Chapter 32 Hack Her to Pieces

Chapter 32 Hack Her to Pieces

In less than ten minutes, the entire California High School was completely surrounded by gang members—a massive crowd as far as the eye could see.

Yet despite such a huge commotion, not a single media outlet dared to report on it, and the police station remained completely silent.

Although the school's PA system kept reassuring students to focus on their classes, parents who had gotten wind of the situation were blowing up the teachers' phones.

The landline in the principal's office kept ringing non-stop. After nervously confirming with Evelyn multiple times that she could handle the situation, Principal Quinn finally steeled himself and unplugged the phone line.

"Listen up, people of California High School! Hand over Evelyn and you can all leave school safely today. Otherwise, you'll face the consequences!" The gang leader kept shouting through a megaphone outside, but showed no signs of actually coming in.

Many students who already disliked Evelyn immediately got all fired up and rushed toward the principal's office. Although quite a few were scolded back by teachers, some bold ones—or those who just loved stirring up trouble—still gathered outside the principal's office, shouting loudly.

"Evelyn, get out!"

"Evelyn, get out!"

The scene fell into a completely out-of-control yet strangely frozen balance. The students outside the principal's office didn't dare go in and could only yell, the gang members just stood outside the school without entering, and the police station and outside world acted as if they hadn't received any news at all.

Principal Quinn paced back and forth in his office, unable to sit still. All he could do now was wait, but if he didn't calm down the students outside, things would spiral out of control sooner or later.

If they couldn't hold back and rushed into the principal's office to clash with Evelyn... Principal Quinn thought of how ruthless Evelyn had been earlier and couldn't help but shudder.

He wasn't worried about Evelyn's safety—honestly, even if something happened to her, she'd have brought it on herself, and with her parents' limited influence, they couldn't cause him trouble. He was more worried about those students outside. If they got hurt, their parents would make the school's life hell.

Principal Quinn finally forced himself to leave the office and personally went to the school gate to talk with the gang members face-to-face.

The Black Hand gang leader glanced at him and waved for his men to bring him to a long black SUV.

The car door opened automatically. Dominic was leaning back in his seat, holding a cigar, his face marked by a terrifying scar that looked especially sinister through the swirling smoke.

"Principal Quinn, the doctor says my son will never walk again for the rest of his life." He grinned, but his eyes looked like they could devour someone. "He's my only son. Tell me, what should I do?"

Principal Quinn's legs trembled with fear, his words coming out broken: "Let's... let's talk this out, Mr. Foster. How about we chat in my office? Whatever you want, just say it directly."

Dominic stared at him silently for two seconds, then sneered and waved his hand.

The car door closed automatically again. His subordinate firmly gestured for Principal Quinn to leave.

Principal Quinn wanted to try again, but noticing the murderous looks all around him, he didn't dare speak. He hunched his shoulders and hurried back into the school.

The subtext of what he'd said to Dominic was that he could hand over Evelyn—the other party could go directly to the principal's office to grab her themselves. Then whether they wanted to kill her or torture her would be entirely up to them.

But Dominic clearly felt that wouldn't be satisfying enough.

He was now surrounding the school and deliberately creating panic among the students to force them to break into the principal's office and drag Evelyn out.

There were hundreds and thousands of students. No matter how capable Evelyn was, she couldn't fight off that many people. What Dominic wanted was for Evelyn to be betrayed and expelled by her own classmates, fought over and torn apart like a piece of cargo. As for what he would do to torture her after taking her from the students—that was another story.

The situation seemed stable for now, but the fear was that if Dominic lost patience, he might do something extreme to provoke the students in the school and cause real chaos.

Principal Quinn trembled at the thought and gathered his courage to call the new governor.

The higher-ups at the police station had definitely been bought off by Dominic already. His only hope now was that the governor could step in and send people.

"Beep—beep—hello?"

The call finally connected. Principal Quinn instantly gripped his phone tightly with excitement, trying hard to stay calm: "Hello, Governor Thomas. I'm the principal of California High School. I'm sorry to bother you, but there's something I'd like to..."

Ethan hung up and put down his phone, his gaze falling on the secretary across from him. "That's the sixth one."

In ten minutes, he'd rejected all the calls he could reject. Of those remaining that he couldn't directly refuse due to the caller's status, there were already six.

Frank, the secretary who was a "holdover from the previous administration," pushed up his glasses and advised again: "Governor Thomas, in the current situation, staying calm is the best strategy."

Frank had been the governor's secretary for four years and knew California inside out. As the new governor, Ethan had shown him a humble, learning attitude from day one, and Frank hadn't held back, telling him everything he knew.

The Foster family was a force to be reckoned with in California. On the surface, California's economy relied on publicly traded companies like Dupont Corporation and the Ashford Corporation, but in reality, the big money was all controlled by the Fosters and Wells through their underworld operations.

This California embezzlement and tax evasion case involved many parties. Even though it pained them, they investigated the Ashford Corporation, a major taxpayer, without hesitation. But they didn't dare easily touch the Fosters' and Wells' underworld operations—simply because they had military backing from Washington.

Supposedly, the governor from two terms ago had died under mysterious circumstances when he tried to investigate the gambling dens. His family and friends were protesting at the police station in the morning demanding an investigation into his death, but by that night they'd fled the country and hadn't returned since.

Ethan understood the stakes and didn't plan to clash head-on with these local powers—he just wanted to coexist peacefully. So he immediately followed Frank's suggestion to suppress the media and block all news.

Now, hearing from Principal Quinn about what had started this whole thing—that the other party was making such a big fuss over just one student from an ordinary family—he actually felt relieved. After thinking for a moment, he had Frank proactively contact Dominic and pass along a message: "Achieve your goal, but don't make this bigger than it needs to be."

Dominic wasn't angry when he received this message from the new governor. Since the other party was willing to do him a favor, he naturally had to show some respect. Although he wouldn't get to see Evelyn torn apart by others, he didn't mind doing it himself and cutting her into a thousand pieces.

The car door opened, and Dominic got out, walking into the school under everyone's gaze.

Evelyn had been sitting on the sofa the whole time. Whether it was deafeningly loud outside the door or dead silent, it seemed to have nothing to do with her.

The principal's office door was kicked open directly. Principal Quinn bowed and scraped as he approached, but was shoved aside by Dominic.

"You people really aren't afraid to die." Dominic glared viciously at Evelyn, already deciding in one second what use every organ in her body would serve.

He slightly bent his fingers, signaling his men to grab her.

But after waiting half a minute, there was no response from behind him.

Dominic coughed lightly with clear displeasure, cursing his slow-reacting subordinates in his mind.

Evelyn's disdainful laugh was his only response.

Dominic immediately turned around angrily while cursing: "You useless—"

His words cut off abruptly.

He saw his men all pressed to the ground by police officers, with two more walking toward him with guns drawn.

Behind the two officers was the new governor, Ethan.

Dominic had seen Ethan's photo and immediately recognized him. Just as he was about to angrily question why he was saying one thing and doing another, Ethan shoved him aside.

Ethan quickly walked to Evelyn's side, half-kneeling respectfully with a smile: "I'm sorry I'm late. Thank you for waiting."