Love's Cunning Ruse novel Chapter 178

"When someone's not hiding anything at all, their disgust and anger can be expressed through micro-expressions like furrowing their brow, squinting their eyes, lifting their upper lip, and forming nasolabial folds. If jealousy is very restrained, it is almost imperceptible. When anger is more prevalent, it usually manifests as wide-open eyes, unconscious staring, and keeping the rest of the face serious; when disgust is more prevalent, it usually manifests as giving the side-eye, and the rest of the face doesn't have any significant expression."

As Dylan started his analysis, everyone's gaze shifted towards Davina. Indeed, every micro-expression of jealousy that Dylan mentioned was reflected on Davina's face.

"What does that mean?" Payne asked, "Any woman would be jealous of Julie marrying Kerry. It's normal for this Davina chick to be jealous too."

"But in Davina's eyes, there's not just jealousy, there's also hatred!" Dylan pointed at the video and said, "Expressions of hatred are complex. It's a mix of fear, anger, sadness, and self-blame for being powerless."

"How's that?" Payne asked, curiosity piqued.

Hayden got it. The reason Kieran was not in a rush was that he knew who had kidnapped Julie. The only thing he didn't know was her motive for kidnapping Julie. But since she chose to kidnap her instead of directly hurting her, this Davina chick in the video would definitely contact him soon. He was sitting on the couch, lost in thought, probably waiting for the kidnapper to contact him.

Dylan continued, "The fear is because Davina knows she can't be compared with Julie. The anger is because she wants to eliminate her competition. The sadness is because she can't do anything about the harm that's already been done. See, her lower lip is tightly closed due to muscle contraction, causing her lips to be tightly drawn together. Her upper lip is slightly lifted, added to the downward pull of the corners of her mouth, making the entire line of her lips curve downwards. Tight lips are a sign of self-restraint. If she actually loses control and starts screaming, her emotions wouldn't just be hatred, but total rage. So, in front of Julie, Davina is always restraining herself!"

This profound explanation was indeed harder for Payne to grasp than his computer.

But after hearing Dylan's conclusion, Payne frowned, "So, the person who kidnapped her is this woman?"

As Dylan was speaking, Kieran had already grabbed his car keys.

Julien was not one to just sit and wait. She moved to follow Kieran, but Hayden grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

Compared to arguing, Julien preferred to take action. Almost as soon as Hayden pulled her back, Julien kicked at him.

Hayden nimbly jumped up, avoiding Julien's attack. Julien swung a punch at Hayden's handsome face with her left hand, but Hayden easily dodged it. Then, he grabbed Julien's swinging arm.

Taking this opportunity, he pulled her into his arms.

Payne, watching from the side, was flabbergasted. Not until he saw Julien in Hayden's arms did he react, "Could you guys just talk it out?! Why are you suddenly fighting?"

A peaceful conversation between Julien and Hayden? That's a joke.

Just as Julien was getting ready to continue resisting, Kieran's phone, who was about to leave, suddenly rang.

An unknown call made both Hayden and Julien stop.

Payne immediately sat down at his computer, "Answer it. If it's the kidnapper, try to buy some time!"

Given enough time, he could track the caller's location.

Kieran had a hunch about who was on the other end of the line. He calmly answered the call.

The voice on the other end was indeed Davina's, but all she said was, "Julie's with me. If you don't want anything to happen to her, sign all the documents in my desk. You have ten minutes."

After saying that, Davina seemed to realize that Payne might trace her phone, so she immediately hung up and smashed her phone against a distant wall.

Julie never expected the person who appeared at the door to be Davina.

She had already persuaded the two kidnappers. If Davina had come a little later, the kidnappers might have let her go. But, Julie never expected that the cold voice at the door would be so familiar.

Perhaps because her eyes were blindfolded, Julie's hearing was particularly sensitive. Davina's voice in Julie's memory was not sweet, but at least it was gentle. But the sentence she just said to the two kidnappers, "If anyone dares to let her go, I'll kill him immediately"...

Her voice was truly terrifying when she said this.

Davina seemed to have brought a lot of people. Julie was blindfolded, so she wasn't sure what happened, until Davina made that phone call to Kieran. Then Julie heard the sound of the phone shattering.

"What documents are there in your desk?" After the shock, Julie asked Davina calmly.

Davina snorted coldly, and said to someone next to her, "Go take off her blindfold."