Chapter 139.

As I’d just woken up, at present, I only had fifteen minutes. Without hesitation, I made haste and immediately exited the building in a rush. I threw all thoughts of the consequences of my actions to one side. Worn down by a lifestyle comparable to that of a lab rat shackled in invisible chains, I wished to return to the mundane world where I could enjoy myself freely without such heavy restrictions.

I was still able to continue my work as an electrical engineer during our time together, but she used various experimental drugs to restrict and limit my actions. I was also under constant surveillance by her bulky black-suited lackeys who followed me everywhere whenever I went out. That was one of the few privileges I was given as her boyfriend once I acquired her trust. Luckily, her lackeys only kept an eye on me when I left the facility she lived inside where she held me captive.

She’d even rigged my phone in a way that, although I received texts from others, I was unable to reply to them. It was set up for her to be the only person I could respond to, only texts and phone calls from her, nobody else. I was completely isolated from the rest of society despite the trust I gained from her, the ‘freedom’ she’d given me was an illusory one. It was by no means real.

What we had didn’t feel like a romantic relationship, but in her eyes, everything was perfectly normal. I had far more freedom than I had with my third ex, but I was foolish to take things at face value. I naively fell for her just because she was the doctor who took care of me and nursed me back to good health. After my first three failed relationships, before her true colors came to light, she helped me recover from the trauma I developed toward women.

I shook my head and refocused on the present. Now wasn’t the time to lament over the past. I had to get to the harbor quickly.

The harbor wasn’t very far from her facility, and it only took a short five minutes before I arrived. What awaited me at the end of the dock was a mysterious woman who stood up straight with perfect posture. Her long crimson hair blew to the side in the wind and revealed the black designer trench coat she had on. 

Her gaze was locked far into the distance over the ocean, seemingly in deep contemplation over some important affairs. It was dark out and difficult to make out her features easily; however, the limited illumination from the moonlight allowed me to distinguish a few of her characteristics from behind.

The moon hung high over the ocean and simultaneously reflected off the surface of the water below us. Kilometers out along the coast, there were uncountable numbers of lights; they encircled the harbor and formed a crescent-like shape that shimmered with an air of elegance amidst the night. Those lights never reached the dock, they felt so close, but so far away like the stars overhead. In stark contrast to the view of the city in the surroundings along the coast, only the harbor area remained poorly illuminated at this late hour. Overall, it was a picturesque and memorable view that would be forever profoundly engraved in my memories.

What left me most joyous on this occasion was the woman at the end of the dock. She wasn’t Maria, and I was quite confident we were strangers who’d never met before.

The only problem was, I wasn’t certain whether she was the one that texted me. As such, I cautiously closed the distance between us until we were side by side on the dock.

“You’re early. Where are the goods?”

“The goods?”

Did I get the wrong person?

“Sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong person,” I responded. It appeared I was mistaken, I’d approached the incorrect person after all. Why would a beauty like her be the one trying to help me when we’re complete strangers anyways? It was definitely someone else who texted me.

“Wrong person? No, that’s impossible.”

Ready to take my leave, I turned around and discovered a group of bulky macho men in black suits. 

“Ugh.”

I groaned out loud as my stomach churned. Had I screwed up when I escaped? It hadn’t been fifteen minutes yet; she shouldn’t have been alerted unless I’d really been deceived into thinking there was an exploit with the tracker.

I looked around in desperation for a way to escape, but what could I expect? It was a dead end. When I remembered the woman, I panicked and realized that she’d likely also be captured and experimented on by Maria as a result of my careless actions. If she were taken back with me as a conspirator, she’d inevitably face hell, especially if Maria got jealous and thought I’d cheated on her. When I thought of the wrath incurred from seeing another woman behind her back, I felt internally mortified.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Was she referring to the group approaching us? Without time to think, I scanned the area and noticed the motorboat on her side of the dock. When I checked her out, I discovered a distinct set of dangling keys attached to a ring on the right side of her trench coat.

“Do you have the keys for the motorboat beside you?”

“Huh? What are you asking such a stupid question for out of nowhere? Of course I do; it belongs to me after all.”

“Get on it and flee as far away as possible. Please don’t ever return here.” I immediately grabbed her hand and dragged her to the boat.

“What are you doing! Let go of me! Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” She fired off a bunch of questions my way as she tried to pull her hand away in a panic. My sudden actions left her visibly flustered, but I didn’t give her a chance to resist. When we were in front of the boat, I pushed her onto it dramatically. Like a suave hero who’d accomplished his mission in life, I turned my back to her dashingly. 

When the men not too far away from us noticed my actions, they picked up their pace, sprinted toward me, and rapidly closed the distance in a flash. I knew it would be useless for me to try and flee together with this woman when I considered the GPS tracker inside my body. If I fled here, it would only result in both of us caught.

“Go. Now.”

“Hah? What?”

“I won’t die, don’t worry about me, just go and don’t look back.”

I’m screwed either way, at least let me look cool for once. If I lived through this, I’d probably die from this unbearably cringe-inducing scene; but at least in this one moment, let me try to act a bit cool for once in my life.

I peeked over my shoulder expecting to see her moved to tears by my awe-inspiring sacrificial actions. My expectations were completely shattered, rather than moved she wore a baffled flummoxed expression of utter confusion on her face, at least from what I could make out of it in the darkness. She burst out into laughter for some reason before she finally obediently nodded her head in understanding. She departed with a strangely amused smile on her face rather than an emotionally moved one.

At that time, I didn’t understand much behind it, nor did I have much time to think about it. Amidst the sound of the motor boat’s engine that receded into the distance, I fell hard on my back as I lost consciousness after I was pummeled to the ground and restrained by the group of macho men.

I didn’t know it back then, but that was how I met my fifth ex for the first time. It was a meeting that was a complete freak accident born out of pure coincidence. The text was really from the woman I met on the dock, but my number just happened to be one digit off from the person she was trying to contact at the time for a big drug deal. She later told me it was the biggest blunder she’d ever made, but it also made her laugh the most she’d ever laughed in her life.

I also found this out later; those men weren’t out to retrieve or capture me... they were her bodyguards. When she asked, “what’s the meaning of this,” that was a question directed toward her bodyguards, not me.

With our first meeting serving as a catalyst, she eventually took up a strange interest in me. One day she went so far as to hire a group of kidnappers. She faked my death to Maria by taking advantage of the GPS tracker. The last coordinates it gave off indicated I’d sunk to the bottom of the ocean. 

She even planted the blame for everything on another criminal organization and used it as a reason to wipe them out. Of course, to begin with, it was just for the sake of silencing the hired kidnappers that were from that organization. She was a scarily thorough person who always eliminated loose ends to acquire the things she desired. There’s much more to the story, but that was the gist of how I eventually escaped from my fourth ex’s clutches.

...