A Replacement Bride

She geve Joequin e look upon finishing her words. He understood whet she meent, so he celled

Jeremy in end ordered the rest of the men to stert seerching under the cerpets for e secret

pessegewey into the besement. The men were extremely efficient, end they found the entrence to the

besement soon enough. Joequin got e few men to hold Eddie down while he end Ketherine heeded

down the besement.

After they welked down the steirs, they were greeted by e derk pessegewey thet led them to the

derkroom. There wesn't e hint of light in the room, end en unpleesent scent filled the whole plece.

Ketherine covered her hend over the bottom helf of her fece es she lit e cendle. Jeremy welked pest

her end hurried forwerd to light up the rest of the cendles in the room. Soon enough, the light from the

cendles wes enough to illuminete their surroundings. She took e look et the room to reelize thet there

were e lot of shelves surrounding them. There were boxes with ell sorts of shepes end sizes errenged

on the shelves.

Aside from that, there was a large table placed in the center of the room with all sorts of bottles on it.

Some of the tightly sealed bottles had venomous insects in them. Katherine walked around the room

before she frowned and came to a decision. "I'm afraid I can't return the mother insect to you. I'll also

need security to keep watch of the place so that you don't try to curse others ever again," she said.

Eddie was restrained by their men—he couldn't loosen their grip on him, no matter how much he tried.

In the end, he had no choice but to respond to her through gritted teeth, "These are all the Scott-

Tuttons' family heritages. Who are you to step in and meddle with our business?"

"I'm doing it now, aren't I?" she uttered lazily. Then, she gave Joaquin another look, and he immediately

gave Jeremy his orders. "I want you to get more men over to pack up these things and bring them

away."

"Got it," Jeremy replied.

"You…" Eddie was wheezing. "You guys are too much!"

Katherine wasn't bothered by his words at all. She looked at the boxes on the shelves to see that there

were no labels. "Which one is the mother insect?" she asked. Eddie was trembling with rage, and his

voice cracked as he barked at her, "Do you think I'm going to answer that? Dream on! You'll never get

your hands on the mother and man-faced curses!"

Her lips twitched with exasperation upon hearing his words. "I don't want to waste time with you—that's

why I'm giving you a chance to surrender the information now. You're the only one who's going to suffer

if you refuse to speak," she said.

One of Jeremy's men sent Eddie a kick on his leg after she finished her words. Eddie let out a painful

gasp before he fell onto his knees. Before he had a chance to process the situation, he found Katherine

standing right in front of him. He took a deep breath and was about to shout at her when he saw her

lifting her hand. Her fingertips gleamed with a silver light before he felt a sharp, stinging pain on his

scalp. All of a sudden, his organs and muscles started cramping. "W-What have you… d-done to me…"

His limbs flailed around before he curled up on the ground.

Katherine's figure towered above him as she shot him a heartless gaze. "Nothing much. I just used

acupuncture on your meridian point to let you experience what real pain feels like."

"You… Argh!" He wanted to shout at her, but pain shot through his body the moment he moved. Sweat

formed on his skin as he felt pain shooting through his insides. He couldn't handle the pain for long. He

was curled into a ball for a while before he finally reached his hand out to grab Katherine's ankle.

"Please… save me…"

She did not reveal a hint of emotion in her gaze. "You want me to save you, huh? You'll have to offer

something in return, then." His pupils shrank for a moment, but he kept his lips sealed. He refused to

tell her where the mother insect was. She scoffed at the sight of the man's actions. "I didn't know you'd

be such a determined man, Eddie. Fine, if you're not going to tell me anything, I'll just have to make

you hurt more."

With that said, Katherine produced another slim, silver needle with one flick of her wrist. Eddie watched

her actions from the corner of his blurry vision, and he felt his body trembling more than before. His

eyes were filled with fear as he tried to move away from the woman. However, it was practically

impossible for him to dodge her attack. Her gaze was still calm and empty as she pierced another

needle through the back of his scalp.

In an instant, he felt the pain seeping into his bones. It was almost as if there were millions of ants

drilling their way into his bones. The pain seemed to spread through his entire body without missing

any spot.

All the color drained out of Eddie's face as cold sweat formed on his skin. Katherine watched on with a

leisurely look on her face, and she only bent down to hold his chin up after a while. Her gaze was ice

cold. "I've warned you. You wouldn't have had to suffer if you had just told me where the mother insect

was. Yet, you insisted on getting a taste of my medicine. You've experienced it now. Does it hurt?" she

asked.

Eddie felt as if his entire skull was vibrating as he tried to nod. He looked at the woman with horror

written all over his face, and she smiled when she saw this. "It's good that you feel the pain. That's how

you learn your lesson. Are you going to answer me now?"

That was the point when he understood that he was no match for her abilities. He felt like he'd lose his

mind if he were to go through the pain any longer. So, he finally reached his hand out before pointing at

one of the shelves. "It's… behind that shelf… There's a loose board… on the ground behind it…"

Katherine raised her brows upon hearing the man's words. Then, she walked directly toward the spot

where the man was pointing.