In my fury, I glared at him. However, he ignored me and left without sparing another glance at me.
The only ones in the room were Spencer and me. When the man turned to look at me, he smiled. “Ms. Stovall, your room’s on the fourth floor. You…”
“Take me to the third floor,” I interrupted. Then, I walked out of the room. Armond’s villa was massive to the point one would take minutes just to go from one end to the other end of a floor. Spencer frowned, seemingly hesitant about leading me there.
Hence, I said, “Take me there. Since he wants to keep me here, he can’t possibly stop me from going anywhere.”
Spencer was taken aback by my words for a moment. A beat later, he nodded.
The layout of the third floor differed from the second floor; the third was locked by a steel door. At the sight of that, I grimaced. “Where are my friends? Have you locked them all in there?”
Spencer smiled before answering, “Of course not. Your friends are all on the fourth floor, Ms. Stovall. This floor is where he keeps his pets. They used to come out from there and scare the rest, so he locked them all in here.”
I nodded. “Are they all snakes? Does he keep anything else?”
The smile remained on Spencer’s face as he replied, “Mr. Murphy likes to collect rare animals, so he almost has all kinds of creatures. He has had them for years now. Ms. Stovall, would you like to take a look?”
As I could not see anything from behind the steel door, I dared not answer him immediately. It would be fine if the creatures were locked up as the animals in the zoo, but it would be dangerous for me to enter if they were free to roam anywhere they pleased.
After brief contemplation, I replied, “No need. Spencer, please take me to the fourth floor instead.”
He nodded before leading me to the floor above ours. The villa was huge, and the structure of it was reminiscent of a noble castle of ancient times. It was grand but empty.
The stairs looked complicated. I did not know whether it was built that way to display the designer’s capability.
The moment I entered, I saw a lavish living room decorated with statues of Venus and saints. I was startled when I realized there was even a statue where one of the saints was breastfeeding a baby.
Perhaps it was because I knew not how to appreciate art, so I felt nothing when I looked at the statues.
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