Chapter 4

The rescuers huddled together, then immediately agreed to the plan. I was still in shock when one of my hands was tied to the back of the lifeboat, and I was thrown into the sea. The icy, biting seawater instantly enveloped me, and my body rapidly began to lose heat. I shivered uncontrollably.

Chloe sneered down at me. "Ava, this is the price for playing the good samaritan!" She stood in the boat's cabin, looking down on me. "Still daring to glare at me?" she said, picking up a harpoon nearby, and lunged it fiercely towards my eyes! My gaze froze in horror, my mind went blank.

To my shock, Fatima, with a surge of unknown strength, shoved Chloe hard. "Ah!" Chloe stumbled, nearly falling out of the lifeboat, and the harpoon slipped from her grasp, plunging into the sea.

"You old hag!" She spun around and kicked Fatima hard! The already weak woman instantly coughed up blood, barely clinging to life. Chloe was furious, stomping her foot. She exchanged a glance with Ryan, and when no one was looking, they both worked together to throw Fatima into the sea!

"You shameless bastards! Stop it!" No sooner had I screamed than Chloe feigned surprise. "She fell!" Only then did everyone turn their attention. And I watched, helpless, as she was thrown overboard. I could only use my free hand to snatch Fatima with incredible speed, before anyone could react. Already frail, she was now being dragged at high speed through the sea alongside me. The icy seawater relentlessly pounded against us, and agonizing pain shot through every limb. I could only clench my teeth. I couldn't let go; if I did, Fatima would drown in the vast ocean!

I don't know how long it lasted. Just as I felt death approaching, we finally reached the harbor. Then, a dozen gleaming golden planes suddenly appeared in the sky. Men descended from them, their heads wrapped in scarves, their anxious eyes searching through the crowd. When he saw his wife, barely clinging to life on a stretcher, his pupils instantly trembled.

"Fatima!" He rushed forward, his voice trembling. "What happened to you?!"

The woman on the stretcher gave him a glance, then completely lost consciousness.

"Fatima!" The man's sinister gaze swept over everyone, and he roared. Hundreds of bodyguards surrounded the area. "Nobody leaves! Take them all back!" Then he carried his wife onto a plane and quickly departed.

Chloe and Ryan exchanged uneasy glances, a bad premonition forming in their hearts. Seeing the ferocious bodyguards, Chloe instantly shrieked to stop them. "Don't come any closer! By what right do you restrict our freedom? This is illegal!"

The rescue personnel nearby turned ghastly pale, realizing the woman they had treated so roughly was no ordinary person. "He's Salih, the Arabian oil tycoon, who controls almost the entire oil industry of North Africa!"

All the color instantly drained from everyone's faces. Everyone knew that oil tycoons would stop at nothing, resorting to countless illegal means to seize oil fields! So, how they treated his wife just now... Would he...

Chloe's face was ashen, and like Ryan, she was trembling uncontrollably. The bodyguards said no more, herding all of us onto a helicopter.

Half an hour later, the helicopter landed at a majestic castle. Fortunately, the noblewoman had only suffered from hypothermia and a panic attack. She had been given a tranquilizer. Salih's cold, sinister gaze swept over us.

"Who put my wife in the sea and dragged her?!"

Everyone's eyes turned to Chloe. Fear instantly filled the woman's eyes, and she hastily tried to explain, "No! It wasn't me, I..."

Before she could finish, Salih fired a shot directly into the woman's leg. A piercing scream instantly erupted, making everyone's scalp crawl.

"It wasn't me!" Chloe's face was ashen. She clutched her profusely bleeding leg, staring at me. "It was her! She was dragging your wife in the water! Everyone can testify!"

Such is the depravity of human nature; as long as it's not themselves, anyone can be a scapegoat. Seeing no one contradict her, Salih stepped forward and lifted me by my collar. One hand clenched tightly around my throat, the other held a cocked pistol, pressing it hard against my temple.

"You harmed my wife! You won't live to tell about it!"

The hand on my throat tightened, my eyes became bloodshot, and the feeling of suffocation choked off my words.

Just as death's embrace began to tighten.

Fatima was wheeled out, sitting in a wheelchair. Seeing me on the verge of being strangled, she hastily spoke.

"Salih, stop! She's the one who saved my life!"