“Go to the police station, Noel.”
Wayne leaned back in his chair, exhausted from that long day. But, he was fully aware that he needed to stay awake. His phone rang again as he was about to fall asleep.
“Hello?” Wayne answered the call.
Peace said anxiously, “Anna is missing, Wayne. Anna has been trying to go out and look for the man since we got home from the police station, and I told her to wait for a while. I accidentally fell asleep on the couch just now. And when I woke up, Anna was already gone.”
Wayne hung up the phone immediately and then called Anna several times. But she didn’t answer the calls. He then asked Noel to drive him to the Japanese restaurant.
***
The picture on the wall was the first thing Anna noticed when she walked into that restaurant. A waitress in uniform approached her at that moment and asked if she had a reservation.
“I’m here to see someone,” Anna said, waving her hand.
“Who?”
“My brother.” She extended her hand and pointed to the man in the photograph.
The waitress smiled friendly and said, “I see. I’m sorry, but Bill is no longer working here. Are you his sister? You’re as pretty as he described.”
“Does my brother talk about me a lot?” Anna asked shyly.
“Yes! Bill rarely smiles, so our boss advised him to be friendly to the guests. But he always smiles when he mentions you.”
“Where has he gone?”
In hushed tones, the girl became embarrassed and asked Anna, “He didn’t even tell you that? Actually, it’s all my fault. I accidentally spilled wine on a customer that day, and he was fired because he took the blame for me. He probably didn’t want you to be worried about him. He said he is selling fish at the market now and had made a lot of money.”
“He’s working in a market?”
The girl looked her in the eyes and nodded.
“Which market?”
“I’m not sure, but it should be close.”
Anna then got ready to leave right away. She stopped after a few steps and walked back to the girl. Anna shoved two bills into the waitress’s hand and whispered to her, “Don’t tell Bill I was here, please.”
After walking out of the restaurant, Anna planned to go through all the nearby markets, beginning with the closest one. She finally found the man at a market about an hour later.
A middle-aged man was taking a fat carp out of the tank at a nearby fish stall. He began scraping off the scales after weighing the fish. And he placed the fish in a black plastic bag and handed it to a woman as she handed him a bill. The man didn’t even have time to wipe the sweat from his brow before greeting the next customer.
Anna stood back and watched in silence. It was difficult for her to believe that the hardworking man was the demon who hurt Peter. But, the tattoo on the man’s neck was conspicuous. Then she took out her phone and took a photo of him.
Soon after, the man answered the phone and became serious. He took off his apron and walked towards the market’s exit after speaking with the person next to him.
Anna followed him quietly, and her phone rang soon. She was startled and abruptly hung up and turned her phone off.
Not far from the market, there was a small park. The man walked forward at a quick pace, occasionally looking back warily. And Anna avoided his gaze the entire time.
After crossing a road, the man entered the small park through a side entrance. He finally came to a halt in a dense forest. At that moment, Anna realized why the man had come here.
She took her phone from her bag. And she was about to take a picture when she remembered she had turned it off earlier. When she looked up after turning on her phone, she noticed that the two men talking in the woods had vanished.
At that moment, Anna had an ominous feeling. She was about to leave when she noticed someone moving behind her. She felt something hit the back of her head immediately after. She couldn’t stand up any longer and collapsed to the ground because she was dizzy.
The world in front of her became hazy. Before she passed out, she could vaguely feel the man approaching her and snatching the object from her grasp.
At the same time, Noel left the Japanese restaurant and got into the driver’s seat. Then, he said to Wayne, who was sitting in the back, “Anna was here an hour ago, according to a waitress, but she didn’t find the person she was looking for. She claimed she went to one of the nearby food markets.”
Wayne rubbed his brow, gradually losing his mind due to anxiety. He had an impulse to search every corner of the city for his wife and daughter.
“Let’s go, Noel…”
He was about to finish when he noticed a text message. It was a Google Maps location information, indicating that it was in a nearby park. Wayne zoomed in on the map and felt his entire body tense up.
When Wayne discovered Anna in the park, she had been dragged to the heart of the woods. Noel was the first one to notice her. “There she is!” he yelled, pointing to Anna, who was unconscious against a large rock in the distance.
Wayne came to a halt, then stepped over the bushes into the woods somberly.
Noel’s excitement quickly turned to shock. When he turned around, he noticed tears in Wayne’s eyes. Wayne appeared flustered at the time, as frustrated and heartbroken as a lost child.
“Mr. Wright.” Noel was taken aback as he watched Wayne move closer to Anna.
Wayne took each step as seriously as if he were making a major decision. He eventually leaned over and picked her up off the ground. Immediately after that, his white shirt was stained by the blood running down the back of her head.
“Please go to the hospital.” Wayne’s voice was so husky that he couldn’t even speak.
***
Later, in the hospital, Nancy stood sternly, her hands in the pockets of her white robe. She asked Wayne, “What happened to Anna this time? How did she get into so many accidents after getting married to you?”
Wayne froze and began to recall what had happened previously. He didn’t believe she was just getting into more accidents after she got married. Actually, he hadn’t seen Anna’s life go well since the first time he met her.
“Thank you. I’ll keep her company on my own,” Wayne said. He looked at Anna’s pale face in the hospital bed. Instead of being flustered and upset, he had regained his composure.
Nancy simply nodded. “I don’t think Anna will probably wake up tonight,” she said as she walked out the ward door, “And you look like you need rest now.”
Wayne remained silent, and Nancy heard her voice echoing throughout the room. She looked at Wayne and then left.
Meanwhile, Joshua was standing at the door, holding two lunch boxes and waiting for Nancy.
On her way out, Nancy was surprised to see Wayne’s bodyguard. She covered her chest and turned to face each of the bodyguards, saying to Joshua, “Why don’t you go inside and speak with Mr. Wright? He appears to be exhausted. What is he afraid of now that he has so many bodyguards here?”
Nancy then took the lunch box from Joshua’s grasp. After opening the box and seeing her favorite dish, she smiled happily.
Then Joshua wrapped his arm around Nancy’s shoulders and walked alongside her to the office. Joshua said as they walked in the hospital corridor, “I’ve heard the story of them. If you’ve heard it, you wouldn’t think that way.”
“Could you tell me more about it?”
In a fluster, Peace opened the door to Anna’s ward when Joshua and Nancy had just disappeared into the corridor. She sobbed and clutched Anna’s cold hand, looking sad.
“The doctor said she wasn’t badly hurt. The attacker did not appear to want her to be seriously injured,”Wayne explained.
“Huh? Why?”
Wayne remained silent because he had not yet discovered any useful clues. His hands clenched tightly.
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.