The man oddly felt his own heart softened as he looked at the photograph of what was obviously
someone else’s kids.
It took a while before he spoke up, “Go to the Ministry of Transportation and dig out all the surveillance
footage from Happy Avenue. I’ll handle this personally!”
“Understood!”
…..
Michael brought Charlotte to his own villa, and he summoned a doctor each for Charlotte and
Fifi.Preoccupation with thoughts of the children and Mrs. Berry compounded the woman’s restlessness.
It was well past eight in the evening when Michael finally hit upon a breakthrough after he had
mobilized his network of contacts. He eagerly brought his laptop to Charlotte. “Come take a look at
this.”
“What is it? Have you found them?” she said as she drew close.
Michael pulled up surveillance footage showing the children alighting from the school bus. They stood
by the side of the road for around a couple of minutes, possibly to listen to Ms. Cheney before the
vehicle drove off.
The three children remained there as they talked amongst themselves before they departed in the
direction of home.
“Robbie, Jamie, Ellie…”
Charlotte teared up when she saw her children.
“Let’s watch on. There’s more.”
He went on to play the next clip.
The first clip cut off halfway when the children were walking on the road.
The next one showed them walking hand in hand. They had stopped to fool around for a while when
Ellie pointed towards the forested area nearby. Jamie then started to run towards it.
Ellie and Robbie followed closely behind.
As these were captured on a traffic camera, there was no audio. Charlotte reckoned that the kids had
gone in there because they were playful.
The footage ended there with the frame fixed on Robbie.
Charlotte asked anxiously, “Are there others?”
“That’s all I’m able to gather,” he replied. “I’ve inspected the site but have found no tracks there. That
area isn’t monitored either. There’s a road on the other side though, but it seems like someone had
erased the surveillance footage from there. I wasn’t able to find any other leads.”
“How could that be?” The color fell from the woman’s face. “Unless…”
She had an ominous feeling that the children might have met an accident on that road.
Could that be why the perpetrator had erased the footage?
“Let’s not try to get ahead of ourselves,” Michael said as he held her hand. “I’ve inquired at all the
hospitals in H City that I’m able to poke my nose into. There isn’t any child admission that fits their
description.”
“Are there any hospitals to which you don’t have access?” she inquired anxiously. “Is it Raina’s?”
“More than that,” Michael said with a furrow. “There’s a Serene Hospital under the management of the
Nacht Group. It’s an exclusive private facility. Thus, I wasn’t able to get anything out from there.”
Charlotte felt a shiver down her spine when it occurred to her that her children’s disappearance may
have something to do with Zachary.
“And also…” Michael continued, “I’ve not been able to locate that missing footage despite spending a
considerable sum and drawing on some strong connections, which could mean…”
“That whoever had deleted the footage had more influence than you do?” Charlotte immediately caught
on.
“That’s right.” The man nodded.
“It’s really him…” Charlotte howled through gritted teeth. “Zachary, you bastard!”
“But I don’t understand why he would want to kidnap the kids?” Michael was perplexed. “Does he know
about their parentage?”
“I don’t know…” The woman replied in distress. “I wouldn’t be as worried if he did.”
If he knew, he might, at worst, want them back with him. Conversely, they would be in greater danger if
he did not.
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