Reborn to Love Mr. Right – Episode 43
The kidnappers wanted Ivy, but their threat was designed for Arianna. Emmy had become her first honest friend after rebirth, the teammate who challenged her to stop sacrificing everyone else for Derek. Trading one girl for another would repeat the same moral failure under different pressure.
Police surrounded the repair shop without approaching its visible entrances. Thermal cameras detected one person inside the main garage and another in the office. No third heat signature appeared, suggesting the breathing on the call might have been recorded.
Emmy’s phone remained at the shop while her car moved south on a toll camera. The kidnappers had separated the hostage from the location to divide the search. Arianna studied the image and recognized Jeff’s former service route toward the northern highway.
Jeff provided a list of storage yards Victor used for unregistered vehicles. One stood beside an abandoned athletic complex, close enough for the kidnappers to monitor the repair-shop trap. Police sent teams to both sites.
Ivy insisted on participating from the secure clinic. She recorded a message accepting the exchange and wore clothing fitted with a tracking transmitter. Arianna objected until Ivy reminded her that remaining passive would not make the Lantern Protocol stop choosing victims.
They sent the recording while withholding Ivy’s live location. The kidnappers responded with proof of life: Emmy sat inside her own car, wrists tied to the steering wheel, a pressure device beneath the driver’s seat.
The image background showed rusted stadium lights. Hayden identified the athletic complex before facial-recognition software completed its search. Officers approached through drainage channels that had once served the playing fields.
Arianna remained in the mobile command vehicle, fighting the impulse to enter. Her presence could distract the rescue team and reward the kidnappers’ effort to control her. Choosing restraint required more courage than running toward every danger.
Ivy’s transmitter began moving despite her remaining beside Arianna. Someone had cloned its signal and placed the copy on a motorcycle heading toward the repair shop. The kidnappers believed she was approaching the exchange.
At the athletic complex, police located Emmy’s car beneath the collapsed visitor stands. A wire connected the driver’s seat to the ignition. Touching the door or shifting her weight would complete the circuit.
Emmy had kept one foot pressed against the brake for nearly two hours because the captor told her releasing it would trigger the device. Her leg shook uncontrollably, but she had used the car’s voice assistant to send location fragments before her phone was taken.
Bomb technicians discovered the pressure device was partly a bluff. The brake controlled a loud alarm, while the true trigger was a remote receiver. The kidnapper could activate it from anywhere within five miles.
Hayden ordered all local frequencies jammed. The command vehicle lost contact with the repair-shop team, but the remote signal also failed. Technicians opened the door and cut Emmy free.
A man hiding in the stadium control booth attempted to trigger the device repeatedly. Officers arrested him with Victor’s L-19 instruction in his pocket. He believed Emmy had evidence from the school fire, although she had never possessed any files.
The Lantern Protocol did not require accurate motives. Victor gave participants enough lies to make violence feel necessary, then allowed them to invent the rest. Each attacker became both criminal and disposable shield.
Emmy emerged on a stretcher with no serious injuries. She demanded to know whether practice had been canceled and cried only after Arianna laughed. Relief loosened the terror neither of them wanted to name.
Ivy approached Emmy expecting blame. Instead, Emmy told her that withdrawing testimony would make the kidnapping useful to Victor. “I didn’t hold that brake for two hours so he could win,” she said.
The captured man identified L-20 as the final instruction. Victor had reserved it for the day Ivy entered court. Its recipient worked inside the courthouse, but the name had been withheld until activation.
Prosecutors considered delaying the hearing. Ivy refused because delay would give the unknown insider more time to prepare. She requested a public courtroom, independent security, and live transmission so no single person could erase her words.
At midnight, L-20 activated. The recipient field decrypted into a job title that chilled everyone reading it: “Presiding Judge.”