Love beyond the mask (Whitney)



It was late at night.

In Ryan's home, Ludwik's towering silhouette materialized in the living room. He stood against the backlight, his handsome profile appearing as cold and intimidating as a specter amidst the chaos. His fingers, buried in the pockets of his tailored trousers, crackled softly.

Ryan, clutching a small box containing his daughter's severed finger, was sobbing uncontrollably. Suddenly, his cries came to an abrupt halt.

Parker, Ludwik's right-hand man, tilted his head and motioned for his subordinates to step back. He glanced at Ludwik and then walked toward Ryan, a smile playing at the corners of his eyes. "Ludwik is simply a man of his word. He has been more than fair, giving you two weeks' time. But Dr. Ryan, you chose to ignore his demands. You need to understand, it is your actions that have harmed your own daughter. Ludwik is not heartless."

"Ludwik, you monster!" Ryan screamed. His daughter's bloodied little finger had driven him to the edge of sanity.

"My little girl was already on a plane, about to leave Harmonia Country. She's only six years old. How could you be so cruel to a child?" "And what about you, Dr. Ryan? What did you and Florence do to my son, Sammy? When you sided with her, did you ever think about retribution?"

Ludwik turned slightly, looking at his expensive wristwatch, his patience wearing thin. "You have ten minutes to tell me where Sammy is. One minute for each of your daughter's fingers. Though she's left with only nine now."

"You'll never get away with this!" Ryan shouted, more terrified of Ludwik's inhumanity than the evidence of his illegal research that Florence held over him.

For the past two weeks, Ryan had been trying to move his family and secure a passport for his daughter. They were on the verge of escaping when Ludwik's men silently hijacked the plane and kidnapped his daughter.

After 24 hours of despair, Ryan finally succumbed and had no choice but to lie to Florence, claiming that the hospital where Sammy was hidden was compromised and that they needed to move him immediately.

Florence, already planning to cut Ryan out, decided not to disclose Sammy's new location to him.

"The second minute..." Ludwik's hellish voice snapped Ryan back to reality.

"I'll talk! Sammy... Sammy was moved from the hospital tonight..." Ryan stammered.

Ludwik's disbelief was evident. "You're saying Sammy was at the hospital?"

"Would you ever think to look there?" Ryan sneered, his eyes bloodshot. "With all your resources and power, Harmonia City is too vast. Florence took a gamble hiding your son in plain sight, where you'd least expect."

Ludwik's eyes darkened.

Despite exhaustive searches throughout Harmonia City, the hospital - a place teeming with life and visibility - was the last place Ludwik considered looking.

"Where is he being taken now?" Ludwik demanded, pressing down on Ryan's precious fingers with his shoe.

Ryan cried out, shaking his head. "I don't know. Florence has cut me out. But... I slipped a tracker into Sammy's pocket before he left."

"Hand it over!" Ludwik frisked Ryan, quickly discovering the phone in his inner pocket. He hauled Ryan to his feet and signaled Parker to prepare the helicopter.

“Ludwik, I advise caution. Any rash move might prompt Florence's men to harm Sammy. They're not ordinary bodyguards."

Ludwik watched the moving icon on Ryan's phone and dragged Ryan along. "You're coming with me."

Ryan struggled. "I can't openly betray Ms. Sheldon yet. Unlike you, I can't just storm in to rescue Sammy."

Ludwik ignored him, dragging Ryan

out like trash and tossing him into the car. Parker floored the

accelerator, the SUV tearing through the night like a beast breaking free. Ludwik's heart raced, his thoughts consumed by Sammy, the son he had never met, now suffering

because of this vendetta.

As they approached a strategic location suggested by Ryan, Ludwik caught on to the implications of Ryan's intimate knowledge of Sammy's routines.

"Seems you know a lot about Sammy... That's because you've been watching him at the hospital, haven't you?"

Ryan faltered, attempting to distance himself. "I only saw Sammy when Ms. Sheldon ordered it. I wasn't his primary keeper."

Ludwik didn't buy it, his tension palpable as he inquired about Sammy's well-being, fearing the worst had already happened to his son.

Ryan felt a knot in his stomach, the kind that tightened with every breath, making it hard to muster the courage to answer. No matter what he said, he feared Ludwik's retaliation.

"Look, if you manage... if you manage to save him, you'll see it with your own eyes!"

Before Florence had thrust Sammynovelbin

into his care, the boy had clearly been roughed up. Bruises painted his small frame, and as he was dropped at Ryan's feet, an asthma attack clawed at his breath. Without Ryan, the poor kid might have already been suffocating. Ryan's compassion for Sammy wasn't immediate. It was Sammy's cunning, his resourcefulness that eventually melted Ryan's heart, sparking a protective instinct he couldn't shake off.

The moon hung cold in the sky. At the bend in the mountain road, a convoy of four or five cars pulled to a stop. Ludwik surveyed the terrain before squinting at Parker, "Split the men into four groups, circle the mountain. The moment Sammy is spotted, I want to know. And remember, no gunfire."

"Got it!" Parker nodded, then inquired, "Who's Ryan shadowing?"

"Me."

With a grip firm and unyielding, Ludwik hoisted Ryan up the mountain as if he weighed no more than a feather. His breath, icy and biting, sent shivers down Ryan's spine. "Tell me, how many are guarding Sammy?"

"There were ten of them! Mr. Lippert, I... I shouldn't go any further. If I show up with the others, Ms. Sheldon will know I've betrayed her!"