Chapter 3

The kidnapper laughed loudly after saying those words.

I finally saw clearly what I looked like now on the screen - my face covered in wounds, with jagged knife cuts twisting across it like centipedes. The scabbed-over blood made the injuries look even more horrifying.

And watching the comments scrolling rapidly on the screen, I suddenly realized.

This madman! This lunatic! He had actually started a livestream!

"Oh my God, what is this? This can't be some prank stream, right? Is this some kind of Halloween makeup?"

"As a professional makeup artist with 20 years of experience, I can tell you this isn't makeup - it's real."

"Has anyone called the police? Please, someone save this poor girl. I'm begging you, help her!"

The number of viewers skyrocketed. Soon, a highlighted comment caught the kidnapper's attention.

"Connect with me, I'm a police officer."

The moment that comment floated by, a request to connect popped up.

Perhaps because he had already received several warning notifications during the stream, the kidnapper was afraid the channel would get banned. So he accepted the call.

"Officer, make it quick. The stream might get shut down any minute now."

The police officer's voice was very calm, seemingly trying to steady the kidnapper.

"Hello, I'm the captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit. Is the hostage safe right now? Whatever demands you have, feel free to state them.

"Don't harm the hostage anymore. You're still young, don't do something you'll regret."

"Who are you looking for? I'll do my best to help you. I'm with the police, you can trust me."

Perhaps because the livestream was now the only platform where the police could communicate with the kidnapper.

After the police connected, no more warning messages popped up.

The kidnapper excitedly licked his lips, a bloodthirsty glint flashing in his eyes.

"Regret? What regret? You think I'm afraid of dying? You think I came here today expecting to leave alive?"

"Elliot, get me in touch with Elliot. He's the director of Sunnydale Hospital. Contact him and tell him to come find me!"

"This woman beside me right now is Elliot's darling. Don't hang up! I want to watch you contact him!"

Seeing the kidnapper's increasingly manic behavior, the police officer hurriedly spoke.

"Alright, alright, just try to stay calm. We're contacting him now."

I lay on the table like a dead fish, the excruciating pain throughout my body leaving me with almost no strength.

Through my blurry vision, I seemed to return to the scene when I first met Elliot in college.

I have to say, Elliot has delicate features, a tall slender build, and even exceptionally beautiful fingers.

I stepped onto the campus of Chicago Medical School as a freshman, the same year as him. As he took the stage to give the new student representative speech, I stood in the crowd and caught a glimpse of him from afar.

That one glance was all it took for him to crash into my heart.

We were polar opposites. He was the top-ranked student with a full scholarship, while I was dead last in grades. If it weren't for my dad, the director, donating a bunch of equipment to the school, I wouldn't have even qualified to get in.

Yet despite our differences, we fell in love that year at eighteen.

My dad was the director at Sunnydale Hospital, the largest in the city. So after graduation, Elliot naturally joined my family's hospital.

But less than a year after graduation, my parents died in a tragic car accident.

At their memorial service, I looked at Elliot through my tears and said, "Elliot, I don't have a family anymore."

Elliot's eyes filled with sympathy as he carefully pulled me into his arms. "Melody, let's get married. We'll have a family - our own family."

After we married, Elliot took over Sunnydale Hospital as expected.

In the three years since the young Elliot took charge, he's gone from facing doubts to earning everyone's respect. Under his leadership, Sunnydale Hospital has expanded multiple times.

I have to say, he truly was an excellent doctor, and even more so, a shrewd businessman.

It's just that he didn't love me, that's all.