Chapter 112
That was exactly what happened. When the police set their sights on Brian, he had already gotten word.
Brian had been in the business world for many years and had his own intelligence network.
Although he hadn't established connections with the police department, he knew a lot of people. So when the police cars headed in his direction, Brian had already fled.
But he also understood that if the police couldn't find him, they would definitely continue searching the surrounding areas, so he couldn't stop; he had to keep running.
This cat-and-mouse chase went on for four full hours. Brian had already left the state and arrived in a nearby city.
Four hours later, it was already late at night. In another two or three hours, it would be dawn.
Only then did Brian hit the brakes and pull over to the side of the road.
Harper sat beside him, and Amelia lay on the back seat.
She was tied up tightly, with a rag stuffed in her mouth and tape pressed firmly over her mouth.
"Honey, let's stay at this hotel for now."
Harper carefully tugged at Brian's sleeve. "We can't keep running like this. It's the middle of the night; the police shouldn't catch up this quickly."
"We're exhausted too. Driving while tired isn't safe. How about we rest for the night and leave after dawn?"
Brian nodded.
He glanced back, then irritably opened the car door, untied the ropes, pulled out the rag, and ripped off the strong tape.
Amelia finally came to her senses, but before she could speak, Brian grabbed her hair and threatened coldly, "When we get into the hotel, keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything you shouldn't, or I'll kill you tonight!"
Amelia nodded frantically, her heart pounding with fear.
Brian held Harper with one hand and gripped Amelia's neck with the other as they walked into the hotel and checked into a room.
The front desk staff looked curiously at the three people before them, their eyes full of nosy curiosity.
It wasn't unusual for couples, married or not, to check into hotels, but these three were different.
They were clearly middle-aged people around forty, yet they were checking in, and it was one man with two women. It was a strange combination, no matter how you looked at it.
But the front desk staff was too busy guessing their relationship to notice the unusual look in Amelia's eyes.
After getting the room, Brian took the two women into the elevator.
Actually, now that things had reached this point, Brian felt quite regretful.
When he first kidnapped Amelia, he just wanted to shut Emily up. He planned to record a clarification video to post online, proving everything had nothing to do with him. That would have been enough.
As for what kind of backlash Emily would face, what did that have to do with him? Deep down, he didn't want to acknowledge Emily as his daughter anyway.
But he never expected things to spiral out of control. Thinking about it carefully, from the moment Emily reported it to the police, he had embarked on this life on the run, and who knew when it would end.
What Brian didn't know was that, although he thought he was safe here, a new crisis was already quietly closing in.
Amelia hadn't eaten much in the past two days. Her steps were unsteady, and when Brian pushed her, she fell to the ground.
"Get up!"
Brian kicked her. "Don't put on this act in front of me. Go sleep in the corner and don't bother me!"
Harper also glared at Amelia with disgust, then pulled Brian to the balcony. She locked the main door and put on the security chain.
"Honey, what should we do now?"
Harper was worried. "We can't keep running with her like this. How long can we keep this up? Sooner or later, the police will find us. What will we do then?"
Brian lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. Through the swirling smoke, his brow furrowed.
"So what do you think we should do?"
At first, he thought bringing Amelia along while escaping meant having leverage to threaten Emily, and he was quite pleased with himself.
But once he actually hit the road, Brian realized this wasn't leverage against Emily at all; it was a hot potato he couldn't get rid of.
If he'd known it would be like this, he might as well have left Amelia in the villa to fend for herself. Even if he couldn't touch Emily for now, he could find another opportunity later.
Now look at this mess; wherever he went, he had to bring Amelia along.
Harper glanced outside and lowered her voice. "Honey, why don't we just leave her here?"
"The police will definitely track us here, but we'll leave at dawn. Even if the police do come, they'll just find an empty room."
"If even she doesn't know where we're going, the police certainly won't. What do you think?"
Brian's smoking hand paused sharply.
This was a solution, but he felt somewhat reluctant.
He'd gone through so much trouble to get Amelia out. Although he had some regrets, things had already reached this point. If he really abandoned Amelia now, what would he do in the future?
He'd been saddled with this charge out of nowhere, his business was ruined, and it would be hard to return to his peak unless Emily dropped the charges.
The more Brian thought about it, the more regretful he felt.
"Honey, don't worry."
Harper saw Brian's distress and quickly said, "Just because there's no opportunity now doesn't mean there won't be one later."
"The urgent thing is for us to get away as quickly as possible. As long as we don't get caught, we'll still have a chance to fight back!"
This last sentence woke Brian up. He took another deep drag on his cigarette, threw the butt on the ground, and stomped on it hard.
"We're not waiting. Let's go now, right now!"
Brian glanced outside.
After so many years as a businessman, he trusted his instincts, and this hotel was definitely not a place to stay long.
Since he'd already decided to abandon Amelia and run, he needed to do it quickly. If the police showed up while they were sleeping, they wouldn't be able to escape.
Thinking it over, although running away like this was embarrassing, he hadn't actually caused Amelia any real harm, so the kidnapping charge wouldn't stick; at least there wasn't enough evidence for the police.
Maybe after things died down, he could find someone to work things out, and he could come back.
As for Emily, thinking of her, Brian smiled coldly.
He bet Emily wouldn't dare to go head-to-head with him. If she really wanted to sue him, worst case scenario, they'd both go down together.
He wanted to see just how capable Emily really was.
Brian made a quick decision, tied Amelia up again, stuffed the rag back in, and left with Harper.
At this moment, Brian still didn't know just how right this decision was.
At five in the morning, police sirens sounded at the hotel entrance. Two police cars pulled up neatly in front of the hotel, and several officers filed in. After a brief stop at the front desk, they immediately went upstairs.
Among them was Emily, who stood out particularly among the officers.
When they reached the room, Emily pushed open the door and was stunned by the scene before her.