâ, it canât be Miss Floresââ¦â.
Matthew was impatient to hear his nonsense and headed straight for the second floor.
He noticed a trail of blood on the stairs, just a minuscule one, but it was still enough to agitate him. His footsteps became quicker. There were only two rooms on the second floor, one locked and one wide open, one glance enough to see everything inside.
Sampson was in a hurry when he came out. The door was unlocked and the interior was not tidy. The state was still the same when he left with Dolores in tow. The mattress was shaken and the bed was a mess. The furnishings were plain, but he was sensitive enough to notice the faint trace of blood on the wall. The robe hanging on the chair was the one she had been wearing the day she disappeared.
She had been living here. Who did those bloodstains belong to? What had happened here before? She didnât dare to think about it anymoreâ¦.
Suddenly, Armand ran up the stairs and shouted, âWeâve caught Bess â¦â
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