Chapter 155

Chapter 155

"Who are you?"

The man on the other end of the line let out a cold laugh at William's question. "What do you care who I am? The way you're talking, don't tell me you're that worthless husband of Emily's?"

William didn't hesitate for a second. "I'm giving you one chance — bring Emily home right now. If you don't, I'll find you within two hours, and I'll make sure they never find your body."

The man burst out laughing. "Oh, I'm so scared."

With that, he hung up.

Delilah and Rowan could both tell something was wrong.

Rowan stepped forward, worry written all over his face. "Mr. Brown, what's going on? Is it the Tilden family?"

William knew the Tilden family wouldn't come after him today, not like this.

Whoever had taken Emily, it wasn't them. He'd need to send Mellivora and the others to find out who was behind it.

Mira and Remy were both staring at him. "Daddy, did something happen to Mommy?"

Not wanting to scare them, William crouched down and ruffled their hair, smiling. "Don't worry. Mommy's just out closing a deal. Once it's done, she'll make enough money to buy us a big new house. You two be good and listen to Rowan and Delilah, okay? Daddy's going to go pick Mommy up right now."

Kids are kids — a few words were all it took.

Delilah, though, was not a kid.

She caught up with him as he headed for the door. "Sir, would you like me to come with you?"

William waved her off. "No. Stay here and look after the children. Keep Ms. Blair and the kids safe. If anyone tries to break in, don't bother talking to them — just put them down."

Delilah nodded firmly. "You can count on me."

As William walked out, he was about to call Mellivora to ask whether anything suspicious had come up in the past couple of days.

He'd barely pulled out his phone when Daniel's voice exploded in his ear.

"William, you useless piece of trash — Emily's been kidnapped! They already called the house demanding ransom! Where the hell are you?"

That actually gave William something to work with.

He wouldn't even need Mellivora to track down Emily now.

"Tell me who they are."

"Get your ass over here right now," Daniel snapped. "We need to talk."

Then he hung up.

Half an hour earlier, Daniel had received a call from an unknown number.

He almost didn't answer it. Unknown numbers weren't worth his time.

But then it kept calling, again and again.

Out of curiosity, he finally picked up — and the man on the line didn't waste a second, demanding three hundred million dollars from the Taylor family.

Daniel's first thought was that someone was playing a joke on him.

Then he heard Emily's screaming through the phone.

Every hair on his body stood on end.

He knew better than anyone what it would mean for the Taylor family if something happened to Emily right now.

In two days, Albert was personally hosting a dinner to celebrate Emily taking over as president of Taylor Group. And even setting that aside, getting the deal with Preston Group across the line depended entirely on Emily showing up in person.

"Who are you people?"

The man laughed coldly. "Mr. Taylor, let's skip the introductions. I think you already know how much Ms. Taylor is worth to your family right now. Three hundred million isn't that much to ask. Get it ready — I'll send you the account number in an hour, and you can wire it over in batches. Once the money clears, I'll let her go. But if you try anything stupid, don't expect us to go easy on her. I imagine if Ms. Taylor were to meet with an unfortunate accident, the Taylor family might find itself becoming the next Turner family. Or the next Garcia family."

After the man laughed and hung up, Daniel's mind went completely blank.

He hadn't seen this coming.

In a panic, he went straight to Aiden.

Aiden nearly had a heart attack.

Within fifteen minutes, the key members of the Taylor family were all gathered at Daniel's house.

Everyone talking over each other, and after ten minutes of going back and forth, they were no closer to a solution.

Then Juniper said something that stopped everyone cold.

"Doesn't something feel off to you all? Why would they go after Emily specifically? And the way he talked — he knew exactly what situation our family is in right now. That's not a coincidence."

Aiden caught the look in Juniper's eyes and understood immediately.

His voice dropped low, edged with fury. "You're saying there's a mole inside the Taylor family."

Juniper didn't miss a beat. "Father, does that even need to be said? How would an outsider know that Emily is our lifeline right now?"

Aiden's mind went straight to Jasper's side of the family.

But before he could say it out loud, Juniper spoke first, her tone flat and cutting. "Father, if you ask me, we don't even need to think too hard about who the mole is. Think back — since William came into this family, what exactly has he been doing?"

With one offhand sentence, Juniper pointed the finger squarely at William.

Aiden had suspected Jasper, but once Juniper brought up William, he found it far easier to believe it was William than his own son.

After all, Jasper was his flesh and blood. What was William? A nobody. A deadbeat.

"Yes, yes! Daniel, what are you standing there for? Call that waste of space William right now! I want to ask him myself — what is he playing at? Three hundred million dollars — is he really trying to swindle three hundred million out of us?"

Daniel was more level-headed than Juniper.

Based on everything he'd observed lately, the odds of William being behind this were slim to none.

But Aiden had spoken, so Daniel picked up the phone and made the call.