Chapter 5

The entire living room fell into dead silence, as if the air itself had frozen.

Everyone held their breath, staring at Olivia in horror.

That was William!

The William who made the entire business world tremble with fear, the William who even Steven Johnson had to be wary of!

And Olivia had dared to talk back to him in public, even mocking the Johnson family's judgment?

Just when everyone thought William would explode in anger, or even have his bodyguards throw Olivia out, a low chuckle suddenly broke the silence.

William wasn't angry.

He walked over with long strides, stopping in front of Olivia, looking down at this woman in ragged clothes.

"Seems like a year of hell hasn't dulled your claws." William's voice was magnetic, with a slight upward lilt at the end.

He turned his head and gave Benjamin, who was already drenched in sweat, a cold look. "Since Ms. Smith has pointed out your misdiagnosis, Dr. White, go accept your punishment. And don't let me see your name on any medical registry again."

Benjamin's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees with a thud, his face ashen. "Mr. Johnson, Mr. Johnson, please spare me! I just made a mistake..."

The bodyguards immediately stepped forward and dragged Benjamin out.

After dealing with Benjamin, William looked back at Olivia, a hint of approval flashing through his deep blue eyes.

"Your medical skills are good, and so is your courage."

But that was all.

William didn't stay any longer. He glanced at his watch and said coolly to the ridiculous Smiths, "Since there's no infectious disease, we won't intrude any further. Michael, let's go."

Michael froze for a moment, seemingly surprised that William would let Olivia off so easily, but he didn't dare ask questions and quickly nodded respectfully. "Yes."

Before leaving, Michael glared viciously at Olivia, then scurried after William.

As the sound of the luxury car's engine faded away, the Smith Villa's front door closed again.

What followed was a vicious slap.

Olivia's face snapped to the side, and she tasted something metallic and sweet at the corner of her mouth.

She slowly turned her head back to look at Robert, whose face was flushed red. "You bastard! Are you trying to get our whole family killed?!"

Robert's hand was still shaking as he pointed at Olivia's nose and cursed. "Do you know who that was? That was William! Crushing the Smith family would be as easy as crushing an ant for him! And you dared to talk back to him in public? Are you insane?"

"Olivia, how could you be so impulsive?" Megan also stepped forward, looking deeply pained.

"Benjamin may have been wrong just now, but he was probably just concerned about everyone's health. You made William lose face in public—what if he makes things difficult for Dad in business later?"

At the thought of possible retaliation from William and business losses, Robert became even more furious.

"How did I end up with such bad luck like you! Missing for a year, coming back all dirty, and now causing trouble the moment you return!" Robert waved his hand in disgust, as if shooing away a fly.

"Get out! Go back to your guest room! Without my permission, don't you dare step out of that room! Think about what you've done these next few days, and then we'll go apologize to Mr. Johnson!"

"That's right, and change out of those shabby clothes and wash off that poor person smell! It makes me sick just looking at you!" Harper covered her nose with a handkerchief in disgust.

Olivia quietly looked at these so-called family members.

At her father's twisted face driven by self-interest, at her mother's disdainful eyes concerned only with appearances.

She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and coldly swept her gaze over them before turning and heading upstairs without looking back.

Behind her came Robert's furious shouting. "What kind of attitude is that? Don't you even have an apology?"

Olivia ignored him completely.

Back in that cramped little guest room, she locked the door, completely shutting out the noise from outside.

Olivia walked to the window and pulled out a black old-style cell phone from the lining of the worn canvas bag she'd brought back.

This was a backup phone she'd stolen from the kidnappers when escaping the basement. Though old-fashioned, it could connect to the internet, and that was enough.

She powered it on skillfully, her fingers dancing rapidly across the keyboard, entering an extremely complex string of command codes.

The screen flickered a few times, then switched to a completely black interface with only a blood-red skull logo.

This was the world's largest underground dark web forum.

On this forum, there were no laws, no morals—only money and transactions.

It gathered the world's top hackers, mercenaries, intelligence dealers, and countless wealthy elites hiding behind legitimate identities.

And before being kidnapped, Olivia had another identity on this forum—K.

A famous mysterious trader, top-tier hacker, and hidden billionaire with shocking wealth.

No one knew that Olivia, the good girl who always got top grades at medical school, controlled the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars late at night.

But that sudden kidnapping a year ago had cut off all her connections to the outside world.

The system loaded for two seconds.

[Welcome back, K.]

She quickly opened her account center to check her offshore accounts.

Looking at the numbers on the screen, Olivia let out a cold laugh.

She was worth 5.8 billion dollars.

Yet her own parents had treated the farmer who saved her life like a beggar over a fifty-thousand-dollar reward.

How ironic!

Olivia exited the account interface and reopened the forum's admin privileges.

Instantly, thousands of unread messages flooded in, mostly from former partners or people seeking help.

Olivia ignored them all and went straight to the task posting section, publishing a highest-level urgent bounty.

[Target: Investigate all details of the kidnapping case in the suburbs of Emerald City, Novaria, one year ago.]

[Requirements: I want to know the kidnappers' true identities, who was behind it, money trail records, and all phone records and whereabouts of the Smith family during that time.]

[Reward: Ten million dollars.]

On this forum, ten million dollars was enough to buy a president's scandal, let alone the truth about a small kidnapping case.

Olivia hit enter.

Watching the task posting confirmation pop up, the murderous intent in her eyes was no longer hidden.

Just wait and see—she would make everyone who hurt her pay double!