Captivation: Want Nothing But You

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The Imperial Hotel was located right in the center of the busy district of Apliaria.
It towered over the other skyscrapers in the area, almost touching the clouds, and the building’s peak was not visible from the
streets below.
On the top floor of the hotel was the luxurious presidential suite.
The doorbell rang, startling the man who was standing on the balcony.
He hung up the phone and put down the red wine glass on the table.
Turning around with a curious look, he walked into the room to unlock the door.
Pulling the door open, a middle-aged woman neatly dressed in a cheongsam was standing outside the hallway.
"Hello, Mom."
A warm smile flashed across Odin’s handsface.He moved aside and gestured for her to cin.
The middle-aged woman was Maria.
Ever since Odin’s death had been announced at the press conference the other day, Maria refrained from stepping into the
public eye.
The press didn’t think too much of her discrete behavior.
Everyone knew it was normal for a mother to mourn the loss of her son in private.
But they weren’t aware that she was patiently waiting in great anticipation.
She had been waiting for her son to return to her arms.
Maria hurriedly walked into the room, took off her sunglasses, and studied each feature of Odin’s face.
"You’ve gotten thinner.Why did you lose weight?"
"Mom, that’s not true at all.If you look closely, you’ll see that I’ve actually gained sweight."
Holding her hand affectionately, Odin shut the door.

"Didn’t you say that you would wait forat home? What brings you here?"
Maria withdrew her hand and spent a few moments observing her son, who was a head taller than her.
After a few seconds of silence, her lower lip trembled, and her eyes turned red.
"Oh, Mom.Please don’t cry."
Seeing that her tears were about to fall, Odin quickly took two pieces of tissue and gently wiped the tears off her face.
Shaking his head with a smile, he held her tightly in his arms.
"You don’t look as beautiful when you cry."
Rolling her eyes at Odin’s remark, Maria pretended to be annoyed and hit his arm.
"Hey, what do you mean by that? You better take it easy on your mother.Just because you are all grown up now, you don’t think
your mother’s beautiful anymore?"
"What? Don’t be silly, Mom.I didn’t mean it like that."
Odin smiled sheepishly.
He let go of her and wiped her tears.
"I was just comforting you.It breaks my heart to see my beautiful mother cry."
"Well, can you blme for being emotional? You have been abroad for six years, and you never cback.Not even once..."
Maria took the tissue from Odin’s hand and wiped her wet cheeks.
"And now I finally saw you.After all this time, you’re finally here in front of me.How could I not cry? You are my precious son!"

Putting his arm around Maria’s thin shoulders, Odin led her to the living room and sat down with her on the couch.
"I will never leave you again."
"What?"
Maria threw the tissue into the trash can.

"I thought you said it would take you a while longer to cback.How cyou returned all of a sudden?"
Sitting cross-legged on the sofa across her, Odin shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, I missed you so much, so I came
back."
"Oh really now? Yeah, right."
Maria was amused by his flattering words.
But on second thought, something worrisentered her mind.She suddenly stopped smiling and asked, "Does Victor know?"
"Don’t worry about it.He won’t know.I’ll make sure of it," Odin replied casually.
He knew what troubled Maria, and he wanted to reassure her that everything would be fine.
"That’s good.But you and I both know Victor is a cunning man.He had questions about your so-called death and had some
people investigate it.I was worried that his men might find you here."
"I’m not afraid of him because I’ve got everything all figured out."
As soon as he finished speaking, his phone cau suddenly vibrated inside his pocket.He took it out and looked at the screen.
It was a text message.
"It’s done."
Odin took one last look at the message and deleted it.
At the stime, Maria’s phone vibrated.
What she received was not a cryptic text but a piece of breaking news.
Maria glanced at the long article and didn’t care about the content at first.
Unexpectedly, a familiar nattracted her attention.
Something bad had happened to Susan Salazar.

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"Today, at 3:20 p.m.on October 26th, Susan Salazar committed suicide by jumping off a building.The first responders declared
her dead on the spot."
"It can’t be.Susan’s dead?"
Maria gasped in horror.
Odin put his phone down and leaned back on the sofa, pretending to be confused.
"Mom, who is Susan?"
"A stupid and greedy woman who wanted to get what she didn’t deserve," Maria replied disdainfully.
"But I can’t believe it.She committed suicide? It just doesn’t seem right to me.Susan would never give up in her quest for
power.Could there be someone else responsible for her death?"
Busy adjusting his cuff link, Odin didn’t say anything.
"Odin, you haven’t answeredyet.Didn’t you say that you would cback in a few more days?"
Maria didn’t mention anything more about Susan’s sudden death.She didn’t really care about that heartless woman.
Odin poured a glass of water and moved it in front of her.
"Well, things change.Everything’s almost ready.What’s more, I’ve prepared a gift for my dear brother."
"A gift?"
Odin smiled thinly but said nothing.

The look in his eyes was unfathomable.
A shiny Maybach was speeding down the road, expertly weaving in and out of traffic.
"Mr.Sullivan, I’m so sorry.It’s all my fault.I didn’t watch Susan closely enough.It caught all of us by surprise."
Ivan’s trembling voice cout of the phone’s speaker.
Right after Susan jumped off the building, Ivan immediately called Victor to report the incident.

While dealing with Susan’s funeral arrangements, Ivan instructed his men to stop the reporters from coming inside the office.
At this moment, Victor was driving toward the location Carson had sent him.
Standing downstairs outside the in-patient department building, a mere two meters away from where Susan had fallen, Ivan
could clearly see a pool of blood on the ground.
It belonged to Susan.He raised his head and saw the balcony of Susan’s ward.
Susan had jumped off the balcony without hesitation.
Half an hour ago, she was pleading with Victor, saying that she didn’t want to marry Odin.She didn’t seem to have lost hope for
life after their conversation, but then, she jumped off the balcony.Her change of heart was so radical that Ivan felt it was strange.
But he still couldn’t make sense of what had happened.It was as if someone had carefully orchestrated her death.
A gust of autumn wind blew over.
With suspicions flooding his mind, Ivan couldn’t help but shiver.He didn’t know if it was because of the cold wind or if he was
terrified by these strange circumstances.
Back on the highway, Victor stepped on the gas and sped up even more.
He was driving the Maybach at 120 miles per hour, reducing the usually forty-minute drive to only eighteen minutes.
Carson spotted the speeding car from a distance.
He hung up the phone and walked over.
A few meters away, Victor parked the car and stepped out.
"That was fast.I thought you would need at least ten more minutes," Carson remarked.
The shiny Maybach soon caught his eye, and he raised his eyebrows.
"Really? That is one of the only three models on the entire planet.You shouldn’t drive recklessly.It’s not a sports car.A rare luxury
vehicle like this one needs to be treated with utmost care."

Ignoring Carson’s advice, Victor looked around and saw that there were only a few cars passing by on the highway in the
suburbs.
"Have your men found any clue? Telleverything," Victor asked in a serious tone.
With his arms crossed over his chest, Carson leaned against the Maybach’s hood and said, "Nothing much at the moment.But
we found a vital piece of information that can be regarded as a clue."
"What is it then?"
"A surveillance camera from the street corner recorded the getaway vehicle, and the driver’s face was captured."
As Carson spoke, he showed Victor the photos on his phone.
"But the image quality is too blurry to make a positive ID on the suspect."
Looking down at the pictures intently, Victor’s eyes darkened in anger.
"If we can somehow improve the resolution of the photo and see what this person looks like, we should be able to find him soon,"
Carson stated confidently.
"Then what are you waiting for? Find someone to adjust the photo," Victor said in a low voice.
"Well, that’s where we have a problem.The photo is too blurry.Even if we hire the best tech guy in the whole country, he may not
be able to do it." Suddenly, Carson’s eyes lit up.
"But I know that there is someone who can."
Victor stared at him in silence, waiting for him to continue.
Meeting Victor’s steely gaze, Carson paused for a while before opening his mouth to utter his next words.
"King of Hearts."