Chapter 164

Chapter 164

Deep within the Bourbon family castle basement.

Dark. Damp.

Moss in the corners gave off a nauseating moldy stench. Several fat rats scurried brazenly through puddles.

A coughing fit shattered the silence.

In the corner, a heap of rags—their original color indiscernible—shifted slightly.

It was Lavinia.

The movie star who'd once commanded great influence in Silverlight City, who'd nearly became the world's most watched wealthy wife, now lay curled on the ground, barely clinging to life.

The heavy iron door was pushed open. A blinding beam of light shot in.

A mercenary with a brutal face carried in food reeking of sour rot.

"Eat up, bitch. Mr. Bourbon said we can't let you die so quickly."

The mercenary kicked the pig-slop-like food toward Lavinia, his gaze roaming over her barely concealed skin.

Ulysses had recently been driven to distraction by the Getty Group and Clifford Group—he hadn't come to torture her in the basement for several days.

To these bottom-tier guards, no matter how noble Lavinia once was, she was now just a toy the master had tired of.

Lavinia didn't look at the bowl of food.

She bit her teeth, swallowing all the towering hatred and humiliation deep inside.

She couldn't die!

She absolutely couldn't rot away in this godforsaken place!

That bitch Scarlett was still out there living freely—why should she wait here for death?

Lavinia endured the searing pain throughout her body and propped up her upper body.

She deliberately pulled down the torn fabric at her collar, exposing a large expanse of delicate skin. In those bloodshot eyes, she forced a hint of seduction.

"Sir..." Her voice was hoarse and grating. "Don't you... want money you could never spend in a lifetime?"

The mercenary froze, then let out a lecherous laugh, rubbing his hands as he approached. "Money? Looking like a ghost, how could you possibly give me money?"

"I... I have a hidden fund of ten million dollars in a Veridian bank..." Lavinia voluntarily pressed her body against the mercenary's thigh. "If you just help me... get me a fake passport, arrange a route back home..."

She tilted her head up, her eyes flashing with temptation. "That ten million is all yours. And... so am I..."

The mercenary's eyes lit up instantly.

Ten million dollars! That was more than a low-level mercenary like him could earn in ten lifetimes!

What's more, though this woman, before him, was disheveled now, she was still an absolute beauty.

"Is what you're saying... true?" The mercenary's Adam's apple moved.

"Once I get back home, I'll do anything you want..." Lavinia closed her eyes, letting those rough hands roam over her body.

Humiliation, pain, disgust—they submerged her like a tide.

She screamed frantically in her mind: 'Scarlett! You just wait! All the suffering I've endured—I'll make you pay it back a thousand, ten thousand times over!'

Half a month later.

Silverlight City, an abandoned cargo dock.

The night river wind carried bone-chilling cold.

A boat docked under cover of darkness and quickly vanished.

A woman wrapped entirely in black—like a demon crawling from hell—staggered ashore.

Lavinia had returned.

After enduring countless unspeakable humiliations and tortures, she'd finally set foot alive on Silverlight City soil.

The night before disembarking, while the mercenary slept, Lavinia had used a rusty piece of metal to slit his throat without hesitation!

All her pretenses and remaining sanity had been completely extinguished in that basement and on that black ship.

The current Lavinia was a complete madwoman!

She hid and dodged, avoiding all surveillance that might expose her identity, and infiltrated a hidden underground black market.

Using her secret overseas funds, Lavinia activated the most notorious bounty on the dark web.

"Money? I have plenty." In the dim underground room, Lavinia's gaunt face—crisscrossed with scars—looked like a vengeful ghost.

She slammed a bank note on the table, staring fixedly at several desperadoes who lived on the edge. "I only want three lives!"

"Scarlett!"

"I want her—and those little bastards around her—all dead without intact corpses!"

Meanwhile.

Sapphire Hill Estate was a scene of warmth and tranquility, starkly different from the world's chaos outside.

Rare sunlight streamed through massive floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling onto soft Persian carpets.

Scarlett wore a cream-colored loungewear set, sitting cross-legged on the carpet with an exquisite pop-up storybook in her hands.

"And then, the brave little knight drew his sword and said to the dragon: 'I'm not afraid of you!'"

To her left, Orla hugged a stuffed bear, listening with rapt attention.

To her right, Arthur leaned quietly against her shoulder.

Over the past half month, under Scarlett's unreserved motherly love and Orla's daily chatter and closeness, the ice around Arthur was melting bit by bit.

He would voluntarily take Orla's hand. He would quietly listen to Scarlett's stories.

"Starry, that big dragon is so ugly, right?"

Orla leaned over and pressed her soft little face against Arthur's cheek.

Arthur's body stiffened slightly, but he didn't pull away.

His long lashes fluttered twice as he looked at the fierce dragon in the storybook and nodded extremely slowly.

"...Ugly." He produced a slightly hoarse but remarkably clear syllable.

Scarlett's heartbeat skipped violently!

She turned her head in disbelief, looking at the son leaning on her shoulder. Her eyes instantly reddened.

"Baby... did you just... speak?" Scarlett's voice trembled, afraid that speaking louder would disturb this fragile miracle.

Arthur looked up.

In those deep eyes so similar to Thaddeus's, the former fear and wariness had faded, reflecting Scarlett's tear-filled face.

Arthur extended his small hand and gently wiped away the tear on Scarlett's cheek. "Mommy, don't cry."

Arthur's small body burrowed deeper into Scarlett's embrace, his arms wrapping tightly around her waist. "Mommy, don't go... don't leave me..."

Scarlett's tears burst forth like a broken dam, surging uncontrollably. "I won't leave! Mommy's not going anywhere!"

She pulled both Arthur and Orla tightly into her arms, kissing her son's soft hair, sobbing uncontrollably. "Mommy will never leave you again—not in this life, the next, or for all eternity!"

"Mommy would die before leaving you!"

Scarlett swore silently that as long as she lived, nothing and no one in this world could harm her children in the slightest!

In the study outside the courtyard.

Sawyer held a phone, his brow furrowed tightly.

Though Arthur's autism had been greatly soothed emotionally, the long-term drug control and mental abuse had left extremely serious hidden dangers in his nervous system.

To completely cure Arthur, Sawyer had purchased at high cost a newly developed targeted neural repair miracle drug.

This drug was extremely scarce globally and subject to strict biological controls.

"Mr. Adams, the medication has arrived at Silverlight City customs through special channels and can be secretly delivered tonight."

"Be extremely careful." Sawyer warned in a deep voice.

"Rest assured, all logistics information is triple-encrypted. Absolutely safe."

Sawyer hung up and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long breath.

Once this batch of medication arrived, Arthur could fully recover. And Scarlett could finally let go of her burden completely.

Silverlight City, a dark underground room.

In a room reeking of acrid smoke, an old computer screen emitted an eerie blue glow.

"Found it."

A hacker covered in tattoos hit the enter key and turned to look at Lavinia sitting in the corner like a withered corpse.

"That batch of overseas miracle drugs you put a huge bounty on—though the logistics endpoint was encrypted, I locked onto the final coordinates by reverse-tracing the overseas medical fund flow."

The hacker turned the computer screen around.

On the electronic map, a glaring red dot lit up.

Lavinia stared fixedly at that red dot, her face splitting into a horrifying smile.

"Finally found you, Scarlett!"