My sister, Gabriella Rutherfurd, is the richest female CEO in Brightshire.

Her male secretary, Freddie Morgan, mentions that he wants to see a real-life version of the Squid Game, so she builds the venue and spends 100 million dollars to make it happen.

The lure of a gigantic cash prize draws in countless desperate souls. Even the bodyguards responsible for protecting my brother-in-law, Cyril Harding, abandon their posts to participate.

Cyril has no choice but to go to the hospital without the bodyguards for his medical appointment, but he is abducted halfway there.

In my previous life, I found Gabriella and asked her to stop the game and send people to rescue Cyril.

After hesitating, Gabriella agreed. She stopped the game and managed to save Cyril just in time.

But the few players who had made it to the final round were furious that the game was canceled. To vent their rage, they took Freddie and beat him to death.

Gabriella acted like it had nothing to do with me. Yet, on the day Freddie was buried, she ordered her men to beat me up.

When I open my eyes again, I am back to the day that Cyril was abducted.

This time, Gabriella gets what she wants, and the Squid Game is held as planned. By the final round, a masked man is dragged onto the high platform.

Freddie announces that whoever slices the man's head off will win the 100-million-dollar prize.

When Cyril's head rolls to Gabriella's feet, she finally snaps.

"It was your lies that got Freddie killed. You should suffer just like he did before he died!"

The thugs sneered as they walked toward me, while my sister, Gabriella Rutherfurd, sat coldly beside Freddie Morgan's headstone. She watched coldly as I was beaten to death over three days and nights.

When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting in the car, taking my brother-in-law, Cyril Harding, to the hospital.

"Watch out!" An urgent shout snapped me back to reality.

A car suddenly appeared in front of us, blocking our path. I yanked the steering wheel hard to avoid it, but our car crashed straight into a flower bed with a thunderous crash. The airbag deployed, and through my dizziness, I saw the face of the person getting out of the other car.

My blood instantly froze when I realized that I had returned to the day Cyril was abducted.

A group of criminals had taken advantage of Gabriella's absence to abduct Cyril and take him away. By the time I desperately searched for and found him, he was already covered in blood, lying weakly in an abandoned boat, barely clinging to life.

Remembering Cyril's horrific condition, I shuddered and frantically shook him awake. "Cyril, wake up! We need to run! They're abductors!"

Cyril weakly opened his eyes and gestured helplessly at me, "Quick, call Ella. She can save us..."

I took the phone, but my fingers wouldn't stop trembling as the painful memories from my previous life kept flashing through my mind.

The thugs were getting closer, and they joked among themselves as they approached us.

"I hate rich people more than anything in this life. I heard that they're Ms. Rutherfurd's brother and husband. Better grab some sharp weapons and teach them a lesson."

Hearing this, I quickly flipped on the high beams. While they were temporarily blinded, I helped Cyril hide in the nearby flower bed.

"How's it going? Did you get through to Ella?" Cyril's face was pale with pain, and he kept nervously looking back at the abductors who were searching for us.

Instead of looking through my contacts, I dialed the police station's number directly. "Hello, we're facing an abduction threat on Magnolia Avenue. Please send someone to help us right away!"

"Alright, sir. Try to stay calm. We need your name for the record, and we'll dispatch officers within five minutes."

I lowered my voice and said quickly, "My name is Vance Rutherfurd, my brother-in-law, Cyril Harding, is seriously injured. These thugs are searching everywhere for us, and we can't hide much longer!"

The person on the other end of the line hung up when they heard my name. Then, a different, deeper voice came over the phone.

He sounded annoyed and dismissive. "Ms. Rutherfurd's brother, huh? She already told us not to waste resources on you and Cyril. She said that grown men shouldn't be stirring up drama over nothing. She hired the best security team to watch Cyril around the clock. So how could he possibly get abducted?"

I angrily yelled, "All the bodyguards she hired are gone! Ask her yourself. Does she even care if Cyril lives or if I'm still her brother? I'm not asking her to abandon her precious darling to come here, I'm just begging her not to block our only way out!"

When Cyril saw that the call was connected, he quickly leaned over and asked, "So? What did Ella say?"

My eyes burned red with frustration, but I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.

On the other end of the line, the call had been transferred to Gabriella. When she heard this, she growled, "What do you expect me to say? Vance, you know perfectly well that Cyril has nothing to do at home except overthink everything, and you're still helping him pull these stunts!"

She added angrily, "You're a Rutherfurd, so maybe you should think about where your loyalty lies. You've been repeatedly helping an outsider interfere with my staff! I'm on a business trip right now and don't have time for your drama!"

In the background, I heard the sound of elimination gunshots from the game. Freddie's voice rang out, excitedly calling Gabriella's name and telling her to hang up.

After the bloody lesson of being tortured in my previous life, I felt increasingly cold toward Gabriella.

I forced myself to help Cyril up and tried to save us both. However, just as we were crawling forward, a flashlight beam hit us.

"Boss, they're here!"

A strong, tanned hand grabbed Cyril's ankle and yanked him backward. Then, a dirty boot stomped hard on his wrist, and the sound of breaking bone rang sharply through the night.

Cyril broke out in a cold sweat from the pain. Yet, he still desperately grabbed on to the man's pant leg with all his strength and shouted at me, "Vance, run! Find Ella! We agreed on an emergency signal... No matter where they take me, she'll come for me when she sees it!"

He held onto the man's legs tightly, but his body swayed from excessive blood loss, his face pale.

At that point, Cyril had no one left to count on but me. I bit down on my lip, turned, and sprinted a few hundred yards before diving straight into the river. I swam along the current to the shore, where Hannah Lowell's house was nearby.

The evening wind was chilly, and my soaked clothes clung to me, dripping water down my legs.

"Hannah! Hannah! Please open the door. I'm begging you to save us!" I frantically pressed the doorbell for help.

After a full ten minutes, the door finally opened.

Hannah wore a lace camisole nightgown and lazily leaned against the man beside her. She glanced at me and raised her hand to finish the red wine in her glass.

She purred, "Well, if it isn't Mr. Rutherfurd. What an unexpected visit."

I didn't have time to deal with her sarcasm. I rushed forward and grabbed her sleeve, pulling her outside.

"Please, bring your bodyguards and help me save Cyril! They're at Magnolia Avenue right now. It's not far. I'm begging you, please. If we wait any longer, it'll be too late!"

She disgustedly yanked her sleeve away and said, "Mr. Rutherfurd, you were quite arrogant when you didn't need anything from me, acting all cold and distant. You were too good for the likes of me back then, so why are you playing the victim and demanding help now?"

She continued, "You're not going to apologize or offer an explanation? Just orders?"

My heart sank. When Hannah pursued me before, she had sworn that she'd do anything for me.

I never agreed to be with her because I knew that Gabriella had done too many terrible things and had made too many enemies. Consequently, everyone close to us was being watched.

Additionally, Hannah had a background in criminal investigations. If she got involved with me, Gabriella would undoubtedly force her to do her dirty work.

She hummed a tune as she stared at me, her sharp eyes practically tearing through my soaked clothes. Out of options, I dropped to my knees and slapped myself twice.

"I'm sorry. I was wrong before. Please, be the bigger person. I'm begging you to send three or four people, or even just one or two, to come with me! Cyril's life is hanging by a thread. Even if you don't care about me, at least remember that your job is to save lives."

I shouted, "You can punish me however you want afterward. I'll also explain everything to you!"

Hannah lifted my chin and wiped away my tears. Then, she pushed my face away. "It's too bad you're putting on this act too late. Otherwise, seeing you on your knees and begging like this might have made me feel sorry for you."

She continued, "You probably don't know this, but I work for Gabriella now. Freddie brought me into the team. He saw potential in me and gave me a shot. Cyril went after him more than once, and now he's lying through his teeth again!

"It's a good thing I already knew what kind of guy you were. You're just trying to smooth-talk your way into tearing them apart again."

I rolled up my sleeves and tugged down my collar to show her the cuts and scrapes on my body. I replied, "It wasn't what you think. I was trying to protect you, to keep you far away from all the chaos surrounding our family.

"You saw it yourself that there are people who want Gabriella dead. Meanwhile, Cyril's done nothing but charity work. He doesn't deserve to pay the price for any of this."

I humbled myself as much as I could, trying desperately to explain everything.

Just then, my phone rang. Cyril's weak voice came through the speaker.

Then, an unfamiliar voice said, "We're taking this man with us. Tell Gabriella that since she loves playing games so much, why not guess where we've taken her husband? If she guesses correctly, she can pay us 100 million dollars to get him back. But if she's wrong…"

A chilling laugh followed, and the call abruptly ended.

Hannah's eyes darkened when she heard the voice. "Fine. I'll help you."

I thought that she finally believed what I was saying, but then she looked me up and down and said, "Take off your clothes. For every piece you remove, I'll send one bodyguard with you."

My blood ran cold, but I bit my lip hard and nodded without hesitation. "Fine."

Compared to the pain Cyril endured to protect me, this humiliation was nothing.

Cars occasionally passed by the mansion, and guests from the lively party inside immediately came out to watch when they realized that something scandalous was going on.

With unbearable shame crawling over my skin, I stripped down until all I had left was a thin pair of boxers. My hands rested on the waistband, and my fingertips went completely numb under everyone's burning gazes.

Hannah gave my body a once-over and scoffed. "Not even close to my boyfriend's build. I can't believe I ever had a crush on you. Didn't you say that you'd risk your life to save Cyril? What's wrong? Too scared to keep going? Do you think you can find Cyril with just two bodyguards? Is this what your so-called brotherhood means?"

A surveillance camera above Hannah's head swiveled toward me, and the big screen in the courtyard flickered to life.

Freddie had his arm around Gabriella's waist, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Ms. Rutherfurd, so this is the off-site game you mentioned? How interesting! I love these psychological games the most."

Gabriella was seated at the arena. It was now down to the final three rounds of the Squid Game. Like a queen, she looked down at me with disdain.

She said, "Vance, you really have thrown away all your dignity. Did you forget how bad things got the last time you tried getting between us? Do I really need to humiliate you again just to prove that you're still the same fool?"

I jerked my head toward the camera. It immediately hit me that Gabriella had been reborn, too!

She leaned comfortably in Freddie's arms and nodded approvingly at Hannah. "You did well today. I know his stubborn personality better than anyone, and this is exactly how he should be dealt with!"

She added, "When one plan fails, he'll just make another. This time, he even hired actors for the abduction and made the phone call in front of you. What a flawless performance!"