Paul was briefly shocked before he replied, "No problem, I'll get it done."
He wanted to hang up the phone after his words, but he heard James' croaky voice.
"Also, Ms. Miller, Stella..."
They were her good friends, so they should also be by her side to witness her beautiful moments together.
He was meticulously thoughtful, his affection for Amelia comparable to the deepness of the sea. Even Paul was touched.
"James, you must be happy."
The love James begged for, the Ms. Garcia James had always been longing for, would definitely, definitely bring him happiness.
James curled his lips, his pale face was stained by a faint smile...
Very soon, happiness was just a stone's throw away...
Paul hung up the phone before proceeding to inform members of the Evans Family to arrange for a flight to Finland with their private jets on time.
He then dialed Stella's phone number. After making several calls to which no one picked up, he called Andrew and instructed him to go searching for Stella.
After handling everything well, Paul picked up the wine gla*s on the bar and threw his head back to chug it all down in one gulp.
With a bang slamming the wine gla*s onto the bar, he picked up his suit on the seat next to him and got up to rush over to the nightclub...
With a bottle of red wine in hand, Eva was entertaining the guests in the VIP room when Paul pushed the door open and barged in.
When the guests on the lounge saw that Paul Evans was there, they respectfully got up to make room for him.
Without even bothering to cast them at a single glance, Paul went straight to Eva, and stretched out his hand to her.
"Come with me to Finland."
Eva flashed the guests a smile and said sorry before turning over to shoot him a hard look.
"Don't make trouble."
After they parted, Paul would come over to the nightclub to stir trouble whenever he was a little too free. No matter how thriving business was, it would all be ruined.
Paul's deep and clear eyes reflect Eva's glaring face. He didn't find it annoying and felt that she was adorable instead.
After staring at Eva for several seconds, his neatly trimmed eyebrows quirked.
"James is going to propose to Ms. Garcia in Finland. He sent me here to pick you up."
Hearing the words marriage proposal, Eva immediately puts the bottle aside. Her fists clenched in excitement as she squeaked, "Marriage proposal? Is it true?"
Amelia had a crush on James for years. After experiencing the parting of life and death, joys and sorrows, would they finally be able to come together?
It was the first time Paul saw her behaving as excitedly as a little girl. After a moment of trance, the corners of his lips unknowingly raised to a doting smile.
"Of course."
When Eva received an affirmative answer, her joy was beyond words.
"Great, I'm going to tell Amelia to get her ready!"
Yet, Paul grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"If you tell Ms. Garcia about it, it will no longer be a surprise to her."
Eva agreed to it after some thought. After all, it was a marriage proposal, and as the bride-to-be, it would be no fun if Amelia knew about it in advance.
What she could only do was help Amelia put on delicate and perfect makeup before the ceremony, so that Amelia could accept James' proposal in her best self...
Eva had wanted to tag along with Amelia to Finland the next day, but Paul took her to the airport instead.
In his words, he said, "James will pick up Ms. García in person. You come with me to Finland and make all the necessary arrangements. Don't cling to his wife all day long."
Eva, who hadn't even had the time to pack her luggage, rolled her eyes hard at him.
For the sake of Amelia's happiness, she would have to suppress her anger for the time being...
Eva and Paul arrived in Finland one step ahead of the others, but...
Paul told Eva that he had no idea where the exact location of the ceremony was because...
The demanding James did not take a fancy to any of the marriage proposals submitted by brothers of the Evans Family.
After having suffered a beating from Eva in the hotel did Paul call James on the phone to ask about it.
Before boarding the plane, James sent him the address and warned him not to pick on Amelia's friends!
Paul sighed helplessly at the sight of the text. He had managed to trick Eva into coming to Finland in advance just to do so...
As soon as she received the address, Eva, who appeared not to be as gentle as Amelia was, hired a translator and went straight ahead to Aurora Village.
Paul, with his failed plans, had no choice but to grab a taxi and follow Eva closely from behind, for fear of anything happening to her...
At Arcadia, Andrew couldn't get through Stella's phone, so he ran all the way to her house to find that no one was around.
Feeling faintly uneasy, Andrew sped to the hospital.
Only then did he learn from the doctors that Stella had been forcibly taken away by Erin.
On top of that, he was appalled to know that Erin, the bastard, had kicked Ms. Garcia!
Just how bold and courageous Erin was to lay his hands on Mr. Evans' woman!
Andrew, whose face was livid with anger, picked up the phone and called James.
The response he received was an automated beep as Mr. Evans' phone was in flight mode.
Andrew could only download the surveillance footage and send it to James while he rushed right away to Imperial Capital in search of Stella.
In the morning of the next day, Amelia was holding a pencil, referring to the plan and concentrating on completing the last building when her phone rang.
With a casual glance at the screen of the phone, her hand jolted at the caller ID, going straight off the track she had plotted out.
She stared at Aaron's name on the screen and gulped. Her fists clenched in nervousness before she reached for the phone...
After Aaron returned to Ireland, he had never given her a call.
Why would he call her all of a sudden? Could it be that he was coming back?
As she expected, Aaron's first words were, "I'm back."
From the other end of the phone, a deep, laid-back voice came, sending Amelia's heart thumping.
She gave merely a soft hum and dared not answer his words, let alone probe into the purpose of his return.
Aaron sat on the U-shaped sofa, and with his slender legs folded, he asked her in a casual tone, "Is Johnny looking for you?"
Amelia had thought that Aaron was back for her to fulfill the second agreement and had never expected him to ask about Johnny. She breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"Yes."
After she replied, she added, "To be precise, he's here for Skender."
Aaron gave a cold snort. Dragging her two daughters around, Skender's mother had begged the Clark and the Brook Families to help her out, but how had they reacted?
They did not hesitate to kick the mother-daughter trio out of the house and left them to fend for themselves on the streets by uttering harsh words. Nor had the Brook or the Clark Families cared about their wellbeing.
For the dying woman in the Clark Family right then, they had the nerve to come to Skender. The audacity!
Aaron raised his bloodthirsty eyes to remind Amelia in an icy voice once more, "It shouldn't be anything to look forward to, so don't reveal your identity to Johnny."
Even without his reminding, Amelia was well aware.
"Don't worry, he doesn't know the news of my sister's death, nor does he know that I've replaced my sister."
Aaron said nothing in reply. With his finger rubbing against the wine glass accompanied by several light taps, he questioned, "Recently, Johnny went to countries around the Pacific Ocean to search for Skender's whereabouts. It's all James' doing for you, isn't it?"
Amelia hadn't expected Aaron to know everything about her like the back of his hand when he was in Ireland all along. Indeed, he was Aaron Johnson, the know-it-all. "That's right."
Seeing her resolute reply, a hint of contempt surfaced in Aaron's eyes.
"I told you that James is not your good match, so why are you still getting involved with him?"
Amelia put her pen aside while hearing his words. With a frown, she asked in return, "Aaron, you're always saying that both of us aren't a good match, what do you mean?"
Instead of answering, Aaron gave a brief response.
"I'll come to you later, wait obediently at home."
Before Amelia could question why he would come to her, he hung up the phone, no longer picking up when she dialed over.
Vaguely sensing that it wasn't a good thing for Aaron to come to her, Amelia swiftly rolled up the drawings and planned to head over to James' manor to wait for James.
To her surprise, the man with the scar crashed in through a window to cover her mouth with a spiked towel.
There wasn't even the time for her to call for help or struggle. In just several seconds, her eyes rolled as she lost all consciousness...
The private jet arrived at the airport on time before a tall, intimidating man exited the airport under the protection of a group of bodyguards.
After he got into the luxury car, he took out his personal mobile phone to call Amelia when a pang of splitting headache struck him.
That incomparably handsome face was deathly pale to the point of losing all its blood in an instant, and so were the eyes bloodshot...
He threw away the phone, and with trembling hands, rummaged for the painkillers prescribed by the medical director at Washington before shoving several of the pills into his mouth in one go.
When one of the bodyguards in the front line saw that he was still in unbearable pain after having undergone treatment, he persuaded out of worry, "Mr. Evans, why don't you have the surgery?"
Surgery implied undergoing a craniotomy. God knew if he'd be able to wake up and recover from the surgery to see Amelia once more? He would never agree to anything unpredictable.
Enduring the pain, James raised his bloodshot eyes to sweep his cold glance past the bodyguard.
"Did you ignore my orders?"
The bodyguard fell dead silent. Mr. Evans had given the instructions that no one was to mention his condition upon returning to the United States. He had gone overboard.
"Mr. Evans, I'm sorry."
James withdrew his cold gaze and raised his knuckle-boned hands to ma*sage his temples, quietly waiting for the medicine to take effect...
When the headache no longer hurt as much, the car stopped at the entrance of the villa. James braced all his strength to exit the car and stride into the bathroom.
After washing up, he entered the cloakroom to pick out a formal black suit and got a hair stylist to deal with his thick hair.
It was only when he saw that the man in the mirror was no longer as pale and eyes as red-rimmed did he open the safe.
Very carefully, he withdrew the three items stored, a scarf, a photo, and a diamond ring.
With much caution, he inserted the items into a box and walked out of the villa carefully holding onto them...
He wanted to be the only one to take Amelia to Finland, so he didn't get the bodyguards to tag along. After ordering them to stand by, he drove to Eva's villa by himself.
Mandy hurried to open the door after seeing that it was James.
"Mr. Evans, Ms. Garcia is working on her drawings in the study. I'll go get her..."
James nodded to Mandy. "Thank you."
Mandy was really fond of the president. Not only was he polite
and a gentleman, and he was, too, good-looking. The cherry on top was the love he devoted to Amelia.
Being extremely satisfied, Mandy returned a smile before she turned and walked into the study.
"Ms. Garcia, Mr. Evans is here, come out quickly..."
When Mandy pushed the door open and failed to see Ms. Garcia's figure, her words stopped halfway through.
Mandy let out a gasp, puzzled. "Strange, isn't Ms. Garcia always in the study? Where is she?"
James, waiting outside the door, saw Mandy leaving the study and walking up to the upper floor. His face sank as he stepped over.
With one step onto the first floor, he saw Mandy coming out of the bedroom frowning. He sped up forward to asking, "Is she not here?"
Mandy nodded, a little confused. "Ms. Garcia is not in the study, nor is she in the bedroom, where did she go?"
James' heart skipped a beat. A sense of uneasiness poured down upon him, filling his starry eyes with panic in an instant.
He dashed to the study room. In front of the large wooden desk, no trace of Amelia was found, only rolled up drawings.
James had long been thrown into panic, but he had to calm himself down. After sending Mandy to retrieve the surveillance footage, he returned to the car to fetch his phone.
He swiftly reached for his mobile phone to call Amelia, but even after making several calls, no one answered...
The sound of the beeping and automated voice from the receiver sent the flustered James trembling with fear.
He had told Amelia that he would come to pick her up, so she wouldn't wander around, unless anything were to have happened.
Calming his frantic self down, he raised his slender fingers and waved at the group of bodyguards waiting outside the villa.
He didn't have time to accuse the bodyguards of not protecting Amelia. Instead, his icy voice rang out.
"Go and find Amelia. If you all can't find her, get lost!"
The bodyguards turned pale with fright hearing the orders.
What was going on? They had been guarding the door all along, how could Ms. Garcia have disappeared into thin air?
Without the time to ponder about it, they respectfully responded, "Yes, Mr. Evans," before scattering away to search for Amelia...
James wanted Andrew and Zack to join in the mission, so he returned to the car to take out his work mobile phone that had not been turned on after the plane landed.
Just as he was about to call them, he discovered that Andrew had sent a video in the middle of the night...
Keenly noticing Amelia's figure in the video, he tapped on it, just in time to see Erin lift his foot and kick her chest.
A beam of cold, bloodthirsty light gleamed from James' eyes.
"Erin, just how bold of you to harm my woman. I see that you're sick of living!"
With his face livid, he was planning to chop Erin into pieces after he managed to find Amelia when he heard him mention Ryan.
The sentence "Do you know what kind of life Ryan has lived in the Imperial Capital these past few months?" stiffened James' body.
He saw Amelia tying on the ground in the video. After hearing the words, her expression was in a trance, guilt overflowing in her eyes...
James froze in place, his flustered emotions gradually suppressed by dense pain.
"Amelia, did you choose to leave without even a heads-up because you felt guilty toward Ryan?"
Yet, it was just too cruel. Time and time again, how could he ever stand her abandonment?
His knees went weak as he collapsed against the car door. Even when he had learned of his illness, he had never been so in despair...
As if his soul had been sucked out, he was rendered powerless as he raised his head, his blank stare falling on the villa she had once stayed...
The starlight in his twinkling eyes dimmed, losing all its brilliance after being flooded by despair.
"Amelia, you're my everything. If you leave, my life vanishes with you. Do you just have the heart to watch me die?"
Slowly, the corners of his lips raised to a bitter smile as he retracted his gaze to land it on the woman on the screen. The corner of his eyes caught a glimpse of the time of the video recorded...
Something didn't seem right. The time was wrong. Erin gave her a kick on the night of the day before the previous day, but they had talked on the phone the previous day...
Seeing that he had lost weight, she had shown her concern for him, so how could she have left him just because Erin brought Ryan up?
Plus, Amelia had promised that she would marry him regardless of whether she could be pregnant with a child...
As she had firmly chosen him, she was guaranteed to never abandon him. Something must have happened to Amelia!
After the thoughts in his mind cleared up, he strode into the villa, just as Mandy came forward with the surveillance footage.
James took over the laptop and settled on the sofa, the eyes as frosty as snow locked on the screen displaying the footage.
Without missing a second, he witnessed as a scarred man avoided the patrolling bodyguards to sneak into the backyard.
Once the man came into his sight, the incident of Amelia telling him about how a man with a scar had come to her to probe into Mr. Shawn's whereabouts flashed through his mind.
A look of horror appeared on his face, especially when he saw the man with the scar creeping into the study from the window, his heart tensed.
There were no surveillance cameras installed in the study, and within several minutes, a layer of cold sweat had broken out on the forehead of the nervous James...
He watched as the scarred man threw the unconscious Amelia out of the window before carrying her on his shoulders to get into a car without a license plate...
At the sight of the scene, James' fair, slender fingers clenched into fists, his knuckles creaking.
On the forehead, his veins throbbed as if he had been offended on his bottom line, emanating a viciously violent aura!
With a bang, he slammed the laptop shut, reaching for his mobile phone as he got into the car while giving Zack a phone call.
"At 11:20 in the morning, driving along the southern coast, a car without a license plate took my woman away!"
"The culprit's main characteristic is that he has scars all over his face and is related to Mr. Shawn. Speed up the investigation. Whoever finds anything out should settle this immediately!"
After James gave his orders, he threw the phone away, the car engine roaring as it insanely sped in the direction of the vehicle left.
On a deserted island along the coast, a dilapidated wooden house was hidden within the dense woods.
Amelia was tied to the stool with several layers of adhesive tape tightly stuck to her lips.
The suffocation slowly woke her up from the coma.
Opening her eyes, she saw more than twenty ferocious, bulky-looking men surrounding her.
They had a tall and sturdy build as they held onto iron rods, daggers and other crime tools in hand.
Sunlight poured in through the gaps in the wooden house, falling on the polished surface of the daggers, reflecting with a ray of silvery white light.
The dazzling light pierced Amelia's eyes, instigating panic...
Her instinctive reaction was to struggle, only to find that her hands and feet were tied, rendering her at a loss of moving the slightest.
"Don't waste your energy, you'll never be able to escape..."
The man with the scar moved through the crowd, walking over stepping on his heavy leather boots.
At the sight of the scarred man, Amelia came to the instant realization that they were after Mr. Shawn.
She had lied to the scarred man that Mr. Shawn, whom she lodged a report against the police station, was Steve Parry. Only then had she been able to get away with her unconvincing trick on the spot.
She never would have expected the scarred man to realize that he was deceived in such a short time, and by avoiding bodyguards of the manor, tied and locked her up in who knew where it was.
Amelia racked her brain for a way as she watched the man stepping toward her...
They kidnapped her, probably to pry who Mr. Shawn was.
As long as she insisted on never meeting Mr. Shawn, James would be safe.
After she came to learn about the purpose of the kidnap, the sense of panic for the unknown faded away.
Yet, seeing how they were holding onto daggers and sticks, she figured that she would undoubtedly suffer some torture when she was being interrogated...
With her brows drawn to a frown, she put her mind into coming up with a solution to fool the group around, making sure that she would suffer minimal harm when...
The wooden house creaked with a push from the outside. A man in a suit and leather shoes with a pair of shiny sunglasses stepped in.
Although his eyes were covered, Amelia could still recognize who he was, Brandon Moore, a former chairman of Elite International Corporation.
Seeing Brandon, there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity, an oddly strange feeling...
She figured that it was probably because she had worked in his company that she found him familiar with.
It was just that she had never expected the man behind the kidnap in an attempt to prod Mr. Shawn's whereabouts to be Brandon. Why would he be searching for Mr. Shawn?
Seeing Brandon, the man with the scar was quick to react by sending his underling to fetch a chair over and place it in front of Amelia...
After Brandon took his seat, he withdrew a cigar, lit it up and put it in his mouth. While biting the cigar, he jutted his chin toward the man with a scar.
The scarred man came to immediate action by stepping forward to tear off the tape stuck on Amelia's lips...
Amelia endured the severe pain, gasping for breaths of fresh air...
Brandon's arrogant gaze scanned her from head to toe.
"Ms. Garcia, it's been a long time."
Amelia did the same by sizing him up without saying a word of reply. In such a case, it was best not to say anything.
Brandon didn't care if she answered or not. Since he had kidnapped her all the way over, he had never thought about letting her go and didn't hold back in his words either.
"I thought you're dead, but I didn't expect you to come back from the dead three years later. Fortunately, I found out about the re-registration of your identity, else I wouldn't have known that you're alive and well, nor would I ever know where I should go searching for you..."
Amelia was briefly taken aback hearing his words.
"Why are you looking for me?"
Brandon took a puff of his cigar before he began to slowly say, "Three years ago, you reported to the police at the West city that you were harassed by Mr. Shawn. I'm here to ask you, who's the Mr. Shawn, who has been harming you for three years?"
Amelia's heart trembled It turned out Brandon came to her from the police report three years ago.
Her face turned pale, which appeared guilty to Brandon.
"Ms. Garcia, you used the name and information of Mr. Shawn when you registered at the police station. Why did you lie to me and say Steve Parry? Did you fall in love with the man who assaulted you and want to protect him?"
Amelia frowned. She had planned to deny it no matter what, but if she continued to do so, it would be suspicious. Brandon would investigate the people around her one by one, so she had to admit it, but in a different way.
Thinking of this, her pale face gradually calmed down, "I lied to you because they were rude and aggressive when they rushed over, without any manners. Why should I tell these people the truth? Who knows if you guys are good or bad people? Besides, this is my privacy, and I have the right to say what I want!"
After hearing her words, Brandon bit his lip and lifted his cigar.
"Ms. Garcia, you're still as eloquent as ever."
Amelia was also proud and looked at Brandon.
"Mr. Moore, I'm not just eloquent. I only speak the truth."
Brandon sneered, "Okay, it doesn't matter if you want to protect him or not, it has nothing to do with me. I just want to know who he is."
Amelia remained calm and composed.
"I don't know who he is. I have never seen his true face. If you find him, please let me know so that I can take revenge."
Brandon seemed to have anticipated her denial and took another puff of his cigar.
"Ms. Garcia, before my good temper runs out, you'd better confess..."
As Amelia's logical thinking gradually became clearer, she reached the crux of the matter.
"What should I confess? If I really knew who he was, why would I have reported him to the police multiple times? It's because I don't know that I reported him."
After hearing this, Brandon was stunned for a few seconds. He looked at Amelia through his sunglasses and no longer had the same disdain and contempt as before. Instead, he showed a hint of admiration.
"I didn't realize before that you're so clever..."
Amelia didn't respond to his compliment and quickly proposed a plan.
"Mr. Moore, I really don't know who Mr. Shawn is. How about you release me first and let me go back to the city. I'll arrange to meet him and when he shows up, you can come out and catch him. Then you'll know who he is."
Brandon's serious expression gradually turned into a cold sneer.
"Amelia, my experience is way more than yours. Your little tricks won't fool me..."
He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch.
"You have three minutes to decide. If you talk, I'll let you go. If you don't, I'm sorry, but my men won't be at mercy."
Amelia knew that no matter what she said, Brandon would not let her go, but he would not kill her either.
For Brandon, if he could find Mr. Shawn, he wouldn't have bothered to kidnap her, a nobody. He must have failed to find him, hence why he was now relying on her. But why did he have to find out who Mr. Shawn was?
Within the three minutes, Amelia calmed herself down and asked Brandon, "Are you also looking for Mr. Shawn for revenge?"
The word "also" meant that she chose not to speak.
Brandon understood her intention and took the knife from the scarred man's hand, playing with it as he calmly replied, "It's not really for revenge. He kidnapped my daughter, and I want to look for him and ask where my daughter is..."
Amelia's face turned pale. James kidnapped Emily, but why?