“What are you trying to do?” Charlotte wanted to leave, but she was stopped by them immediately.
“Don’t… don’t touch me. Let me go!”
Before she could react, one of them suddenly swept her off her feet and threw her over his shoulder while dashing outside. The others followed closely from behind.
Those in the waiting room were left dumbstruck by what they saw. They couldn’t figure out what was going on.
…
“Mr. Kennedy, there is finally news from the hospital.”
Nathan didn’t have time to care about the other person in the room as he rushed into Kennedy’s office and reported the news.
Kennedy, speaking with a very important client, was initially unhappy with Nathan’s intrusion. However, his taut brows relaxed upon hearing what Nathan had to say.
“There’s finally news?”
Nathan eyed the person sitting across from Kennedy before nodding gravely.
Kennedy looked at the man in front of him and spoke coldly. “Mr. Norton, I’m sorry to say that I have some urgent matters to attend to. I’ll arrange for someone else to continue our conversation.”
Without waiting for his client’s answer, Nathan stepped forward and wheeled Kennedy out of the room.
After getting in the car, Kennedy’s brows knit together as he spoke. “What’s the situation?”
“Mr. Kennedy, you asked me to send men to the hospital, didn’t you? Well, one of my subordinates reported news of a strangely dressed woman wearing an enormous hat, mask, and sunglasses while looking very suspicious in the gynecology department. There was no one else accompanying her.”
Hearing that, Kennedy narrowed his eyes menacingly.
That was definitely her!
“We’ve caught her, and she’s now being held at the West Riparian Villa.”
…
“What the heck do you want to do? Put me down!” Charlotte was being carried on the man’s shoulder and struggling the whole way. Her head was dizzy from the constant lurching of the man’s movements. She was on the verge of puking.
To her relief, he eventually put her down and forced her into a car. However, after a brief journey, she was once again lifted onto the man’s shoulder and, after a lot of jerking around, he finally placed her on the ground.
“You are kidnapping me? I can promise you I have nothing valuable on me, so don’t even think of…”
When she laid eyes on someone on the man in front of her, she froze mid-sentence.
She stared at him in disbelief. Kennedy? Why is he here?
Nathan was standing behind him while staring at Charlotte expressionlessly. Kennedy, however, had a very frosty expression on his face, and he was exuding a very icy aura.
A sharp gaze from him was enough to force Charlotte into submission. She couldn’t help but lower her head. She was lucky that her hat, mask, and sunglasses concealed her face. Kennedy probably didn’t recognize her at first glance.
Still, that didn’t solve the mystery of him sending someone to capture her and bring her to him.
Could it be he knew about her pregnancy? Did that mean her existence was a nuisance to him?
When she reached this conclusion, Charlotte’s face changed into one of pure terror.
She’d only married into the Moore family as a replacement for Christina in the first place. Kennedy was plenty upset about that fact, so if he discovered that she was pregnant on top of it all, he would certainly expel her from the Moore family.
When she realized that, Charlotte shoved the men surrounding her away and took off running.
“Get her back here,” Nathan called out immediately.
Kennedy studied her petite frame and recalled the fateful night a month ago.
His gaze darkened as he instructed. “Make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”
Nathan nodded and relayed the message to his men. “Be careful when dealing with her. Don’t let her get hurt.”
Charlotte would never have won against the men in black clothing. They were Nathan’s well-trained subordinates. In no time, they easily captured her and brought her back.
Charlotte’s movements were restricted and no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t escape their grasp.
Kennedy continued to examine her with his grave eyes. Then, with a slight lift of Kennedy’s chin, Nathan pushed his wheelchair forward.
Charlotte gawked at the man rolling closer to her at every passing second, and her heart raced wildly. It was disastrous. She was going to be found out.
Although Kennedy was sitting in a wheelchair, he had a large figure, so he didn’t seem short compared to Charlotte’s petite frame. Without having to reach up far, he easily grabbed at her mask. Charlotte widened her eyes in fear and she tilted her head away.
Kennedy’s hand slowly approached her once again and Charlotte responded by widening her eyes and trying to dodge him.
They went back and forth in such a way as if Kennedy was a cat and Charlotte was a mouse being pursued. He couldn’t help letting out a low but sweet-sounding chuckle.
“Are you really that fond of playing games with me?”
What was… going on? Charlotte stared at him in disbelief.
Was he still the cold and expressionless Kennedy from before? She couldn’t understand his gentleness at the moment.
While she was still in a daze, Kennedy ripped off Charlotte’s mask with no warning at all.
“Ah!”
Charlotte shrieked and reflexively moved to cover her face with her hands, only realizing that the men clothed in black were pinning her arms. There was no way she could cover her face now.
Kennedy, having been exuding an aura of gentleness previously, was filled with a bitter cold the moment he removed her mask and her face was exposed.
After a pause, he squinted as he asked, “Why are you here?”
Charlotte was dumbfounded for a moment. He didn’t know her true identity before capturing her?
“Why are you asking me? Aren’t you the one who sent these men to capture me and bring me here?”
Hearing that, Kennedy’s expression changed, like he finally understood something. He narrowed his eyes at her.
“What were you doing at the hospital?”
A lump formed in Charlotte’s through. She was never good at lying, but she forced herself to lie with wariness in her eyes. “I got a cold from sleeping on the floor. I was seeing a doctor at the hospital.”
“Oh?” Kennedy raised his eyebrows while letting out a bitter chuckle. “You’re telling me you’re seeing the doctor? In the gynecology department? Tell me, what did the doctor say?”
Charlotte was at a loss for words. This isn’t good. How could she continue this farce?
Charlotte bit her lip and after wracking her brain hard, she suddenly retorted. “What about you? You didn’t even know that is me you were capturing. So why did you send your men to bring me here?”
After Charlotte’s accusation, it was Kennedy’s turn to freeze on the spot. He couldn’t have foreseen such a coincidence. He was looking for the woman from a month ago, but he hadn’t expected Nathan’s underlings to capture Charlotte instead. To top it off, they captured her in the gynecology department.
When his mind wandered to the “gynecology department,” a sinister look entered his eyes.
“Charlotte, are you pregnant?”
His sharp words immediately elicited a reaction from Charlotte. Her face paled instantly and her lips trembled. She stared at Kennedy with eyes wide in disbelief.
“I see. Seems like I’m right on the mark,” Kennedy laughed coldly. “No wonder you’re so eager to take your sister, Christina’s place in marrying into the Moore family. It turns out that you’ve brought baggage with you and are looking for someone to force your suffering onto.”
Nathan, who was still standing behind Kennedy, launched into a rage while clenching his fists.
“What do you see Mr. Kennedy as? I can’t believe you’re marrying into the Moore family with a child in your belly. I can finally see through your façade, with you acting so suspiciously in the gynecology department. You must’ve never thought we would catch you red-handed right there and then.”
Charlotte didn’t know how to defend herself. Initially, she wanted to end the matter as stealthily as possible, but out of nowhere, a group of men took her captive and brought her there immediately against her will. Until that moment, she was befuddled about what was going on.
That’s not right, Charlotte. You have to think through everything with a clear head. She had to stay calm.
Charlotte forcibly suppressed the fear threatening to rip her apart from within as she looked Kennedy stubbornly into his eyes. “What makes you think that going to the gynecology department means I’m pregnant? You know very well I’m someone who’s remarried, so I want to make sure I don’t have any STDs. What’s wrong with going to the hospital for a check-up?”
The moment she finished speaking, Kennedy roughly grabbed her chin. His voice was so rigid and cold, as if he were repeating a message from hell.
“It seems you’ll never learn your lesson.”