The Hide and Seek Game That Lasted a Lifetime novel Chapter 29

Chapter 1

A simple oversight—her mother forgetting to peel the cherry tomatoes in a salad—led to a horrifying tragedy. Vivian Bennett’s employer, in a cruel act of retribution, pushed her mother from the thirtieth floor of a building. The impact was brutal; her skull shattered upon hitting the ground, and she died instantly.

At the funeral, the employer sent a check for ten million dollars, an attempt at some twisted form of compensation. Without hesitation, Vivian tore the check into pieces and immediately called the police.

She never could have imagined what would happen the very next day. Her father was found suspended upside down over a transparent tank teeming with hundreds of ravenous piranhas.

“If you want to save your father, just sign this agreement,” a cold voice said. “Don’t make things difficult for Diana, and I won’t make things difficult for your dad.”

Her husband of three years, Charles Foster, casually placed a pen on the document, waiting for her to comply.

It was then that the horrifying truth hit her—her mother’s employer was none other than Diana Schuyler, Charles’s ex-wife.

And Charles, the man she had married, was willing to risk the lives of her entire family just to protect Diana.

“What if I refuse to sign?” Vivian’s teeth chattered, and her voice trembled with a mix of fear and defiance. “Are you seriously going to let my mother die for nothing and have my father killed just to cover up for a murderer?”

There was a flicker in Charles’s dark eyes, something she couldn’t quite interpret. “Vivian, no matter how many mistakes she’s made, she is still the mother of my son.”

“Your parents have lived long enough,” Vivian shot back, her voice breaking. “But my son can’t grow up without his mother. Don’t blame me for that.”

Charles tapped the table twice with his long fingers, and the rope holding her father dropped another two meters.

Despair washed over her like a tidal wave. “Charles Foster, I could ask the court to go easy on her! I’m only asking for justice—why is that too much?”

He fell silent for a moment, then his lips tightened into a cold, unwavering line. “You have forty-five seconds.”

Vivian’s heart clenched painfully. Was it truly their son who couldn’t live without Diana, or was it Charles himself, trapped by his own obsession?

She had known, even before marrying him, how ruthless and manipulative Diana could be. But Charles was hopelessly infatuated with the poisonous rose he had nurtured with a mixture of love and hate.

Vivian never thought he would abandon all sense of morality just to shield the woman who had once betrayed him so deeply.

The masked guards standing watch near the tank were about to release the rope when, without warning, it was suddenly slashed.

Her father plummeted straight into the tank.

Before he could even scream, the ravenous piranhas swarmed him, tearing into flesh with terrifying speed.

“No… No! Dad! Dad!!!” Vivian’s scream tore through the air, raw and desperate, her voice unrecognizable.

One of the masked men removed his mask, revealing Diana’s stunning yet venomous face. “Vivian Bennett, how does it feel to watch your father die right before your eyes?”

Two days. In just two short days, both of her parents were gone.

The weight of grief crushed her, threatening to shatter her completely. Her legs buckled, and she collapsed to the cold concrete floor, her voice hoarse and broken. “Why… wasn’t killing my mother enough? Why couldn’t you just let my father go?”

Diana crouched beside her, her crimson nails digging painfully into Vivian’s cheek as she whispered with icy cruelty.