When Summer finished, there was a strange silence. No one said a word in the car. She looked at Tim, who was driving in the front, and back to “Douglas”, whose mind was seemingly in space. She smacked him and demanded, “You haven’t told me what your cousin’s favorite dishes are!”
Leonardo came back to Earth, taking a hard look at her for a few seconds and said, “He doesn’t have any preference. He eats anything.”
He was telling the truth. Summer had been a good chef. For as long as she cooked, he liked every single dish of what she made. But this answer made little sense to Summer. “Douglas” did not say a word again, as if his mind was out in space again.
Arriving at home, the first thing Summer did was find Leonardo. She came before his study room and gave it two knocks. There was no answer. She went back down the stairs and saw “Douglas”. She asked, “Did you all not say that Leonardo was home? I just knocked on his door and there was no answer.”
Leonardo looked away, subtly evading her eyes. “Perhaps he is sleeping in his room. He is not too hale and hearty right now. He gets tired easily.”
As he told one lie, he would need a few more lies to cover up the earlier one. He lied to Summer earlier because he found her interesting, just wanting to tease her. But she had been consistently defending “Leonardo” whether in public or private.
Born from a wealthy family with a century of heritage, Leonardo would know better if Summer was telling the truth. Due to knowing her sincerity, he felt even more confused about himself.
Nodding in acknowledgment, Summer went downstairs. Seeing her disappearing into the kitchen, Leonardo picked up his mobile and called Carl, voice irritated. “Come out and have a drink!”
“I need…” Leonardo had hung up before Carl could say no.
…
At the Golden Cauldron, Carl came up to Leonardo, swirling a glass of wine in his hand. “Now, tell me. What made you want to call me during office hours to drink with you?”
Leonardo said nothing, just taking another swig of wine. Seeing his non-reaction, Carl could vaguely sense Leonardo was in some serious shit. No more teasing. He asked in a serious tone of voice, “At least tell me what’s going on, could you?”
Leonardo finally turned to look at him. A few seconds later, he looked away again and said, “You don’t understand even if I tell you.”
Then why the heck he wanted him to drink with him?
…
When Summer had lunch ready, a bodyguard told her that Leonardo and “Douglas” had gone out together. She had all the dishes to herself today.
Picking up her chopsticks, her mobile suddenly rang. Picking the phone up, the phone screen told her it was Karen. She tapped her finger on the screen, but in the end, it slid to the answer button. She put the mobile on speaker.
“Hello?” Summer answered.
She first heard sharp noises, then the scream of a woman.
“Summer, help-help me…”
She did a double-take, confirming that the number belonged to Karen. There was another scream at the other end, and then more cries.
“Summer, it was my bad last time. But I’m your mom, you got to come to save me…”
Without giving Summer the chance to speak, the phone was snatched away from Karen. Then a man’s voice came.
“You’re the daughter of this woman? Listen carefully; prepare fifty million dollars, “the man suddenly sounded vicious, “or she dies!”
Summer was in shock. But she quickly regained her composure, keeping her voice distant. “I don’t have the money. If you want it, get it from Lynn in Jarrett Group!” They kidnapped Karen? The fifty-million-dollar ransom was not a small amount. If this was a premeditated kidnapping, the kidnapper should have called Lynn. Why her? Her mind was racing, trying to make sense of things.
“Don’t try to push me around. I know you’re the madam of the Emerson Family. You tell me you don’t have the money? Ridiculous! You have two hours to get the money. I will contact you again right after that. Don’t think of alerting the police. Otherwise, she dies!”
The line went dead. But right before the kidnapper hung up, Summer could make out the painful cries of Karen in the background.
She clenched the mobile in her hand, her expression taking a subtle change. It did not matter how Karen had treated her before; she was still her real mother. And she would not allow anything to happen to Karen.
Summer unlocked her phone again and called Lynn as she rushed out the door. No answer. She became desperate, running down the hill to wave down a cab and head straight to the Jarrett family’s residence.
Since Summer reappeared in her real looks, she had never returned to the Jarrett family’s residence. The maid stopped her at the door, demanding, “Young Mistress, who are you looking for?”
Summer glared at the maid. “I am Summer.”
“Third Young Mistress?” The maid looked at her in disbelief. But she did look like the madam in some ways. So the maid did not dare to stop her again.
Summer asked as she ran in, “Where are Dad and Vicky?”
“They are having lunch now,” the maid answered. Then, she asked, “Third Young Mistress, have you had lunch yet?”
Summer could not have cared less. She just wanted to bite somebody’s head off. Even people would have looked for their missing pets. Now it was Karen she was talking about. She stormed into the dining hall.
“Dad, you got to try the shrimps. It’s good.”
“They do taste better than before…”
The moment she barged in, Vicky and Lynn were enjoying themselves at the dining table. Seeing Summer, Vicky looked at her in surprise.
“You didn’t even bother to come back to have dinner with Mom when she asked you to. Now Mom is not home and here you come?”
Summer strode over, snatched the rice bowl from Vicky and smashed it to the floor.
“My mom has been kidnapped, and you are still in the mood to eat?”
Vicky was wide-eyed with a shock on her face. “What? Mom has been kidnapped?”
“Didn’t the kidnapper call you?” Summer squinted at her.
“Mom said she was going for facial treatment with her friends and told us not to wait for her for lunch. How could she be kidnapped?” Vicky did a suspicious look.
“Someone called me, saying that he had kidnapped Mom and demanded fifty million dollars. Or he will kill Mom!” Summer sounded desperate.
However, Vicky’s first reaction was not about Karen. Instead, she said with a frown, “Fifty million dollars? You know our company’s financial situation. How could we raise that amount of money in that short time?”
Summer’s face darkened. “By hook or by crook! My mom has been sacrificing for the Mu Family all these years. Isn’t her life worth your saving and fifty million dollars?”