VENGEANCE AS CRUEL AS HIS LOVE의 모든 챕터: 챕터 41 - 챕터 50

Jennifer’s POV Night settled over Croft’s mansion like a heavy blanket. I remained in my mother’s room long after she finished speaking, clinging to her like a drowning woman gripping the only piece of floating wood after a shipwreck. Every word she had told me replayed in my mind like a haunting melody: a deadly business partnership, betrayal, murder, and two powerful men walking free. But something else bothered me. “Lucy.” Her name pulsed in the back of my mind like a bruise I kept touching even though it hurt. I wiped my face, trying to breathe past the grief. Mom was whispering prayers under her breath when suddenly, a loud knock echoed into my room. Not a normal knock. A hard, urgent thud. We both startled. Mom stood up, wiped her face quickly. “Stay here,” she whispered. “No,” I whispered back, grabbing her hand. “I’m not letting you walk out alone.” She hesitated, but the knock came again, faster and heavier. Something was wrong. We stepped out of the room, and walke

Jennifer’s POVGrief and fear had soaked the four walls of Croft mansion and refused to let anyone breathe properly. Every sound made me feel like something else was about to shatter.But through all that pain, another ache kept tightening its grip.Lucy was missing. the longer she stayed gone, the worse the fear crawled up my spine.I sat on the edge of my bed, hands trembling in my lap. My phone lay beside me, screen blank, no messages, no calls, no sign of the girl who had slept beside me during exam nights, laughed with me through stupid heartbreaks, and swore she’d never disappear without telling me.My chest squeezed until it hurt. Where was she? Why wasn’t she picking up my calls? Why wasn’t she telling me she was safe? We had contacted her mom and family; they said they never heard from Lucy. The only evidence that made us suspect a kidnap was the hair found in that sack.A soft knock echoed through the door. Croft stepped in, his eyes sharper than I’d ever seen them. He looke

BEN’S POVThe message came at exactly 11:47 p.m. A time when the house was quiet. My wife and kids were already asleep, and when my mother’s door was already locked from the inside. A calm night sharp enough for a text to slice it open.My phone vibrated once. I ignored it at first. I was tired, mentally exhausted, pacing the living room with every light turned off except the one flickering near the kitchen. But when it vibrated again, twice, then thrice, I felt something cold pinch the back of my neck. I picked it up. UNKNOWN NUMBER: We know where you are. A chill ran through me. Another message came before I could recover. UNKNOWN NUMBER: Your house is the cream bungalow by the edge of St. Andrew’s Crescent, number 14. Brown gate. Three flower pots by the entrance. Two CCTV cameras. One faulty. I hesitated, thinking it was the police just trying to get me, but when I saw my home address, that thought died down. The police would have immediately stormed my house if they had

CROFT’S POVBen sat across me, hands cuffed to the table. His eyes darted around the room like a trapped nervous animal desperate and guilty. I could feel every tremor in his body, every flicker of fear that danced across his face. I leaned back, steepling my fingers, my men had trailed him carefully. One junction a little farther from the abandoned industrial area had given them an opportunity to track him without alarming him. I would have handed him over to the authority. But the prison wasn’t safe.There had been manipulations within the station, from people on the inside, people loyal to Stanley. Perhaps people who wanted me to fail. I wasn’t taking any chances. Ben wasn’t going to be handed over to a corrupt police force or left within Stanley’s reach. Not this time. I had rushed to the station myself, hoping to meet the Stanley assassin that was caught. He had promised me he would talk, that he would reveal the names, the numbers, and the people responsible for the attack on

JENNIFER’S POVThe drive back to the mansion was silent. Croft’s hands gripped the wheel with a steady, controlled intensity, but I could feel the tension radiating from him. My own chest was heavy, each breath coming in shallow, uneven bursts. The night had already taken so much from us something inside me refused to calm down.Ben had been left under the watch of Croft’s men at the house, safe but still under interrogation and protection. That thought should have comforted me, but it didn’t. My mind kept replaying the warehouse, the unknown attackers, and the sense that the nightmare wasn’t over.Our journey to the mansion seems far, difficult to get to. Croft didn’t speak, and I didn’t either. Both of us were lost in thought, the weight of the night pressing down on us like a physical force.When we finally reached the front door, Croft pulled the car into the driveway and shut off the engine. The night was eerily quiet, almost as if the mansion itself was holding its breath. My ha