For several days Emily's parents were yielded prisoners. They were fed once a day by Tina's thugs, but
the portions were just enough to keep them barely alive. Moreover, the house was as cold as the North
Pole. If it wasn't for those dirty blankets that they found in the house, they would surely freeze to death.
Every day was miserable, since it was just starving and freezing all day. It was too much to bear for
anyone and death was hiding at the next door.
At the same time, Emily was returning to Haicheng City. When she was finally at home, on the table in
the kitchen she found a DVD she had never seen before. So, she took the DVD and played the video
on her computer. When the video started, she felt a cold thrill on her back, her face was completely
terrified.
The monitor showed two people sitting down on the floor. They were wearing some dirty rag; their hairs
were scruffy and untied; their arms, legs, and face brought signs of starvation and pain. It was a terrible
scene. The camera moved around the house, with no one speaking. The place was at least as filthy
and messy as them: the walls and roof were covered with musk, the wooden carpet was devoured by
woodworms, and the whole room filled with a thin mist. They were probably freezing, in fact they
shrank in the corner shivering, sometimes hugging each other. They looked miserable and pathetic...
Even though the video was not of best quality, Emily soon recognized those two as her parents!
She panicked, and her mind wasn't still anymore. Then she saw that at the bottom there was a phone
number. She dialed and waited for an answer.
Soon enough, a woman's voice picked up the phone,"Is there Emily? I guess you have seen the video."
That voice was familiar. Emily gritted her teeth and trembled with rage and pain. She shouted out word
by word,"Tina, why do you have my parents? If you have any problem, then it is just between you and
me. Leave them out of this story!"
Tears fell down her face. She couldn't believe that her parents were dying. They were all her world. If
they would die in this way, right now, she would never be the same again. Her poor heart wouldn't
survive as well.
Tina felt the terror in Emily's voice. She laughed delightedly,"Yes. I have them. Emily, mark my words.
Your parents are rubbish like you are! They gave you birth and for this they need to pay! That's all you
deserve, to be treated like rubbish!"
"Tina!" Emily squeezed the phone as she wanted to broke it in pieces. She said nervously,"What the
hell do you want? ..."
"Oh, there are a lot of things that I want." Tina sounded calm and happy,"But let's talk about what do
you want. For instance, do you want to save them? I can give you a chance to have your parents back,
but I assure you that if you tell anything to Jacob or the police, I will end their sufferings. You do not
want to see your parents dead, right, Emily?"
Emily took a slow and long deep breath and said,"I promise you. But you stop torturing them now;
otherwise, I will kill you with my hands."
Tina obviously did not put her words at heart. She continued to say,"Twelve o' clock tomorrow; on the
western suburbs. You come alone. If you are late, I won't wait for you."
"Fine, I'll come."
When Emily said these words, Tina hung up the phone. She suddenly burst out laughing crazily.
"Are you happy now?" Mark was sitting by her side. He looked relieved, as if her sister's happiness was
all that mattered in this world.
"Of course, I'm super excited, brother." Tina smiled and hugged him around the neck. She kissed him
on his cheek,"Mark, you are always so good to me!"
Mark froze. How long had it been since they were so intimate, except for when they were kids?
"I have prepared something else for you. I hope you will like it." His eyes were sweet and his tone
sounded lovely while he was with Tina. He said,"I took an appointment for you with an expert in M
country. He will erase your scar."
Tina pushed Mark away, as her happiness was replaced by a gloomy face,"Are you sure he can fix my
scar? Otherwise, do not make me hope."
"He said he his confidant about it. Let's give him a chance, shall we?" Mark knew that it is not easy to
erase completely a scar, but he wanted to try anyway.
Tina lifted lazily her gaze, and a glimpse of darkness flashed inside her eyes. "Do not disappoint me
Mark, or this time it won't be as easy as someone losing his job."
Mark answered back,"Fine, whatever you want, as long as you are happy.
..."
In the meantime, Emily's parents were living in the hell designed by Tina. They bore tortures that no
human being should never witness without even knowing the reason. All they wanted was someone to
save them out of this hell. The next day, it seemed that Heaven answered their prayers and sent
someone to take them out.
They could not believe their eyes that they were outside! After gazing at each other, they ran as fast as
they could through the door while the guards were not noticing.
Unfortunately, those days of starvation consumed all their strength, so that they could not run longer.
After a few meters, they were caught and threw to the ground. The two poor souls shouted for the pain.
"How dare you try to run away? I suppose you don't want to live any minute longer!" One of the guards
hit them brutally with his stick.
The other guard looked down at them, who were suffering and craving for help as two smelly and dirty
beggars. He could not help stepping backward and telling to his companion,"Maybe that's enough. You
do not have to beat them to death. The boss said they must be kept alive."
The beater suddenly stopped his arm. Then he tied them up tightly and dragged them to a parking lot
just nearby. The guards threw them inside the backseat of a car and opened the window slightly. Then
they seated in the front seats, started the engine and began talking.
"What do you think Miss Tina needs these two for? She just threw them in that shabby, but actually she
never did anything with them."
"Who knows? I heard that after the injury, she went kind of crazy. Sometimes I can't even look at her
face. I mean her eyes are too dreadful to look into."
"Come on, don't mess with me man," replied the beater,"she is just a woman. How can you be scared
by a woman? You are just a pussy."
"I am not a pussy! That's the truth. Miss Tina reminds me more of Mr. Tao nowadays..."
The two guards kept gossiping in the car, while Emily's parents stretched out their ears trying to grasp
something about what was going on. When they hear the word "Tao", they started listening more
attentively.
It was not until the two guys stopped talking, that Emily's mother cut into their conversation and
asked,"Excuse me. The Tao clan you mentioned, is it the same one of Jingshi City?"
The guard at the passenger's seat turned his head back at her with despise,"Do you believe that there
is another Tao clan?"
"As for this Miss Tina... Is her mother called Flora?"
"I guess so."
Her face became thoughtful and excited,"So, the boss of the Tao clan... Did he have only one daughter,
Miss Tina, right?
"She also has a brother... But why do you ask all this stuff? Shut up now!" The guy turned his face at
the front and stopped answering her questions.
Emily's mother felt as if she was struck by a thunder. She would never have imagined to end up in this
situation. The person that tortured them in these days... was...was...
Emily's father looked at his wife's face, and after a couple of seconds he finally came to himself and
understood what she was thinking about. He could no longer stay quiet,"I assure you. You better let us
go. The sooner, the better! Otherwise, I would not let you and the Tao family get away with it!"
The guards burst out in a vigorous laugh,"You are dying, old man! That arrogance will not help you!"
"Who do you think is dying?" After he understood what the true identity of Tina was, he spoke as if that
was his guarantee to get rid of those two,"Do you have any idea who I really am..."
Emily's mother was afraid that her husband would reveal the secret. But that was not the right moment
to do so, thus she cut in immediately,"Don't be ridiculous!"
"I didn't say anything wrong! How can you let them treat us in this way? We must stand up! They have
to know that their Miss Tina is our... Hum..."
Fortunately, the guard sealed his mouth with tapes, so that he could not talk anymore. The secret was
still safe.
Emily's mother breathed a sigh of relief. She bent forward to the guard and said,"Please forgive my
husband. He hasn't eaten for a long time and now he is talking nonsense now. Please do not take it
seriously..."
The guard did not care to speak and just kept looking at the front.
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