Crossroads

Chapter 29

"Don't run! Catch her!" The footsteps behind Stephanie grew louder, accompanied by a rough, raspy voice. Frightened, her face turned pale as she desperately ran toward the elevator.

"Ah, letgo!" Stephanie kept pressing the elevator button frantically. She was about to rush in just as the elevator doors opened when a tall man with a fierce expression on his face ccharging at her down the stairs before pinning her down.

The man throttled and warned coldly, "You heard it just now. Dominick ordered for the child to be removed. You'd better cooperate, or don't blus for being nasty!"

on hearing Dominick's name, Stephanie's eyes reddened as she retorted, "No! This is my child! I won't have the baby taken I

away!"

"Mr. Wellington said you have no right to bear his child!" A man in a white coat hurried over and shouted impatiently to two other men, "Hurry up and do it!"

"No!" Stephanie was on the verge of weeping with fear,

"Letgo. I don't want to go ahead with the procedure..." She trembled in fear as she struggled under the man's grip and cried out desperately, "Help me! Please, help me. I don't want this. Let go!".

"What's that noise?"

The hospital was undergoing a change in shift and the corridors of the inpatient department were relatively quiet. Two nurses happened to pass by and they looked around in confusion.

"What are you doing?"

The nurses walked toward the source of the noise and saw three men acting suspiciously at the stairwell entrance.

"We're just disposing of sspecial medical waste..." Shortly after, they heard a loud bang as two men in white coats forcefully. closed a large lid.

The nurses found it odd, but the three men had already pushed the large white bin into the elevator.

"I've never seen these doctors before. Which department are they from?"

"Forget it, our hospital is so large and we often have interns coming in..." Another nurse remarked without giving it much thought as she watched the elevator doors shut slowly.

After the elevator doors closed, it quickly descended to the underground parking garage on the basement level.

Stephanie was thrown into a large bin filled with dirty bed sheets, the lid pressing down tightly on her. She struggled to breathe and she began to lose consciousness as her brain was slowly deprived of oxygen.

She wondered in despair, 'Why is Dominick so cruel? Why won't he hearout...

As Stephanie felt increasingly hopeless and despondent, her mind grew fuzzier. Just before she passed out, she faintly heard a

11:22 Fri, 21 Jun Chapter 29

sinister remark, "The money has been transferred. Get rid of her as soon as possible."

"How are things going?" Dominick pushed open the room door impatiently, his cold voice telling of his bad mood.

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Vincent, who had just hung up the phone, looked up at Dominick and sensed his overwhelmingly hostile presence. Vincent thought, "No wonder he was so angry at the hospital earlier. It was because of that video.

"All the related videos online have been taken down and deleted. Notifications have been sent to all major platforms to have their teams monitor the situation and prevent users from uploading and spreading them..." Vincent reported matter-of-factly before asking casually, "By the way, how is Stephanie doing now?"

Dominick's expression turned even grimmer at the mention of her name.

Vincent nervously looked down, not daring to provoke him further. He swiped on his phone and played a video he had saved.

He didn't expect Stephanie to be so daring as to jump into the river to save Kevin. However, as Vincent watched the video of Stephanie climbing up the riverbank all soaked through, he muttered under his breath, "I've never noticed how stunning her figure was. No wonder this video went viral..."

Dominick heard Vincent muttering under his breath and immediately shot him a warning look.

Vincent shrank back, quickly tapped his finger on the screen, and deleted the video out of fear.

He immediately changed the subject. "Dominick, it seems that every tsomething happens to Stephanie, you receive an anonymous message. Have you figured out where it's coming from?"

Vincent rarely asked a serious question, but Dominick seemed distracted as if his mind was elsewhere.

thinking about.

Vincent observed him subtly and was curious as to what Dominick was thinking Dominick then stood up abruptly with an irritated look on his face as he said coldly and swiftly, "Leave the anonymous messages to the ministry of information technology. They will have an update tomorrow."

With that, he walked briskly toward the door, his face masking a mix of complex emotions.

Vincent watched Dominick's retreating figure and called out, "Are you really planning to ignore Stephanie and go back to Havencrest alone?"

Vincent pondered, 'Dominick has always been impatient with women. With something like this happening, he would indeed abandon Stephanie, but..."

Having spent a few days with Stephanie, Vincent had developed a bit of a bond with her. He muttered to himself, "Stephanie was in that icy river in the dead of winter, she must be feeling really weak now..." Vincent wondered, 'Is he really going to leave her like this?'

Dominick suddenly halted in his steps.

An image of Stephanie looking confused and scared in the hospital after he had scolded her flashed through his mind. The more Dominick thought about it, the more frustrated he felt.

11:22 Fri, 21 Jun m Chapter 29

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Just then, the door burst open. "Where is Stephanie now?!" Kevin shouted anxiously as he suddenly appeared, surprising Vincent and the others. Vincent then remembered the video earlier and thought, 'After being rescued, Kevin suddenly confessed to Stephanie and asked for her forgiveness. Is he showing concern for his ex-wife now?"

Dominick's expression darkened at the sight of Kevin.

Even without Dominick's instructions, the bodyguards quickly ran in and grabbed Kevin by the arms.

"Take him away!" Dominick commanded impatiently.

Kevin had always been somewhat wary of Dominick, but now, he couldn't care less. He struggled fiercely as he yelled at Dominick, "Where is Stephanie now?

"Dominick, I admit I had wronged her before. But you slept with Stephanie and she got pregnant by accident. She isn't willing to be pregnant either, yet you used the power of the Wellington family to force her to marry you. You've never respected her wishes and you're no better than me..."

Vincent was visibly shocked at his words. How dare Kevin insult Dominick! Vincent turned to look at Dominick and saw that he was barely able to contain his rage, seemingly ready to erupt at any moment.

To avoid getting caught in the crossfire, Vincent quickly urged the bodyguards,

"Get him out now!"

Kevin was utterly infuriated as the two tall bodyguards overpowered him. He then anxiously asked again, "Dominick, where did you take Steffi?!

"Dominick, she's so weak now, and yet you ordered someone to remove her child. From the very beginning, you've only ever seen her as a child-bearing tool..."

Dominick was barely able to contain his rage. He was on the verge of lashing out, and his face was dark with fury.

Suddenly, he reached out his right hand, grabbed a fruit knife from the table, and hurled it straight at Kevin without a word.

Bam!

The fruit knife narrowly missed Kevin's head, grazing a strand of hair before flying past and embedding itself forcefully into the intricately carved solid wood door, its blade gleaming coldly.

Kevin was startled by the sudden flying knife and immediately shut his mouth as a drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead.

"You have no right to question how I treat her!" Dominick's voice was low and cold as he spoke through gritted teeth. His eyes bore a deep intensity, seemingly tinged with jealousy.

Even Vincent felt somewhat startled. He thought, "I've known Dominick for many years and have never seen him like this. He's always so indifferent, but now he seems...jealous, envious? It's as if someone touched something very important to him, disturbing his usually calm demeanor. Was it even possible for Dominick to get jealous? Kevin said Dominick ordered someone to get rid of the baby in Stephanie's belly?"

However, Vincent found it unlikely, and thought that Dominick might have just said it out of spite.

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Vincent, as an outsider of the matter, was the first to regain his composure and turned to Kevin asking, “Isn't Stephanie in the hospital?" Vincent couldn't help but wonder, 'Why does he keep asking where Stephanie is?"

Kevin sneered sarcastically, "The hospital?

"Dominick, the nurses at the hospital said that you went to see Stephanie at noon. She had just woken up, and you mocked and d and scolded her harshly, even telling her to terminate her pregnancy. She was so frightened by your harsh scolding that she nearly cried. You treated her this way just because she jumped into the river to save me, right?

"You said she doesn't deserve to bear your child. Fine then, get rid of the child and cut all ties between you two. Now tell me, where you have taken Stephanie?!"

Dominick, previously overwhelmed by anger, was momentarily taken aback by Kevin's words.

Dominick immediately grabbed his phone and dialed the hospital's number, his face turning dark and his eyes filled with disbelief. "She's not at the hospital!?"

Kevin yelled angrily at him,

at him, "Dominick, quit putting up an act! I spent an hour checking the facts at the hospital You left for just a short while, and three strange men forcibly took Stephanie away. Who else but you would dare do such a thing so openly!"

Dominick was known for his ruthless tactics. Within just over a month of returning to the country, he completely restructured the corporation. Despite the senior executives' dissatisfaction, they dared not speak out.

Dominick ignored Kevin. He exchanged glances with Vincent standing behind him before both of them hurried to the door.

ine of As Dominick walked, he instructed the bodyguard beside him with a tinge of frustration in his voice, "Send someone to check the cemetery area for any sign of Mrs. Wellington, and informimmediately if there's any news..." Vincent's expression also turned anxious as he got into the elevator with Dominick. "Dominick, who would dare to take Stephanie away so openly? If it's someone from our circle, all the more they wouldn't dare touch her..."

After all, Stephanie was Dominick's wife and a member of the Wellington family. Harming her was equivalent to a death wish.

Upon seeing their hurried expressions, Kevin also dashed into the elevator. "You...you really didn't send someone to abduct her?" he asked as he glared at Dominick, scrutinizing him.

"If it is not Dominick, who could it be?' Kevin wondered.

Dominick didn't even look at him. Instead, he continued giving orders coldly into his phone, "Contact the local gang leaders. Tell them that I'm looking for someone..."

He reasoned that if it wasn't someone from their circle, then it had to be someone from the underworld.

The bodyguard on the other end of the phone sensed Dominick's impatience and dared not delay even for a moment. He hastily acknowledged Dominick's orders and immediately dispatched his men to handle the situation. When the elevator reached the ground floor, Dominick and his group quickly walked out of the lobby. Their car was already waiting outside. "To Reed Villa!" he ordered coldly, The Reed family was the most powerful family in Caelorium.

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Chapter 29

The car then sped toward Reed Villa. Upon arrival, they were surprised to find the entrance of the villa already crowded with media reporters.

Gary was being hounded by reporters about smatters. He grew annoyed and snapped, "Stephanie is not my daughter! Her disgraceful affairs have nothing to do with me..."

"She is my wife!" Dominick stepped out of the car with a dark expression on his face, his chilling voice causing the reporters in front to turn around abruptly.

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