Step by step, Heather ascended the stairs to the second floor. Her gaze was as fierce as a hawk’s and she was giving off a murderous aura.
These few days, Robert hadn’t sought her out for a chat. It seemed he had realized that something troubled her and had decided to give her some space.
The freedom thrilled Heather, for she was most afraid of facing him during this time. If he pushed, she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to lie to him.
When she returned to her small space, she took off her coat and prepared to take a shower. Ever since Myra’s kidnapping, she had found every day to be torturous yet passing too quickly.
After her shower, she came out wrapped in a towel. Her bare shoulders were alluring and her hair was still dripping water. Since there was no particular reason for her to do her hair during this period, she simply let it air dry while she sat in front of the computer, frowning deeply.
After turning on the computer and reading a few lines on it, she sighed softly. Even after so long, they had yet to find Myra’s concrete location. Just how stealthy are the kidnappers being? Originally, she thought that her tracking skills were improving in leaps and bounds under Zayne’s guidance.
However, even Zayne’s tracking skills were more theoretical than practical. Presently, she put down everything at hand, crossing her arms as she stared at the computer before her.
It was truly strange for a group of common thugs to have the ability to disappear without a trace. The more trouble she had finding Myra, the more she noticed the oddities in the kidnapping. Heather wanted to know who was behind the scenes, for anyone who had such an ability would surely have something to do with Caleb Moriarty.
Recently, she had arranged for people to spy on Caleb but they hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary. Apparently, all he did all day was work.
Doesn’t his country care that he’s working as a businessman? That was a question she kept thinking about. Doesn’t he have to return home for official duties?
At any rate, she dearly hoped he would leave Bradfort City quickly, for every day that he stayed, she felt immense pressure not knowing what he was up to.
Nonetheless, she didn’t believe business was all he was doing. Even Zayne advised her to drop her tail on Caleb, but she refused and privately hired a detective to keep spying on him.
A woman’s intuition was a scary thing, not to mention Heather believed so strongly in her intuition that Zayne felt depressed. He was restricted in everything while he was working under her.
Meanwhile, she refused to give up investigating Caleb. Even though she worried about his anti-reconnaissance skills, she had the feeling she might be able to find out one of his dirty little secrets if she persisted.
Presently, she turned off her computer. It was frustrating because every time they were about to find the kidnappers, the kidnappers escaped their grasp. She was just about ready to turn the city upside down in search of that elusive group.
It was almost like guerrilla warfare. If she wanted to capture the group, not only would she need to have a few teams on hand, she would need to ensure that she could rescue Myra in one fell swoop.
While it wasn’t hard to find good mercenaries with quality training, it would be difficult to rescue Myra without a scratch. That was something Heather hedged her bets on. However, without an easy solution, she could only choose the stupid one. If she could pinpoint the location of Myra and her kidnappers from the very beginning, she would have more time to carry out a rescue.
Now, she thought about getting a new computer. Her current computer was simply running too slowly and it was at this moment that she remembered the computer Leon had.
The problem was that she didn’t wish to get Leon involved in this matter. Given that even the kidnapper had warned her against it, she was extra hesitant. Of course, if Leon got involved, there would definitely be a breakthrough in the case and for a moment, the impulse to get in contact with him nearly overtook her.
The next second, however, she rubbed her eyes tiredly and sank back into her chair. A while back, he had acted so strangely that she felt like things weren’t as simple as he made them out to be. Now, she did not wish to give him any more trouble since, by her understanding of him, he was involved in something major.
It was already a failure on her part to be unable to help him. If she added more to his plate at this moment, she would never be able to live with herself.
Meanwhile, her phone stayed dark. The kidnappers would never contact her out of the blue, no matter how desperately she wished for it. Even Matthias did not contact her.
As she stared at her silent phone, she unexpectedly felt a little lonely. The world was so complicated and she couldn’t help remembering her most innocent childhood years before she knew what it was like for her parents to hate her.
The sound of knocking interrupted her thoughts abruptly. Looking toward the door, she called out, “Who is it?” She didn’t know who would look for her at this hour—perhaps the butler?
“It’s me,” Everly’s crisp voice echoed.
It surprised Heather a little that Everly dared to disturb her at this time. Clearly, the latter’s boldness had grown.
Heather was originally about to move to put on some clothes but she stopped mid-motion. After all, it was only Everly and decorum was hardly necessary. “Come in.”
Pushing the door open, Everly entered and gaped at her cousin. This was her first time seeing Heather in such a careless state. All along, Heather cared a lot about her image, and her constant breaking of the pattern during this period surprised Everly to no end.
“What’s so urgent?” Heather asked with a smile that belied the murderous intent she felt underneath.
For a moment, Everly stared at Heather, not knowing what to say. Thing was, she couldn’t help feeling like Heather felt some kind of enmity toward her, and that wouldn’t do. It had taken a lot of effort to improve their relationship and she had no wish to return to square one. “Do you dislike it when I speak to Director Locke?” she blurted, for she couldn’t think of a better reason for Heather’s ire than that Heather was jealous.
“Why do you say that?” Heather asked, giving nothing away with her expression. She never expected Everly to jump to the wrong conclusion that she was jealous.
“I-I…” Everly stammered. Heather’s retort made her embarrassed and in an instant, she flushed red.
“If you’re here solely to ask me something as silly as that, I think you should go!” Heather dismissed her unceremoniously, as Everly’s hesitance was giving her a headache.
Instantly, Everly turned even redder and gave Heather a hurt look. Unfortunately for her, Heather had no intention of continuing to chat with her. Right now, she seemed to keep everyone at arm’s length.
“Okay,” Everly answered numbly but did not go out.
Upon seeing that, Heather shot her an exasperated look. She didn’t know when Everly learned to be like Matthias, all talk and no action. All that was lacking was his cheeky shamelessness. “Well, go on out then!” she pressed, pointing at the door.
Seeing that Heather was beginning to chase her out, Everly could only leave miserably. Ironically, it was the sight of her frail silhouette exiting the door that made Heather’s heart ache. After all, Everly was her cousin.
“I hope you can find your way back, Everly.” At the end of the day, she still hoped Everly would be able to return home and not have to face the Langston Family’s wrath on others’ behalf.
Even if Heather had no safe way of finding out about Everly’s dealings with the outsiders, she believed that whatever went on could not be beneficial to the family.
From her perspective, going behind the family’s back to do god-knows-what was considered a betrayal and endangerment to the family. Sometimes, even Heather felt like her own thinking was too extreme, but she was just like that and she had no way of changing who she was.
After Everly left, Heather cleared her head of its jumble of thoughts. No longer did she wish to dwell on upsetting things. Instead, she made plans to do something outrageous.
She had long booked her flight ticket. Since the kidnappers were determined to play cat-and-mouse with her in Bradfort City, she was going to provoke them into breaking the pattern. Given that they hung her out to dry by not contacting her, she was going to be similarly uncourteous toward them and simply leave the city. Then, she would see how antsy they got.
The next day, she woke up early and got ready to fly to Singapore. Wondering whether someone would try and stop her from going on vacation abroad, she headed to the airport in high spirits.
The airport was bustling and Heather smiled, looking like she was in a good mood. The kidnappers hadn’t called her yet, but she forced down the anxiousness in her heart. She had to persist—she firmly believed the kidnappers would call her.
Time flew by quickly and soon, there were only a few minutes left before boarding. She never thought the kidnappers could hold out for so long. Internally, she counted down the time until takeoff. Even after boarding the plane, she didn’t dare to believe that she would be taking to the skies soon.
The entire time, she stared at her phone. The kidnappers did not call, nor did anyone else. It was ridiculous. Clearly, she had miscalculated and there was nothing left for her to do but fly to Singapore.
The flight was smooth and like he had disappeared into thin air, Matthias did not check up on her once. Even Everly did not send her any news. It was as if the whole world had forgotten her.
The flight landed safely in Singapore. In no mood to actually tour the country, she made plans to catch a ride on the earliest flight back to Bradfort City.
Very quickly, she bought a ticket but her phone rang at this time, prompting her to look down at the caller ID. In truth, she hadn’t needed to check to know it was from Zayne. After all, he and Leon were the only two people who knew this particular number, and Leon was a little occupied at the moment. Thus, Zayne was the only one who would call her.
“Surprised by my international call, Hattie?” He was as frivolous as always.
“If you have something to say, say it.” She didn’t have time for his nonsense. Right now, she was still waiting for a call from the kidnappers.
“Stop waiting for a call from the kidnappers. You’d better give up! They’re not going to call you,” he continued unceremoniously, aggravating her to no end.
“How can you be so sure?” she demanded. Even if she believed in his reasoning abilities, his attitude was still annoying.
“Use your brain! Why are you so dumb lately, Heather? Did you hit your head?” he continued to provoke her. After all, she was abroad at the moment so she couldn’t retaliate.
Heather tried her best to calm herself down. “I want legitimate reasons, not your nonsense.”
“The kidnappers aren’t in a rush to see you and they wouldn’t call to check up on you even if you ran all the way to the North Pole. Myra is in their hands and the person who should be worried is you. Flipping the situation on their heads is not going to work,” he informed her calmly.
Hearing that, she grew sober. If he could read her thoughts so thoroughly, so could a clever kidnapper. That meant she had, indeed, made a stupid mistake.
