Chapter 597 Nightmare Memories
Arthur walked into a room, and the door slammed shut behind him.
This was Jasper's backup plan.
The first plan, involving the wine, had flopped. Arthur was too tough to nab by force, and who knew if he had backup lurking around? So, they had to come up with a reason to get him into that room.
Locking Arthur up before they rescued Elodie was the safest bet, and it wouldn't cause any unnecessary bloodshed.
Harper kept an eye on the direction Arthur had gone, feeling super uneasy, even ignoring people who were trying to toast her.
Vincent quickly reminded her to stay cool, just in case Arthur had any spies around. They didn't want to tip him off and mess up the whole plan.
About ten minutes later, Harper heard her assistant Ronald's voice in her earpiece, "Ms. Murphy, Arthur's locked in!"
Harper let out a huge sigh of relief, her whole body relaxing.
Finally, Arthur was locked up, so Jasper could safely rescue Elodie.
Harper nodded to Vincent, who got the message and immediately told everyone that Harper was feeling unwell and needed to rest.
As for the two kids who had made a brief appearance, they were sent back because they were too noisy.
In reality, those two kids were custom-made human-like dolls by Jasper, but they looked super real and had pre-recorded baby cries.
Jasper had thought about using real babies, but Harper shut that down.
As a mom, Harper knew every child was their mother's treasure. She couldn't bear to put her own kid in danger, let alone someone else's.
Luckily, it was pretty cold that day, and the babies were always near the incubator, only visible from a distance. With the realistic crying sounds, it was easy to fool everyone.
After relaxing a bit, Harper went back to her room, anxiously waiting for news from Jasper.
She paced back and forth a few times, feeling a bit tired. Sitting by the bed, a wave of fatigue washed over her.
Harper figured it was because she hadn't slept all night, so she leaned softly on the bed, the drowsiness growing stronger.
Finally, her eyes closed tightly.
At that moment, a man in black leather shoes appeared by the bed, extinguishing a perfume bottle under the bed, then slowly leaned over...
Meanwhile...
Jasper led a team of assistants into Arthur's villa. Unable to find the entrance to the basement, they used detectors to search.
After pinpointing a spot, Jasper signaled for someone to use wall-breaking tools to create a big hole in the wall.
As the hole got bigger, a luxurious residential area behind the wall came into view.
Once the hole was big enough for a person to pass through, a team member went in to check and reported, "Mr. Murphy, there are people here!"
Jasper's heart raced, his hands trembling slightly as he walked in.
Soon, he would see Elodie, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.
Inside, it looked like a luxurious underground palace, with lights making the basement as bright as day. Outside the bedroom, there was a garden full of blooming flowers.
It was clear the owner of this underground palace really valued it.
In front of them was a lace bed, and on it lay a woman with long hair down to her waist, sleeping soundly, probably drugged.
Jasper suddenly hesitated to touch her. Elodie's disappearance had been a thorn in his heart for so many years.
Even though he knew Elodie wasn't his biological mother, the years they spent together made him feel a mother's love from her.
Elodie truly treated Jasper like her own child.
Back then, Jasper had vowed to protect Elodie and Harper when he grew up, but he hadn't been able to do any of that.
Now, with Harper safe by his side and Elodie about to be reunited with them, Jasper couldn't describe his feelings. His heart was pounding.
Jasper slowly reached out, wanting to touch the woman in front of him, when suddenly an urgent phone call came in.
He was carrying a satellite phone, known only to Vincent. He answered it while still staring at the woman's hair.
"Hello?"
"30 seconds, only 30 seconds, run!" The voice on the phone wasn't Vincent's but Francis's.
Francis's tone was urgent and suppressed, "Jasper, the basement is filled with bombs. Get everyone out, quickly!"
Jasper was stunned, then heard Francis urgently say, "Jasper, it's a trap. Arthur escaped. He knew your plan all along. Now, run!"
Jasper knew Francis wasn't joking, but he was still unwilling to give up.
He said in a deep voice, "Everyone evacuate the villa, there are bombs, immediately!"
The team members looked at each other, tense but waiting for Jasper to leave together.
Jasper said, "You go first, that's an order. I'll follow."
The team had no choice but to evacuate. Jasper reached out and grabbed the woman on the bed by the shoulder, turning her over.
A head rolled to Jasper's feet.
He was shocked, a metallic taste rising in his throat, almost making him vomit blood.
Could this be Elodie?
But upon closer inspection, Jasper saw differences. This female corpse had been dead for some time, with the neck starting to rot, but the face was still relatively intact.
This was thanks to the cold weather of Emerald Isle.
Upon closer inspection, Jasper found the face familiar, but it was clear that this was all a trap!
Without finding Elodie, he couldn't die in vain!
Jasper turned and sprinted out, thinking why the female corpse looked familiar. It was the family doctor, Elara, whom they had been searching for recently! It seemed Arthur had killed her long ago.
There was no time to think about anything else. As Jasper stepped out of the villa, a burst of flames shot into the sky.
With a loud bang, Jasper was thrown into the air by a hot blast and then fell heavily.
Meanwhile...
Francis was already on his way to Arthur's villa with his team.
He was the first to notice Harper's disappearance. Given his relationship with Harper, he shouldn't have attended the party that day. But he was worried and went anyway.
After failing to get in touch with Harper and hearing she was resting, Francis headed to her room.
Moving slowly in his wheelchair, he felt a sense of alertness as he reached the door.
The door was ajar. Harper wouldn't leave the door open like that.
Upon entering, there was still a strange lingering fragrance in the air, but the room was already empty.
Francis immediately sounded the alarm and contacted Vincent. After understanding the situation, Vincent locked down the entire banquet venue.
But no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find Harper. Vincent immediately thought of the imprisoned Arthur. When they opened the tightly closed door, they found the servant who had taken Arthur to change clothes lying on the ground.
The servant was dressed in Arthur's white suit and had been dead for some time.
Vincent pulled up the surveillance footage and discovered that in a blind spot, after the two came out, the fake Arthur started walking strangely.
Arthur and the servant had different builds, but the servant's boots were filled with a lot of dirt, making it hard to tell in the video. The servant had already been swapped at that point.
So, from the beginning, they hadn't imprisoned Arthur but a scapegoat servant.
Judging by the servant's death, Arthur must have poisoned him, causing him to die immediately after closing the door.
At this moment, Francis noticed a discrepancy in Arthur's attire in the video. Arthur usually wore dress shoes regardless of the weather, but today he was wearing long boots.
Francis instantly realized that Arthur had premeditated this, which meant Jasper was also in danger.
Francis made the call immediately.
Currently, all exit points on Emerald Isle had been sealed off by Francis in cooperation with the government.
Arthur was now a wanted man across the island.
According to Francis's analysis, since Arthur went to great lengths to abduct Harper, he wouldn't kill her immediately.
Given Arthur's personality, he would kill anyone useless to him right away. Since he took Harper, she must be of some use to him, though Francis didn't know what that was.
On his way to Arthur's villa, Francis heard a loud bang followed by a plume of smoke rising from the direction of the villa.
Vincent cried out in distress, "Jasper!"
Then Vincent slid off his seat, kneeling in the car and covering his face, sobbing.
Francis also looked at the thick smoke, his eyes instantly reddening.
With a solemn expression, Francis silently vowed in his heart, 'Harper, I will find you!'
Harper could only feel cold. She was familiar with the cold of Emerald Isle, but this deep cold was something she had never felt before.
It felt like her body was suspended in a dark cave, surrounded by coffins, enveloping her.
The swelling pain in her body reminded her that this wasn't a dream, but she felt so tired and exhausted, that she couldn't even lift her eyelids.
Harper felt her whole body trembling, as if her breath would turn into ice spikes immediately.
A basin of icy water was poured over her.
The bone-chilling cold invaded her, and the survival instinct made Harper open her eyes.
The temperature was abnormally low, and the water on her eyelashes had turned into ice beads hanging from her eyes.
After a brief numbness, her body experienced a strange alternation of hot and cold, as if she couldn't feel her body anymore.
"How do you feel?" In the darkness, a man's voice came, sending chills down her spine.
Harper looked in the direction of the voice and saw Arthur, dressed in a red velvet suit, sitting on a high-backed chair, looking terrifying.
Suddenly, this scene overlapped with a memory, and a scene emerged in Harper's frozen mind.
It was the same dark night, with rain as cold as ice. Sean was holding Harper, running endlessly on a road until he fell hard. The frail Harper flew out like an arc, landing in a nearby muddy ditch.
Harper's body and face were covered in mud, blending into the dark ditch under the dense reeds. She struggled to get up and called out to Sean for help, but saw Sean shaking his head vigorously at her.
Then, despite the pain, Sean stood up, maintaining the posture of holding her, and tried to run forward.
Harper didn't understand why Sean was pretending to hold her when she was clearly in the ditch.
She stared blankly, and the next second, a glaring red sports car roared out like an arrow.
Sean, who had been running, was hit by the blinding headlights and flew into the air like a balloon, then fell heavily to the ground!
Harper saw Sean's legs and body completely disjointed, with both legs flying out, one landing right in front of her, it was bloody and mangled!
Sean's face, as he fell to the ground, was facing Harper, his eyes wide open, staring at her, as if telling her not to make a sound.
Harper looked at Sean's eyes, which had lost focus and were now just empty holes, wanting to scream, but her throat felt stuffed with cotton, unable to make a sound.
This, however, saved her life.
From the red sports car with a broken bumper, Arthur, dressed in a red velvet suit, stepped out.
Harper saw clearly that Arthur had a deceptively gentle and elegant appearance, but his actions were cruel.
He turned over Sean, who was now half a body, checking if he was dead.
Then he muttered to himself, as if asking Sean, "Where's the child?"
Harper knew the child he was asking about was her!
Harper didn't understand why Arthur was doing this.
It was her birthday, and Sean had happily said he would take her to buy a gift after finishing his work.
In a cake shop, Sean noticed Arthur staring at Harper and became nervous, thinking of the recent child abduction rumors.
Arthur didn't avoid suspicion, staring at Harper with eyes almost glued to her.
Sean was scared, grabbed the cake, and hurriedly left with Harper.
Unexpectedly, after turning a corner, they found the red car following them. Sean panicked even more.
Harper had always been more beautiful than other children.
For Harper's safety, Sean dressed her in old clothes to hide her beauty, preventing bad people from noticing her.
But Arthur seemed to have bad intentions.
Sean decided to wait and see if Arthur would leave, but the red car stopped as well.
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