Twisted Ties of Love novel Chapter 396

Izabella reached out and gently stroked the charred fur of the stuffed cat. Tears fell one by one, non-stop. Her ashen eyes were filled with tears.

She seemed on the verge of blindness. She tilted her head back, veins running down her neck. Izabella's mouth was slightly open, her eyes tightly shut and her voice hoarse from screaming.

Her choking, raspy voice was like a rusty knife grinding on a stone, grating and unbearable. It made people's hearts tingle.

Casey's eyes were red too. He silently turned his face away, unable to show weakness. He feared he wouldn't be able to stand in front of Izabella.

Izabella knelt on the ground and slowly spread the dirt over Niki, burying it until it was out of sight. Her thin body was shaking violently, her sobs growing louder and louder as her sadness reached its peak.

She’d never imagined she could be so heartbroken. It felt like she was being poked by hundreds of needles, each one more ruthless and forceful than the last, piercing her skin, going through her blood, and almost reaching her bones. It hurt so much she could barely breathe.

Izabella scattered sunflower seeds in the flowerpot.

"If there really is such a thing as 'reincarnation' in this world, can I meet Niki again after its death?" she thought.

Her grey eyes had always held a glimmer of light, but now that light was extinguished. Her eyes were like stagnant water.

Casey gently placed his hand on Izabella's head, "There will be a next life, Niki has just gone on a short vacation, it will surely return to you."

Izabella sniffed, her body covered in blood, her face dirty.

Standing next to this tall man, she seemed even thinner, as if a light breeze could knock her over.

Izabella gripped the collar in her hand, "Let's go."

"Where to?" Casey asked. He was worried about Izabella. She was crying her heart out one second and the next she was eerily calm.

She looked pale and sickly, not at all like a living person. Her eyes were lifeless and she looked like a puppet when she was expressionless.

Izabella moved her lips, "Home."

She took a few steps, then suddenly stopped. Her left hand was grabbed. She looked back stiffly at Casey's face.

Casey held her hand tightly, frightened that something might happen to her. He stared straight at her, his eyes not blinking, as if he were looking at a wisp of smoke, afraid she might vanish right before his eyes.

"Bella, come home with me."

Izabella didn’t respond, but when Casey led her by the hand, she instinctively followed his steps.

Her eyes, sore from crying, stung when they met the outdoor light. She adjusted to the sunlight with her half-closed eyes, then opened them again.

She glanced up at Casey's tall figure.

She didn’t say a word on the way. She put her phone on silent mode and put it in her bag. Countless people were calling and texting her.

Casey opened the passenger door for her. He watched her get in before he got into the driver's seat.

The car was quiet, so much so that he could clearly hear the sound of the wheels on the road.

Casey handed Izabella a bottle of water, "Have some water."

"I don't want to." Izabella fiddled with the collar in her hand, taking out a thumb-sized object.

Casey glanced at it and instantly knew what it was.

A camera.

The camera was wrapped in the collar, hard to notice if one didn't look carefully.

Casey had only installed a tracker in the collar, the camera must have been Izabella's doing.

They had taken precautions, but Niki still lost its life.

Izabella held the camera, which was also stained with blood. Her hand was trembling.

Back at Casey's house, he found some clean clothes, "You go take a shower first, I'll check if the contents of the camera are damaged."

Izabella's eyelashes trembled, and after a while, she reached out to take the clothes from Casey's hand and said, "Thank you."

Their relationship seemed to have returned to the beginning, seemingly close but actually far apart.

After watching Izabella go into the bathroom, Casey looked at the camera on the table with the collar.

He took out his laptop, took the USB from the camera, plugged it into the laptop and clicked on it.

The footage was shaky, but still watchable. Casey set the date to today and the time to an hour ago, then slowly began to search.

He saw Rachel take Niki to a small river and hand it over to a woman wearing a mask. Casey paused, cut out the next thirty minutes of footage, and saved it to his own USB drive.

He couldn't let Izabella do something rash, so he had to solve it before Izabella did.

Casey clicked back into the video and started watching again, until the woman in the video took off her mask. Casey's eyes narrowed.

It was Ariana.

A chilling intent filled Casey's eyes, his gaze sharp as an eagle's. He gripped the mouse and analyzed the whole incident.

The true mastermind behind this was Kristin, and Ariana was just her hired help.

Kristin had arranged for someone to kidnap Rachel's mother and threatened Rachel, who then had no choice but to take Niki out and hand it over to Ariana.

Ariana, unable to threaten Izabella, took out her anger on Niki, simply because she thought Izabella had deliberately ruined her reputation.

She was so reckless because her reputation was already ruined, she thought Kristin could help her cover it up, nobody would find out, and because there are no clear laws about animal abuse.

Casey thought, “Ariana probably thought that killing a cat isn't illegal.”

Seeing how much Ariana enjoyed exploiting legal loopholes, let's use that to get back at her.