Chapter 7

A piercing, bloodcurdling scream nearly blew the roof off the Smith Villa.

Megan jumped out of bed like a maniac, frantically swatting at the cockroaches crawling up her skirt. Her face mask fell off in fright, and she scrambled out of the room, practically rolling and crawling.

"Help! Cockroaches! So many cockroaches! Mom! Help!" Megan rushed down to the living room, hair disheveled and completely disheveled, with two wriggling cockroaches still clinging to her.

"Megan! What's wrong?"

Harper and Robert, who were having tea, jumped in shock. Seeing Megan in such a state, their faces went pale.

"Cockroaches! My room is full of cockroaches! It's Olivia! It must be her!"

Megan cried until her makeup ran, pointing upstairs and screaming hysterically, "She's getting back at me! She's trying to kill me!"

Hearing this, Robert flew into a rage and turned to look at Olivia, who was slowly walking down the stairs.

Robert slammed his teacup on the ground and roared, "Olivia! You lunatic! What are you doing in this house? Scaring Megan like this—what the hell do you want?"

Harper also cursed with disgust, "Spending too much time in the countryside really shows—you can only come up with such disgusting tricks! That's Megan's bedroom. You filled it with cockroaches—are you trying to tear this house apart?!"

Facing her parents' accusations without even asking what happened, Olivia stood on the stairs, looking down at this farce from above.

Her hands were in her pockets, her expression as cold as an outsider's.

"If the cockroaches in her room are a disgusting trick, then what about the bats and dead rats in mine?"

Olivia said coldly, "High art?"

"You're talking nonsense!" Megan's eyes flickered, but she still argued stubbornly, "That... that's what you attracted yourself. What does it have to do with me!"

Olivia sneered, "Then the cockroaches in your room—you must have attracted all the bugs nearby because your perfume is too strong, right?"

"You're being unreasonable!" Robert trembled with anger, grabbed a feather duster nearby, and rushed up, "Still won't admit your fault! I'll beat you to death today!"

Olivia stood still, neither dodging nor hiding.

Just as the feather duster was about to come down, she raised her hand and firmly caught the falling stick.

Robert pulled hard, but the stick didn't budge.

"Dad, I suggest you calm down."

Olivia let go, and Robert staggered back two steps, nearly falling.

"I've already endured a year in the basement. I don't want to endure anymore." Olivia looked around at these three so-called relatives. "The bats were a return gift. If there's a next time, what appears in her room might not be something as cute as cockroaches."

With that, Olivia dusted off her hands and turned back to her room.

The door slammed shut.

In the living room, Robert's face turned purple with rage, clutching his chest and gasping for air.

Only after the commotion downstairs completely died down did Olivia sit back on her bed.

She pulled out that old phone from her canvas bag. A black dialog box had just popped up on the screen.

It was a message from an information dealer on the Abyss Forum.

[K, found it. The car that kidnapped you back then had fake plates. But through gait recognition from surveillance along the route and dark web money flow comparison, we've locked down the middleman who handled the handoff.]

[Codename Viper, real name Terry Perez. Tonight at eight, he'll appear at a private club. Word is he's meeting a big client to collect the final payment.]

This private club was a famous high-end establishment in the area, operating on a strict membership system. You needed not just money but specific background credentials to get in.

Half an hour later, inside an inconspicuous high-end custom clothing store in the city center.

When Olivia pushed the door open, the clerk was about to show disdain for her cheap clothes, but upon seeing the gold card in her hand, instantly bowed ninety degrees.

Ten minutes later, when Olivia emerged from the fitting room again, she was completely transformed.

A black backless evening gown with minimal tailoring outlined her originally thin figure into a sickly yet deadly kind of sexy. Her newly cut ear-length short hair was carefully styled, looking sharp and capable.

Most striking was the half-face mask she wore. The silver mask was carved with intricate mandala patterns, revealing only a pair of cold, star-like eyes and red lips.

Phantom Club—luxurious as a dream, light and shadow interweaving.

Massive crystal chandeliers cast ambiguous halos, the air thick with expensive champagne and the powdery scent of the elite.

The greeter at the entrance was about to stop this woman arriving alone, but upon seeing the level of the electronic invitation she presented, nearly dropped the tablet in his hands.

"K, please come in. Your private room is in the top floor VIP area."

Olivia nodded slightly, stepped in high heels, and entered the hall with full presence.

She didn't go to the private room but took a glass of red wine and casually leaned against the railing of the second-floor corridor.

This position offered an excellent view, overlooking the entire first-floor dance floor and booths.

Her gaze swept through the crowd like radar, and soon she locked onto her target in an inconspicuous corner.

The man had a buzz cut, an obvious knife scar on his neck, and was drinking with a seductive woman in his arms. He looked somewhat anxious, checking his phone from time to time, as if waiting for someone.

That's him—Viper.

Just as Olivia was preparing to find an opportunity to approach Viper, an impossible-to-ignore gaze suddenly shot from behind and to the side.

It was the instinct of a beast staring at prey.

Olivia's internal alarms went off. She instinctively turned sideways, her gaze cutting through the crowd and meeting head-on with a man in a semi-open private booth not far away.

The man was lazily leaning on a leather sofa, his long legs crossed, swirling a glass of whiskey in his hand.

He wore a dark gray custom-tailored suit, no tie, shirt collar slightly open, revealing a sexy collarbone.

William?

Olivia's fingers tightened slightly around her wine glass.

What bad luck.

William didn't seem to recognize her, or rather, not only didn't recognize her, but had developed great interest in this masked woman with a cold, alluring presence.

His gaze brazenly surveyed Olivia from head to toe, that highly aggressive look as if trying to see through the mask and clothing into her soul.

Olivia frowned slightly, quickly withdrew her gaze, and turned toward the stairs.

Her current priority was Viper. She didn't want any entanglement with the Johnsons, especially this unfathomable William.

She had just turned around when the man behind her set down his glass and followed.

At this moment, Viper seemed to have received some message. He pushed away the woman beside him and got up, heading toward the restroom.

Olivia's eyes sharpened. Good opportunity.

She quickened her pace and followed Viper.

The corridor leading to the restroom was covered with thick carpet that absorbed all footsteps. The lighting was dim, making it especially quiet.

Just as Olivia was about to capture Viper at the corner, a large hand suddenly reached out from the shadows beside her and precisely gripped her wrist.

Then, a tremendous force hit.

Olivia felt everything spin before her eyes, and her back slammed heavily against the cold marble wall nearby.

"Mmm..."

Just as she was about to resist, the man's tall figure pressed against her, firmly trapping her between the wall and his chest.

Intense male hormones mixed with a faint tobacco scent instantly surrounded her.

Olivia looked up into a pair of deep, abyssal blue eyes.

It was William.

The man had one hand against the wall by her ear, the other still gripping her wrist.

The distance between them was so close their breaths mingled.

"Miss, why the rush?" William looked down at her, his voice deep and magnetic, with a hint of casual mockery. "Upstairs just now, you looked at me several times. What, now you're pretending not to know me?"

Olivia's heartbeat skipped, but she quickly regained her composure.

She struggled with her wrist, but it didn't budge. This man's strength was surprisingly powerful.

"Sir, I think you've got the wrong person."

The man's hand moved closer to her mask, speaking lazily, "Wrong person or not, I'll know once I take a look."