Deceiving Her Ears: Ignoring Your Call-Chapter 49: Someone Steadily Catches Her in Their Arms
Vivienne’s face lit up with hope.
But the next second, she saw Isaac set the drugged glass of wine down on the coffee table.
Vivienne froze, her voice shaking with anger as she asked, "Isaac, what the hell are you doing?"
"Cut it off or suffer for it. There’s no need to drink this. We’d better see each other less—from now on, best not at all."
With that, Isaac stood up, nodded at Franklin Finch, and walked away.
Franklin Finch saw Vivienne covering her face, crying her heart out. After all, they’d known each other since childhood. He sat next to her, handed her a tissue, and tried to comfort her.
Vivienne wiped her tears and asked him, "Has Isaac got someone in his heart?"
Franklin Finch considered for a moment and answered carefully, "There is someone. He really seems to care about her."
Leaving the bar, Isaac stood under the streetlight, smoking.
A woman wearing a leather camisole dress stared at him for a while, then strutted over with a thin cigarette between her lips.
"Hey handsome, got a light?"
Isaac glanced at her, tossed his lighter into her arms, and walked away.
In his car, waiting for the driver service to arrive, he dialed Natalie Kendall’s number, but what came through was an icy robotic female voice saying the phone was turned off.
Isaac frowned and pulled up another window on his phone.
Last time he lost contact with Natalie, before giving her a new phone, he’d installed a tracker on hers.
But now, the little red dot that should show her location was dark.
Even if the phone battery was dead, the tracker should still work.
The only reason it could stop working was if the phone had been violently destroyed.
Something might have happened to Natalie!
——
In a villa on the outskirts of town.
Jason Grant had a whole table of dishes prepared.
He and Natalie Kendall sat opposite each other at the dining table.
Natalie hadn’t touched her chopsticks the whole time, while Jason ate his fill.
He took a tissue to wipe his mouth and looked at the perfectly clean plate in front of her.
"Not eating? If you faint from exhaustion later, I’m not looking after you."
Natalie frowned with disgust and stood up to leave the dining room.
Jason watched her back, eyes darkening, then got up to follow her.
He’d just entered the living room when his phone rang.
He glanced at the caller ID but didn’t answer.
Just as he slipped the phone into his pocket, it rang again.
After hesitating, Jason answered:
"Hello, Isaac, what do you want?"
"Uncle, I’ve got a get-together here. You coming?"
Jason felt a pang of temptation at Isaac’s words, but remembering he had business to attend soon, he suppressed it.
"Not this time, Isaac. I’m not feeling too well today, so I’ll just stay at the hospital."
"Oh, is that so? What a shame."
Isaac Vaughn was standing in Jason Grant’s hospital room at that moment, staring coldly at the empty bed in front of him.
"Isaac, if there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up now."
"Uncle." Isaac Vaughn walked out as he spoke, "I’ve got some spare cash these days. If you need it, you can use it for now."
"Wow, Isaac, thanks for thinking of me, but I don’t need it for now. Your uncle’s about to get some money himself."
"Oh? Uncle, did you find yourself a new way to make cash?"
Jason fumbled for words and soon hung up.
Isaac gripped his phone tighter, more convinced than ever that Natalie Kendall’s disappearance had everything to do with his uncle.
He dialed another call, ordering someone to track his uncle’s movements.
——
Jason Grant forced Natalie into a bedroom.
Natalie struggled to remain calm, biting out each word: "I don’t want this. What you’re doing is rape. Aren’t you afraid I’ll call the cops on you?"
"Tch!" Jason Grant lost his patience and glared at her. "The damn wedding’s already set! We’re bound to get to this point sooner or later, what are you playing at?"
Natalie didn’t bother with more arguments and moved to leave.
But brushing past Jason, he grabbed her arm.
He was still recovering, but he was a man after all.
Though it took some effort, he managed to pin Natalie onto the big bed.
He yanked open her collar forcefully, seeing a patch of fresh red marks on her collarbone and below.
Anyone could tell those marks were made recently—just in the last couple of days.
Jason Grant sneered, "Drop the act! So you’ve already messed around with some other jerk!"
The sheer number of marks easily gave him an idea of how wild she’d been with that guy.
Jason felt a surge of irritation.
She was his fiancée in name, after all; having another man’s marks on her touched his possessive instincts.
He kept tearing at her clothes, his gaze vicious.
Terror, helplessness, fear—Natalie’s mind went blank for several seconds under the storm of emotions.
But soon enough, she forced herself to calm down.
"Jason Grant, there’s no need to make this so ugly."
Jason paused at her words, raising an eyebrow at her.
Natalie let out a breath, "This is what you want, right? You want to sleep with me? Let me up, we can take it slow."
"Stalling for time?" Jason wasn’t convinced right away.
He pinched her jaw hard, reddening the skin. "You know you can’t run. Be smart and it won’t hurt as much."
"You’re right. We’re already engaged, having sex is just a matter of time. Guess I was just slow to accept it at first."
Natalie looked at him expressionlessly. "It’s all about comfort with this stuff. It’s the same for guys and girls. Sex is sex—who you do it with doesn’t matter. Besides, with your own fiancé, you don’t need protection, don’t need to worry about pregnancy."
Jason was pretty shocked by what she said.
After a moment, he laughed, "Who would’ve thought you looked so innocent, but you’re such a freak underneath. Glad you’ve come around to it."
He rubbed his fingertips over Natalie’s lips.
Natalie forced down her disgust, didn’t flinch.
Jason said, "If your family wasn’t calling off the engagement, I wouldn’t have to go this far either."
He poked at her lips. "Alright then, why don’t you do a little ’oral calculation’ for me first?"
With that, he leaned back and spread his legs, waiting.
Natalie sat up, slowly slid forward.
Jason got excited right away, staring at her every move, his mouth watering, Adam’s apple bobbing.
But Natalie, as soon as she reached the edge of the bed, suddenly jumped down and bolted for the door.
By the time Jason reacted, she’d already dashed out.
"Fuck! Bitch!"
Jason roared in rage, stumbling off the bed after her.
Natalie was running like an Olympic sprinter.
She headed straight for the first floor, but not for the front door—it was locked.
Her destination was the window.
She dragged a chair in from the dining room, raised it, and smashed it against the glass.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
With all her strength, she hit it three times—finally, cracks started to appear.
But at the same time, Jason showed up at the staircase corner upstairs.
Seeing her trying to break out, he laughed with furious malice and hobbled toward her.
This time, he wasn’t letting her go!
With Jason closing in behind, Natalie’s tears spilled out. She let out a desperate yell and hurled the chair at him.
But it didn’t hit its mark.
Jason sneered at her, like a demon.
Just when Natalie felt all hope die, the locked front door suddenly rattled, then thundered open.
In that instant, she was seized by the overwhelming joy of salvation and dashed for the door.
Beyond the door was a set of steps—Natalie was running so fast she couldn’t stop herself and missed her footing, toppling forward.
At the foot of the stairs, someone rushed up, opening their arms and catching her in a steady embrace.
