“We’ll wait together! Ayaan will be okay!” Steve’s heart was heavy as he trembled and patted Ranita’s back to comfort her. “Ayaan will be okay…”
“Wait a minute!” Steve had checked the surveillance footage and suddenly became anxious. “I’ve looked at all the monitoring routes leading to the lake, but Ayaan hasn’t been there!”
Yes! They were too hasty and had overlooked such an important clue.
“Ranita, I’m going to check the surveillance again!” Steve ran quickly while Ranita followed in a daze until suddenly, a big hand grabbed her. Ranita paused as she smelled Brendon’s light grapefruit scent.
“Brendon…” Her eyes were red as she asked him, “What are you doing here?” Wasn’t he already on his way back home with Shannon?
Seeing how exhausted Ranita looked, Brendon asked anxiously, “What happened? Where is Ayaan?”
At the mention of Ayaan, Ranita broke down completely.
“Ayaan… Ayaan is missing!” She held onto Brendon’s hand tightly. “Brendon, can you help me? Ayaan is missing… we’ve searched everywhere we could think of but we haven’t found him anywhere.”
“Brendon, don’t you know many people? Please help us,” pleaded Ranita as she swayed unsteadily from not having eaten or drunk anything since lunchtime.
“Ranita!” Brendon reached out to support her, holding her waist tightly.
Ranita was still as slender as before.
Not much flesh on her waist.
“I’ll call someone for help right away!” Brendon paused, pursing his lips. “Sit down and rest for a bit.”
Brendon quickly went to buy water for her. “I called Paul. He will contact the municipal road surveillance and also have someone pay attention to any news about Ayaan on the black market.”
“Drink some water first.”
“Thank you!” Ranita took a sip of water. She wanted to wipe her tears, but she found Brendon squatting down, holding a handkerchief to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Don’t cry, just tell me what’s going on!”
Brendon always lied to her.
But Ranita still felt incredibly at ease.
Because Brendon was there, she felt like nothing would go wrong.
“Why are you here? Weren’t you with Shannon…”
Brendon seemed reluctant to listen, interrupting softly, “I sent someone to take her back. Ranita, I am Ayaan’s father, so I also have a responsibility for him.”
Ranita held the water bottle, her mind in chaos.
“Why did you come here?”
“… I…” Brendon sat down beside the woman and glanced at her delicate eyebrows and eyes. He spoke deeply, “Actually, I have Ayaan’s contact information!”
“I called him, but he didn’t answer. I was a bit worried and asked Judi. She said you were here…” Brendon noticed that Ranita was glaring at him with a fierce look, and he was about to explain when he suddenly saw a small red dot on the message icon on his phone.
Besides Ayaan, very few people messaged him.
Brendon opened the message, and indeed, there was a message from Ayaan…
“Ranita, Ayaan sent me a message, but I don’t understand what he means by this.”
Upon hearing this, Ranita immediately leaned over and saw that there was indeed a message on his phone, but it was filled with symbols.
“What does this mean?” Ranita couldn’t understand it either.
Brendon looked at it several times and suddenly said, “A black house…”