“Will you please stop sighing? It’s annoying!” Peace asked, her gaze fixed on him.
“I didn’t do anything! I was just sighing!”
“You’re breathing too loudly!”
Everyone was used to the two of them arguing, so no one intervened. Soon, Karl’s phone rang.
“Hello?” Karl nodded and said, “Okay, I got it. Please contact me as soon as you have any new information.”
As soon as he hung up the phone, Karl resignedly said to everyone looking at him expectantly, “Lily is staying at the hotel next door. Jasper has sent some people to look for Isabella in this area, but none of them has seen her so far. I’ve told the airport to keep her from leaving. Well, she didn’t bring her passport, so she couldn’t leave the country.”
Just as they were about to begin another round of discussion, Matthew opened the door and entered the lounge. In the bright light, his face looked almost identical to Wayne’s. Then he said to Anna, “Mom, the kids are asleep, and Tammy is in there with them.”
Anna nodded and said, “Thank you, honey. You have a flight back tomorrow morning, right? How’s the project going?”
“It’s going on pretty well, Mom.”
“Great. Good night, dear.”
After Matthew walked away, Peace turned around and said, “Gee! Even Matthew, a fifteen-year-old teenager is more reliable than Isabella!”
Looking at Wayne, who seemed to be deep in thought, Anna asked him, “Wayne, what do you have in mind?”
“She doesn’t have a passport, so how can she leave?” Wayne replied in a low voice.
“I’m afraid she’s out of options because we’re on an island surrounded by the sea on all sides. She wouldn’t swim across the ocean, would she?”
“What if she left the island by boat?” Crossing his arms before his chest, Wayne looked Anna in the eye and said.
***
While Anna and the rest of them were still wondering if it was likely that Isabella left the island by boat, a private cruise ship was about to sail from the dock in the night.
A woman in a black cloak stood on the ship’s second deck. The wind was so strong that it blew a corner of her robe up. Her eyes were sad and lonely as if she’d been through a lot in her life.
Then a man in a white robe and a beard emerged from the cabin. “Madam, do we really have to take the girl with us?” he asked her respectfully.
The woman turned to face the island and said, “We’re just giving her a ride. It’s not as tricky as you think.”
“Isn’t that too dangerous? After all, she’s part of that group. So if they check…”
“They can’t find her fast enough because she’s already thrown away her phone. I’ll give her some money and send someone to take her wherever she wants to go after the boat docks. I’m not concerned with where she goes after that.”
The woman sounded confident in herself. Her assistant appeared to want to persuade her further, but he eventually just said, “Yes.”
The ship set sail after the assistant had left. And the woman was still on deck, staring at the island that was getting farther and farther away from her. Her dark green eyes were calm, yet it seemed like a tornado was coming soon.
Three days later, Anna and her friends returned to England. Although everyone was worried about Isabella’s safety, they could do nothing by staying on the island. So, Jasper had hired private investigators to find her in the Maldives, and Wayne had asked Ryan to find her in England.
Anna then dialed Ryan’s number. “Take your time, Ryan. She knows how to look after herself, so she will be fine. By the way, is Emily coming back this month?”
“Yes! I finally got in touch with her the day before yesterday, and she told me that the mission was completed. She would come back soon, but she has no idea when.”
” Okay. I really want to meet her. Ask her if she can have lunch with me, will you? “
“No worries. Isabella will definitely come back after she’s not angry anymore, so please don’t worry.”
“All right, thanks. Good night.” Anna sighed as she hung up the phone and sat on the couch.
Wayne walked downstairs after saying good night to the kids. “Are you still worried about Isabella?” he asked after hearing Anna’s sigh.
“Yeah,” Anna admitted it. I told everyone that Isabella was old enough to care for herself these days. But, who am I kidding? Isabella hasn’t been through difficulties since she left the island ten years ago. Because Jasper treats Isabella like a princess, she’s likely forgotten how to survive alone. Anna thought.
“She’ll be just fine,” Stroking Anna’s hair, Wayne comforted her.
“I hope so. How is Gary?”
“He’s already dozing off. I’ll drop him off at Mom’s tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll go there with you.”
“That won’t be necessary. Don’t you still have work to do at the hospital?” Wayne stroked her hair and asked.
“You heard me on the phone, didn’t you?” Slightly frowning, Anna asked as she stopped Wayne stroking her hair.
“Yes. Good night, dear,” Wayne spoke softly.
Anna pursed her lips and wrapped her arms around Wayne. “I’ll be doing less work now and won’t be as busy as I used to be. Tammy can come home and stay with us,” she said, pressing her head against his chest.
“Good,” Wayne said as he hugged her and stroked her long hair.
Before boarding the plane, Karl told Wayne that Anna was considering volunteering in a country named Fleosil. Wayne was lost in thought after hearing that news. Although he wished Anna would spend more time at home, he wouldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want to do.
After Anna had fallen asleep, Wayne took his phone out to the balcony and dialed Karl’s number, saying, “I have something else in mind for that project we discussed last time.”
“You can tell me now. I’ve basically planned everything, and I should be able to find an investor within a month.”
“No, I’d like to invest that money in something else. I’m not going to put it in the UK.”
Karl asked, surprised, “Are you serious? Can you find a better place than the UK?”
Wayne paused for a moment before responding, “Fleosil.”
The next morning, Anna got up early because she had a meeting. Grabbing a few bites of breakfast, she then hurried to the hospital.
At the hospital, while Anna was still putting on her white coat, Nancy barged into her office, saying, “What took you so long to get here? The meeting is about to begin!”
Anna replied, “I need to put on my white coat first. What’s this meeting about? I heard the dean is coming.”
“They are seeking volunteers. I’ve heard that the epidemic is resuming in Fleosil, and the International Medical Association is requesting help from all over the world. The small countries surrounding it will suffer if they can’t control the epidemic,” Nancy spoke up right away.
Sighing, Nancy added, “The documents in your hands contain all of the information our hospital’s doctors learned during their research trip to Fleosil. The situation is far worse than we had anticipated, so we decided to send twice as many teams as originally planned to assist.”
Frowning, Anna flipped through the files in her hand. She knew clearly what was going on in Fleosil because she had checked the situation before the hospital dispatched a team of doctors to investigate. And she was sure that none of the doctors in the room knew more about the epidemic than she was.
“Dr. Wright,” the dean abruptly said while Anna was still busy browsing the file in her hand.
“Yes?” Anna asked, raising her head.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.