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He locked me in that basement,mutilating me beyond recognition.
Dried blood crusted on my body;my despair was his twisted joy.
He named it ‘The Withering Rose.’
But with Sophie,he found something more thrilling than destroying beauty:crushing the dignity of the poor.
I suspected what his plan was.
He’d control Sophie,manipulate her,making her dependent.
Then he’d kidnap her,reveal his true face,and humiliate her,reveling her collapse.
For him,that was the ultimate rush.
I despised her for her stupidity but warned her anyway.
“Don’t drink anything Ryan offers you.”
She didn’t listen,lost in his pretended devotion.
Three days after her kidnapping,I noticed she was absent.
Sophie usually bragged about her romance with Ryan every few days via texts or posts.
This was the first time she’d been silent for three days.
I informed our advisor and called the police.
Her online lies about being bullied had made her well-known to authorities.
With the memories from my past life,I knew Ryan’s current address and basement location.
I casually mentioned Sophie’s closeness with Ryan and his disturbing words:“You belong to me alone.”
The police,seasoned, sensed trouble and targeted Ryan as the prime suspect.
I tagged along using an excuse.Ryan was already detained but unfazed,smirking.
“Officers,you can’t arrest someone without evidence,right?”
His confidence suggested he thought we had no evidence against him.
Then I“accidentally”tripped,triggering a loud noise—a hidden basement entrance opened.
Ryan’s face fell.
The police,elated and rushed in.
We rescued Sophie.She looked mentally unstable but had few physical injuries.
I sighed with relief.
Not too late.
The basement held five or six other young women’s corpses,tortured beyond recognition,with visible knife marks on their bones.
Monster,I cursed inwardly.
Then I met Sophie’s bloodshot eyes glaring at me.
“Why is it you again,Emma?”
“Why are you always there when I’m at my lowest?”
“You’re haunting me just to laugh at me!”
I shrugged.
I saved you,and you blame me?
“Hey,I rescued you.A thank-you would be nice.”
“Without me,you might be dead.”
Sophie spat and cursing.
“You don’t know anything!”
“Ryan kidnapped me because he loves me.He just doesn’t know how to love properly!”
“Why should you arrest him?”
The officers raised their eyebrows,stunned by her warped logic.
I pointed at the pile of bones, with dripping sarcasm.
“Guess he loved a lot of people,huh~”
Sophie paled,biting her lip, and fellsilent.
