Chapter 22
“Scarlet, Timmy is missing.”
The next morning, I had barely opened my eyes when the guard outside my quarters told me a message from Jason.
My brows furrowed instantly, irritation rising in my chest. Him again. This stubborn man still hadn’t given up, had he?
At first, I thought it was just another trick, his usual ploy to get me to go back with him. But when I stepped outside, I froze.
Jason was standing at the gate and overnight, he looked as if he had aged ten years. His eyes were hollow, his clothes wrinkled and the charming composure he used to wear was nowhere to
be seen.
I let out a cold laugh. “Jason, don’t waste your time with these cheap tricks. I’m not falling for it.” A flicker of pain flashed in his eyes. He hadn’t expected that I no longer trusted him at all.
“I’m not lying. Look!”
He held up his phone, the screen filled with dozens of missed calls and frantic text messages, all from Gideon, asking about Timmy’s whereabouts.
“Father asked me to send Timmy back, so I arranged for a private jet, but he said Timmy never
arrived.”
Then he pulled something small from his pocket. It was a jade pendant, the Gardner Family heirloom. Timothy had always worn it around his neck, never taking it off.
“I found this on the seat of the plane,” Jason said, his voice trembling. “He would never take it off himself, unless…”
A cold dread sank into my chest. I took the pendant and examined it carefully. There were faint scratches on the surface, like it had been torn off during a struggle.
For the first time, I realized how serious this really was.
No matter how much resentment I still carried, Timothy was my child, my own flesh and blood.
“Sean!” I called out, panic creeping into my voice.
He was already on his way over, sensing something was wrong. “Come with me. We’ll use the center’s tracking system.”
Inside the command center, Sean began typing rapidly at the control console while I stood beside him, my eyes fixed on the large screen. We entered Timothy’s biometric data and launched the global satellite search.
“The signal’s weak, Sean muttered, frowning. “Looks like someone is jamming it.”
The map zoomed out, shrinking again and again until it finally locked onto a vast stretch of blue. “It’s in this oceanic region, but we can’t get the exact location.”
I clenched my fists, my mind racing.
There were dozens of small islands scattered across that sea. Searching each one could take weeks and my child didn’t have that much time.
مبالحلال
1:57 pm P P P P
Just then, Jason’s phone chimed with a new message. He glanced at the screen and his face
went pale
[If you want Timmy alive, you and Scarlet will come to this place. No weapons. No backup. Or you can start preparing his funeral.]
Attached below was a set of coordinates, an isolated island right within the area the satellite had just locked on.
I looked at it and a sense of bad feelings tightened in my chest. It was clearly a trap, I knew that, but for my son’s life, I had no choice.
“Prepare a speedboat. I’m going there.”
Sean frowned, clearly wanting to object. But he knew it was pointless. The boy was my son and nothing could stop me.
He gripped my hand firmly. “I’m coming with you.”
Before I could even respond, Jason already seemed irritated. He cut in in annoyance. “Didn’t you see the message? It says me and Scarlet. What does this have to do with you?”
I was completely speechless. Even at a time like this, this man still had the nerve to be jealous.
“Jason, do you want to save our son or not?”
“Sean has far more field experience than you. With him there, we’ll have a much better chance to solve this problem. How dare you waste time with your nonsense?”
Jason was stunned, having nothing to say.
1:57 pm P ppp.
