Obviously, Jeremy had exhausted his patience. He began hammering the door frantically.

"Anne, open the door!"

"Jeremy! This is a hotel! Not some place for you, Mr. Hudson, to make trouble!”

“If I break it, I can afford to pay for it! Just open the door first—I only need a favor!”

Afraid that the security guard would come up and cause trouble, I opened the door for him.

“What is it? Say it quickly!”

“Simple. It’s just a small favor. Film a sweet interaction between the two of us to prove that our relationship is normal right now. That’s all.”

He walked in naturally and sat down on the sofa.

"Jeremy, don’t you think you’re ridiculous? We’re going to get divorced!”

“I know. But you're well aware that many of Hudson Group's clients partnered with us because of your father. Now rumors are spreading about our divorce. Today, some clients have already canceled contracts. You need to take responsibility.”

Sometimes, when people are truly speechless, they end up laughing.

"Jeremy, you can let yourself out while I'm in a good mood. Don't force me to call the security guard up.”

“Anne, after eight years together, must you be so heartless?” he demanded.

I stared into the eyes I had once loved the most. Now, all I saw in them was naked exploitation and a desire for control.

“Get out.”

“Anne! How long will you keep throwing these tantrums? I've indulged you this far—is it because of Lucy? If you truly can't tolerate her, I'll send her abroad for school after graduation. Is that not enough?”

In that moment, I finally saw him clearly. Jeremy was a refined egoist. He prioritized satisfying the needs of whoever served his interests. Since he had never offered genuine care, how could he talk about love?

Just as I was about to call security, they had already arrived. Someone must have complained about the earlier banging. I had chosen this hotel precisely because its security was known to be excellent.

As Jeremy was dragged out, he was still trying to get me to film the video with him, even offering to pay me if I agreed.

If I stayed here any longer, he would keep pestering me. And judging by his attitude, expecting a peaceful divorce from him was nothing but a fantasy.

When I thought about the folder in Jeremy's study, I breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, my father had prepared an escape route for me.

So, I turned on my mobile phone and booked the earliest plane for tomorrow. The plan to return to the orchard had to be moved forward.

The moment I stepped out of the hotel entrance, a Rolls-Royce Phantom screeched to a stop in front of me. I did not even need to look to know who it was.

Jeremy walked out of the car with an anxious expression. He did not even bother to say polite words before he took my arm.

“Anne, as long as you can save Lucy!”

Lucy, Lucy. It's always Lucy!

“Pulling the suicide stunt every day—can you at least switch to another tactic?” I snapped, shaking his hand off in both exasperation and anger.

My reaction seemed to be exactly what he expected because he put on a guilty expression.

“Anne, what happened before was my fault. But this time, it’s truly a matter of life and death. I didn’t want to disturb you, but I honestly couldn’t think of anyone else who could save Lucy…”

I sensed something was off and asked, “Save her? What happened to her?”

“Lucy has been kidnapped!" Jeremy took out his mobile phone to show me.

The screen showed Lucy was tied up in what looked like a warehouse, her mouth sealed with tape. The warehouse environment was visibly awful—damp, filthy and completely dark. The white dress on Lucy was already stained with grime.

No wonder Jeremy was so frantic. His little princess had never endured such hardship.

"What's the use of calling me? Am I supposed to break down an iron door for you, or play the hero?” I knew the situation was urgent, but that still wasn’t a reason for him to stop me from catching my flight. I was not a police.

“The perpetrator is a hacker!” Surprisingly, he showed no sign of irritation. He patiently explained the situation to me.

“Before coming to you, I’d already mobilized all the company’s senior programmers to track Lucy's location. We found her exact address, but the room she’s being held in—no one can crack it…”

Hearing this, I already had a rough idea of why Jeremy sought me out.

“Anne, you were a master at cracking programs back in university. In that moment, you were the only one I could think of. I hope you can help me rescue Lucy. I'll repay you for the rest of my life!”

How touching. Hearing the man I'd loved for so many years standing before me, his eyes reddened as he pleaded for another woman—even though my love for him had gone, my heart still ached faintly.

I really couldn’t just stand by and do nothing when a life was at stake.

However, Jeremy was right about one thing: I was indeed a master at cracking programs. It was just that after marrying him, I handed the company over to him completely and lived the so-called leisurely life of a wealthy wife. But a life like that has its advantages and disadvantages.

When it comes to money or power, holding it in your own hands is always the most reliable.

I followed him into the car. The entire ride passed in silence.

It was not that he did not try to talk to me, but I simply did not want to waste my time on him. Between us, even small talk felt unnecessary now.

We arrived at the outskirts, where a dilapidated warehouse stood amidst a field of withered grass, the area sparsely populated.

The moment Jeremy was near the warehouse entrance, Lucy's cry could be heard.

According to him, Lucy had already been locked up for five or six hours, yet she still had the energy to cry this loudly.

As I followed Jeremy into one of the rooms, I found that the door was designed with ventilation grilles, making it easy to look inside from outside.

Lucy was tied to a chair and couldn't move. When she saw Jeremy, she immediately stared at him pitifully.

"Lucy, don’t worry. Anne is very familiar with these procedures. She'll definitely get you out!”  

“Mm! Mm!” Though her mouth was gagged, Lucy still managed to respond to her Jeremy.

When I saw Jeremy grip the bars and how the two of them looked like a pair of star-crossed lovers, I felt sick.

Fortunately, I successfully hacked the iron door's program without much trouble. Though somewhat challenging, it was still manageable.

“Have the programmers at Hudson Group really fallen to this level?” I couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

“This batch really is mediocre. I’ll replace them,” Jeremy said as he pushed open the iron door, walked over to Lucy, took out the small knife he’d brought and untied her.

Once freed from her restraints, Lucy immediately threw herself into Jeremy's arms, sobbing. "Jeremy … I'm so scared."

“Don't be afraid. I'm here now.”

I couldn’t be bothered to keep watching. I knocked on the door to urge them, “Aren’t you leaving? Do you like this place that much?”

Jeremy supported Lucy as they walked out of the iron door. As she brushed past me, I heard Lucy whisper with a little smugness in her voice. "Thank you for coming, Anne."

I was just about to turn back and question her when I felt someone shove me hard from behind. My foot slipped and I stumbled forward a few steps before I managed to steady myself.

But the moment the iron door was automatically locked, I realized that I was trapped inside.

As I stood in the room, I spotted a timed bomb in the corner.

"I'm sorry, Anne …" Jeremy said in a trembling voice from outside.

I forced myself to steady my voice and demanded, “Jeremy, what exactly are you doing right now?”

"I …" Though his lips moved, no voice came out.

Lucy stepped forward beside him and said, “Anne, don't blame Jeremy. He was trying to save me. Actually, before you arrived, Jeremy and the others had already cracked the code for this iron door. What they hadn't cracked was the bomb inside the room. That bomb is connected to the surveillance system. Once the surveillance detects that someone has disappeared, it will explode immediately, so ...”

Lucy deliberately stopped speaking and refused to talk.

At that moment, my blood seemed to run cold, an uncontrollable chill spreading through me, but my voice was filled with fury and despair.

“Jeremy! Did you bring me here so I could die in an explosion instead of Lucy?”

He hurriedly shook his head in denial. “No, no! Anne, that’s not it! You know how to crack programs—you can try to unlock it from the inside. But Lucy doesn’t know anything. I could only save her first…”

I broke down and cut him off. “There’s a bomb. So why didn’t you call the police?”

When he heard this, Jeremy shut his mouth.

His reaction instantly made me understand that there were no hackers at all. Jeremy had actually provoked a wrong force and this was a warning. At this moment, he probably didn’t even know who his opponent was.

But the other party knew him well and even knew that for Jeremy, the most important person was Lucy, not me.

"Anne, don't be afraid, I'll take Lucy back first. She was injured and dressed so thinly. When I return to the company, I will hire the most powerful hacker to help you defuse the bomb!"

“Wait for me!” As he spoke, Jeremy lifted Lucy into his arms and left.

In that moment, I felt utterly hopeless about him. I didn't even have the thought to call him back.

Looking at the timed bomb with its flashing countdown, I forced myself to stay calm. Luckily, the computer I’d used to crack the outer door was still in this room.

I held the computer and tried to unlock the program, but the moment I linked to the program, my computer was instantly infected by a virus. I tried countless algorithms and couldn't unlock it until the computer completely crashed.

In order to decode it, I heightened all my senses, staying intensely alert to every movement around me. At that moment, I distinctly heard the sound of flowing water nearby.

But this is a suburb, where does the water come from?

Drip.

Drip, drip.

Whoosh!

A jet of water gushed forth from the surrounding walls.

I glanced at the countdown timer on the time bomb. Less than half an hour remained. In that instant, I thought of Jeremy.

Would he rush to rescue me after sending Lucy away?

But seeing the scene before me, I sobered instantly. He had locked me in this deadly prison for Lucy’s sake—why would he care about my survival?

Rather than hoping Jeremy would come back to save me, I had to think about another way out.

An icy cold crept into my knees. Without realizing it, the water level in the room had already risen to them.

I forced myself to stand up, moved a chair onto the toilet beside me and stood on it. Judging by the rising water level, it was only a matter of time before it surpassed the height of the chair.

And the most urgent threat at this moment was the bomb. Not only had my computer crashed, but it had also been soaked.

Just as I looked at the bomb again, its countdown suddenly jumped straight to ten seconds.

“What’s going on?”

I frantically scanned the room for any other options. Just as I was considering whether to jump into the water and take a gamble, the bomb's countdown stopped and the water level began to recede.

Without pausing to think about why, I plunged into the water, ready to smash through the door and escape. But the moment I touched it, the door swung open automatically.

Could it be that Jeremy had arrived with his men?

That thought vanished completely as I stepped through the gate. The area was deserted, with no sign anyone had ever been there.

I could only conclude that Jeremy’s enemies merely wanted to warn him, to make him wary of them. They never truly wanted to take his life.

After walking three kilometers, I finally hitched a ride with a kind stranger in his SUV and escaped that hellhole. Then asked him to take me to the airport.

After booking the earliest available flight, I finally boarded the plane to my father's orchard.

No matter how painful the past might be, it no longer had anything to do with me. I refused to step back into that love-hate relationship again.