Chapter 1276 Treat Him in His Own Way

Chapter 1276 Treat Him in His Own Way

That night, Ankenra City was drowning in rain.

Arthur was grabbed the moment he stepped outside. In the downpour, he was beaten half to death inside a burlap sack, thrown into the ocean, and pulled back out.

When he came to, he was on a beat-up old cargo ship. Several men stood over him — rough-looking, rough-dressed, the kind you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"An eye for an eye."

One of the men said it flatly, a small blade already catching the light in his hand.

Arthur tried to fight back. He couldn't even lift his arms.

Unlike when Victoria had been taken — bound with nothing worse than rope — this time his wrists were locked in rusted iron shackles.

The Montgomery Group had been seized. Faye stood vigil at the Ward family's front gate.

The doors stayed shut. No one came out to meet her.

Ruby's phone went straight to voicemail. Faye waited through the morning, and by noon, two cars pulled up.

She spun around, heart lifting — maybe this was her chance. No matter what, she was going to get in front of someone from the Ward family today.

But the moment she stepped forward, both cars stopped, and the men who climbed out were each carrying an iron rod. They walked straight toward her.

Faye's mind went blank. She scrambled behind her car.

Crack.

The first man swung at her BMW as something had snapped in him. Then came another impact. And another. The windows shattered. The hood caved in. The sound was deafening.

In under half an hour, her car was totaled.

Faye's legs gave out beneath her. She sank slowly to the ground, knees hitting the pavement, unable to make sense of any of it.

Where had these men come from? Why had they destroyed her car?

She had only come here to beg Zachary to help her son — son, who was his own son-in-law, for God's sake.

How does a person just vanish like that?

She had thought about calling the police. But Arthur's words stopped her every time. She couldn't go to the police. She absolutely could not. Besides the Ward family, who else was left to turn to?

Faye finally took a cab to the prison.

The man sitting across from her through the scratched glass was a stranger wearing Dorian's face — hollowed out, aged far beyond his years. She'd once been consumed by him. Now she was here scraping the bottom of her last hope.

"Dorian. Our son is missing."

"What did he do?"

That was all Dorian asked.

"He — he didn't do anything. He was just working himself to the bone trying to keep the Montgomery Group alive."

"And yet the Montgomery Group got shut down."

Something about that almost made Dorian laugh. Almost. He couldn't quite manage it anymore.

"He's our only son," Faye said, her voice sharpening. "The only heir the Montgomery family has left."

So why did it feel like she was the only one panicking? He was both of their child.

She didn't understand that when a man spends long enough behind bars — kept comfortable, kept still — something in him quietly switches off.

"Last time he came to visit, he told me that a businessman has to gamble everything in rough waters," Dorian said. "I knew then it was only a matter of time before something went wrong."

"Are you seriously blaming Arthur right now?" Faye's voice cracked. "Don't forget what you are. If you hadn't gone after Victoria, you wouldn't be serving a life sentence."

"Yes."

Dorian had nothing else to say. He pushed back his chair and stood.

"Dorian — save our son. I've run out of options."

Faye's voice rose only when she saw him moving toward the door.

But Dorian couldn't even save himself. He walked back the way he'd come and didn't look back.

"Dorian…"

Watching him leave without so much as a flinch, Faye felt something cold settle over her. She had wasted her heart on a useless man.

The Dorian she had once known — confident, commanding, untouchable — was gone. What was left wasn't even worth the name.

But where was Arthur?

Faye took a cab to Olivia's house and stood outside the gate. Her mind was already working. Her son had vanished out of nowhere, and it had everything to do with the blind woman who was stepping out of that front door right now — she was sure of it.