third person's POV
"What? Not confident anymore?"
Vanya said calmly, "I warned you before, but you didn't listen."
She already said they could never be together, no matter what he did, she wouldn't be moved.
It was Cliff himself who didn't believe it and insisted on betting everything he had.
"Yeah, I lost my confidence." Cliff showed a rare wry smile, "I've never lacked confidence before, but with you, I really didn't feel sure of myself."
Vanya looked away. "If you're afraid of losing the Todd family, I'll give you a chance now, call off the bet."
"I'm not afraid of losing, I'm afraid of losing you." Cliff stared at her, "I knew if I gave up the bet, I'd never get another chance, so I wasn't going to give up."
"That was you being stupid, don't wait until you lose everything to regret it." Vanya got up and lay down on the bed.
The room was quiet, and Vanya vaguely heard Kriv say "I don't regret it."
She didn't close her eyes—she didn't tell Cliff, no matter what he did, the love they lost wasn't coming back.
In her heart, the rift between her and Cliff had already been there, and there could never be a result.
The next morning, Barbara called Vanya.
Cliff had already gone to the company, and Vanya was the only one in the bedroom.
Vanya picked up the phone and heard Barbara's voice: "CEO Dalton, Melinda took the day off today, just wanted to let you know."
"Took a leave?" Vanya was a bit surprised.
She remembered that Melinda was really short of money now and wouldn't take a day off for no reason, and in M Group's rules, interns wouldn't get the full attendance bonus if they took leave.
Barbara guessed, "Could what happened yesterday have made her think differently?"
Vanya frowned.
Last night, it really was her who had Barbara hint that Melinda might be pregnant, but she didn't expect Melinda to act so fast.
"I got it. You figured out a way to contact Melinda and asked her what was going on. Also, you contacted Stuart and had her check out the nearby hospitals to see if Melinda went to see a gynecologist."
"Okay, CEO Dalton."
Vanya hung up the phone, and her eyes fell on the calendar next to her.
According to what Grace said, there were three days left, and Theodore and Derek would come back from abroad.
She hoped she could get everything done before they came back.
Meanwhile, Melinda came to Belinda's little rental place again.
There were three big strong guys in the room, and there was a fierce look in their eyes.
[AI幻觉导致翻译异常][人称指代错误]Belinda was carefully pouring coffee for the three of them, with a look on her face that said I'm trying to please you.
Melinda felt a bit nervous, but she still went in.
The three men looked her up and down.
Belinda pulled Melinda to the corner and lowered her voice, saying, "Why are you so late!"
Melinda asked, "Are these thugs you know?"
"Of course not!"
Belinda whispered, "As soon as I said I wanted to kidnap Cliff's wife, those thugs didn't want to do it. Luckily, a boss introduced me to these three guys. They're all from overseas and do this kind of thing for a living!"
She made a "snap" gesture and didn't expect things to get this big. Now, even if she didn't want to go through with the kidnapping, she couldn't stop.
Seeing Belinda's troubled face, Melinda asked, "How much do they want?"
Belinda timidly reached out a finger.
Melinda guessed, "A hundred thousand?"
"One million dollars!"
"What?" Melinda's face suddenly fell.
Belinda explained, "They're professionals. Didn't you want to kill Vanya? They could take care of everything after, make sure nobody could find Vanya's body, and no one would know it was you!"
"Not okay."
Melinda frowned, "If Vanya went missing and they couldn't find her body, Cliff would definitely keep looking for her and wouldn't give up. Only if he saw Vanya's body would I have a chance to get into the Todd family."
"But it's a million dollars! Who could come up with that?" Belinda looked worried.
And since these three people had already been brought here by them, if they couldn't come up with the money, who knew what these desperados would do?
Melinda thought for a moment and said, "Isn't it just a million dollars? As long as I killed Vanya and became Mrs. Todd, wouldn't I have all the money I want?"
After she finished speaking, she walked up to the three men: "I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars as a deposit first. If you can kill Vanya, once I become Mrs. Todd, I'll pay you the rest."
The three men looked at each other, and one of them let out a cold laugh.
A man stepped up and slammed Melinda's head against the door, scaring her pale.
"Who knew if you could become Mrs. Todd? Our rule was cash on delivery."
The man said fiercely, "One million dollars as a deposit, not a cent less! Otherwise, I'll chop off your fingers one by one!"
Melinda looked pale but tried to stay calm: "I only have a hundred thousand on me! Do you know the Todd family? If you kill me, you're killing Cliff's child—the baby I'm carrying is the future heir of the Todd family!"
As soon as he said that, the other person did hesitate.
Melinda went on, "Think about it, Cliff and his wife had been on bad terms for a long time, they should've rejected each other ages ago. As long as you get rid of Vanya, I can become Mrs. Todd with the baby in my belly! Then, will money still be a problem? I promise you, after I become Mrs. Todd, I'll give you a million, and then another million on top of that!"