My head pounded as I woke up, certain it would crack at the slightest touch. How long have I been out? I looked around the room, filled with the sunset pouring in from the opened curtain and noted it was Sylus's house.
I slipped out of bed, settling my feet on the floor to walk out of the room, but the sudden ringing of the phone tossed on the mini table next to the bed grabbed my attention. I walked over, picked it up, and raised a brow. It was my phone.
The screen lit up, and there was a message… from an unknown number, one I'd never seen before. I opened the message, and what I saw made my brows dip in confusion.
"What the…"
Unknown: Divorce Sylus Jones or else...
Who was it? I was sure I'd never given my number to anyone I didn't know, so who did this and how did they get my contact? And why divorce Sylus? This made no sense. Our marriage hadn't been made public, and no one else except the Jones family and my family were aware of it.
I frowned and quickly turned around, my gaze landing on the window. Was I being watched? My skin crawled, and I quickly dialed the number. Maybe if I heard the voice, I could tell who it was, but who even said they would pick up?
Surprisingly, they did, and with a thumping heart, I brought the cell close to my ear. "Who are you?"
"I'll take it as you saw my message."
Dammit, a voice changer! It was impossible to tell who was on the other side of the phone.
"What do you want from me?" I asked.
"Divorce Sylus Jones, it's that simple."
My eyes narrowed. "As much as I'd love to do that, I unfortunately can't."
"Are you sure about that?" they asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm just wondering about your best friend, Jasmine who died in a car crash four years ago?"
"What?" My heart dropped to my stomach, and nausea rose to my throat. "How do you know Jasmine?"
They didn't answer my question. "I know her six-year-old daughter is in that little orphanage now. What a sweet little girl she is."
I shook my head, smiling fearfully at myself in disbelief. No, no, it was impossible. Jasmine had died four years ago in a car crash with her husband, leaving her little daughter behind. The girl was taken to the orphanage, I took her there myself.
No one knew of her, not even my father. No one in my family knew, so who was this? How did they know Jasmine so far back to four years ago? What did they want from me? Why divorce Sylus? Nothing was making sense to me, and I felt like I was losing my mind.
"Who the hell are you?"
They laughed at me. "You have one month at best to divorce him, or she dies. Choose. And oh, I won't just stop at this girl if you don't do as I say. I have so much more that I can take away from you. I know your sick twin brother is in the hospital. I won't bother with him just yet, after all, the poor thing is just a step away from death. It's all in your hands, Harley Eun-Kyung Legan."
"Hey!—"
They hung up, and I stared at the phone.
My Korean name, they knew, they knew me that far! No one called me that, and even I barely remembered I had one. My father, though being American, my mom was Korean, but because of the hatred he had for her, which I still wasn't sure why, I'd never been called Eun-Kyung. It was always Harley.
So how deeply did they know who I was? I've never even been made public before, no one knew I existed. To the media, my father had only two daughters, I DIDN'T EXIST!
Nausea caught in my throat, and without reluctance, I dialed Olive's number and desperately paced back and forth in the room, hoping he'd answer.
"Harley—"
"I need your help, Olive."
"Whoa whoa whoa, what's wrong? You sound like the house is on fire."
I didn't bother responding to his joke and instead directed the message to him. "What's this?" he asked.
"I don't know." Yes, I was panicking. This didn't just involve me, but a little innocent girl who hadn't done anything wrong. "Can you please track the number? Find out the location and please trace the message."
"Harley, I—"
"Olive, please," I begged. "This isn't simple, my life could be on the line, my brother's life could be. Do you want us to die?"
"Of course not. No one's going to hurt you, Harley."
"Then please help me. I need to know who it is."
A sigh resounded from him. "Your father will kill me if he finds out about this. You know you are not meant to contact me or anyone from home."
"Olive, I am aware of that! Please…help me."
He went silent for a moment more before finally agreeing. "Fine. I'll do this for you, and I'll send the information if I find something, though I can't promise anything. Stay safe, Harley."
"Thank you, I owe you one." And I hung up, my arms dropping to my side in exhaustion. My head was banging repeatedly, and I had to drop into the bed on my back, my eyes fixed on the ceiling.
What was going on?
First I got kidnapped, and not even twenty-four hours since I've been back, these threatening messages dropped in. It was almost impossible to be a coincidence as if I were being targeted directly by one person.
Something wasn't adding up. The kidnapper wanted money from Sylus, and this messenger wanted me to divorce Sylus. Two different desires. But both people knew me, that is if they were two different people doing this. That man made it clear his boss knew me closely, and this message also made the same point. It couldn't be two people, it had to be one person doing this. It had to...
And it could be someone working for Sylus. Or not…
God! What had my father gotten me into?
What sort of sick game was this?
To hurt me?
…Well, I'll just have to find out!