Chapter 167 Death?

Chapter 167 Death?

Dead?

This was all Stella's fault.

Irene stared at a cockroach on the floor, her eyes burning with wild hatred.

She couldn't just let this go.

If she was going to die anyway, she'd take Stella down with her.

She'd been focusing on the wrong thing before, overlooking the person Stella cared about most — her son.

She used the last pieces of jewelry she had left to bribe two junkies from the slums.

Jared had a kindergarten outdoor sketching trip today.

Dennis's bodyguards were good, but in an open park, there would always be blind spots.

Irene slapped a hand-drawn map on the table and looked at the two scrawny men. "Grab the kid named Jared and bring him to me. Once you deliver him, you get the rest of the money."

The two junkies' eyes lit up at the sight of cash.

They didn't care who the target was. As long as there was money for drugs, that was all that mattered.

Noon.

Stella was sitting in the villa's sunroom when Dennis walked over carrying two cups of coffee.

"Try this — just had the beans delivered." Dennis handed her a cup, sat down on the sofa beside her, and pulled her legs over onto his lap, gently kneading her calves.

Stella took a sip. The flavor was rich and full.

"Jared finishes his sketching trip at three this afternoon. Let's go pick him up together." She set down her cup.

"Sure." Dennis looked at her. "After we get him, let's go to the beach for dinner."

Just then, Stella's phone on the table buzzed.

A text from an unknown number.

Stella picked it up casually and opened the message. Inside was a short audio file, just over ten seconds long.

Without thinking, she hit play.

"Mommy! Mommy, help me! I'm scared!"

Jared's voice came through the speaker, crying and screaming.

In the background, something heavy crashed to the ground, and a man's rough voice snarled, "Shut the hell up!"

Stella's hand jerked. The phone slipped from her fingers and fell onto the carpet.

Her breath stopped cold.

Dennis stood up immediately, his face dark, and bent down to pick up the phone. He played the audio again.

It was Jared's voice. No question.

"Jared——" Stella scrambled to her feet, shaking all over. "They took Jared!"

Dennis pulled her into his arms and gripped her shoulders firmly with both hands.

"Stay calm, Stella. Look at me." His voice was steady and firm. "I'm here. Jared is going to be okay."

He pulled out his own phone and called the head of the bodyguard team assigned to protect Jared.

The phone rang for a long time before someone picked up. The bodyguard's voice was frantic. "Mr. Wright! Jared is gone! An unmarked van came out of nowhere in the park. They threw tear gas — he was taken before we could stop them. We're in pursuit right now!"

"Useless." Dennis said through clenched teeth. "Pull all the surveillance footage along the route. Focus on that van. Contact Red — lock down every road out of the city."

He hung up. Then Stella's phone lit up again.

This time it was a call from an unknown number.

Stella took a slow, deep breath.

Could this really be Miles losing it again, trying to take the child?

She forced herself to calm down.

She couldn't panic. She had to get her son back.

She wasn't that pushover anymore — the one everyone used to walk all over.

She answered the call and put it on speaker.

"Stella, did you hear your son's voice?" Irene's hoarse, grating laugh came through the phone.

It was Irene. She was the one behind this.

Stella's hands curled into fists so tight her nails dug into her palms.

"Irene, if you touch him, I swear I'll have you cut into pieces and fed to dogs."

"Oh, I'm so scared!" Irene laughed like she'd lost her mind. "I've got nothing left anyway. They even took away my ability to have children! My life is worthless. Taking your precious son down with me? Sounds like a fair trade to me."

"What do you want?" Stella asked through gritted teeth.

"I want you to drop every single charge against me right now. Go to the police station and pull the case." Irene's voice turned sharp. "Then get me a fully fueled private jet and ten million in cash. I'm leaving the country."

"Fine. I agree." Stella didn't hesitate for a second.

As long as Jared was safe, money meant nothing.

"Hold on, I'm not done." Irene let out a cold laugh. "I don't want Dennis's people delivering anything. Stella, you come alone — bring the cash yourself, to the abandoned chemical plant on the west side of the city. Just you. If you call the cops, or if Dennis follows you, I'll throw that little bastard off the roof right now."

Jared's crying came through the phone again. "Mommy……"

Then the line went dead.

The dial tone echoed through the sunroom.

Stella stood there, her face drained of color.

The abandoned chemical plant on the west side — a place that had been shut down for years, filled with rusted iron frames and toxic chemical waste.

Irene had no intention of letting her walk out alive. This was a trap with no exit.

If she went in alone, Irene would kill both her and Jared.

Dennis tossed his phone on the table and held Stella's face in both hands.

"You're not going. It's a trap. I'll have Red surround the whole place — not even a fly gets out."

"But Jared is in there with her!" Stella looked up at him, eyes red but dry. "She's out of her mind. If she sees your people coming, she will throw him off that roof."

"I'm not letting you walk into that." Dennis said it flat out. There was no way he was sending his woman in alone to face something like that.

Stella pulled free from his hands.

She stepped back and looked him in the eye.

"Dennis, that's my son. If anything happens to him, I will never forgive myself. Not for the rest of my life."

Dennis held her face in his hands. He didn't reach for empty words to brush her off. He knew there was no stopping a mother at a moment like this.

"Okay. You go." He looked straight at her. "But I need you to be safe. I'll get the money ready. You walk in with it, and my people will be outside. The moment she takes the money and lets Jared go, we move in."

Stella took a long breath and nodded. Right now, all she could hear in her head was Jared screaming for her.

Meanwhile, on an abandoned road at the edge of the city.

Miles lay crumpled on the ground like a broken man. His wrist was snapped, the pain long past feeling. The blood on his scalp had dried and crusted, leaving him looking completely wrecked.

Suddenly, the backup phone in his pocket buzzed.

He dug it out with his good hand.

It was a video message.

Miles opened it.

On screen, Jared was tied to a broken chair, face soaked with tears, crying out for his mom. From behind the camera came Irene's raspy laugh.

"Miles, take a good look at your precious son." Irene's voice had gone completely unhinged. "Didn't you say you'd never marry me? That all you wanted was Stella and that little bastard? You dumped me in the middle of nowhere and watched my baby die. So now it's my turn to decide whether your son lives or dies."

Miles's pupils blew wide.

Jared.

Irene had his son.