Part 2She Disappeared for Seven Years

To make everyone believe him, the crime boss confessed the entire torture process in court.

How he and his accomplices had knocked me unconscious and assaulted me.

How they had pulled out my fingernails and teeth, coercing me for information about police informants.

“She screamed terribly, but she refused to say anything. Out of — sympathy — I killed her, then personally disposed of the body.”

As he calmly narrated, countless people held their breath, hearts constricting.

Only Ryan’s eyes burned with fury, his body rigid and straight.

“Keep acting. People like you, have compassion for cops? Ha.”

The crime boss asked for a cigarette.

“I’ve killed so many people over the years – those who betrayed me, those who stole business on the street, those who owed me money… I’ve never regretted it. She was the only one I ever felt guilty about.”

But Ryan merely sneered.

He suddenly stood up, his voice ringing out clearly:

“I don’t believe a single word you’re saying.”

The crime boss shook his head helplessly.

“The time, the events, the participants — I’ve revealed everything I can. No need to lie to you. Anyway… now, only I know where she’s buried. Whether you want to give me leniency in my sentencing in exchange for information on her body, that’s up to you.”

His superiors called for a recess, intending to pull him back for further interrogation.

The public also demanded the police fully investigate.

Only Ryan vehemently opposed it.

He stormed into his superior’s office, pounding the desk.

His superior lost his temper, too, sternly ordering him to personally lead the excavation at the site the drug trafficker described.

The police cruiser roared to life.

The accelerator was floored.

Watching the rage barely suppressed on his face, my heart was consumed by a sense of helplessness.

He probably genuinely believed I had willingly fallen from grace back then.

For money, I had betrayed my ideals, and I had betrayed him.

And now, I was supposedly disrupting the new life he and Selene Vance had just begun.

But he didn’t know.

I, the "old me," was abandoned in the damp, cold underground.

Suffering for seven years.