The message she had seen on the postcard suddenly made sense. She knew who it was— or rather, who they were.
No wonder whoever it was had called her little sister.
Her hands fisted as she read the note over and over again.
No wonder they could not trace the IP address of the sender. They were really meticulous with whatever they were doing.
She quickly fished out her phone to call someone.
Immediately the call connected, a deep masculine voice interrupted her from speaking because he spoke first.
"I"ve been waiting for your call"
"Who is this?" Sara asked in anger.
She knew that this voice wasn"t "the boss" voice— The man she had met in the factory that time.
Neither was this Big Dong"s voice— the one who punched Muchen that night.
"I don"t want to believe that you"ve forgotten my voice so soon. It hurts me" He pretended to sound hurt but Sara didn"t buy it.
With the way he spoke, she was able to guess who it was but she didn"t want to believe it was him.
The person she hated so much with her life.
"Do you think I am joking? Who is this and who the h.e.l.l do you think you are to mess with my family and I?"
She heard him chuckle, much to her annoyance before he said softly..
"Your father"s restaurant looks so nice when it"s dark." After saying those words, he hung up.
Sara quickly understood that he was hinting to her that he was currently in front of her father"s restaurant.
She looked at the sleeping Joreen and contemplated whether to leave her there or not.
At last, she left a note beside her and locked the door properly before leaving.
She ran through the stairs and soon, she was outside the building.
Before she could even get to the front of her father"s restaurant, she saw two black luxury cars parked by the side of the road.
Her eyes landed on the only person standing beside the first car and so she quickly went to meet him since she recognised him as "the boss".
It was the second time she was seeing him after the factory incident and when he had come to give her the phone she was currently using.
"Big sister" He welcomed her as soon as he saw her but she wasn"t in the mood to entertain him by exchanging pleasantries.
For days, weeks, they had been trying to think about the person who had the effrontery to mess with Joreen. But it had been them all along?
"Where"s the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who took the call?" She asked angrily.
His eyes widened in surprise when he heard her refer to that person as "b.a.s.t.a.r.d"
When she saw his eyes nervously glance at the second car, she said nothing else and moved to where the car was parked.
She knocked on the tinted window of the back seat twice and when it rolled down, she saw the very face she hadn"t wanted to see in her life again.
Her expression didn"t change much when she looked at him. She remained composed as she signalled for him to come down.
His cold lifeless brown eyes stared back at her and after a tiny smirk, he opened the door.
Unlike "the boss" who was wearing an all-black suit, he was dressed very casually in a coat, pants and scarf draped around his neck.
At first glance, no one would know he was a dangerous gangster. He could easily fit into the crowd like this.
He was called snake. Not only because he was very dangerous, he was also very smart, fast and cunning. There was no better name that suited him more.
But one thing was certain, he was a really good looking snake. He was tall, his dark hair was in a high cut and he had a pretty scanty moustache which helped to expose the fact that he was already in his mid-thirties. Without it, he was obviously going to look like he was in his mid-twenties
"Are you still going to act like you don"t know me?" He asked immediately he stepped out of the car. "Long time no —" He couldn"t complete his words before she cut him off.
"Are you crazy?" She asked coldly. "Why did you have to do that to my little cousin? What did she do to you? What did I do to you?"
"Just so you know, I punished big Dong for hitting your boyfriend just like you asked."
"That"s not important right now. Besides, I never mentioned for you to punish him. I asked someone else. Now back to my question, Why are you all still after me? Because it doesn"t make sense that you"re after my little cousin."
"We just wanted to have some fun... To see if you can easily link it to us.. But you"ve lost touch. You"re no longer as smart as you used to be. I can"t believe it took you weeks before you could figure it out." He mocked.
"Wh...at? Fun?" Sara couldn"t believe what she just heard. They had broken Joreen"s heart and made them all sad just because they wanted to have fun?
"We wouldn"t have done that if you had accepted our invitation earlier. I"m sure Marcus told you to pay us a visit but you adamantly refused." He said, pointing at the boss.
It was the first time Sara was hearing his real name and she was glad she no longer had to refer to him as "the boss" but as Marcus instead.
"Why would I agree to see you all when there is nothing between us? Light and darkness have nothing in common!"
"Don"t you know that we would have done worse? You know how we work. We don"t play games with people but we had to in your case. Too bad you were too slow to figure it out. If not for Fuji, we would have gone after your beloved father or aunt. Maybe you would have listened then."
Fuji? She closed her eyes to take a deep breath before opening them back again. It was really happening. All the names she didn"t want to hear, she was hearing them all tonight.
"What do you intend to achieve by doing this?" She asked with glazed eyes.
He remained quiet and gently opened the back door of the car he had just got down from.
"Get in. We have a lot to talk about."
"I have nothing to talk about with you or anyone from your useless clan"
"Careful Darling... Careful" His playfulness disappeared as he asked with dark eyes.
"Or what?" She asked back with cold a cold expression.
"Get in!" He ordered.
"Or...what?" She challenged.
"You are still as stubborn as I remember. No wonder you could escape from our clutches years back." He said in frustration.
"I don"t care what you"re saying right now. But I want to know...whose idea was it to mess with Joreen?"
"You"ll know when you follow me."
"I have no intention of following a snake like you."
He scratched his head before saying...
"Your cousin... is sleeping upstairs. Your father is not very far from here and your Aunt"s location is an hour and twenty minutes drive away from here." He informed her.
"Are you... threatening me?" She was beginning to get swayed by his threats but she tried not to let him see it.
He must have been really prepared before coming. If not, how else would he have known about their whereabout?
But she was glad her father was safe. She had been wondering where he was but now, she knew he was okay.
"Yes." He admitted immediately. "There are other ways to make you leave with us. We don"t even have to force you. Look..."
He used a finger to gesture at someone walking dejectedly towards their direction.
Her eyes shone when she realised that it was her father. Why on earth was he looking like that?
She was almost going to meet him when she heard the man beside her say.. "You have to follow us now. Except you want us to say h.e.l.lo to your father and introduce ourselves to him."
Sara bit her lips in confusion before closing her eyes in frustration. When she opened it back again, he knew she had surrendered.
Sara hissed before quickly entering inside the car so her father would not see her.
As the car drove down the road, they both remained quiet before he broke the silence.
"Return the computer back to the rightful owner if you want to stay out of trouble"
Sara shot him an angry look.. "Are you crazy? Can"t you all see what he is doing?.. It"s dangerous. My cousin studies there, same with a whole lot of other kids. Are we just supposed to let them be in the face of danger?"
He chuckled before saying to her. "You now have a really sharp tongue. It suits you best. But I never knew you cared about those kind of things. If you are bothered about it, then you can just change your cousin"s school."
She eyed him before turning to look at the front.
"Anyway, I was just saying. Right about now, the contents inside the laptop has all been erased. It was a bait to lure you out not to turn you into a prosecutor"
"What? You broke into my apartment again?" She yelled at him in anger which caused the driver and the other man at the front seat to flinch.
How could they break into her home again? Joreen was sleeping alone inside. Imagine her waking up to see a strange man in the room. What the h.e.l.l?
"You broke into someone"s office also didn"t you?" He asked back with his usual lifeless eyes staring intently at her.
"What exactly do you all want from me?" She asked him in a gentler tone now.
"Just a tiny little favour and we will let you be."
"I don"t owe you all anything. Fuji promised to let me go eight years ago."
"And I believe he has no intention of bringing you back. In fact, he has been protecting you from too many foes. You should return the favor."
From foes? Which foes did she have?
Sara suddenly remembered the night she was strolling with Muchen and he had accidentally b.u.mped into a gangster who almost caused trouble but had called her by name and apologised. Was that also their doing?
"What the h.e.l.l are you people doing?" She asked him. "Protecting me? You call exposing me to the underground world protecting me?"
"You should be grateful he thinks of you as his daughter. Else, he wouldn"t be doing any of these. So...you have to thank him by returning the favour."
She suddenly remembered he had been mentioning about Fuji ever since so she asked in surprise..
"Fuji....is in the country?"
"Everyone you know is in the country. And...they are all waiting for you."
He said with a smirk as the car drove into a grand hotel.