"No, I can’t sleep. I need to... I need to find Keira. She needs to have her dicine or she’ll go blind." Kelsie’s eyes were heavy as she fought against the sedative in the IV line, stubbornly sitting up to remove it.
"Mommy?"
Hearing her daughter’s voice, she gripped the edge of the bed tightly, her eyes swelling with tears.
Wondering why she was being ignored, Keira, who was at the other end of the room playing with Eric, stood and sauntered over to her mother.
"Mommy, why are you crying?"
Kelsie sniffled and reached out, gently cupping Keira’s face.
Th girl giggled shyly as her mother tugged her chin lightly.
"That tickles, Mommy."
Kelsie returned her smile.
"Whatever they gave is really working. I don’t just dream about you when I sleep, I see you when I’m awake."
Only then did Eric realize she thought this was a dream and strutted over to her, informing in a soft voice, "Ms. Sutton, it’s not a dream. We found Keira."
Kelsie didn’t react.
She simply picked up Keira and sat her on her thighs, her eyes distant as she rocked her back and forth.
Exactly one minute later, she looked up at Eric.
Knowing she looked like a ntally ill woman rocking a child who wasn’t there, she was about to apologize when his words finally registered.
"You found her?"
Eric nodded. Keira laughed, tears streaming down her face as she drew in Keira for a hug.
Keira embraced her back without a word, but shook her head in refusal when they disengaged, "Mommy, I was never missing."
Eric pressed his lips into a thin line, whilst Kelsie winced, realizing her daughter had no idea she’d even been missing.
"What day is it?"
"November 21." Eric promptly answered.
November 21... Two days after the tournant, yet she no clue she had been missing?
Her daughter wasn’t daft. Surely, she must’ve noticed sothing odd when those n approached her at the school.
Well, unless...
A thought suddenly occurred to her and she set Keira down, questioning her with a small smile, "Baby, can you tell Mommy how your past two days has been?"
Keira nodded, lowering her eyes to her fingers as she narrated.
"I just know so man ca to et during the tournant. He showed a picture of you and him and said I should follow him."
"I told him he was a stranger, but he showed more pictures. Mommy doesn’t take photos, so if you had so many with him, I figured he must be your close friend. So I went with him."
Kelsie narrowed her eyes, "Tell Mommy what this man looked like."
Keira’s eyes drifted uncertainly and she began fidgeting with her fingers.
"He said not to tell you because you’d get mad once you found out. I already broke my promise by telling you about our eting."
"To make sure you didn’t find out about his surprise, he even made change out of my clothes so you wouldn’t see us on the surveillance caras."
Kelsie’s face darkened.
That bastard.
All this ti, she thought her daughter had been snatched from the nanny’s arms. But she had been taken quietly. Willingly.
He even manipulated her using fake, engineered photos to sell his lie.
No wonder the school’s security didn’t notice anything. They must’ve assud it was a father and daughter just leaving the premises.
And she hadn’t acted rationally when the nanny told her Keira was gone. Because of that phone call, she didn’t bother to check the surveillance footages and just went with them.
Now that she thought of it, that was probably why they lured her out. They knew she’d check the surveillance footage and raise alarm.
Gritting her teeth, she lowered her eyes.
Trying to kill her was one thing she could partially tolerate, but dragging her children into it, she couldn’t.
"Ms. Sutton, you’ve had nothing but nutrients through the IV. Keira and I will go get you solid food from the cafeteria downstairs." Seeing the thoughtful look in her eyes, Eric voiced out, attempting to give her space.
She looked up at him, her brows knitting into a frown.
Her child had just been kidnapped. Why would she...
The question was yet to form completely when the door swung open and a man walked in.
Bowing to Eric, he announced, "We’ve vacated the entire top floor like you asked, but we retained the cafeteria staff."
Eric humd, "That’s good. You may leave now, Director."
Without another word, the man turned and left. As he did, Kelsie noticed so n patrolling the corridor.
Following her gaze, Eric explained.
"Mr. Adler has always kept security around, but never had to use them until today. Since they’re of no use to him, he flooded the hospital with them."
Only then did she relax and let go of Keira.
"Can I get a laptop?"
Eric nodded, hurrying over to the desk and pulling out a laptop from the drawer.
"Co, Keira. Let’s go buy sothing for you and Mommy. We’ll buy those pastries you like." He beckoned onto Keira after handing it to Kelsie.
Keira, who planned to insist on staying with her mother, temporarily forgot about it and slipped toward him at the ntion of pastries.
But she didn’t forget to stop at the door and wave at her, "Bye, Mommy. Uncle Eric and I will be back soon."
"Bye, baby. Buy sothing really delicious!" Kelsie smiled, waving at her as she left.
Her smile faded the mont the door closed behind them.
Turning on the computer, her fingers adeptly moved across the keyboard.
The screen first turned pitch black. A mont later, a bunch of codes appeared and a minute later, she was in.
Aventis Academy.
For such a prestigious school, their security system was surprisingly too accessible.
Going in through a backdoor, she pulled up the footage from the tournant.
For privacy reasons, caras weren’t installed inside the restroom. So she watched at 2x speed, pausing the mont Keira exited the restroom, holding the hand of a man.
Her eyes narrowed. She zood in.
The man was roughly 6’2", wearing a hoodie, a face cap, and sunglasses.
To appear natural, he paused and made Keira wave at the cara directly opposite them. But he barely tilted his face upward while doing so.
To anyone watching, it looked like a child happily waving at the cara with her father.
She replayed it again.
Once Keira was done waving, the man bent and picked her up.
As he strutted away, she squinted her eyes and replayed the scene three tis, to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
Though he tried to hide it, he walked with a limp. To soone else, it could be nothing, but to a doctor, it looked like the limp of soone with a severed tendon.
The telephone on the lampstand suddenly rang, breaking her concentration.
Recalling that only Eric had access to the line as he was down at the cafeteria, she stood, staggering slightly as she moved toward it.
By the ti she reached it, the call had ended. But the phone began ringing again almost imdiately.
She answered and put it on speaker. "Who’s this?"
There was a slight pause from the other end before Daniel’s excited voice ca on, "Sister-in-law? Is that you, sister-in-law?"
Exhaling in relief, she pressed a finger to her temple.
The kidnapping had made her wary of everything.
She nearly missed a call from the man who had been watching over her children the entire ti.
"Are you still there, sister-in-law?" Daniel called out when he didn’t hear from her again.
Taking her seat, she mumd, "Daniel, hi. How are the kids?"
He sucked in his teeth, a sorrowful sigh escaping his lips before he responded.
"They’re both confused. It’s been two days and neither you nor Keira have co ho. If they weren’t with your uncle in the living room, we would be speaking to you together."
"Yeah, they must be really..." Kelsie was about to say, but trailed off, eyes flying wide as she gripped the telephone with both hands. "Un-uncle? What uncle?"
Daniel chuckled.
"You sound just as surprised as I was until he showed pictures of you two together. He must’ve visited without letting you know to surprise you. By the way, what happened to him? I couldn’t help noticing that he limps a little."
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