The Unstoppable Comeback Of the Unrivaled Ex-Wife-Chapter 467 - 465
Chase’s guess was right on the money—Ace did indeed plan to completely distance himself from Carmine Pawnshop, so he would never turn up anyway under the guise of "Mr. Q" ever again. He even intended to discard the SIM card with the hidden IP address. But as soon as he saw the video of Joanna being tortured in the water prison sent by Chase, he instantly lost his mind, retaining not the slightest trace of reason.
At the moment, he was accompanying Seraphina as they attended a very important family banquet of the Murphy family where they discussed the cooperation between the Moran family and the Murphy family for the next season.
Seraphina’s father, Ethan Murphy, was fully satisfied with the agreement he had reached with Ace, and all throughout the evening, he had been dropping hints every now and again that they should start planning for the wedding between Ace and Seraphina.
"You must be aware of how I’ve treated you all these years, Ace. You and my darling Sera have been childhood sweethearts—both of you basically grew up sharing the same pants, so it’s only natural that you’d be sharing the same bed now!"
"Daddy!" With face flushed red, Seraphina hastily stopped her father from continuing on, fearing that if she was not careful, Ace might suddenly stop keeping up the act. "Stop it! You’re drunk! How can you say such embarrassing things? Didn’t I tell you that Ace and I are only dating now? We’ll only think about marriage when the time comes."
"What embarrassing things? I worked my *ss off my whole life to turn the Murphy family into what it is now, and I intend to hand it all over to you one day. If you’re with Ace, then it means that the Murphy family will be in Ace’s hands one day too. Ace’s a talented man, so I’m sure that with him at the helm of the Murphy family, we’ll certainly get richer and richer..."
Ethan patted Ace’s shoulder with eyes full of admiration and added, "My son-in-law, the Murphy family’s future is in your hands. Just think about it, with the joining of the two great families—the Murphys and the Morans. Who would even dare to touch us?!"
"That’s right! Who else in the whole of the City besides Ace is worthy of becoming the Murphy family’s son-in-law?"
"Come on, let’s stop talking and start drinking!"
The other Murphy family members started joining in, each of them eagerly raising a toast to Ace.
"Excuse me," Ace began with a stony face. "I have to leave now."
And then, without even glancing at the glasses raised in his name, he got up and was ready to leave.
Seraphina quickly grabbed his wrist and tried her best to put on a gentle smile before persuading him, "But the banquet has only started, Ace! Everyone’s still drinking happily! It might be inappropriate to get up and leave in the middle of everything, don’t you think?"
"I’ve got an urgent business to attend to."
"What could be so urgent that you have to leave now?" Seraphina asked with a lowered voice as she smiled and continued pleading, "Please, I beg you! My daddy is a proud man. You’ll embarrass him if you leave now! Just endure another ten minutes, okay? Just ten minutes!"
"I can’t stay even for another minute," Ace replied sternly as he shoved Seraphina’s hand away and immediately left the banquet hall.
"Ace, wait! Ace, please don’t go!"
At first, Seraphina was still able to keep her composure, but now she could not pretend anymore and just started to sob uncontrollably with her face buried in her hands. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
The lively banquet now suddenly became so silent that only the sound of breathing remained.
"This is ridiculous! The Moran family is clearly on the brink of collapse and he still has the audacity to be so arrogant! He’s clearly stomping on the honor of the Murphy family! I’ll never forget this!"
Ethan Murphy was so enraged that he saw red. In one violent shove he overturned the table as he threatened to fight the Moran family.
But Ace ignored all this as he hurried out of the Murphy residence and headed straight to his supercar. He put the pedal to the metal and sped towards Carmine Pawnshop as quickly as his car could take him.
"Where is she? Where is Joanna?!"
Still wearing Mr. Q’s black and white mask, he headed straight to the water prison courtyard and sharply questioned Chase of Joanna’s whereabouts as soon as he saw him guarding at the door.
"She’s inside," replied Chase cautiously. "Our boss said he wants you to unlock the chains yourself and exchange your life for Ms. Pierce’s."
Although Chase knew that the man in front of him was an impostor, he still instinctively became respectful and deferential when facing him, not least due to the naturally powerful aura that he exuded.
"In that case," said Ace, "tell him to keep his word!"
Without hesitating for another second, he then pushed the door open and tried to head inside.
"Wait!" Chase stopped Ace just as he was opening the door, frowning. "Think carefully before you barge in! This is the water prison. Once you go in there, you might never come out alive again, or worse, you might suffer a fate far worse than death!"
"As long as she’s safe, I don’t care."
Ace took a deep breath and still pushed the door open without any hesitation.
Inside, the water level had already reached Joanna’s waist, and in less than five minutes, when it would reach her shoulders, at least 500 snakes, bugs, and rats would be released automatically through the holes. There would soon be plenty of venomous snakes in there, so the situation was dreadfully urgent right now.
"Joanna!" Ace’s heart tightened as soon as he saw Joanna all chained up, and it made him shout out her name at the top of his lungs.
"You... You really came?"
Joanna had been waiting for so long that was about to doze off. She thought that the man was definitely never going to show up, so she was just about to give up when the man really came to save her! She was moved to tears. All the doubts about how he might have just been playing with her heart in the past vanished in an instant
"I’ve been looking for you for so long! Why weren’t you willing to see me? Why did you have to give me up to Ace Moran? I’ve got so many things to say to you, and so many questions to ask. I..."
"Stop talking! The water level will reach a dangerous level soon! You have to get out of there right now!"
Ace knew more than anyone else how barbarous water torture actually was, so in the four years that he ran Carmine Pawnshop, he ordered for this area to be sealed off completely. If he had known that the psychopath Q would resume the torture technique so soon after he returned, he would have ordered for it to be destroyed a long time ago!
Without taking off his clothes, Ace dived straight into the water prison and rushed to Joanna’s side. He then tried to unchain her with all his might.
By then, Joanna was so cold that her lips had turned pale, and her whole body was soaking wet, yet her eyes were shining brightly as she looked at Ace with great stirring emotions and told him, "You must’ve known that you’re walking into a trap, yet you still came to save me! This proves that your feelings for me were genuine, so you must have a really good reason for not showing up when we were supposed to get married, right? Were you coerced by that bastard Ace Moran?"
Ace remained silent, though he was breathing rapidly as he attempted to undo the chains that were trapping Joanna in there. Despite being in the water, he was sweating profusely from anxiety.
"Don’t worry too much! I’ll be fine. In fact, it’s all just a trick to lure you out. You..."
Joanna was so moved that she was about to confess everything to Ace, but just then, all the lights in the water prison turned on, and half a dozen burly men barged in.
"It’s time! Chain him up!"
Quinton stood on the highest spot in the room and peered down haughtily at the two people inside the water prison. Meanwhile, Chase was standing by his side.
"Wh-What’s going on here? Chase... Didn’t you tell me that we’d be dealing with this matter alone? How..."
"I’m sorry, Ms. Pierce. There are some things that I can’t control."
Chase sighed in regret.
Next, the burly men then chained Ace up at the spot where Joanna originally stood.
