It could be said that this place was within his expectations.
It was the Glendale Airport.
Based on Fabian’s words earlier, Kendrick had a feeling that Fabian might leave Glendale with Lillian.
As he predicted, after checking the flight, he found out that Fabian had got on a chartered plane that flew from Glendale to F Country.
The plane just took off five minutes ago.
It was impossible to stop a plane, so Kendrick could only book the next plane ticket to F Country immediately. In the meantime, he also contacted his colleagues from Interpol, hoping that they would stop Fabian at the airport.
Once Niamh knew about this, she wanted to go to F Country with Kendrick.
Kendrick knew he could not say no to Niamh, so together, they waited for their flight at the airport.
The closest flight was in three hours. There was little else they could do apart from waiting.
However, two hours later, Kendrick received a call from his Interpol colleague in F Country. The person told him that the chartered plane under Fabian’s name had just landed in F Country, but Fabian himself was not on the plane.
He did not take this plane to F Country! That was just a ruse!
Niamh and Kendrick were suddenly at a loss on how to go about this. They had not expected Fabian to play this trick on them.
In the next few days, Kendrick went all out to look for Fabian’s whereabouts, but Fabian was extremely well hidden. He left not a single trace behind.
Winter was eventually replaced by spring, yet there was still no trace of Fabian and Lillian.
During a quiet afternoon, Niamh watched her youngest son who was learning to walk. She should be feeling happy, but when she recalled that her little princess was still missing, she felt as if a piece of her heart was missing, leaving her incomplete.
“Why are you staring into space here, Eveline?” Eloise suddenly appeared behind Niamh.
Niamh returned to her senses and looked at her mother who had not recovered, then felt another wave of heartache.
Even now, Niamh’s mother still could not recognize that Eveline, the precious daughter that Eloise longed for, was Niamh.
Niamh thought silently, then quickly got rid of her melancholic and negative emotions, smiling at Eloise.
“I’m playing with Pudding.”
Eloise looked at Pudding and asked curiously, “Why is Pudding the only one here? Where’s Jack and Lily? Say, it’s been a long time since I saw Lily.”
The mention of Lily at this moment made Niamh feel a tug at her heart, but she could only keep on smiling.
“Lily is playing somewhere with a friend of mine. She’ll be back after a while.”
“How long a while?” Eloise asked bluntly.
Tears pricked the corners of Niamh’s eyes as she could not control her emotions any further. “ I… I don’t know.”
“How could you not know? Aren’t you Lily’s mother?”
Niamh was momentarily speechless. Her eyes were already red.
Yes, she was Lillian’s mother.
She had lost her daughter, and as a mother, she could hardly be free from blame.
Upon seeing Niamh crying, Eloise furrowed her thin eyebrows, her heart suddenly started to feel heavy. “Why are you crying? Here, a tissue for you.”
When Niamh saw the tissue Eloise handed her, Niamh further lost control, and tears flowed from her eyes.
“I’ve failed as a mother, ” she blamed herself. “Back then, I didn’t manage to care for Jack properly, causing him to suffer so much when he was so little. Now, it’s Lily’s turn. Someone abducted her before my eyes, yet I couldn’t stop it in time.”
Niamh grabbed Eloise’s hand as she spoke, losing control of her emotions.
“Mom, tell me. What on earth do I have to do to become a passable, decent mother?”
“How… to be a passable mother…”
Niamh’s question seemed to stumped Eloise.
Eloise stared straight at Niamh’s tearful face. As she looked at Niamh, Eloise suddenly started to shake her head repeatedly; her expression also gradually changed.
“I am not a passable mother. I’m not. I’ve mistaken a bad woman as my precious daughter, and I’ve caused my Eveline to be vilified and tormented. I’m not a passable mother. I am not worthy to be a mother. I’m not worthy. Not worthy…”
Eloise rejected herself, blaming herself with fierce intensity.
Niamh only then realized that the question she had asked during her emotional breakdown had triggered Eloise.
She rushed to hold Eloise’s shoulders to comfort her. “Mom, there’s no need to get worked up.
You’re a good mother. You are a passable mother in Eveline’s heart.”
“No, I’m not a good mother, that’s why Eveline hates me. She hates me. She doesn’t want me as her mother, and she doesn’t want Sean as a father as well. Sean and I are not worthy to be Eveline’s parents. Ah…”
Eloise yelled as she broke down and suddenly pushed Niamh away as she ran out the main entrance.
“Mom!”
Eveline hurriedly chased after her.
However, she turned back after taking two steps. Coincidentally, a maid was passing by, and Niamh pointed at Pudding who was chuckling at himself in a silly manner. “Watch Pudding for me.
I’ll be back soon! You must keep a close eye on him! ”
When the maid saw Niamh’s hurried look, she earnestly nodded. “I will watch him closely. Don’t worry, Ma’am.”
“Pudding, listen to her. I’ll be back soon!” Niamh said to her confused son, then dashed in the direction in which Eloise had run toward. As Niamh ran, she called out to Eloise, “Mom!”
However, it did not seem that Eloise heard
Niamh’s call. If she did, she might not know that Niamh was calling her.
Eloise ran straight on, passing a few streets.
Due to her nervous breakdown, she ignored the traffic lights. Quite a few cars had to brake urgently just to avoid her.
Niamh’s heart leaped when she saw this.
She blamed herself. How could she show such negative emotions to Eloise?
Now, Eloise was triggered into recalling the unhappy, painful memories, and Niamh was not faultless in this.
Eloise continued running a few red lights as she crossed the streets. Niamh, who was chasing behind her, apologized to the drivers, who were cursing at Eloise, as she ran.
Kendrick was on the way home when he noticed that i t was slightly congested up ahead on the road.
Oblivious to what had transpired, he subconsciously lifted his eyes and saw Niamh, a hurried look on her face, standing in the road apologizing to everyone.
“Nia?”
Kendrick found this odd, so he surveyed his surroundings and, with a fair bit of difficulty, parked the car by the roadside, surrounded by cars.
He urgently called Niamh. While the call went through, the person who picked up the phone was Karen, who sounded quite frantic.
“The maid said that Eveline ran out looking hurried. Eloise is gone too. I don’t know what happened as well.”
Even though Kendrick did not know what exactly had happened, after listening to Karen, he could roughly surmise that Niamh was searching for Eloise.
When he saw that the cars ahead of him were moving, Kendrick paid close attention to the direction in which Niamh had run while he turned the steering wheel, quickly and decisively weaved through the cars on the bustling street, then parked his car by the roadside without obstructing the traffic. He then swiftly ran in Niamh’s direction.
Niamh had never known that Eloise could run with such speed. The trigger might have brought out her latent potential.
Niamh’s only thought was to catch up with Eloise who was recklessly running, causing Niamh to completely miss the rock under her foot.
When she finally noticed it and tried avoiding it, she had already stepped on it.
Niamh fell to the ground. She tried standing back up but realized that there was a debilitating pain in her right ankle. Her bones hurt with every movement; it seemed that her ankle was twisted.
She looked around her and felt lucky that this was not the busy street from earlier. Otherwise, she would have been hit by a car.
Eloise heard Niamh yelping in pain, and she abruptly stopped running.
She turned and saw Niamh sitting in the middle of the road.
Eloise took notice, paying attention to the expression on Niamh’s face; her eyebrows on her delicate, graceful face were tightly furrowed.
Eloise felt her heart tightened for some reason. “Eveline…”
She looked at Niamh and quietly muttered this name.
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.