Filed to story: My Husband Regrets Divorcing Me (Audrey & Cornell)
Cornell noticed an inconsistency in the attire from the footage.
Davey was known to wear leather shoes, yet on this occasion, he donned long boots, a detail that struck Cornell as a premeditated part of Davey’s escape plan, speculating Erick would be in danger.
Responding to these revelations, Cornell orchestrated a blockade of all possible exits from Aurora in collaboration with local authorities, initiating a comprehensive manhunt for Davey.
His analysis suggested that, given Davey’s elaborate scheme to abduct Audrey, it was unlikely Davey would harm her immediately.
Given Davey’s ruthless disposition, it was clear he only kept those around him who served a purpose. Though Cornell couldn’t ascertain why Davey took Audrey away, he was certain she must be vital for something.
As Cornell approached Davey’s villa, a deafening explosion erupted, sending a massive plume of smoke skyward, shaping into a sinister mushroom cloud over the structure.
In response to the blast, Stefan, stricken with despair, cried out, “Erick!” He slid from his seat and knelt in the vehicle, overwhelmed by grief, his face buried in his hands. “Erick…” His voice broke in agony.
Cornell, witnessing the scene, felt a sting in his eyes and a tightening in his chest. Resolutely, he silently vowed, “Audrey, I will find you.”
The pervasive cold enveloped Audrey, a bone-chilling presence she had never felt so intensely before.
Accustomed to Aurora’s frigid temperatures, this new, profound coldness seemed to seep into her very bones, as if she lay in a dark cavern encircled by coffins.
A sharp, throbbing pain coursed through Audrey, a stark reminder that the chilling scenario was no dream. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her, sapping the strength needed even to open her eyes.
Her body trembled uncontrollably from the cold, each breath she released seemed to freeze instantly.
Suddenly, a splash!
A bucket of icy water cascaded over Audrey, shocking her system and forcing her eyelids open against her will.
The icy droplets transformed into beads of frost upon her eyelashes, a testament to the unnaturally frigid conditions surrounding her.
After a fleeting numbness, Audrey experienced a bizarre sensation of alternating heat and cold, as if she were disconnecting from her own body.
A chilling question broke the silence. “How does it feel?”
Turning toward the voice, Audrey saw Davey, clad in a red velvet suit, seated imperiously on a high-backed chair, his appearance reminiscent of a sinister figure from a nightmare.
Suddenly, the chilling scene before her merged with a haunting memory.
It was another dark, icy night, similar to this one, filled with the same bone-chilling rain.
Audrey remembered being carried endlessly by her foster father along a seemingly infinite road until he stumbled and fell hard.
The impact sent the young Audrey flying, and she Landed in a muddy ditch, her body and face obscured by mud and hidden among dense reeds, nearly indistinguishable from the dark muck around her.
As she struggled to rise and call for help, she saw her foster father vigorously shaking his head.
Despite his pain, her foster father stood and feigned carrying her as he attempted to continue forward. The young Audrey watched in confusion, unable to understand why he pretended to hold her while she lay in the ditch.
In a moment of shock, the scene shifted. A bright red sports car blasted past, its engine roaring Like thunder.
It illuminated her foster father, still mimicking motion, and in a horrific instant, a blinding light seemed to Lift him off the ground.
He was thrown into the air and crashed down with a devastating impact.
The young Audrey witnessed the horrifying sight as his body shattered upon impact, his limbs grotesquely disjointed, one of his legs thrown gruesomely before her.
The sight was nightmarishly vivid.
As he lay on the ground facing Audrey, his eyes, wide and unseeing, seemed to silently plead for her to remain quiet.
The young Audrey, observing his vacant stare, felt an overwhelming urge to scream, but her voice was stifled as if her throat was filled with cotton.
Her silence, however, turned out to be her protection.
Emerging from the sports car, a man clad in a red velvet suit appeared. Despite his genteel appearance, his actions belied a brutal cruelty.
He carelessly flipped her foster father’s body to confirm his death, then mused aloud, seemingly to the deceased, “Where’s the little girl?”
This sent chills down the young Audrey’s spine. It was clear this man was searching for her.
The day had begun innocuously. It was her birthday, and her foster father had just returned from the fields, proposing a cheerful outing to the town for a birthday gift.
While at the cake shop, her foster father caught the man in the red velvet suit staring intently at the young Audrey. This gaze, unyielding and intense, unsettled him, especially amid circulating rumors of child abductions.
Sensing danger, her foster father quickly grabbed the cake as soon as it was ready and hustled Audrey out of the shop.
They had barely rounded the corner when they noticed the red car ominously trailing them at a slow pace.
This observation sent her foster father into a panic.
Aware of Audrey’s distinct beauty, which could easily draw unwelcome attention, her foster father had always dressed the young Audrey in modest, nondescript clothing and styled her hair with heavy bangs to obscure her features. Despite these precautions, the man’s intentions seemed malign.
Deciding to confront the situation, her foster father stopped to see if the pursuer would pass.
To their dismay, the red car also came to a halt.
At that moment, Audrey’s foster father was certain the man was targeting the young Audrey.
In those days, someone dressed in extravagant attire and driving a notably expensive car wouldn’t be suspected of child abduction. In fact, raising such a claim could even spell trouble instead.
After all, within their tight-knit community, there was a prevailing belief that wealthy individuals were above such misdeeds. This belief emboldened the man to pursue them so openly.
When Audrey’s foster father spotted the man approaching with a steady pace, he impulsively scooped up the young Audrey and bolted.
Audrey, confused and upset, watched her cake tumble to the ground and burst into loud tears. “Daddy, the cake… The cake…”
To a child, the loss of a cake represented a unique sorrow. Tears streaming down her face, the young Audrey gazed at the ruined cake and squirmed, wanting to escape her foster father’s grasp.
Her foster father, breathless from the sprint, tried to soothe her.
“Baby, be good. Daddy will get you another one later.”
Feeling utterly distraught, Audrey rested on her foster father’s shoulder, staring blankly at the deserted road stretching out behind them.
The young Audrey couldn’t grasp why they needed to flee, but her foster father’s evident panic made her cling to him, pressing her face against his neck to hold back her tears.
Still too young to sense the impending danger, the young Audrey now lay in the cold mud, her eyes widening with horror as the man in the red suit drew nearer. The fear was palpable in her throat, rendering her speechless.
To her relief, the man halted about five meters from the muddy patch where she had been hiding.
The man knelt, picked up a bloodied limb of her foster father, and hurled it toward her foster father’s face.
“Heh.” With a chilling laugh, the man tossed out what he thought was a witty remark. “Runs your leg off, you idiot.”
Then, the man tilted his head back, observing the sky as it darkened further, a heavier rain imminent.
With the temperature dropping and a severe storm approaching, the man surmised that the young Audrey, if not fatally injured by the fall, would unlikely withstand the harsh conditions.
Thus, the man then climbed into the red sports car and sped off.
The young Audrey, her legs numb, was immobilized in the mud. She watched as her foster father’s eyes remained wide open, even in death.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. It was a horrific, indescribable sensation that engulfed her small frame.
Summoning all her strength, the young Audrey managed to crawl out of the dark mud, finally collapsing beside her foster father. “Daddy… Wake up…”
But the young Audrey couldn’t grasp that her foster father would never respond to her again. The man who had rescued her from a garbage dump and cherished her like a precious gem would never wake up again.
The young Audrey crawled out of the mud, narrowly escaping freezing to death.
However, the profound shock triggered a fever that confined her to the hospital for a week. When she regained consciousness, her mind had locked away the horrifying memories of that night.
Until today.
Davey, seated on the high chair before Audrey, and the cake in front of him, suddenly jolted her memory, which had been numbed by the cold.
The intense rush of memories left Audrey speechless. Her body shook, her teeth clattering not from fear, but from sheer anger at the beast who had murdered her foster father!
Davey, observant and sharp, noted the shift in Audrey’s demeanor and realized she had recalled the incident. He tugged at the corner of his mouth, his smirk widening as he commented, “Not bad, seeing the cake and remembering everything.”
“You!” Audrey gritted her teeth, overwhelmed by a surge of hatred, but found herself unable to speak further.
“Don’t rush. Take your time,” Davey said, his voice calm, his smile attempting to soothe her.
Audrey wished for a knife at that moment to kill Davey, yet she understood such an action was beyond her reach. Even armed with a knife, overpowering him would be a formidable challenge. Davey had successfully kidnapped her from the well-secured Clifford family’s manor, a testament to his dangerous capabilities.
She reminded herself that giving in to hatred and agitation would solve nothing. Remaining composed was essential to devising an escape plan.
Audrey pressed her nails into her palm, using the pain to anchor her composure.
“Why did you want to kill me?” Audrey inquired. She knew this question might seem naive, given it was obvious that Davey harbored a desire to kill her as Casey’s daughter.