"Now you believe it? You can leave soon; they will come to pick you up!" He didn't hit her. Instead, he gently stroked her hair and pulled out her hair tie, letting her long hair cascade down. "Well, I'm tired of playing anyway. If you want to go back, then go! But once you leave, never come back. Don't let me see you again; otherwise, I will completely destroy you and kill you!"
Sophia trembled violently, looking up at him, but all she saw was his back.
His hand was still bleeding, and she could still taste the iron tang of blood in her mouth. She pressed her lips tightly together, her heart in chaos. She could finally be rescued and go home, but her joy was not as pure as she had imagined.
The wait was excruciating; what usually felt like two or three hours seemed infinitely stretched. Capone was nowhere to be seen, while Diana, Cronus, and Mandy sat with Sophia in the living room.
"Eat something; don't starve yourself. Your brother will be worried!"
Diana placed a plate of fried spaghetti in front of Sophia. This place lacked the conveniences of life more than did. They didn't visit often, and their food supplies were limited. She opened two cans of black bean mackerel and stir-fried it with the spaghetti and eggs. The spaghetti gleamed with oil and egg liquid, fragrant and appetizing.
"Thank you, Diana. I couldn't have gotten through these days without you…"
Sophia choked up as she spoke, and Diana smiled, "It's just a plate of mackerel spaghetti; you don't need to be so moved. Well, even if you forget me, at least you won't forget this last meal!"
Sophia quickly wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes, shaking her head repeatedly, "No, I won't forget you!"
Diana handed her chopsticks. "Hurry and eat; it'll taste bad when it gets cold!" If she could forget this experience of being kidnapped and imprisoned, that would be for the best. Even if it meant forgetting her friend, she wouldn't blame Sophia.
After eating the spaghetti, it was already 11:45. Sophia was so anxious she couldn't sit still, her eyes continually glancing towards the staircase where Capone had disappeared.
He hadn't come back since he went upstairs; he hadn't even touched his spaghetti.
Sophia went to the yard to say goodbye to Mandy and Cronus. They were leaning against the door, smoking. A German shepherd named Blackie lay at Mandy's feet, standing alert when he saw Sophia.
That gaze somehow reminded Sophia a bit of Capone.
She still felt scared and didn't dare to get close. Mandy scolded Blackie a little, secured him, and then turned to Sophia, saying, "It's fine; he won't bite you!"
"You… you shouldn't smoke!"
Mandy was taken aback, threw away her cigarette butt, and didn't argue that the doctor said the ban could be lifted now.
"Sorry, we didn't help you in the end!" Cronus spoke up, half-joking, half-serious.
Sophia recalled their first meeting when she had tried to bribe him with a bowl of noodles to help her escape, and he had surprisingly agreed.
"It's fine; anyway… we can leave now!" What had happened in between didn't seem important anymore.
At exactly 12 o'clock, a boat docked at the shore. It was a small boat called TS, and a group of four people arrived, with the leader named Norton, who was here to pick up Sophia.
"Where's Capone?" Diana asked Cronus in a hushed voice.
"Don't worry about him; it's enough that she's being sent off!"
Cronus and Diana walked with Sophia towards the beach. Cronus said to her, "You can see the situation on the shore from upstairs. Do you want to look back? Maybe someone doesn't want to part with you and will be watching you leave!"
Sophia wanted to refuse, but there was a voice in her head that mysteriously compelled her to turn around.
Unfortunately, the terrace upstairs was empty; she didn't see a single person.
She guessed that Capone truly didn't care; he was tired of playing, and the things he wanted had been fulfilled, leaving no reason for him to feel any reluctance.
Letting her go back to endure the disdain and endless loneliness of the world was his final step of revenge, but unfortunately, she hadn't even had the chance to ask him what he hated her for.
As she got closer to the beach, a phrase became increasingly clear in her mind—something she had read in a novel before:
In this life, in this world, we are destined to meet no more.
His recent cold words made her understand that once she boarded this boat, she and he would truly be destined never to meet again.
Capone stood by the window, half a glass of brandy in his hand, untouched. Yet, his mind felt muddled, as if he were already drunk. From the terrace, he could always see the shore, but he didn't go out. He feared she would look back and see him standing there, watching like a foolish person who couldn't let go.
Many years ago, he had watched his mother leave step by step, never to return.
At first, he seemed terrified, simply standing there watching. By the time he reacted, his mother had already gotten into the car. He chased after it, running far, screaming hoarsely, but no one paid him any mind; it was as if the people inside the car couldn't hear him at all.
He fell and hurt himself, blood spilling from his mouth, but his mother was still taken away. He started waiting on the terrace, expecting the sound of cars at the intersection, always believing that the noise he longed for would return.
"You worthless piece of garbage, just like your mother, a fool!" His father had a bad temper, whipping him until his skin was raw, causing wounds that became infected, and after getting seriously ill, he stopped waiting.
He was sick, and his mother never came back; only then did he realize she was truly gone for good.
If he waited, she wouldn't return.
He was such a fool.
He downed the drink in one gulp, his throat burning with pain. When Sophia Diaz left, she looked almost the same as when she had arrived, but the drink tasted nothing like the sweetness of her lips when they first met.
Capone forcefully smashed the glass onto the floor, shattering it into countless pieces. He didn't feel any pain, only a sense of weakness akin to recovering from a serious illness.
At that moment, Diana rushed in, her voice tinged with urgency. "Capone, you need to go check it out; another group claims they're here to pick up Sophia!"
His heart sank instantly, and all the confusion cleared away in an instant. He calmed himself and ran outside to figure out what was happening. It didn't take long for him to realize that this group was indeed sent by the Diaz family; the ones who had just taken Sophia were impostors!
Without a moment's hesitation, he jumped onto the small boat he had used to bring Sophia that morning and sped off.
He didn't know where the boat had taken Sophia, but he relied on his instincts. He was alone; Mandy and the others couldn't catch up or stop him.
Those people must not have gone far, and their target was certainly not Sophia!
The only one who had a reason to do this was Lucas, and Lucas's target had always been just him and IDGM Capital!
He was the last to finalize the details regarding the time and location for the Diaz family's pickup of Sophia Diaz. Lucas shouldn't have known at all; the only possibility was that an insider had informed him, allowing him to prepare a group of impostors to intercept Sophia in just a few hours.
Good, Capone thought with a sneer; at least the range of possible insiders had narrowed!
He closed his eyes, a thin layer of sweat forming on his palms. The boat was now at full throttle, but he kept urging himself to go faster, faster!
He wasn't afraid of a direct confrontation with Lucas; he was afraid of not being able to catch up, just like so many years ago.
This time, no matter what, he would not allow the things he cared about most to disappear from his sight again.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Capone spotted a boat, and Lucas stood on the deck, raising his wine glass to signal him, seemingly waiting there for a long time with ease.
Capone pulled the steering lever to steer the boat closer. His instincts hadn't been wrong; it was indeed Lucas's handiwork. He had captured Sophia as bait to lure him here, so they hadn't headed toward the port area or other islands but were directly sailing toward the open sea, waiting at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
"Let Capone come aboard!" Lucas called to his men to let Capone onto the ship.
As soon as Capone stepped onto the boat, three or four people surrounded him to search his body, but Lucas raised his hand to stop them. "It's fine; I know the boss will definitely be armed. He'll need it soon enough, so no need to search!"
"I'm here now, Lucas. What do you want? Explain yourself clearly and let her go!" Capone glared at him coldly. There were guards at the cabin door, and it seemed Sophia Diaz was inside.
Lucas smiled. "Capone, do you really not know what I want? I want to take the lead position in the Donkin family, and I'm just one step away from that, which is to deal a heavy blow to IDGM Capital. My father-in-law has always been fiercely competitive; he hates it when others win over him, or even step on his head. And your father, Henry Stephen, is precisely the one who wants to make him uncomfortable. I think he'd be delighted to see the Franklin family's heir defeated by me, the one he personally raised! The land in Nishiyama doesn't really matter to me, but your mother's grave is there, and I must take it, so you can experience what it feels like to have no place to rest in death!"
The people around didn't see when Capone had drawn a gun, pointing it directly at Lucas, seemingly at the exact moment Lucas finished speaking. The dark barrel was already aimed at him.