Filed to story: The Regretful Billionaire: An Unpredicted Reunion
“I…what do you mean?” Rowena instantly quelled, fear swelling in size in her heart.
They couldn’t have figured it out…could they? But the double looked so much like that woman, Rowena nearly didn’t stop herself from tearing her face apart when she first saw her.
“What do I mean? You really think you can play us like a bunch of idiots with that sad little fake you call my mother?” Danika sneered.
Even if she couldn’t tell the difference, Graham had been able to based on his years of devotion toward her. Hadn’t Rowena considered this when they chose the body double?
Yes, she actually had considered it, but they figured Graham wouldn’t have remembered that woman so clearly after all these years.
Looks like they’d underestimated his love for her. Not only had he been able to tell, but he’d also been able to tell in such a short time. It went to show just how much he loved Danika’s mother.
Rowena teared up at the thought. She screamed, “All these years, and he still only has eyes for that bitch!”
She’d been Graham’s wife for two decades and even had a daughter together. Still, she never once compared to that woman.
“Watch your tongue!” Danika snapped harshly.
But Rowena didn’t give a damn. She glared at Danika and, as if seeing someone else, screeched, “So what if Graham loves you? I’m the one he’s married to now, me!”
Danika rolled her eyes and went back to her room, ignoring Rowena’s outburst.
After she left, Rowena glared hatefully at a corner in the living room, grunting, “If I could defeat your mother then, I sure as hell can defeat you now.”
With that, she left Zellweger Castle.
Danika didn’t care where she was going. Rowena was nothing more than a silly clown to her now, unable to do much anymore.
Meanwhile, she was in the best of spirits after getting Gilbert’s call in the morning, notifying her of his flight back to the country. So much had happened in the long time since they last met. Danika couldn’t help but feel safe again at the thought of him. She saw him as her true family, after all.
Gilbert was in the first-class cabin on the airplane flipping through a magazine, though his focus drifted off now and then.
“You worried?” the man beside him asked.
Gilbert closed the magazine and gave him a side-eye. “What’s there for me to worry about? You should be the one worried, no? It’s been so long since you’ve seen Danika.”
The man laughed. “Well, when you put it like that, yeah. I am a little worried. N
“I couldn’t tell.” “Aren’t you worried she’ll be more shocked than happy to see me?” the man asked, then leaned back into his seat.
To Kill Her
Gilbert had told Danika he’d brought her a surprise, but the man wondered if it would truly be a welcome surprise for her.
“Better a surprise than shock. That way, it’ll mean you still have a place in her heart.”
Gilbert scowled. In truth, he didn’t like that man much either.
Though compared to Eustace, he was pretty much a saint. At least he’d grown up with this man and seen several facets of his persona.
The man shrugged and teased, “You better be surprised to see me, Danika, or else I’ll be kicked out of Bardoff City.”
Their flight landed in Bardoff City the next morning on a Saturday, with Danika on the way to fetch them for breakfast.
When Danika went downstairs, Rowena was sitting at the table having breakfast, much to her surprise. Though she stayed silent, entirely ignoring her. Danika found this weird because Rowena didn’t usually wake up this early. Plus, she shouldn’t be so calm right now. Still, Danika didn’t give it much thought. Instead, she left straight for the airport.
After she left, Rowena made a phone call. “She’s left the house.”
With a glare at the empty doorway where Danika had gone out, she muttered hatefully,
“I’ll make sure you never set foot in this house again, Danika Zellweger.”
Unbeknownst to the danger present in her life, Danika happily drove to the airport. It was situated near the Bardoff countryside, away from the city center. The trip from Zellweger Castle took around two hours total to reach.
The moment Danika exited the freeway off the city center, she immediately noticed she was being followed by several black SUVs. At first, she thought she might be overthinking it, but then she realized the cars weren’t leaving. In fact, they only crept closer and closer to her as the seconds went by.
Recalling Rowena’s behavior this morning, Danika suddenly connected the dots.
“She’d finally done it,” Danika thought.
She had been waiting for Rowena to give the killing order for weeks just so she could finally seize and present her tricks for everyone to see. That was partially why Danika had been trying to piss her off all this while.
She took out her phone to call for help. Though unsure of how skilled her enemies were, having backups wouldn’t hurt. Before the call went through, something slammed into the car from the side, knocking it off its wheels and landing on its side on the road. Danika’s phone flung out from her grasp.
Her first reaction was to gape at how bold these people were to think they could get away with this under broad daylight. Did the Glasses really think they could do whatever they wanted now?
Danika crawled out of the car and was about to get into a defensive position when she spotted the large gang of foreigners pouring out from the SUVs. Chills ran down her spine when she saw them all taking out guns.
“Shit! I’m so screwed!” Danika thought.
Rowena had truly done her worst now—hiring international mercenaries? Did she even think about the consequences of her actions?
Danika quickly turned her attention back to the present. Keeping herself alive was the number one priority right now.
As the men advanced on her, she had a strong feeling they wouldn’t be the kind to go for hand-to-hand combat. They appeared fearless, not even worried about alerting the authorities by using firearms.
Danika could usually handle ten opponents at once, but she was no match for a gun.
The first gunshot came with a loud bang, alerting Danika of their intention.
To kill her.
Gunshot
Danika quickly dodged the shot, though, in truth, the situation had just begun to escalate. She knew that if she didn’t come up with an escape plan soon, she might actually die there.
But what could she do? She didn’t dare seek help from the drivers driving by in their cars. They’d also be subjected to the mercenaries’ mercy, which Danika was strongly against.
The only way out right now was to literally get out of this situation, she decided.
Danika dove headfirst for the nearby trees. The foliage would help lower her chances of being shot.
“Ow, fuck!” she yelped as sudden pain blossomed in her shoulder, nearly making her knees buckle. A bullet had hit her shoulder. Blood was already gushing out from the wound.
Yet behind her, the mercenaries were closing in on her, so she bit back the pain and ran into the woods.
Meanwhile, Gilbert was calling Danika’s number after landing at Bardoff Airport. Minutes went on, and still, no one picked up, making him frown.
“What is it? She’s not answering?’ the man who’d sat beside him on the airplane asked. He had expected to see Danika at the airport waiting for them. But surprise, surprise.
Gilbert’s brow never unfurrowed. He was concerned something had happened to Danika, given she wasn’t the kind to go back on a promise, and she did promise to fetch them from the airport.
His friend said, “What’re you worried about? She’s probably unable to hear her phone ring because of how loud it is in the airport. Who knows, she might be waiting for us outside right now.”
“You have a point. Let’s head out then.” Gilbert then went to the airport entrance. But ten minutes passed, and Danika was still nowhere in sight, nor was her call being picked up. Even Gilbert’s friend began to worry.
Just like that, Gilbert decided to call Graham Zellweger.
Across the city, Eustace was in a private dining suite discussing a business deal with a client when Danika called his number.
To his side, Blake quietly murmured, “We need to settle this first, Eustace.” She’d seen the caller ID and didn’t want Eustace to answer the call. If Eustace were to leave right after answering it, her efforts today would be wasted. Blake had spent a lot of effort getting this table of shareholders to gather here today, all for Eustace’s sake. It was a once-in-a-lifetime effort for him to have more footing in the quest to become the
Quincey family heir. When else would he get a chance like this again? Eustace knew this as well, so he hung up the call. He’d call Danika after the deal was finished.
Though he would never imagine the call to actually be Danika’s emergency contact process acting up after crashing into the ground.
Danika had set her phone like that since the moment she started dating Eustace, yet she’d never expected this saving grace to fail her now.
She had been running for God knows how long in the forest, the pain in her shoulder only growing by the second, especially with the two other gunshots she suffered from.
On the bright side, neither was fatal. But on the other hand……it’s not like she could feel much gratitude right now.
Game Over
As the sky darkened, Danika grew more aware of how the odds were stacked against her. There was no way she could run out of this patch of the forest now.
But she didn’t give up just yet. Gilbert would’ve been on the search for her by now. So she had to stay strong and hold on until she was rescued.
She gritted her teeth and dragged herself onward. It didn’t matter where she ended up as long as it wasn’t in those mercenaries’ hands.
Yet it seemed she overestimated her luck. It took less than half an hour for the men to catch up to her. They surrounded her by the tens, creating a dark black shroud in her vision. Only now did Danika see just how many meres had been hired to cut her down.
“You have admirable strength, pretty woman,” one of the meres, with a head full of platinum blonde hair, said.
Danika noted down his appearance. This must be the meres’ leader. ‘How much did the Glasses pay you?”
Mercenaries only do work when they’re paid, after all. As for how she knew it was the Glasses-it might be Rowena’s idea. Still, the money paid out to these men was definitely more the Glasses’ treasury because there was no way Rowena had this much money and power to smuggle them into the country without alerting the authorities.
The mere said nothing, merely holding out three fingers.
“Three million?”
The man shook his head. “We are elites in the mercenary world. Three mill is dirt to us, not even enough to hire us as bodyguards.”
“Three hundred million?” Danika was truly astonished now. Sure, the
Glasses could afford that much, but the sudden cash flow must’ve affected them somehow, no?
The man nodded. He didn’t mind telling her this, nor about their employer’s information. It’s not like she’d live to tell the tale.
