The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 1526 A Dark Room

Seeing the documents, Melissa didn't think too much of it at first. After she got the money, her mind had already wondered to the gambling table. She was so impatient that she didn't read through all the terms and conditions on the documents. She signed the documents and wanted to leave with the money immediately.

Victoria and her friend saw that Melissa didn't even take a moment to read the conditions carefully. They were surprised by how easy it was for them to trap Melissa. After all, they didn't even explain the conditions of the documents verbally. 'Thanks to her stupidity, it's much easier to trap her than we thought. She even signed the documents carelessly, ' Victoria thought as she sneered in her mind. She and her friend looked at each other. They didn't say anything but they knew that they were congratulating one another.

Melissa didn't notice anything, as she was only focused on the gambling table. Once she signed the documents and received the money, all she wanted to do was continue betting. She quickly said to Victoria as she didn't want to waste another second, "I'm going now. See you later."

Victoria smiled in a strange way, almost like she was laughing at Melissa. Then she said, "Oh, yes. Go ahead and good luck." However, Melissa didn't notice her smile whatsoever. She ran over to the gambling table as fast as she possibly could.

Heading to the gambling table eagerly, Melissa pushed through the crowd. Finally, she managed to reach the table. Once she touched it, she felt like her bright life and luxurious future had suddenly returned. Staring at the dealer's hands when he handed out the cards, Melissa felt her heartbeat race faster. A moment later, she felt as though her heartbeats were extremely strong. In fact, she even felt like she had the heart of a child. All she felt was eagerness for money on the table.

Melissa pushed her chips to the middle of table one by one. Soon thereafter, she got lost in the happiness of gambling again, unable to notice her surroundings.

Melissa didn't even feel the time passing by. She didn't even know what the time was. Therefore, she just continued betting without knowing how many times she had bet. After a while of betting, she suddenly found that all her chips were gone.

Melissa's eyes went wide open. She was surprised to find that she'd lost them all. After all, she had chips worth three million dollars. 'How was it possible?' She suddenly felt as though she was crazy. She was so surprised and shocked, that she found it difficult to think straight. Standing at the table in thought, she didn't know what to do next.

People who stood beside her pushed her to the side impatiently. "Stay out of my way. If you don't have any money, then go away!"

People around her pushed her away rudely, insulted her and looked at her scornfully. Melissa was still stunned by the reality of losing all of her money again. She acted like a puppet, as she was pushed and dragged from the gambling table. She felt like that she didn't have any control over her own legs or arms and was unable to move. She also felt quite dizzy, like she was in the middle of a nightmare. Nothing remained inside her, except for ruin.

All she knew was that she didn't have a cent to her name, and that she had lost all the money she borrowed. She felt unsafe in that city without any money. Thinking about still having to repay the money she borrowed, she felt even more sick.

'It's a lot of money! How on earth am I going to repay it?' Melissa thought. 'How about I derive a plan to run away from my lenders?'

Upon that thought, Melissa started thinking of countless ways to run away from Victoria and her friend.

At the corridor

Melissa walked towards the corridor, unaware about her surroundings. She acted dull and stiff, almost like someone who didn't have a soul. Half of her face was covered in the shadow, which made her look even paler.

She never thought she'd get into this much trouble.

Just as she was trying to gather her courage and strengths to get away from her debt, she heard people approaching her. When she looked at that direction the sound was coming from, she found that several muscular and tall men were walking towards her.

Just a few seconds later, she was surrounded by the men. They built up a wall to guard her from all sides. These men were tall and strong. Their body shapes and expressions displayed that they weren't easy to fool with.

Melissa looked at them in surprise, unaware about why they were surrounding her. Some of them even acted aggressive towards her.

"Ms. Shen, how's your day been? Did you have fun? It's time for you to pay the money back." a man said to Melissa. He looked like the leader and stared at Melissa seriously.

Melissa didn't expect her lenders to ask her to pay back the money so soon. She only borrowed the money a few hours ago. Suddenly, her face turned pale all again. In fact, she got so nervous that she didn't even know where to put her hands. She was frightened and didn't know how to deal with the situation.

She managed to smile at them slightly and said in a shaking voice, "Can you possibly give me more time to repay the money I owe? I will pay you back as soon as possible. I will find a way."

"Ms. Shen, perhaps you didn't understand the terms. This is usury, not a charity. We don't have that much time to wait for you to pay us back. We're not patient either," said the leader of the men. After hearing his words, he hinted an order to the other men. A few seconds later, Melissa was dragged away to the side of the corridor.

After hearing the man's words, Melissa was shocked. 'I thought that this was just a regular financial company that lent money to its guests!' Melissa thought, 'What did he say it was? A usury? Why would I be trapped with these people who do usury?

Oh my God! People who do usury are the ones who would torture and kill people to get their money back!'

Melissa was well aware what usury was. She knew how horrible it was to be trapped in a usury. So, that was the reason why she was shaking in front of all those people.

'That's it. I'm doomed. I'm completely doomed!' Melissa thought. The word "usury" appeared in her head continuously. She knew that it was not easy to get out of a usury once she was trapped in it. She remembered seeing how they tortured over-indebted people. She knew how cruel and horrible it was. They'd threaten them in a thousand ways and then beat them senselessly. The moment she thought of that, Melissa got even more terrified.

By now, Melissa's face was completely pale. She held tears back in her eyes. She then realized that Victoria set a trap for her to borrow money and fall into debt. Victoria led her to this trap. 'I was completely blind to think that she was my friend! I can't believe I trusted her lies!' she thought.

Melissa felt regretful. The only emotions left in her mind were anxiety, horror and hate.

However, she realized that what she needed to do was get out of that place.

She started to speak, trying to convince and persuade the men. "I'm..." Nevertheless, just as she opened her mouth, she was rudely interrupted by the men once more.

They didn't want to hear any excuses from her, so they tied up her hands and covered her mouth with tape. Then, they pushed Melissa towards the front gate.

After Melissa's mouth was covered with tape, all she could do was make a couple of sounds. Her eyes went wide open. Fear was the only thing that remained in her eyes. In a dark room

Melissa was brought into a car by the men. After driving for a while, they dropped her off and locked her up in a small dark room.

It was so dark that Melissa couldn't even see her own hands or hear anything else but her own breath. She even felt as though she couldn't feel time passing by.

After half an hour in the dark and isolated room, Melissa felt like she was driven crazy. She used her feet to tap on the ground, just to hear some type of sound.

As time went by silently in the dark room, Melissa felt desperate. She felt like she wasn't doing anything but waiting for her final judgment, which could possibly sentence her to death. Anxiety and fear nearly destroyed her.

In the dark, her stomach started to growl. At that moment, Melissa realized that she hadn't eaten anything in almost twenty hours.