Linus wore his professional mask once again the next day when he went to see Daniel. In front of Daniel, he was like a living puppet. When Daniel was happy, he would entertain Linus a bit; when displeased, Linus would take a beating.However, life was like that. From a young age, our paths were chosen for us, and as we grew up, all we could do was follow that chosen path with no alternatives.Linus knew that today's meeting with Daniel was about what they had discussed the day before—finding Alice and retrieving the key. It was said that the key only revealed itself and the secret chamber when the right person used it, which was why it had remained undiscovered for so long. Legend had it that several centuries ago, someone opened the secret chamber, and the world suddenly became unfamiliar because the person holding the key could travel freely to different points in time. However, it was said that because of this advantage, those with ill intentions would coerce the key holder
Alice did not speak again and continued reading, ignoring Linus. Linus knew that no matter what he said, it would not make a difference, so he left without saying anything further.Could it really just be another one of Daniel's fabrications? Linus wondered once more. He was merely a middleman, privy to very little information.Outside the door, Gwen was waiting for Linus. As soon as she saw him, she approached to ask what kind of difficult task Daniel had given him.Seeing Gwen made Linus uneasy—he could not betray his own feelings. He did not like Gwen, and this feeling only intensified the closer she got to him.Gwen initially wanted to take his arm, but seeing Linus’ reluctance, she pulled back naturally.She tried to ease the awkwardness by talking about trivial matters, but Linus had no interest in engaging with her.After walking for a while, Linus formally addressed Gwen, “Gwen, I know you haven’t given up yet, but there’s really no chance for us. Don’t waste your time; t
One day, Lucy and Selena returned from the mall. They had bought many things, including a blue tie Lucy got for Matthew. However, when they got home, she saw Gabriella in her house.Gabriella looked furious and immediately slapped Lucy across the face. Lucy had no idea what had happened.The nanny and Venus looked terrified, and Maria Stone was crying in the corner.Lucy then realized her son was missing; only her daughter was in the cradle.Lucy felt a thunderclap in her mind—Johnny was gone!Matthew rushed back immediately. When he saw that their son was really missing, he felt dizzy and overwhelmed."As a mother, you can’t even take care of your child. Are you even worthy?" Gabriella continued to berate Lucy. She had been doing so for an hour.Lucy curled up on the couch, full of guilt. She remembered clearly telling the nanny to watch the children while she went out for a while. She never expected something like this to happen.Matthew stopped his mother from further scoldi
Maria confirmed, "I did go to do some cleaning. It was probably around 1:00 pm when I wasn't in the room. When I came back, the child was already..."As she spoke, Maria could not hold back her tears. Matthew was at a loss, his mind completely blank.Lucy watched the surveillance footage over and over again in the monitoring room, her eyes red and painfully swollen.Gabriella had left earlier due to company matters, but not before she had a word with Lucy.Lucy could not retort, knowing she had not fulfilled her duties as a mother. The pain in her heart was unbearable.Matthew went to the police station to check on the situation. Orders had been issued throughout the city to capture the culprit, and the police were cautiously searching every corner.Suddenly, Matthew noticed a woman on one of the surveillance tapes, approximately ten miles from his home.The woman was sneaking along the road with a child in her arms. Her clothes were shabby, but the baby was dressed in attire th
Matthew followed the police to the place the security guard mentioned—Unit 8 on the third floor.The hallway was filled with leaking rainwater, emitting a foul odor that mixed with the smell of mud, making it nauseating. Everyone pinched their noses as they went up. The walls were plastered with notices, and the stairs were just concrete slabs with no tiles.Slowly, they reached Unit 308. The night was unusually quiet. An officer knocked on the door but received no response, so he kept knocking.Suddenly, a man's voice came from inside. "Who is it?" It seemed he had been woken up by the knocking, and his voice was laced with impatience.The police prepared themselves, crouching by the door. When the man opened it, they immediately apprehended him. The lighting in the room was incredibly dim, even darker than the streetlights outside.The man was very strong. He knocked an officer to the ground and bolted for the door, but he was eventually caught.This man was fierce, and it took
The officer flipped through a pile of old papers that looked like they had been stored for a long time. Among them were various receipts, documenting evidence of a woman's involvement in child trafficking over the past few years.Matthew, gritting his teeth, grabbed the old man by the collar and demanded to know the whereabouts of his own child.Terrified, the old man quickly explained, "It wasn’t me! My... My daughter left last night!"Just the night before, when the police came to ask the security guard about the woman, the old man realized that his daughter’s deeds had been discovered.Hence, when the police went up to the third floor, he secretly ran to inform his daughter, who then escaped overnight. She was probably far away by now.Furious, Matthew threw the old man to the ground. The police slowly helped the old man up and skillfully cuffed his hands.Suddenly, an officer's phone rang. It was a call from his colleague informing him that the woman had been captured and the
Matthew took Lucy back home and obtained some sedatives from the hospital. After administering the sedatives to Lucy, he waited until she fell asleep before leaving.Gabriella approached Matthew and criticized Lucy for her incompetence, calling her a useless woman who only ate and drank without contributing to the family. She even lost her own child.“Matthew, once Johnny is found, you should divorce her,” Gabriella angrily demanded.Matthew felt a moment of relief, grateful that he had given Lucy the sedative. Otherwise, it would not have been good for her to hear this.Pushing Gabriella out the door, Matthew said, “Mom, I’m not going to divorce Lucy. You need to give up on that idea.”Gabriella had not expected her son to speak to her this way. Furious and nearly incoherent, she stormed off.Matthew asked Maria to keep an eye on Lila. He glanced back one more time and then shut the door, heading back to the police station.He was utterly exhausted and unknowingly fell asleep i
The curtains were tightly closed at Gwen's house. Was Lucy's child hidden there? Selena was more than halfway convinced that the answer was yes.Just as Selena was about to pull back the bed curtain, she noticed a woman watching her from behind. It was not just that. From the very moment Selena had arrived, she had already been under surveillance.“Stop right there!” a woman called out to Selena.Selena turned around, only to be interrupted by Gwen. Selena felt a bit nervous, but since she was part of Spades, she kept up the appearance of not knowing what was happening.“Oh, I’m looking for my cat. It just…” Selena said awkwardly. Internally, she was silently repeating to herself, 'Please don’t recognize me…'“There’s no cat here. You can leave now!” Gwen said coldly. She then entered the house without giving Selena a chance to continue her search.Selena awkwardly left, but there was no way she would leave without helping Matthew, so she only pretended to leave and hid in the bu