The Ex-Wife They Begged To Keep - Chapter 144: Chapter 144

Two days passed. Serena threw herself into her work, and though she and Keith crossed paths daily at the office, they kept their relationship under wraps. They had developed an unspoken understanding.
When her phone buzzed, Serena sat at her desk, mulling over the final design for the Tims Group project.
She glanced at the screen absently, but that look made her freeze.
Unknown number: [Want your little brat back? Bring the ransom.]
The following message contained a photo—Alyssa bound hand and foot, unconscious on the floor. Serena's chest tightened instantly. 'Who could this be?'
She checked the message immediately, studying the photo with growing dread. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach.
Alyssa had really been kidnapped.
Serena: [How much?]
Serena kept her response brief and to the point—no time to waste when she needed to keep whoever was on the other end calm. 'But how did Alyssa end up in their hands? First, it was Tara; now, what kind of people are we dealing with?'
Her thoughts immediately turned to the Hansen Group. They'd been suspiciously quiet since exposure, but something about their silence had always bothered her.
Now it seemed her concerns weren't unfounded—this could be the same group.
An address came through quickly, with instructions for Serena to come alone.
Unknown number: [If you dare tell Keith, we'll kill her right now. Nothing left to lose anyway—might as well go down together. I've got nothing left to live for!]
Seeing how agitated they were getting, Serena quickly typed back: [Okay]. She rushed out the door, heading straight for the location.
Graham approached from the other side of the office with some documents for Serena, just in time to see her hurrying out in obvious distress.
He frowned, puzzled by her behavior. 'What's got Serena so worked up that she's rushing off like that?'
Though confused, Graham made a mental note to keep an eye on things.
Meanwhile, Serena's stomach churned with anxiety as she got out of her car in the middle of nowhere. The address had led her to this desolate stretch of grassland.
"Where are you? What have you done with Alyssa?" Seeing no one around, Serena furrowed her brow and called out.
Soon, a disheveled man emerged from nearby, a cold sneer spreading across his face when he spotted her.
"Well, you got here fast. That little brat is safely tucked away under my watch, but coming here alone? You've got guts—no wonder Keith's so smitten with you."
Though her heart raced with anxiety, Serena forced herself to stay calm. "You want money, right? Name your price. If I can manage it, I won't hesitate."
The man's eyes swept over her from head to toe before his lips curved into a wicked smile.
"How much could you possibly have? But now things are different—with you and that little girl both in my hands, Keith will have to pay up everything he's got to get you back."
Alarm bells went off in Serena's head as two or three burly men burst from the bushes, surrounding her.
"Grab Keith's little girlfriend. Once we have her, he'll pay whatever we want. Boys, he destroyed our company—time to make him pay the price!"
Chandler's laughter turned manic as his men seized Serena immediately. "Let's go. Time for a family reunion!"
Serena struggled desperately, but she was already outnumbered and outmatched. Her feeble attempts were like drops in an ocean—the men barely noticed her resistance.
"Take her phone so she can't call for help," Chandler said with a cold snort, striding ahead of the group.
The other men immediately followed his orders, yanking Serena's phone from her and tossing it into the nearby bushes.
Serena bit her lip and glanced at her discarded phone before looking away.
Of course, she hadn't come here recklessly to play hero. Serena knew her limitations—she didn't have enough strength to fight back, and coming alone would only get her captured.
But she was also terrified that these kidnappers might actually kill their hostage in a fit of rage, so she couldn't just give Keith the location directly.
Coming here herself changed everything, though.
Before leaving, Serena had turned on her phone's location tracking. Once Keith realized she was missing, he'd search for her GPS signal.
So Serena wasn't acting impulsively—she was using herself as bait to draw out whoever was behind this.
After her initial struggle, Serena accepted her fate and walked along with them.
Chandler, thinking she'd given up, sneered mockingly, "Keith thinks he's so clever, doesn't he? Turning over all that evidence of our tax evasion. Well, now I'll give him a taste of losing everything he cares about."
Serena's expression remained unchanged. "You just want money, right? Keith will definitely agree to come save us. As long as you don't hurt Alyssa and me, we can work everything else out."
The men behind her shoved Serena forward into the warehouse. The terrain around them was more complex than she'd expected—the agreed meeting point was some distance from this warehouse location.
Still, it wasn't too far. If Keith had followed the GPS coordinates, he would have been able to find this place quickly enough.
The thought brought Serena a small measure of relief.
Just then, Chandler's phone rang, shattering the tense quiet. He glanced at the caller ID, and a sinister smile spread. "Perfect timing. Let's make sure Keith understands exactly what happens to people around him when he messes with the wrong crowd."
With that, Chandler answered the call and switched it to speaker so Keith could hear everything on this end.
Serena didn't understand what he meant at first. The next second, one of the men beside her kicked hard at her ankle joint. She screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.
"Seri!" Keith's voice came through the phone, and Serena could hear the ice-cold fury in his tone.
"Ha! This is too perfect, Keith. How does it feel to be on the receiving end for once?" Chandler doubled over with laughter, his eyes wild with manic glee.
"Your girlfriend and your daughter are both in my hands now. If you don't want anything to happen to them, wire me thirty million dollars. Pretty fair deal, don't you think? Thirty million for two lives—you should be able to do the math on that one."
Serena's eyes widened. 'Thirty million dollars? Even Tara had only dared to demand three million before. Chandler knew how to name his price.'
But Keith didn't hesitate on the other end of the line for even a second. He agreed immediately. "Fine. Thirty million dollars. I'm transferring it to you right now."
Chandler had been expecting some trap, but the bank notification popped up on his screen within minutes.