Chapter 10
“Odessa! What are you doing?”
Magnus stared in disbelief at the panicked Odessa.
As he was leaving, the doctor had mentioned that sleeping pills were detected in Eli’s blood, and his brain waves were severely
abnormal.
A trembling maid said the madam had fed the young master sleeping pills.
He hadn’t wanted to believe it and had turned back to ask for clarification, only to witness this scene.
“Eli is just a child! Were you trying to kill him?”
Odessa’s face was deathly pale, her explanations weak and feeble.
Magnus pointed at the strangulation marks on Eli’s neck. “If I hadn’t come back, would he be dead?”
“I just had an episode, Magnus. You know I’ve had depression since that kidnapping. Recently, with Sierra and Eli appearing, I was
afraid of losing you!” She cried pitifully, truly making Magnus’s heart ache.
“If you’re having episodes, you take medication, you see doctors. You don’t attack children. How can I forgive this?”
Magnus threw the blood test report at her. “And how do you explain this? You fed Eli sleeping pills?”
Odessa felt instantly guilty, but she’d been acting for Magnus for seven years-she knew exactly how to manipulate this man.
She put on a dramatic performance, crying and laughing simultaneously, utterly tragic.
“Magnus, you don’t trust me? You actually don’t trust me?”
“Eli accidentally took my sleeping pills this afternoon! You’d rather believe the maid than me?”
“These seven years and those 99 bullets were all wasted!”
Tears streaming down her face, Odessa ran out of the hospital, leaving Magnus alone with his regrets.
He had indeed been too impulsive, and his words were hurtful.
As his anger faded, Magnus began worrying about Odessa’s condition. She had moderate depression-he feared she might do something drastic.
Since the kidnapping incident, to prevent such things from happening again, he’d installed a tracker in Odessa’s wedding ring.
The location showed a spa. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Odessa sent him a video.
Opening it, his pupils contracted sharply-a blade slicing across snow-white wrists, shocking blood spurting out.
He immediately called Odessa.
“Magnus, since you don’t love me anymore, I don’t want to live either…” Her voice was barely a whisper, like a thin string pulling at his heartstrings.
“That’s not true! Dessa, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have questioned you… Don’t do this. Whatever you want, I’ll give you, okay?”
Before his apology ended, the call cut off.
15:27
He immediately drove toward the spa location.
As his Ferrari screeched to a halt below the beauty salon, he received a new message from Odessa.
[Magnus, I love you too much, so I feel insecure. I’m afraid you’ll neglect me because of Eli, that’s why I acted that way… I don’t know what to do anymore!]
His fingers trembled as he typed: [You won’t be neglected, Dessa. What do I need to do to give you security? I’ll agree to everything!]
[I want half of Everhart Corporation’s shares]
Magnus was already running upstairs. The receptionist, hearing he was VIP Miss Verrier’s husband, thought a big client had arrived and enthusiastically led the way.
He wanted to push open the door, hold Odessa tight, and tell her anything was possible-even transferring all his shares to her.
But the laughter from inside the private room made his hand freeze on the door handle.
“Amazing, girl! You’re the only one in all of New York who dares treat the Everhart heir like a dog to be trained-whatever you want,
you get!”
Odessa hummed with satisfaction. “This is nothing. Someday I’ll make Everhart Corporation change its name to Verrier. And that bastard child-believe it or not, even if I really killed him, Magnus wouldn’t dare say anything!”
Her friend asked curiously, “Aren’t you afraid he’ll discover you faked the wrist-cutting video?”
She scoffed. “He’s definitely panicking right now. The more nervous he is, the more he’ll overlook details. To manipulate Magnus, I even studied psychology. This time I’m demanding half of Everhart’s shares for the wrist-cutting stunt. Want to bet with me?”
“No way! You’re guaranteed to win. Don’t forget your girl when you do!”
Separated by a door, laughter filled the room inside while Magnus’s expression shattered outside, his worldview collapsing with it.
It was as if he’d never really known Odessa.
In his daze, his phone rang, and the conversation inside stopped.
Magnus turned and left, answering the call.
The urgent, anxious voice completely snapped his taut nerves.
“Mr. Everhart! Something terrible! Young Master Eli… is missing!”
