It was a warm mid-summer dusk.

　　The noisy cicada buzzing was blocked outside by the large French window of the study room. Everything was extremely quiet in the Sanders villa.

　　A man buried himself in folds of files before the desk.

　　Although the man looked a little bit weary, something burning in his eyes showed that he was in excitement.

　　Half an hour ago, before the man came to his study, a small figure slide into the wardrobe and hide herself here.

　　And then she left a chink open to observe him carefully, admiring his sculpture-shaped facial structure and thin lips, his sexy collarbone under the wide-open collar of his white shirt. He was such a handsome man.

　　Thinking about what was going to happen next, she giggled silently.

　　The silence in the room was broken by a sudden ring.

　　Unhappy to be interrupted, the man frowned slightly, put down the pen in his long fingers, and reached out for his phone.

　　It was an unknown number, but he answered it.

　　"I took your wife, exchange her with one million. Mr. Hinton." There came a processed voice, hard to tell whether it was a man or woman.

　　"Oh?" Lance Hinton seemed to be quite indifferent, "Prove it."

　　His phone vibrated.

　　There came a mail.

　　Lance checked his mailbox and and there was a picture sent by an unknown addresser.

　　A young woman in that picture. She was tied up by ropes with her hand behind. She huddled on the floor, with messy hair and untidy cloth, like a pity kitten. Her mouth was sealed by tape, and her eyes were closed tightly. There were bruises and little scratches on her face. It seemed that she was already unconscious and lost in a nightmare.

　　It was exactly his wife, Dorothy Hinton.

　　However, Lance's lips curved into a smile.

　　He held the phone back to his ears, "Yes, it is my wife."

　　The kidnapper waited for a while, but Lance did not say anything. Finally, the kidnapper lost his patience, "Take one million dollars to the Chestnut Road in an hour."

　　"Why should I?" Lance asked.

　　The kidnapper was furious and he directly shouted, "I would only set her free for one million dollars. Otherwise, I would be the one who sleeps with your young beautiful wife tonight!"

　　"I said, take her, as you like." Lance replied lazily, "I have no interests to know about it."

　　"By the way, she is still a virgin."

　　"Remember to send her back before next Saturday. I don't mind if it is a corpse. I would pay for the freight cost. Are two hundred bucks enough?" Lance finished his words faintly.

　　"What the h*ll are you talking about!" The kidnapper howled incredibly.

　　"I said, she is yours. As long as she appears next Saturday, I don't d*mn care who sleeps with her." Lance hung up the phone and returned to his business as nothing had ever happened.

　　The person watching in the wardrobe was rooted to the ground.

　　It was right Dorothy Hinton, who the kidnapper 'kept' on the phone.

　　She was as pale as a ghost.

　　Dorothy had not been kidnapped. Dorothy lied about still on her vocation in Las Vegas. But she returned earlier to give her dear husband, Lance, a surprise. By the way, also get a prank for Lance.

　　The caller was actually her best friend, Janet Lawson. They took that photo in advance. Janet was the best makeup artist in the city. She helped Dorothy to put on some makeup, creating those wounds on her face.

　　Then Janet called Lance, pretending to be a kidnapper who took his wife, aiming to lead him to a nice place and give him a surprise.

　　Dorothy did not want to miss the anxiety on her husband's face when he found she was kidnapped, so she hid into the wardrobe in his study to observe him.

　　She saw all of her husband's expressions and heard his every word clearly.

　　What a big surprise for her! On their third wedding anniversary!

　　Although it was quite sultry in the wardrobe, Dorothy was frozen from top to bottom by what she had experienced. She felt that her husband's words were just like a knife which was stabbed right into the heart. It was so cold like she had lost all of her blood.

　　Dorothy tried to throw the casual tone of her husband behind, and she began to rack her brains for what had happened during those years.

　　They only married for three years, but they had known each other since they were kids.

　　She fell in love with him when she was just a little girl.

　　She loved him for almost ten years.

　　It was such a long time.

　　She thought he loved her just as she loved him. But now he behaved so indifferent when she was in danger.

　　What's wrong in their marriage? She wandered.

　　Since they got married, Lance was always busy with his business. They hardly spent times with each other. During those three years, they respected each other as guests. That was also the reason why Dorothy prepared this "surprise". She wanted to get more intimate with her husband. She used to expect something romantic to happen.

　　She didn't expect it would be 'romantic' in this way.

　　Dorothy bit her lips tightly to stop herself from crying. Tears rolled down from her cheek and disappeared into Lance's clothes.

　　Her phone began to vibrate.

　　It was Janet. She had sent dozens of messages to ask whether she was fine.

　　Dorothy had already mute the phone so Lance outside could not hear it.

　　She picked up the phone, trying to send Janet a message to calm her down. But she found that her hands were shaking so terribly that she was almost unable to type.

　　Dorothy clenched her fists. Her fingernails were hurting her. The pain awoke her from sinking into the old memories.

　　Finally, she managed to send a short message to her best friend with her trembling hands, "I am fine. Explain later."

　　"Would there be a small chance that Lance was only joking?" Dorothy lied to herself, "He must think that since I am in trouble, the more careless he performed, the more likely it is for the kidnapper to set me free."

　　Dorothy still maintained the hope for her husband.

　　She didn't expect that the hope was smashed into ashes just in the next moment.

　　She heard someone knocking the door and ask for entering.

　　Lance agreed.

　　Dorothy peeked through the chink in the wardrobe and found that it was the butler of Lance's father, Andrew Hinton.

　　The butler Mayer closed the door and locked it behind him. He walked towards Lance and bowed to him.

　　And then Dorothy heard him say to Lance, "Master! The booms that will kill your wife are ready."