The Princess and the Pauper (Arabella) novel Chapter 1728

"Arabella, if you just admit that coming back home was a mistake, that you shouldn't have bullied me or paraded around like you owned the place, just get down on your knees and beg me, knock your forehead on the ground ten times, and I might just get Martha to leave your pretty face alone."

Of course, that was never going to happen. It was a bluff, a ploy to see Arabella submit and grovel.

Arabella's gaze fixed on Serena on the screen, a playful smirk curling at the corner of her mouth, "I dare to beg, but do you dare to untie me?"

Serena's heart clenched. No, they couldn't release her; with Arabella's skills, who knew what she might pull.

"You want me to beg, but you don't even have the guts," Arabella said with an air of indifference, "Go on, do it."

"You really think you're too tough to die." Martha's knife came down swiftly.

But in the blink of an eye, Arabella and Horace exchanged a look and simultaneously broke free from their ropes. Arabella kicked squarely on Martha, while Horace quickly snatched a gun from the nearby killer, aiming it at Martha.

They moved too fast for the henchmen to react; before they knew it, Martha was at gunpoint.

Martha, sprawled on the ground, couldn't believe her eyes. She looked from Horace to Arabella and back again.

"How did you." she stammered.

Hundreds of her men were behind them, yet none had noticed Arabella and Horace slipping their ropes.

Horace pressed the top button of his shirt, and Martha's earlier words played back for all to hear.

"Surprised? This is one of my boss's mini-cams with a built-in bug."

Martha's face went pale; she had suspected Arabella of a trap, but she never imagined it would be hidden in a tiny button.

How could this little wretch know how to turn a mini-cam with a bug into a mere button.

Horace crouched down, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "My boss has tamed wild beasts, dodged bullets, and fought her way out of encirclements. Who the hell do you think you are, trying to catch her? If she hadn't wanted to trap you, she would've wiped you out already."

"Daring to hit my boss, you wretched woman." After a dozen slaps that seemed to do little to calm his rage, Horace stood up and stomped on Martha.

"Stop hitting her." Serena, still shaken, cried out, pleading, "She didn't hurt Arabella."

"Shut your mouth," Horace shot her a menacing look. "You, I've got my eye on you. Just you wait."

But first, Martha had to be dealt with.

Sean stood arrogantly on the ground floor of the unfinished building, his presence giving no hint that he had just undergone surgery.

Behind him, Steward exuded an aura just as imposing, impossible to ignore.

As the assassin descended the stairs, she saw two sports cars blocking the entrance, and before her stood the infamous Sean, as if he owned the world itself.