When Samantha received his message, though she had not saved his phone number, she knew it by heart and so when she read it, her heart drummed in her chest.
Daniel's phone beeped and he opened the message quickly but his brows furrowed, confused at what Samantha's reply meant.
Samantha: [xo]
"Xo? X O? What the hell does that mean?" He wanted to respond but he heard the door from the basement open — he knew that Vivian had already finished her fun so he placed his phone back to his pocket and decided to deal with it later.
...
On Sean and Vivian's way out, they bumped into Daniel who was looking broody. "You can go inside. She's vulnerable now." Sean informed him.
Nodding, Daniel walked straight back inside the room where they held Devyn. The moment he got inside, the stench of metallic smell invaded his nose. He couldn't help but cover his nose and sighed. "Vivian." He muttered under his breath — he was no longer used to these kinds of things.
Walking towards the chair in front of the woman who was then unconscious, Daniel saw that her fingers were all bloody with huge needles still sticking under her nails but other than that, the only marks that Devyn had on her were handprints on her cheeks. He assumed that Vivian had slapped the hell out of her judging by how swollen her face was. He shook his head and ordered the men from the side, "Wake her up."
Just the same as how the men woke her up a while ago, they splashed cold water on her and Devyn woke up gasping for air. She had lost consciousness because of the pain that she endured from the crazy woman who was so happy torturing her with the needles. When she opened her eyes a little, she saw a man sitting in front of her, she blinked a few times until Daniel's figure became clearer.
She smiled at the man and felt her cheeks sore so her smile faded quickly. "Did you come here to gloat?"
"Gloat? Your state right now does not satisfy me yet. This..." Daniel waved his finger up and down as he pointed at Devyn. "...is only the beginning." Daniel crossed his legs and stared at the sorry woman in front of him. There was not a trace of pity on him. "Why don't you tell me about your relationship with Yanovich?"
Devyn felt the blood inside her mouth and she spat at the side before she let out a laugh. "Is that really the only question that you want to ask? How boring."
"Why did Yanovich want me to divorce my wife?" He bit out.
She raised a brow and laughed boisterously despite her cheeks hurting. Her voice was slow and hoarse when she spoke, "You thought that was his idea? Oh… how funny." Her laugh sounded cynical and it annoyed him. "Since I could not have you, then neither should she! How about I tell you everything that you want to know and you let me go?"
Knitting his brows, Daniel hated how Devyn still had the nerve to laugh at that moment. She probably had forgotten where she was and that he did not have the luxury to play games with her.
With a cold and sarcastic voice, he taunted, "Looking at how happy you are right now, you seem to have enjoyed Vivian's company. Why don't you spend some more time together?" Daniel gestured and was about to when he cocked his head sideways as if he was about to call the woman back inside.
Devyn grounded her teeth and heaved. "It was my idea!" She yelled.
Daniel sat back down on the chair and crossed his arms in front of him. "Yours?" He spat, raising a brow.
Devyn no longer cared about Lavro Yanovich. She was already in hiding and no one who had intentions of letting her live was going to look for her so she thought that there was no point if she held information any longer.
"Lavro's order was to poison Samantha to kill her. He never intended for her to live. He just wanted for her to suffer and her suffering meant yours. He wanted to avenge his son. A life for a life." She stated.
Daniel could feel his body burning with rage. His expression darkened and the temperature in the holding cell dropped that even Devyn shivered. She was already feeling cold, to begin with, and she felt that Daniel's presence made the place even more chilly.
"If that's the case, why did Yanovich allow you to give the antidote?" Daniel did not quite understand that part but when he asked, Devyn's eyes darted to the side like she remembered something or was it that she avoided Daniel's glare?
He continued to observe her until the corners of his mouth were raised. "Huh… he did not authorize you to do that, did he? You acted on your own and set your own conditions. You defied his orders."
Devyn swallowed and looked at Daniel hesitantly. Squaring up his shoulders, Daniel leaned forward a little and continued, "This is interesting. How about I tell you my guess?"
"After giving the antidote, Lavro found out everything and that's when the two of you had a fallout… Since then, you have been hiding from him. And he's been searching for you too because you… betrayed his trust."
Her nose flared. She was doomed.
Daniel found the two of them ridiculous. With an idea springing up to mind on how they would deal with Devyn Nam, he got up from his seat and headed towards the door but before he left, he turned to the guards and ordered, "Knock her out but don't kill her and then wake her up whenever she passes out. Repeat it ten times. Make sure she doesn't fall asleep until we leave tomorrow."
Daniel wanted to deprive her of sleep. The body pain from the torture and not being allowed to sleep could cause a lot of misery, making her body's immune system weak. He needed her to be very vulnerable.
"Boss, do you want us to extract information from her?" asked one of the men.
Opening the door to the room, Daniel paused before going out, "No, I don't need anything from her for now. I just want her to suffer."
"Understood."
"Screw you, Daniel Cho!!! Go to hell!" She yelled as she watched his back exiting the room but her curses stopped as soon as one of the guard's punch landed on her stomach, knocking out air from it. She gasped for dear life but there really was nothing that she could do.
...
Daniel hurriedly drove back to the city afterward.
Later that night, wearing a fresh set of casual clothes, he leaned on his car that was parked in the driveway of Samantha's home in Sapphire Gardens.
Seeing that the house was dark, he thought that no one was home so he sent her a text.
Daniel: [Where are you? I'm waiting for you outside your house.]
He fanned the phone and looked up into the sky, sighing and closing his eyes. The cool air brushing through his cheeks and the dancing of the leaves from the surrounding trees calmed his nerves. It had been a while since the last time that he felt like that.
Learning that the condition about the divorce and keeping his distance from Samantha was Devyn's idea, he was feeling slightly better.. They still had to find Lavro Yanovich to make sure that his family would no longer be in a dangerous situation but with the way things were, Daniel could already see the sweet outcome that he had been looking forward to.