Chapter 186 Burning Truths Exposed 

At that very moment, every single person inside the brightly lit studio, eyes fixed on the giant screen, wore the same expression of dazed bewilderment. 

A celebrated Firefighting Hero is actually a murderer who watched someone die? How could that possibly 

be true? 

And who on earth switched the studio’s live feed in the first place? Where have Sidonie and the kidnapper been taken? 

Trent snapped out of his trance, yanked his phone from his pocket, and jabbed at the keypad. “Police, I need to report a kidnapping–someone’s been taken…” 

Right then, a voice shot up from the audience section, “This is live–my God, it’s a livestream!” 

The crowd finally caught on. They whipped out their phones and, within seconds, located the kidnapper’s streaming channel. 

The platform had not yet shut the feed down, and viewers were already pouring into the room by the thousands. 

Comments flooded the chat: What is this? Have streamers really sunk this low just to blow up a channel? 

Netizen A: Staging a fake kidnapping? Enjoy getting your account banned! 

Netizen B: Kidnappers are this brazen now? Don’t they care that the police can trace them? 

Netizen C: Can anyone explain what’s happening here? A little summary, please! 

Quinn narrowed her eyes at the grainy figure on the screen, a thread of recognition tugging at her mind. 

Julius bent down, his breath grazing her ear. “Did something ring a bell?” he whispered. 

“He looks familiar, but I can’t place where I’ve seen him,” Quinn muttered, still studying the man’s posture and build. 

“Remember the text that the reporter got during the orphanage event? Turns out it wasn’t baseless. There’s something about Sidonie’s Firefighting Hero. Maybe the same person sent that message,” Julius said, voice low. 

A blurred silhouette from the orphanage flashed in Quinn’s memory and merged seamlessly with the kidnapper’s outline on the screen. 

She pressed her lips together, realizing she had missed something vital back then. 

Quinn unlocked her phone in a rush, typing furiously as she searched for the piece of information she suddenly needed. 

Meanwhile, terror churned inside Sidonie. 

“Don’t go… Sidonie, don’t leave… It’s all because of you… I… Ah! Ah! Ah!” 

The man pressed play, and the guttural, desperate screams blasted through hidden speakers, reverberating around the studio and scraping against every listener’s spine. 

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C 

Those were the tortured cries of someone being burned alive. 

The piercing howls dragged on, echoing for what felt like forever, until the voice thinned to a faint whimper and died away. 

Silence fell, and everyone understood that the owner of that voice had been consumed by flames. 

There was only audio–no footage, and yet the sound alone painted an agonizing picture. 

Just that recording was enough to let them imagine the unspeakable pain of being swallowed by fire. 

The dying man had clearly screamed Sidonie’s name–so was the so–called hero actually someone who refused to help? 

“N–No, that audio is fake!” Sidonie shouted, voice raw. 

She could never admit the truth; confession would mean utter ruin. 

“Fake?” The kidnapper laughed, a harsh rasp. “You can’t even recognize your old colleague’s voice? When you joined Nimbus Air, he mentored you, recommended you, opened doors for you–and this is how you repay him?” 

Sidonie’s complexion turned an even ghastlier shade of white. 

He continued, “Run a forensic test. You’ll see it’s genuine. The time stamp matches the border wildfire. Your colleague was phoning his son when the flames caught him. The phone hit the ground, and by sheer chance, the boy recorded every second.” 

Sidonie’s body trembled. “T–There must be some misunderstanding!” 

<Trent must have realized I’m missing. Once he calls the police, they’ll come for me. I just have to stall.> 

“Misunderstanding?” The man fisted her hair, yanking her head up, then whipped his palm across her face. 

Smack! Smack! Smack! 

Each slap landed harder than the last, merciless and deliberate. 

Her cheeks ballooned, reddening and splitting; blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. 

“Do you know what it felt like for his son to hear those final screams? Why didn’t you save him? Why? There was a fire extinguisher right there–why didn’t you put out the flames?” 

“I–I don’t know what you’re talking about! We were separated. I wasn’t beside him. I don’t know why he called my name. Maybe–maybe the fire made him hallucinate…” 

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