Chapter 5

Tyler did not sleep a wink the entire night. As soon as dawn broke, he went out. His child was suffering inhumane torture, and he could not wait any longer. He would lodge a police report and find his child. However, as soon as he stepped out the door, two black-clad men pulled a sack over him. When he opened his eyes again, he was dangling in the air in an abandoned factory. Over a dozen black-clad men were standing around him. Jonathan sauntered out from behind them. "Mr. Stone, you're awake?" He spoke gently, but there was a venomous look in his eyes. Tyler looked at him in shock. "What do you want, Jonathan?" "What do I want?" Jonathan swung a metal bar and flashed a terrifying grin at him. "I want to get revenge for that punch last night, of course!" As he spoke, he turned to the black-clad men. "Go on! Beat him up! Ms. Murphy says that you just need to leave him alive!" Tyler was horrified. Had Annaliese arranged this? Was she going to kill him just because he'd punched Jonathan yesterday? Tyler struggled madly, his eyes filled with disbelief. No. Annaliese couldn't have arranged this. Jonathan had to be lying to him. "What's the matter?" Jonathan walked up to him, smiling. "Don't you believe that this was arranged by Ms. Murphy? "I'll give you a chance to call her. If she answers, I'll let you go. If she doesn't, don't blame me for what I'm about to do." He gestured for the men to let Tyler down. Tyler's hands trembled as he called Annaliese's number. However, she hung up abruptly after just one ring. Undeterred, he called a second time, but she hung up again. He called a third, a fourth, and kept it up relentlessly. Finally, on the 99th call, his phone ran out of battery. Tyler's heart was as cold as ice. It really was her. Tyler laughed bitterly, his eyes filled with tears. Before he had time to reflect on it, someone yanked him to his feet by his hair. Steel bars whistled through the air toward him. The first blow landed on his head, and blood spurted out from his forehead at once. The second landed on his waist, and he grunted as he doubled over. The third swiped across his knees, and he seemed to hear the sound of bone shattering. … After a long time and countless blows, Tyler lay lifelessly on the ground. Blood mingled with the mud beneath him, staining the ground red. His lip curled. He suddenly felt that his life was a complete joke. How could he have thought that Annaliese would never hurt him, even if they could no longer be husband and wife? In the end, she had let him be beaten to within an inch of his life for some other man. He looked up with difficulty at Jonathan's smug, arrogant smile. There was a stab of pain in his heart, and he wished fervently that he could kill them both himself. However, he could not. His child was waiting for him, and he had to stay alive to get his child back safely. Jonathan began yelling again, "Come on! Hang him up! Since Ms. Murphy won't let us beat him to death, then let's leave it up to fate!" The black-clad men strung him up roughly and let him dangle from the rafters. The moment he became airborne, his vision went black from the pain he felt. The ropes were tied so tightly around him that he could see a flash of bone from the deep wounds on his arm. He hung there like a rag, looking completely lifeless. Jonathan stood a few steps away and looked viciously at him. "If you know what's good for you, get divorced from Ms. Murphy as soon as you can and stay far away from her. Otherwise, you're going to suffer!" He then turned and left. As Tyler watched his retreating figure fade out of sight, he felt his head grow heavier. The only thing he could hear was the sound of his own panting.