A Journey from Bitterness to Truth (Matilda and Yvan) novel Chapter 675

When Yvan took the stage, he scanned the audience briefly, noting that Matilda was no longer present. She had made a brief appearance during a media interview earlier, just enough to be seen, and then disappeared as the event transitioned into a more casual affair, giving guests the freedom to stay or leave. After delivering a twenty-minute speech to applause, Yvan stepped down and saw Lance in a shadowy backstage area, casually spinning a pistol in his hand without looking up.

"Done talking?" Lance asked without lifting his gaze.

"Yeah," Yvan approached, pressing his fingertip against the barrel of the gun. "What's the plan tonight?"

"Nothing," Lance looked up, meeting Yvan's eyes. "Just thinking about how the deadline for that warrant is coming up. Can't help but feel a bit excited."

Excited about the prospect of personally taking down a man named Cyprian.

Yvan patted Lance on the shoulder, "I won't preach to you, just remember to know when to stop."

The two then parted ways under the heavy night sky, as if dawn was nowhere in sight.

...

Meanwhile, Matilda found herself in a terrifying situation, surrounded by a group of rough-looking men at a seedy bar. After she threatened to call the cops, the men burst into mocking laughter, "Oh, did I hear that right? You're gonna call the cops? Sweetheart, you clearly don’t know that the police wouldn’t dare step foot in here."

Her face pale with fear, Matilda tried to break free, but the men held her down. The crowd around them began to stand and move closer, forming a tight circle around her.

Panicked, Matilda attempted to escape, but they grabbed her, "Once you walked in, you lost any chance of walking out on your own!"

The leader shouted, "Take her away!"

"Don't touch me!" Matilda screamed as someone forced the remnants of her drink down her throat, the strong liquid mixed with an unknown substance causing her intense pain.

"Drink up, you'll love the taste soon enough..." the leader sneered, as Matilda's eyes reddened with rage and desperation, "Despicable!"

Hearing the commotion, the bartender couldn't stand by and watch. Initially thinking the men were just drunkenly harassing a young woman, he hadn't expected them to be so violent. He protested, "Gentlemen, surely this isn't right?"

One of the men pulled a gun and aimed it at the bartender, a common enough sight in such lawless places, "Say that again?"

The bartender, shocked, dropped his glass, glancing at the pitiable state of Matilda but unable to turn away completely, attempted to speak again only to be brutally beaten down by the men, leaving him unconscious in a pool of his blood.

"This is what happens to heroes, buddy," the leader sneered, cracking his neck menacingly. "Anyone else wanna try?"

The surrounding patrons, filled with fear, either ran or pretended not to see. Matilda, pushed to a corner and covering her torn clothes, looked out with desperate, hopeless eyes, "I told you, don't push me!"

The men laughed cruelly, "What can you do, anyway? Even a biting rabbit is just a rabbit."

As they advanced to strip her further, Matilda, caught by one of the men, fought back with all her might, embodying a struggle that was both tragic and fearfully determined.