A twinge of pain shot through her heart at this. She turned her head away to avoid his dark, penetrating stare.
She already knew the answer.
She knew what he would say just based on the look in his eyes.
Despite this, she let out an exhale and asked the question anyway. “When you said that…you liked me and wanted to be with me…was it because you love me as I am, or because of Riley?”
Thomas’ entire body froze when he heard this.
A split second later, he reached out to pull Yannie into his arms and gently kissed her forehead. “My love, you’ve already asked me this plenty of times, but no matter how much you do, my answer will never change. The reason I want to be with you is that I love you just the way you are.
“When I first fell for you, I didn’t even know you’re Riley’s mother. At one point, I was even contemplating how I’d approach the situation if I found Riley’s mother one day. Do you…do you have any idea how overjoyed I was when I discovered that you weren’t only the love of my life but the mother of my child?”
Thomas’ voice vibrated through his entire body and seemed to seep right into Yannie’s chest.
She bit her lip and closed her eyes. “I won’t ask stupid questions like this anymore.”
She knew the answer, but for some reason, whenever she thought about what Denise had said, she could not help doubting herself.
“Let’s go visit Riley.”
Thomas let go of her and sighed, staring intently at her. “While I was locked in the holding cell, all I could think of was….whether I could see you and Riley if Brettley’s plan failed.”
He sighed. “That poor old geezer. He had trusted the wrong people, and even until his death, he never managed to meet his granddaughter.”
Even though Thomas had at one point hated his father’s guts, he was still his father at the end of the day.
Besides, even though Senior Howard had committed many mistakes in the past, he still displayed remorse and tried to make up for his mistakes after finding out that Tina and Dan had deceived him for so many years.
The truth was, this was more than enough.
Thomas believed that if Senior Howard had pulled through, he would continue finding ways to patch things up between them.
Sadly, fate had different plans. Senior Howard had passed away before he could do so and before he could even meet his own granddaughter.
At the thought of this, Thomas sighed and took Yannie’s hand in his. “Let’s go. We’ll stop by to see Riley, then give my father a proper goodbye. After everything is settled, let’s pay Brettley a visit to discuss what should happen from here on out.”
Yannie nodded and curled her fingers around his.
According to Tina, Thomas was doing all this just to get his hands on the family fortune, but at this moment, she realized that Tina had been wrong.
The most important thing that mattered to Thomas was her and Riley, then his late father, and finally, the family business.
This was the biggest difference between Thomas and the mother–and–son duo, Tina and Dan. Thomas placed the people in his life above all else, whereas Tina and Dan cared only about money. This was why Tina had been under the impression that Brettley was helping Thomas out of greed.
Thomas started the car and headed toward the hospital.
On the way, Yannie received a call from Bethan, who was checking in on them.
“Don’t worry; we’ve already left the police station.”
Yannie glanced at Thomas, who had his eyes on the road, and added, “But unfortunately, we still need you and Mr. Morrison to help us out at Howard Group for a little while longer. After what happened, we need to get things in order before returning to Howard Group.”
Bethan was reassured to hear this. “Alright. Don’t worry; Brettley and I will take good care of things.”
With that, she hung up the phone.
Behind her, Brettley stood in front of the glass windows, staring down at the streets as he held a cup of coffee in his hand.
Bethan paused, then tucked her phone away and joined him.
The scene below them was a little amusing; after the reveal of Senior Howard’s video online, everyone finally saw Tina and Dan’s true colors. Because of this, the people on the streets erupted into chaos.
She bit her lip and closed her eyes. “I won’t ask stupid questions like this anymore.”
She knew the answer, but for some reason, whenever she thought about what Denise had said, she could not help doubting herself.
“Let’s go visit Riley.”
Thomas let go of her and sighed, staring intently at her. “While I was locked in the holding cell, all I could think of was….whether I could see you and Riley if Brettley’s plan failed.”
He sighed. “That poor old geezer. He had trusted the wrong people, and even until his death, he never managed to meet his granddaughter.”
“That’s because I promised Senior Howard I’d do anything to protect his lawyer.”
Brettley sighed and turned to glance at the streets below him with a look of helplessness. “I wasn’t the one who had filmed Senior Howard’s will–it was Mr. Zink.
“After I received the recording, Senior Howard had called me himself to ask me to protect Mr. Zink. This was why I sent Steven and Gwen to rescue him before I posted the video online.”
Bethan was surprised by this.
Brettley was right. If he had released the video prior to ensuring Mr. Zink’s safety, Tina and Dan would find a way to exterminate Mr. Zink before they got arrested. Therefore, Brettley had taken great care to ensure Mr. Zink was safe before going after Tina and Dan.
At this thought, Bethan sighed and said, “You’re such a detail–oriented person; nothing ever seems to faze you or disturb your plans.”
No matter what happened, Brettley never failed to remain calm somehow and be the most reliable person among them in the face of adversity.
“Do you think so?”
Brettley let out a self–deprecating chuckle. “if I’m as good as you claim, our daughter wouldn’t have gone missing for so long.”
Bethan’s heart sank at this.
She closed her eyes and sighed.
Even though she never wanted to give up on finding their daughter, the truth was…
Their daughter had been kidnapped three or four months ago, and according to her experience, it was not easy raising a baby.
If the kidnapper wanted to raise the child and eventually use her as a hostage against Bethan and Brettley, all was good, but…
If the person just wanted her and Brettley to experience the pain of losing a child, the baby was unlikely to have survived.
Besides, if the kidnapper had wanted to use the child against her and Brettley, he or she would not have disappeared for so long without a trace.
Therefore, Bethan was more inclined to believe that… their child was probably already dead.
Because of this, despite still wanting to track down their daughter, Bethan deliberately tried to avoid talking about this and actually doing it.
The more time passed, the less hope she had of actually finding the child.
Brettley knew Bethan was reluctant to talk about this any further. He sighed and pulled Bethan close to him. “Don’t worry. No matter what happens, we’ll get an answer eventually.”
Bonnie and Jim had already sent a sample of Shelly’s DNA to the lab to be cross–matched with his and Bethan’s.
No matter what the outcome of the test was, they would get an answer soon enough. “Yes.”
Bethan could not stop her tears from falling at the thought of her lost child.
Just as Brettley was in the middle of consoling her, however, her phone rang.
It was Yannie.
Yannie’s voice was croaky as she wailed, “Bethan, Riley has gone missing!”
“Riley is missing?”
Bethan was astounded by this. “Yannie, calm down and tell me what happened.”
“Well, this is all I know–“
Yannie was gasping for breath as she explained, “Tina and Dan have been arrested because of Mr. Morrison’s help. After Thomas and I came out from the police station, he wanted to visit her, so I came with him to the hospital…”
She sniffed and continued, “But when we arrived here, we discovered that all the guards that had been assigned to look after Riley disappeared.
“We couldn’t help thinking something was wrong, and when we got out of the elevator, we ran into Riley’s doctor. When we tried to ask him what was going on, however, he immediately ran away as though he had seen a ghost.
“Thomas and I immediately knew something bad had happened, so we ran all the way to Riley’s room. When we got there, we realized that Riley was missing, and there was another baby girl in there.”
Yannie sobbed as she said, “Bethan, we’re in the security room right now, but the person in charge said that all the surveillance cameras had broken down two days ago. It’s too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?
“We investigated this and discovered that this hospital is part of the Miller family’s corporation. Could Kate be behind this?”
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.