Falling For My Ex's Uncle - Chapter 335: Chapter 335

As we stepped out of the clinic, the sun was warm, but an unease settled in my chest for no apparent reason. I pulled out my phone and dialed Sophina's number, but it went unanswered. Hearing the busy signal made my heart tighten. She never ignores my calls.
'Maybe the noise in the mall drowned out the sound of her phone ringing?' I tried to reassure myself. But just as I got out of the car, my phone vibrated with an incoming call from Sophina.
I hurriedly answered, but a man's voice came through the receiver before I could speak. "If you want to see them, come to the coffee shop on the second floor. Come alone. No tricks."
It was Jayden. His cold voice carried a subtle, almost mocking amusement, like a snake slithering through my ear. A chill shot through me, from my head down to my toes.
I took a deep breath, steadying my trembling hand, and ended the call. Forcing myself to remain calm, I walked over to Alex's side. As we exited the elevator, I spoke quietly, "I need to use the restroom."
With that, I headed to the coffee shop Jayden had mentioned.
'I rushed along, my heart pounding, my mind racing with thoughts. What does Jayden want? What is Sophina and the others' situation now?'
As I entered the coffee shop, the rich scent of coffee hit me. I scanned the room but didn't see Jayden. Instead, a delivery man wearing a helmet hurried over, slipped a card into my hand without saying a word, and quickly disappeared into the crowd.
I opened the card. It contained directions to an amusement park.
Leaving the coffee shop, I immediately spotted Sophina and Zachary, laughing and playing at the amusement park on the first floor, with Drew nearby. I let out a sigh of relief.
As I began to feel calmer, my phone rang again—an unknown number, but I knew it was Jayden.
"Underground parking, level B2, hurry up, don't waste time. The consequences of not showing up will be severe." The man's voice was low, laced with a chilling laugh.
I hesitated momentarily, then turned and walked toward the elevator across the hall.
'Jayden is a complete psychopath. For Sophina and Zachary's safety, I had no choice but to comply. But I knew deep down, he wasn't going to kill me. Otherwise, he wouldn't be wasting so much time.'
The parking garage on level B2 was dark and eerie, the dim yellow lights flickering weakly overhead.
As I entered the garage, a black van screeched to a halt in front of me, a cold gust of air following its arrival. The door slowly slid open, revealing Jayden inside, a sinister smile on his lips. His icy and malicious expression sent a chill straight down my spine.
"Get in," he spat between clenched teeth.
I hesitated momentarily, but with no choice, I steeled myself and climbed into the van.
I opened my mouth to demand what he wanted, but before I could speak, he lunged at me, pressing a cloth soaked in a sharp, pungent odor tightly over my nose and mouth.
I widened my eyes in terror, desperately trying to pull his arm away, kicking wildly at the seat beneath me. But my vision blurred, my body growing limp, and before I could react further, everything went black.
I'm not sure how much time passed before I slowly regained consciousness, my head heavy and foggy, as though it had been filled with lead.
I struggled to open my eyes, scanning the surroundings. I was in an abandoned factory, the walls cracked and weathered, covered in dusty spider webs. The dim lighting flickered erratically, like the labored breaths of someone on the verge of death.
Suddenly, my gaze shifted to the side, and my heart sank.
Alex lay on the floor, his face bruised and battered, clearly the victim of a beating. He had passed out.
"Alex!" I gasped, rushing to his side. My hands trembled as I tried to shake him awake. "Come on, wake up!"
Just then, an eerie laugh echoed through the workshop.
I turned toward the sound, and there he was—Jayden, stepping out from the shadows, casually twirling a metal rod in his hands. The rhythmic sound of it spinning hit me like a hammer with each turn, echoing in my chest.
"Jayden, are you out of your mind?" I yelled, my voice hoarse and dry from the earlier struggles and the unknown substance I had inhaled. My eyes burned with anger as I glared at him, my fists clenched, my body trembling with fury.
He tilted his head, his lips curling into a twisted smile. "Laurel, don't be mad."
"Jayden, what the hell do you want? Do you even know kidnapping is illegal?" I snapped.
Jayden furrowed his brow slightly and sat down on a folding chair. Two young men in strange outfits stood by the door behind him, looking like troublemakers. They looked to be around twenty years old.
One of the men gripped a knife tightly in his hand, his eyes glaring at me provocatively.
'Seeing them brought back memories of when we were kids, and Jayden would hang around with all those troublemakers.'
Jayden was always getting hurt. Sometimes it was from fights outside, other times it was from Celia's beatings. Her blows were often harsher than anything he'd get from outside, but I never once saw him cry.
Back then, I was too young to understand why Jayden never begged for mercy or shed a tear when he was beaten. It wasn't until I grew older that I realized—if he had cried, Celia might've killed him on the spot.
'After all, Celia had no humanity—how could she have any conscience? Maybe she never realized that her cruelty would eventually create another monster.'
Jayden sat with his legs crossed, furrowing his brow as he looked at me, a confused expression in his eyes. "Laurel, I just invited you here to catch up. How could you say I kidnapped you? You got into my car willingly."
I let out a cold laugh. "Then what about Alex? Why is he here?"
Jayden furrowed his brow and glanced at Alex, still unconscious on the floor. "He overestimated himself. When he saw you getting into the car, he thought he could come and save you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Jayden suddenly laughed, his tone dark and unsettling.
"I've never liked people who show up uninvited," he mused. "What do you think should be his punishment?"
Hearing the word "uninvited" caught me off guard, and suddenly it hit me. 'So, he hated me so much as a kid because I showed up in his life, seeing things I wasn't meant to see.'
A chill ran down my spine. 'If I had told anyone about the beatings or the stealing when we were kids, would I have ended up dead by now?'
"Do you think I should break his left leg too? That way, he won't be able to walk again."
"Sure," I said, pressing my lips together, my eyes cold as I stared at Jayden. I spoke casually, as if it were no big deal. "That way, he won't be able to seduce other women, and I won't have to worry about him anymore."
Jayden paused, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before his expression darkened. "Laurel, aren't you afraid of me at all?"
I slowly lifted my head, meeting his displeased gaze, and a mocking smile curled at the corners of my lips. "If you're brave enough, kill both of us. Or just let us go, and I'll pretend like nothing ever happened."