MISSING!

Chapter 19: MISSING!

[London]

"D-Do you think you can scare me with this? I can put you behind bars for this."

Dylan leaned back lazily in his chair, a cold smile playing on his lips. Amelia's bravado was laughable. He glanced at his watch, impatient to leave and catch some much-needed sleep.

"Sure," he replied nonchalantly, "but this thing will go on air soon."

The girl sitting across from him visibly trembled, her eyes darting nervously around the café as if afraid someone might overhear their conversation.

"W-What do you w-want from me?" she stammered, her voice barely above a whisper. "Listen… B-Benjamin will kill you."

Dylan stifled a yawn, utterly bored with her theatrics. He took a sip of his coke, his demeanor unbothered. "Sure," he said again, his tone laced with mockery. "But this will still go on air tomorrow."

Amelia's face crumpled as tears spilled down her cheeks. She had been banking on Dylan's warm and soft-spoken exterior, believing it would make him susceptible to her manipulation. She underestimated him.

But Dylan wasn't moved by her tears. He wasn't going to show any mercy on this girl. Isabella is a strong girl. She wouldn't have cried if not for that video.

He had already decided to repay it 100-fold. And it's not like he schemed. He simply caught them.

Benjamin, Aaron, and even Amelia were all tangled in this disgusting mess.

Not only Aaron, even his girl friend Amelia was bought by Benjamin. She was like a shuttlecock. Being all chummy with Aaron in the morning, and getting all touchy with Benjamin in the night.

If they could film Isabella without consent, then he could, too.

Dylan had deliberately visited the Barnett Mansion under the pretense of dinner, knowing full well Benjamin would have Amelia in his playroom. Capturing their R18 antics on video had been surprisingly easy.

"Dylan, p-please," Amelia sobbed, her voice quivering. "You don't have to stoop this low just because you want me."

Dylan choked on his drink, coughing violently. "Want you?" he repeated, incredulous. She had grossly overestimated herself.

Honestly, he felt sick looking at Benjamin, this girl, and a few other girls Benjamin banged recently.

Benjamin had their hair colored blonde, and made them put on green contact lenses. It wasn't hard to figure out what he was thinking.

Amelia's wails grated on his nerves, her voice as irritating as nails on a chalkboard. His patience finally snapped.

"Shut up."

Amelia froze, immediately putting on a demure, vulnerable expression. Surely, he wouldn't resist the urge to save a damsel in distress?

"You have until tomorrow night," Dylan said, his voice low and firm. "Every copy of the locker room video you made should be erased. Every. Single. Copy. Whether it's with Benjamin, Grayson, Aaron, or anyone else—I don't care. It all disappears."

Amelia's blood ran cold. So this was all about the video. She cursed her luck. How could she have known that Isabella's friend was the adopted son of the Barnett family?

"Oh, so you're here to blackmail me," she retorted weakly. "I can release that video ri—"

She shut her mouth when she saw Dylan's face darken. His eyes bored into hers, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe.

"People won't take it lightly once they find out you illegally recorded a girl changing in the locker room," Dylan said, his tone deceptively calm. "Isabella won't lose anything. But what about this?" He tapped his phone screen, showing her a glimpse of her own shameful actions.

Amelia paled, her hands trembling. She clenched her fists under the table, desperately searching for a way out.

"Be smart… and fast," Dylan said, standing up to leave. "You have 24 hours. If I don't get a positive reply by then, don't bother trying to contact me. I'll air it for real."

He didn't look back as he exited the café, heading straight to his studio. Hunger gnawed at him, but he ignored it. Dinner at the Barnett Mansion had been an unbearable ordeal.

His adoptive mother's incessant reminders of the "debt" he owed her—shelter, family, education—made him nauseous. She'd even suggested he fight Benjamin for the family fortune.

Dylan shook his head, cursing himself for agreeing to the adoption all those years ago.

The cold facade on his face slowly disappeared as he neared their apartment. He thought how he would have never even become so cold and distant had he never left Isabella.

"Heh? I thought you were sleeping at Barnett Mansion" Isabella asked when he entered the room.

"You seem to want me gone princess" Dylan joked, earning an exaggerated nod from Isabella in response.

Dylan chuckled and shook his head looking at her antics.

Isabella was trying hard not to fall asleep by the time he came out of washroom. She was working extra hard to complete her assignments.

Thanks to Dylan, Grayson really took sick leave, and a female professor took charge. She was a kind lady in her late 50's. Isabella honestly told her the problem and requested to either regrade or give new assignments for her to complete.

The professor accepted, but the condition was that she should submit all those before Grayson comes back again. So now she was pulling all-nighters to complete the new assignments.

"Go to sleep. You can study tomorrow. There is still time" Dylan said as he put all her books aside.

Isabella didn't argue. She slipped into bed, allowing Dylan to tuck her in.

But as he adjusted the blanket around her neck, he froze. His brow furrowed as he noticed faint blue marks on her skin.

"Isabella. What happened to your neck?" Dylan asked.

 Isabella slightly opened one eye and looked at him. What happened to her neck?

She twisted her neck a little bit but everything felt okay.

"What do you mean?"

Dylan unlocked his phone camera and positioned it towards Isabella's neck. But Isabella immediately snatched his phone and covered her chest.

"You pervert. You got started again. You really want to die, don't you?" Isabella glared, her cheeks flushed again. This fellow was making too many advances these days.

Dylan was also flustered after he realized how it looked. He didn't have that kind of fetish, Hmph.

"Cough.. Don't think too much. I just wanted you to clearly see what happened to your neck."

"Hmph.. I will check in mirror" Isabella got up and walked into the washroom. Dylan stood by the washroom door as she checked her neck.

Isabella got confused finding two dark blue dots between her neck and shoulder. This was definitely not there an hour ago. Else she would have seen them after taking her bath.

"There are another two on the back too" Dylan pointed out.

Isabella tried to wash those marks with water, but they seemed to be a part of her skin.

Dylan too got worried and stepped closer. His thumb gently stroked the spots on the back. Isabella tensed at the sudden touch. It was as if a current passed through her without any warning.

She looked into the mirror and found Dylan worriedly looking at the spots, with no other trash in his mind unlike her. She took a slow deep breathe to calm down her heart.

"Does it hurt?" Dylan asked looking at her in the mirror. Isabella simply shook her head.

"This kind of looks like a snake bite." Dylan commented.

"Hey.. Don't scare me. I will just go to a dermatologist tomorrow." Isabella said. She would know if she was bitten by something.

A yawn escaped her lips. She just wanted to get some good sleep. Might be this will go away by morning.

Dylan didn't say anything after that, but that green ring was stuck in his head. Everything felt very wrong with that around.

He patiently waited till Isabella fell asleep before slowly and carefully approaching the shelf again. He planned to get rid of that ring for good. Others might laugh at him, but he believed the ring was haunted.

But when he opened the box, his blood ran cold. The ring was not there. A chill ran down his spine but he immediately shook his head and looked at Isabella.

He silently went to her and lift her blanket to check her hands. Her hands were bare. There was no ring.

At this moment all his sleep has already abandoned him. He should have threw away the damn ring on the very day she bought it. Now it was missing.

MISSING!!

He knew Isabella. She was too lazy to move anything in the room, no matter how valuable it is. There is no way Isabella moved the ring.

So it must be some thief. He calmed his heart down saying it was a thief and went downstairs.

The security guard gave him a side eye when he arrived at the monitor room again. 'You came again?' was written all over the guard's face.

Dylan spent almost two hours in the room checking all the tapes of last week after the door collapsed.

Except for one online delivery guy no one else visited their room. Isabella too never went anywhere wearing that ring. Which meant it wasn't lost either.