The EMPEROR glanced at him with interest. “Oh? What kind of unexpected event are you talking about? It doesn’t seem man-made?”
“Sir, listen to me,” the subordinate whispered in the EMPEROR’s ear.
After a few minutes, the EMPEROR nodded, looking very satisfied. “Well said. I’ll leave this matter to you. Do it well, and you’ll be heavily rewarded.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll get on it right away.” The subordinate left happily.
The EMPEROR, sitting in his wheelchair, sneered coldly. Sylvia, I’ve taken care of your godson. Let’s see what you’ll do now!
Oh, won’t you be heartbroken beyond measure?
Thinking of Sylvia’s distressed expression made him particularly happy. “Let’s go back!”
Immediately, a subordinate pushed him towards the parking lot.
“How exhausting!” Sylvia raised her hand to her forehead as she walked out of the hospital room, heading towards the doctor’s office with Dr. Jakobe. “My grandmother’s condition is temporarily stable, but we still need to arrange for surgery as soon as possible.”
“Dr. Sylvia, you’re right. Should you or I perform the surgery?” Dr. Jakobe thought of how Sylvia had recently performed surgery on a car accident patient, which had greatly enhanced her reputation in the general hospital.
He didn’t dare to take on this surgery himself.
“You should do it,” Sylvia said calmly. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to handle it if it’s my grandmother’s surgery.”
“Hehe-Dr. Sylvia, you really know how to joke,” Dr. Jakobe laughed. “Alright then, I’ll arrange the surgery time and make all the preparations. I hope you’ll assist during the surgery, can you?”
“I’ll definitely be in the operating room,” Sylvia shook his hand. “Let’s hope for a successful surgery.”
After speaking, she withdrew her hand and checked her phone in the pocket of her white coat. The phone had been vibrating for a while; she wondered who had sent messages.
Curiously, she opened WhatsApp and saw a series of messages from Sierra.
There were also messages from the Gentry family sisters.
Seeing the disgusting finger photos made her pause, her face turning cold as she called Sierra directly. “Damn it! Who’s so blind?”
“Miss Andrews, I don’t know either,” Sierra’s voice carried a hint of worry. “I don’t know who has targeted Alex. I’m afraid he might be in danger. These people are too crazy; I can’t figure out if they’re targeting me, Alex, or our association. What’s more concerning is… they might be targeting you.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll send the Dark Night brothers to protect you at the association,” Sylvia immediately made a decision and arrangements. “Once they arrive, they’ll bring Alex back. If necessary, Alex will stay with me for a while until we find out who’s behind this. Is that okay?”
“Okay,” Sierra felt as if a cat was scratching at her heart. “This situation is too strange and disgusting. I won’t let Alex go to daycare tomorrow.”
“Alright. I’ll have Jaden take some people to pick up Alex now,” Sylvia said and hung up the phone.
What they didn’t know was that someone had already infiltrated the daycare.
Every afternoon, Sierra would drop Alex off at a daycare near the association since he was only two years old and not yet old enough for kindergarten.
The daycare was small and couldn’t compare to large kindergartens.
The security and teachers were relatively few, mainly catering to children under three years old.
At that moment, the children were playing under the teachers’ supervision.
Suddenly, black smoke billowed from the kitchen direction.
“Fire in the kitchen! Everyone run!”
Someone shouted loudly.
The teacher was startled and didn’t dare to call the children back to the classroom, fearing the fire would spread there. The principal quickly ran out of his office to organize everyone to evacuate to a safe place.
Someone had already called the fire department for help.
“The wind is strong today; the fire is spreading rapidly. If it continues, our entire campus will be reduced to ashes. What should we do?” The principal anxiously looked at everyone present.
“Each class should send one teacher to fight the fire while the remaining teachers watch over their students. Make sure no children are harmed.”
After giving these instructions, he joined the firefighting efforts.
Nearby residents saw the fire and rushed over with basins and buckets of water. The previously closed gates of the daycare were wide open, and everyone poured in.
It was impossible to tell who was who.
Two men took advantage of this chaos to enter with basins of water. After throwing water on the fire, they went to Alex’s class.
While the teacher was distracted by the fire, they covered Alex’s mouth and carried him away.
The teacher was still on tiptoe, watching how the fire was being controlled and didn’t notice a child missing from her class.
Alex struggled desperately in the man’s arms but couldn’t speak with his mouth covered.
He was small and weak, unable to fight against a strong man.
The man had drugged his hands; within minutes, Alex lost strength and fell unconscious.
“This kid is strong! Only two years old and already so tough.” The man, sweating profusely, threw Alex onto a van seat. “Let’s go!”
The other man started the vehicle and sped away.
When Sierra heard about the incident and rushed to the daycare with association members, the fire had been controlled, and firefighters were doing cleanup work.
Sierra hurriedly looked for Alex’s teacher. “Teacher, how’s my Alex? Is he hurt?”
The teacher began searching among the children for Alex. “Huh? He was just here; where did he go?”
Panic set in for the teacher. “Has anyone seen Alex?”
“Alex?”
Hearing that Alex was missing, Sierra felt a wave of darkness wash over her vision.
A bad feeling rose in her heart. “Check the surveillance cameras! Quickly check where he went!”
“Alex’s mom, I’m sorry, but the surveillance room also caught fire,” the principal said apologetically. “Let’s search carefully now.”
“My son is missing! And you’re calmly reassuring me? What if he was swallowed by the fire or taken by bad people? How will you explain that?” Sierra yelled at the principal in frustration. “I want to see my son immediately.”
“Don’t worry; maybe there are too many children for the teachers to handle well during this emergency,” the principal tried to calm her down before organizing all teachers to search for Alex.
Firefighters also joined the search after hearing about the missing child.
But…
Half an hour passed with no sign of him.
An hour passed without finding him.
They searched every corner until nightfall but found nothing.
“At least we can be sure he wasn’t lost in the fire; maybe he ran home,” suggested the principal unhelpfully, angering Sierra who stormed off.
Adeline glared at him fiercely. “It’s not your child; you don’t care! How outrageous!”
Meanwhile, Jaden arrived at the association with several brothers and immediately asked Sierra upon seeing her return, “Where’s the child?”
Seeing them reminded Sierra of Sylvia; tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
Her long-held emotions finally broke down completely. “The child is missing, Jaden! My son is missing!”
“How could he be missing?” Jaden was shocked; he looked helplessly at Sierra crying bitterly. Being a straightforward man unused to dealing with women’s tears made his heart race chaotically.
“Um… don’t cry; tell me what happened.” He finally managed to say after struggling for words.
Sierra sobbed uncontrollably while Adeline and Fatima explained what had happened.
Jaden’s expression turned serious. “It seems like a premeditated kidnapping case-setting a fire to distract everyone before taking advantage of the chaos to abduct him. I think my guess is highly likely; don’t cry yet-we’ll check surveillance cameras around nearby intersections.”
He then looked at Peter. “Aren’t you good with computers? Didn’t Miss Andrews get you into some hacker organization? Handle this.”
Peter had performed well on his last mission; Jaden now relied heavily on him.
“Don’t worry, Jaden-the association’s computer will do,” Peter said as he looked at Adeline and Fatima. “Can you take me there?”
“Sure.”
The sisters led him straight to Sierra’s office computer while Sierra and Jaden followed closely behind.
Tears streamed down Sierra’s face as she cried while reporting everything to Sylvia over the phone.
Sylvia almost threw her phone in anger. “How could this happen just when we were about to pick up the child?”
“Miss Andrews, I don’t know-it’s all my fault-I shouldn’t have sent him back after receiving that package…” Sierra cried as she answered.
“Jaden is there; let him handle this-I trust he’ll find your child.” Sylvia fumed with rage. “My grandmother needs surgery these days-I must arrange it first-so I can’t come personally right now-but Sierra-we won’t give up on your child no matter what.”
“Thank you…” Sierra felt utterly devastated-Alex was her lifeline-if anything happened to him-she wouldn’t survive either.