Jasper’s words made everyone nervous, and Isabella and Anna had trouble breathing.
At that moment, a nurse walked in and said, “Anna, that child is causing trouble again.”
Hearing that, Anna stood up, walked to the door, and then told Isabella to rest and have a good rest. “There’s someone I want you to meet,” she said to Jasper.
Jasper followed Anna downstairs to a children’s ward. When he opened the door, he saw a boy with orange hair walking around the ward in his bare feet. His quilt and pillow were scattered on the floor, and the room was empty except for a bed.
“Hello, Gary,” Anna greeted him in a friendly tone.
When he saw Anna, the little boy fell silent. His expression shifted from confusion to excitement, and he dashed forward, wrapping his arms around her thighs.
Jasper was taken aback and asked, “Who is this little guy, Anna? How come I’ve never seen him before?”
After hearing Jasper’s voice, the little boy looked up and acted terrified. Anna stroked him and said, “Gary, don’t be afraid. He’s a close friend of mine.”
Her words did not appear to calm Gary down. He ran to the back of the bed and let out a roar as Jasper took a few steps forward to get closer to him.
Anna looked resigned and awkward. She pulled a sticker from her coat pocket and grabbed one of Jasper’s hands. And then, she placed the sticker on the back of his hand, held it up to Gary and said, “See? He’s my friend. “
The little boy instantly calmed down when he saw the back of Jasper’s hand. He wasn’t as hostile anymore, and he was much more relaxed. He moved closer to Jasper, getting close enough to see the pattern on his hand.
Following that, he flashed a smile and grabbed Jasper’s hand. And Jasper was stunned.
Under Anna’s guidance, Gary took out a drawing board and began writing on it. After that, he showed Anna the drawing board. A woman dressed as a nurse was on the drawing board, holding a needle towards a boy behind a hospital bed.
Anna hummed a song to comfort him after looking at it.
“Oh, I see. Is that how Matthew used to communicate with you guys when he couldn’t talk?”
Jasper’s words reminded Anna of what had happened five years before. She smiled as she remembered the good times she had with Matthew, saying, “Gary always reminded me of Matthew , so I enjoyed being with him.”
Gary was exhausted. Because Anna was by his side, it didn’t take him long to fall asleep. Anna then gently lifted his trouser leg.
When Jasper noticed the tattoo on his ankle, he asked, “What is that?”
Anna told him what she knew. When Jasper had fully comprehended it, she said, “Gary can leave the hospital tomorrow, and I wanted to take him back to the Wright’s house. But there are a lot of people there, and I doubt he’ll be safe. So, I…”
“I’ll be back in New York in a few days, and he can stay at my house. I don’t have many maids at home, and I live there alone right now. Don’t worry, it’s extremely safe there.” He cut her off before she could finish her sentence, “I’ll look into things about Michael, so you don’t have to worry that either.”
Selina invited Anna and Wayne to her birthday party. She made many dishes and only invited her family members.
While having dinner, Tammy fiddled with the crab legs on her plate intently. She gathered some crab meat and placed it on Selina’s plate, saying, “Happy birthday, Grandaunt Selina.”
Hearing that, Selina laughed happily.
Tammy pulled out the jade bracelet with her greasy hands while eating crab meat, which surprised Selina and moved her to tears. Then, Selina cried on her husband’s shoulder.
Wayne, who was sipping the soup, looked perplexed and locked eyes with Tammy, who was also feeling overwhelmed.
Tammy had crab paste on her nose, but she didn’t even realize it. She said as she was worried, “If you don’t like this one, Grandaunt Selina, I can get you another. Don’t cry, please!”
After hearing her words, Selina looked up, smiled, and kissed her cheek, “I cry because I feel so happy. I love your gift, of course! “
Then Anna’s phone vibrated. She got a message from Peace, saying, “I really miss Tammy! I’ll pick her up from school tomorrow afternoon and let her spend the night at my house.”
Anna continued to drink her soup and replied, “sure.”
The next day, when she received a phone call from Tammy’s teacher, Anna was having lunch in the hospital cafeteria. After talking to her teacher over the phone, Anna knew that Tammy hadn’t arrived at school all morning.
Taken aback, Anna tried her best to stay calm. She then dialled Peace’s number.
Peace sounded tired, but after hearing what Anna said, she immediately woke up. She asked, surprised, “You said I texted you yesterday that I picked up Tammy? No, I didn’t!”
“Come see me in person then.” After saying this, Anna hung up the phone, exhausted. She was shocked and upset.
Minutes later, she arrived home to find Wayne and Peace waiting for her in the living room. They were both stone-faced and silent.
“Anna! What in the hell is going on?” Peace ran to Anna as soon as she saw her enter. She was terrified on her way there. She had been waiting for Anna for a long time, so she told Wayne to come home as well.
Anna sat on the couch and then burst into tears. She took her phone from her bag and opened her chat log with Peace.
“I really miss Tammy! I’ll pick her up from school tomorrow afternoon and let her spend the night at my house.”
“Sure. “
Seeing the text messages, Peace jumped up from the couch. She widened her eyes and exclaimed, “Impossible! I worked late at the office yesterday and didn’t even get home that night. I didn’t even send you this message!”
Then Peace suddenly recalled something terrible. Frowning, she said, “I went downstairs to the supermarket to get coffee around eight o’clock yesterday, and then I lost my phone. When I left, a little girl returned it to me.” She then took her phone from her bag, searched for their text message and found that their most recent message was sent last week.
Hearing that, Anna was desperate. She was sweating all over and felt like the world was spinning around her.
“Anna, are you all right?” Wayne asked. He was concerned that Anna would crumble under the pressure of one blow after another.
Anna looked up at Wayne with sadness. Her voice shook as she said, “Go find Tammy, Wayne. Please find her!”
Peace had no idea what had happened, so she had no way of connecting this accident to the series of changes that had occurred sometime before. As a result, she reassured Anna, “Tammy had lost before when she was younger. She is now old enough to protect herself. Let’s go find her. Perhaps things aren’t all that complicated.”
Anna ignored Peace’s words and tried to force herself to calm down. After a while, she had a thought. “Have you ever seen this pattern?” she asked, rolling up her sleeve and pointing to the pattern of the sticker on her wrist.
After thinking for a while, Peace clapped her hands and exclaimed, “Yes, I did! A man bumped into me in the supermarket yesterday. He has this tattoo on his neck.”
Anna became even more desperate after hearing her words. She grabbed the phone from the coffee table and dashed out the door.
Wayne stopped her as she walked for a few steps. He stood up and gave Anna a tender and compassionate look. He was just as worried as she was, yet, he had to remind her, “If you go look for him now, you’ll only make matters worse. He might have quit his job in that restaurant. I’m going to the school right now to get some information. Peace, call the police and then stay with Anna for me.”
After a quick phone call to Noel, Wayne had everything ready and headed out the door. As he walked past Anna, she grabbed his arm and said, “I’m coming with you.”
As she tugged on Wayne’s shirt, Anna’s hands trembled slightly. Wayne gripped her tightly, his strong arms providing her a sense of security. “Please wait for me.” He said firmly before turning and walking out the door.
After Wayne arrived at Tammy’s school, Tammy’s teacher told Wayne, who was sitting sternly on the couch, “These are the two students who left school with Tammy yesterday after school, and they were the last people to see her.” She then pointed to a girl nearby, saying, “Sally, please tell this gentleman of the situation.”
“Our practice exam results were released yesterday. Tammy did well on the test, so we planned to celebrate it after school. But not long after we entered the dessert shop, she abruptly said that she needed to leave.”
“What?” Wayne asked, perplexed.
The other girl nodded and echoed, “Yeah. I had a feeling that something was wrong with her after we entered the dessert shop. She is usually very energetic and often tells us jokes. But she was unusually quiet yesterday, as if she was thinking about something. She also left in a hurry, as if she needed to do something right away.”
Wayne asked, “Which dessert shop did you go to?”
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.