Chapter 3 I Have Been Kidnapped

"I have been kidnapped." The plain narration did nothing to reveal the gravity of the situation at all.

Malcolm loosened his grip on the pen in his hand, but soon enough, he quickly recollected himself and concealed the rare expression of distress that had appeared on his face for a moment.

"Do you need me to call the police?" The apathy and cold indifference in his voice seemed to have squeezed out all the hope from Janice's heart as her face fell in disappointment.

She took a deep breath, however, burying her disappointment, and said, "Can you come and save me?"

Janice just wanted Malcolm to come and save her. Not her father and surely not the police.

Unfortunately, the cold-hearted man cared nothing for her expectations.

"I'm busy at the moment. I've got a lot of work to do and I definitely don't have time to waste on you." Malcolm's deliberate ruthless attitude arose from his lack of trust in Janice. He thought this was just another one of her daily tricks to gain his sympathy.

Janice was completely heart-broken by his words, clutching the phone to her face tightly, but she refused to give up so easily.

"Malc, I'm not kidding." Feeling the sincerity in Janice's trembling voice, Alivia couldn't help but look away because she didn't have the heart to see Janice lose hope little by little.

Malcolm pursed his lips and squinted at the light coming in through a crack in one of the curtains. Heaving a deep sigh of exhaustion, he looked away and said, "Janice, don't you remember what I told you before we got married?"

Janice gasped. As soon as she recalled what he was talking about, her vision blurred and thoughts began to clash in her mind.

How could she forget? She would never forget what Malcolm had said to her that day in front of the Civil Affairs Bureau.

"Janice, I don't love you. I won't be marrying you out of love, which is why I won't be happy in this marriage. I'm not going to interfere with your life, so you'd better not bother me either. I'm a very busy man and I have no interest in dealing with your nonsense."

His words were still fresh in her mind and eventually her tears burst forth, each drop soaking the quilt that was beside her body.

Janice sniffled and wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. "Yes, I remember. All right, just carry on with your work, Malc. I have to hang up now."

The moment she hung up the phone, Janice was filled with a kind of sadness she had no way of dealing with, no place she could take it to or hide it away. Alivia embraced Janice, feeling the urge to go straight to wherever Malcolm was and dig a hole in his body to see if the man even had a heart inside his body.

After all, he should have shown some sympathy, if not for his own wife, then at least for the sake of a desperate human being in need of help. How could a person be so heartless?

Alivia got up, gritting her teeth in anger, but Janice caught her by the wrist and stopped her.

"Alivia, please don't do anything. Please!" Janice's tears were not quiet and controlled. As she sobbed to draw breath, she knew there was no cure for her heart. Needless to say, Alivia couldn't bear to see her in such a state.

"Are you seriously going to let that heartless son of a bitch get away with that? I just don't get it. What's so good about him? Of all the men in the world, why do you have to bleed your heart out for a man like Malcolm?" Alivia didn't care to sugar coat her words any longer and she swore to herself that she would make Malcolm sorry for treating Janice like a worthless fool.

All the man did in the past two years was rip the poor woman's heart into pieces, leaving nothing but a gaping void. Alivia always tried to stay away from their affairs because she didn't want to hurt Janice's feelings. However, after watching her friend's self-respect get reduced to nothing before her own eyes, Alivia could no longer sit back and watch with good conscience.

Anger surged through her body and she wanted to rush out with every fiber of her being, but Janice grasped at the hem of her clothes.

"Please! I don't want him to know how embarrassed I am."

The desperation in her voice struck at Alivia's heart like a thousand sharp knives. Their sadness, however, seemed rather hollow and insincere to the two hooligans who were gawking at them like hungry vultures.

"Most men want women like you. Why are you belittling yourself like this?"

The man who spoke was somewhat too tall for his build. He walked up to Janice, meeting with her gaze and put his hand over her head.

Instead of resisting, however, Janice raised her head and looked up at him sadly.

"Really? Then, why doesn't Malc want me? Why doesn't he have the slightest bit of feelings me?" Janice spoke with a sudden deadpan expression which caused the tall man to stiffen for a moment.

He remained silent, but that didn't stop the man behind him from speaking.

"Bro, why do you have to talk to them? Hurry up! I can't wait any longer!" He stood there with his shirt open as he undid his belt, letting his pants fall.

Alivia moved closer to Janice and stood in front of her.

The tall man's gaze intensified as he looked lustfully at the two helpless women.

"I don't know why 'Malc' doesn't like you and I don't even want to know. Miss, you said that you would not resist no matter what we do after the phone call," said the tall man, as he unbuttoned his shirt in a hurry.

Alivia clenched her fists and looked defiantly at the men, but Janice held her hand and shook her head.

"One million!" Janice, with an air of arrogance about her, suddenly opened her pink lips and continued, "And you won't have to face any criminal charges if you let us go now."

The short man, burst into hysterical laughter and said, "Do we look stupid to you? You can't even get your husband to believe you. How do you expect us to believe that you have one million? Stop wasting our time and give us what you promised!" He rushed towards Alivia and tried to hold her down.

However, in one swift motion, Alivia moved behind him and twisted his arm up behind his neck as he cried out in pain.

Janice retreated her gaze and screamed as loud as she could. "My father is Jill Jian. If you don't believe me, just ask him for the money!"

Then she held Alivia's hand and walked towards the door as if nothing had happened, leaving their captors in a daze.

By the time the two men came back to their senses, Janice and Alivia were already at the door. The tall man stretched his long legs and strode ahead of them with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Are you kidding me? Honey, everyone in Lane City knows that Jill Jian has only one daughter!" The smug look on his face attempted to imply that he was too smart to fall for her nonsense.

Janice was so frustrated that her eyes widened and she wanted to scream. Instead, she kept a straight face, concealing her emotions from them.

"Everyone in Lane City also knows that Jill Jian has an illegitimate daughter." Janice didn't say anything else as the man seemed to have understood what she had said.

In fact, the tall man had no intention of letting them go even if Janice was telling the truth. However, he fell into a pensive mood, gazing at Janice up and down.

Suddenly, he came to realize something as his eyes widened in horror and he stammered, "Then... Then that 'Malc'... Is... Is Mr. Rong?"

"Mr. Rong?" Janice looked at him in confusion. And then, she nodded as soon as she realized who he was talking about. "Yes, Malcolm Rong."

The moment Janice mentioned his name, the tall man felt his knees weaken as if they were going to give out at any moment.

Malcolm Rong... He was the most powerful man in all of Lane City.

The man who hadn't been beaten down even after losing his parents at a young age. Instead, he took over his father's company and showed the world what he was really made of. One by one, he drove out all of his disloyal relatives and top executives from the company who tried to take advantage of him and his misfortune. After that, the people who worked for him pledged their allegiance to him and no one ever dared to cross him again. It was his ruthless pragmatism that enabled Malcolm to pull SY Company out of the gutter and bring it to the forefront as one of the most successful companies in the entire city.

However, what frightened the man wasn't Malcolm's success in business, but his infamous temper. The rumors of Malcolm's extremely short temper started to circulate shortly after the death of his parents. Apparently, the man was known to lose his temper whenever he was forced into a situation against his own will. The rumors also mentioned that the illegitimate daughter of the Jian family was his lover...

Which could only mean that whoever crossed Janice would have to deal with Malcolm. The tall man couldn't even bring himself to think about the consequences of offending Malcolm and almost immediately the tone of his voice changed.

"Miss Jian, I'm sorry for what happened this time. We don't want your money. We just hope that you will keep your word about not reporting us to the police." Contrary to his earlier claims, the tall man was sensible enough not to ask for money after what he had done to Malcolm's woman. All he wanted was to get out of there alive.

Janice didn't say another word. She didn't have to. She simply took Alivia's hand and walked out the door without even looking back. They looked completely unharmed, almost as if they hadn't been kidnapped at all.