“Mr. Conrad! We found her. She’s in a black car. Apparently, her eyesight is bad, so they gave her a large sum of money. They said she was heading to City N’s Brown Family Group, so they helped her out, and we intercepted the car.”
It wasn’t until Conrad reached the bottom of the Maple Mountain Villa that they finally had good news.
When the bodyguard, dressed in black, carried the girl in a white princess dress, Conrad’s expression darkened as he looked over.
The little girl turned her head away, hesitantly clutching the bodyguard again.
“Get down by yourself.”
She turned her head, biting her lip, and big tears welled up in her eyes.
Conrad grabbed her out of the bodyguard’s arms and pulled her into his own, striding toward the villa.
“Let go of me! Let go! Bad uncle! Chloe won’t be good with you anymore!”
She yelled as Conrad tossed her into the nanny’s arms when they reached the villa.
Fox, who hadn’t eaten a bite all day, rushed to her as soon as she saw Chloe had returned. She immediately began scanning her up and down, then gave her a sharp smack on the backside.
“Dare to run off again! Try it one more time!”
“Fox, you hit me! You said you’d be good to me!” the little girl yelled before running toward Conrad.
Conrad’s face remained stern as he grabbed her and pulled her into the villa.
“I’m so hungry,” she muttered.
She was thrown onto the couch, but immediately scrambled up on her own and timidly spoke.
Every time she messed up, this was the routine.
The nanny, feeling sorry for her, immediately went to get food.
Conrad snapped, “Let her stay hungry. If she starves, so be it! She has some nerve! She goes out and can’t even find food?”
The little girl pouted and began feeling for Conrad’s knee. “It’s because you didn’t come to see me. I missed you.”
Conrad grumbled, “Didn’t I have someone send gifts?”
“But those aren’t from you, uncle. You didn’t come to see Chloe. Chloe missed you a lot.”
Raising kids was exhausting.
Conrad closed his eyes. “Come here.”
His tone was filled with impatience, but the little girl still eagerly rushed into his arms. “Uncle, when are you going to marry Auntie? Then can I call you Dad?”
Fox blushed. “Chloe!”
Conrad sighed in annoyance. “What kind of school did you go to? Your aunt and I are not even close, and even if we were, I can’t be your dad.”
Fox’s face went pale, and she stood up. “I’ll go make you guys some food.”
“No need to bother. Since she’s found, I need to go back now.”
Fox paused, then turned, biting her lip. “Is it because of Lillian? Is that why you’re in such a hurry to leave?”
Chloe suddenly spoke up, her gaze drifting into space. “Was it the miss who called Uncle earlier?”
Chloe had an excellent memory, especially when it came to people and things related to Conrad. When Conrad had first come here, that person, Lillian, would often call. Every time, Lillian would carefully ask if Uncle was coming home for dinner.
“I remember that miss. Her voice was so nice. Uncle, is she your girlfriend?”
Originally, they thought Conrad wouldn’t answer such a question.
But to his surprise, Conrad flashed the first smile he’d shown all day. “Yeah, she’s my girlfriend.”
Chloe’s curiosity piqued. “Uncle really loves her?”
“You can’t see it. How would you know?”
“By your tone.”
“Yeah, lately, I’ve been busy spending time with her. Today is a really important day for her, and I don’t want to miss it.” Conrad’s voice carried an anxious urgency as he spoke.
Chloe immediately jumped off the couch, arms open wide. “Then hug Chloe, and you can go back to be with your girlfriend!”
Conrad raised an eyebrow. “So obedient?”
“Yeah, Chloe’s grown up. In fairy tales, the kids always grow up.”
Conrad hugged her. “Alright, be good. I will come whenever I have the time, and you’ll be able to see this world soon.”
As he stood up, he turned to Fox and said, “Keep an eye on her.”
With that, he hurriedly left.
Watching Conrad’s convoy leave, Fox plopped down on the couch, no longer in the mood to cook food. She had hoped that, for Chloe’s sake, he would at least stay the night.
“Auntie, are you sad?” Chloe tilted her head and asked in confusion.
Fox stared at her. “You silly girl! Do you even know what you’re saying?”
“I do. Uncle has a girlfriend, isn’t that a good thing?”
“But he has someone more important now. He won’t care about you anymore! He won’t care about you the way he used to!” Fox grabbed her and pulled her shoulders, speaking harshly.
Chloe looked at her, feeling a little upset. “But Chloe just wants Uncle to be happy.”
Fox felt a pang of helplessness. “Your uncle won’t be happy. He wants to be with that woman, but there are too many obstacles in his way.”
Not just his grandfather from the military district, but also the elders of the Brown family wouldn’t have agreed. As the head of the family, if Conrad kept acting recklessly and damaging the interests of the Brown family, then one day when Conrad clashed with Kenneth, he would find himself surrounded on all sides.
For someone like Lillian, it wasn’t worth it.
******
Conrad picked up his phone and noticed that Lillian hadn’t replied to his messages yet.
He made a call, but it went straight to voicemail.
Frowning, he glanced at the time and then called Hillside Villa.
“Sir.”
“Has Lillian come back?”
“No, it’s the graduation ceremony today. I think there’s a teacher appreciation banquet, so we didn’t prepare anything for dinner tonight.”
That made sense.
Conrad thought for a moment and then called Hogan and the others.
“We don’t know. After the exhibition, Lillian disappeared. We got tired of dealing with the school leaders and didn’t want to stay for the graduation party, so we left. Melissa stayed though. You should check with George.”
But when he called George, the response was even stranger. “I was arguing with Melissa in the parking lot. Why are you asking me that?”
Conrad felt a growing emptiness inside.
He then called Jack directly.
It seemed Jack had probably had too much to drink at the graduation party.
“Lillian? Who are you!? She didn’t come, she said she wasn’t feeling well!”
“…”
Conrad hung up the phone immediately and pulled up the location tracker on his phone. To his surprise, the location was rapidly moving, heading toward City B.
“Andrew! Turn around, head to City B!”
“Mr. Conrad, what happened?”
“Lillian ran off.” His voice was low, almost terrifying when he said it.
Andrew felt a chill in his chest, looking at Conrad’s dark expression. Without another word, he turned the car around.
During this time, she had numbed everyone around her. Even when her bodyguards followed her in and out, she didn’t resist anymore.
But today was the graduation exhibition, and she said she didn’t want the bodyguards with her so her classmates and teachers wouldn’t gossip.
He agreed, thinking that Hogan and the others would also be there, and he’d be there too, so nothing unexpected should happen.
But just then, Chloe went missing.
Lillian… If this was your carefully laid plan, then you really picked the perfect time.
You actually just left me behind like this!
His hands started trembling uncontrollably as he stared at the endless night road ahead, his chest burning as if it were on fire.