Kim burst into a hysterical laugh out of the blue. He took his time and paused before looking at Anne as
if to provoke her. She gently closed her eyes and gave a gloomy, grieving expression.
Her own Simon was forced to call another man father!
What transpired next was as terrible as she expected. Kim's goons managed to fend off Kevin and his
men away, while he forcefully took Anne with him.
Meanwhile, Kevin and his men had a rather lengthy dispute against Kim's minions. Both sides crashed
several cars until Kevin's men got to capture what was assumed to be Kim's car.
When they opened the car, they were surprised to find that the people they were chasing all this time
were duplicates that acted as decoys.
Kevin himself took two steps back in utter shock. He could feel his whole body about to collapse into
the ground as if he was standing half-naked in the middle of a blizzard.
'I was fooled! How could I fall for that?!
Damn it, Kim. He's playing tricks on me. This isn't the first time. My Anne!' he thought out loud to
himself.
"No!" He was shaking in pure anger as he couldn't bear to accept the result of his efforts. His roar was
packed with his fury. Moments later, he turned around and left with the key tightly grasped in his hand.
The people behind him were still left wondering in silence.
The road was empty enough for him to build up speed with his driving. The anxiety he felt cranked up
like the car approaching its limits. He knew for a fact that he was too late, but he wanted to go and take
a look for himself!
'Anne, where are you now?' he kept thinking.
Meanwhile, Anne held Simon tightly inside Kim's car. She gave her kidnapper a look, sharp enough to
cut him into pieces.
His smile indicated that he was in a good mood. She slowly turned her head and looked out of the
window. There was nothing else she could do but frown in utter dread. "This is not the way to H City,"
she said.
Kim gave her a brief smirk, and replied, "I've been staying in H City long enough. Although Kevin
doesn't know where to find me right now, it's only a matter of time until he gets a lead. So there's no
reason for me stay in H City anymore."
The cold finally completely took over her whole being, and the grief she felt didn't help but cause her
frown to be deeper than before.
"Don't worry. M City isn't too far from A City," he added.
Knowing that everything have been planned and carried out from the beginning, she couldn't think of
anything to change the circumstances to her favor. The only thing she could do now was to opt out of
continuing to talk to him.
He glanced over at Anne through the rear view mirror, and painted another smug look on his face.
Indeed, all his effort paid off in the end now that he had Anne's life on his hands again. His heart was
filled with such great joy in ways he couldn't have imagined.
He thought to himself that the woman he loved and adored for most of his life finally came back to him
to keep him company through day and night!
Beside the fact that he was aware of Anne having only Kevin in her heart right now, he was willing to
wait and make her fall in love with him.
He wasn't planning to make Anne change her heart overnight. As long as that was the case, there was
no way he would let go of her. At the same time, he was aware that it would be an eternity of waiting for
a forlorn hope.
Anne looked down and quietly looked at Simon like how a caring mother would. Simon, on the other
hand, was already looking at her, desperate for help. She gave him a gentle smile for comfort and
kissed him on the forehead.
"Simon, you'll be fine. I'm right here with you."
His determined nod as a response was genuine. Shortly after, he moved his little fragile body further
into the comfort of her arms. It was the thing he wanted the most for a long time now—to be back into
her warm embrace. Now that it came true, he couldn't help but also feel bad that he was well aware
how hard it must have been for his mother to come back to him.
They drove for a few more hours until they finally arrived at M City. The prepared house only showed
how powerful Kim actually was.
Simon still held on to his mother's arms. They all went upstairs without taking a good look to appreciate
Kim's place.
She felt as if she was a precious golden bird, trapped in a cage, and stripped of any form of freedom. It
didn't matter to her how carefully and beautifully the cage was designed.
Besides, the most important thing that mattered to her now was to figure out how to protect her child,
now that he just returned to his mother. Simon was still sulking over how terrible their life would be from
now on, until he closed his eyes and sunk into a deep slumber.
Meanwhile, Anne sat on the edge of the bed and ran her fingers through her son’s face. She slowly
smiled as she appreciated how precious her son was. This moment, for her, was bittersweet.
She didn't even have the time or the presence of mind to realize the tears that had been streaming
down her face all this time.
It might be good that she found one child, but it was even more tragic considering it happened at the
cost of losing the other two!
The sadness welled over her that she felt like she was cursed to feel this way for the rest of her life.
Meanwhile, Kevin contacted the police immediately after he failed to find Anne using his own
resources. Knowing his status, the respective police departments of both A and H City immediately
mobilized forces to search and investigate the whole area.
No matter how much he wanted to hide Anne's disappearance, he just couldn't. Not this time. Selma,
Eddy, and Sally all knew about it.
Kim took Anne away again!
Since Sally had always been the most sensitive one among them, she couldn't help but cry out loud the
moment she heard that her mother was missing.
Eddy, on the other hand, was well aware how his grandma and father must have felt. He realized that
he had to step up and take care of Sally on his own. However, the crying of his little sister also greatly
affected him.
"Back then, Anne was controlled by Kim for two years, but we just had no way of finding any trace of
them. How can we be certain that he's really in H City this time?" Selma couldn't help but give her own
temples a mild massage, as her worries stressed her out to the point that she felt it almost converted
into physical pain.
Kevin stayed silent, he kept all his thoughts to himself. His cold, sunken eyes gave chilling vibe to
anyone who would dare stare into them.
The H City Police Department searched the whole premises of their area, but they found nothing.
It was as if Kim simply appeared and disappeared out of thin air.
"As a man, I can tell that Kim must really like Anne. Only God knows what he would do to her, but let's
try to stop worrying about it for now and instead try to pool all our energy into finding ways to track
them." Kevin's frown didn't seem to disappear even once for a very long time now. If all that Kim
wanted was to unreasonably hurt her, he wouldn't go to the trouble of imprisoning her for two years.
He was careful enough not to physically hurt her before. It was safe to assume that he would do the
same thing this time.
That somehow gave Selma an assurance about Anne's safety, but her worries naturally didn't all go
away. When Kim managed to trick Kevin into chasing the duplicates, the latter ended up crashing a lot
of cars and injuring innocent people in the process. Now the news had spread like wildfire about his
reckless actions. Additionally, almost everyone in the public knew how the police officers of A and H
City had been dispatched all over the towns, so there was no way they could keep the news hidden
from public eyes.
The fear of the uncertainties about what would happen next pained her even further.
And, besides, almost everyone was now aware that if Anne somehow wouldn't show up to the public
for a long time, the reporters would guess that the incident had something to do with her. Anne was a
precious young hostess of the Fu Family, and they wouldn't simply let this scandal to emerge.
Such a thing was considered taboo among the powerful clans!
Selma thought of a new plan, but she wasn't so sure if it was doable. All Kevin thought about was a
sure way to find Anne, so he didn't bother caring about it.
A night had passed in a blink of an eye, and Anne had been sitting still on the edge of the bed
throughout the time. She couldn't help but guard Simon and make sure nothing would ever happen to
him. Fast forward into two days and two nights, Anne didn't once close her eyes to rest. The eye bags
she gained as a result were too visible that she looked like she was going to collapse at any given
moment.
The door was suddenly opened and Kim emerged as expected. It didn't help her to fend off negative
feelings at all. She didn't care who would knock on that door, because she knew it was none other than
him.
She had reminded him many times to at least have the decency to knock on the door before rushing in,
so she wouldn't get scared, but he didn't care and simply shrugged her request off like it was nothing.
He looked down at Anne, and frowned in disappointment. "Anne, I know you're a smart woman. You
should know that I will always keep you by my side all the time. I suggest that you take good care of
yourself for Simon's sake. If you die, he would be left without a mother to run to, and I wouldn't know
what to do."
He didn't even hide his threat with subtlety!
Anne slowly and weakly turned around to glare at him with contempt. She let a faint sound as she
struggled to speak. "Don't worry. I won't let anything bad happen to myself. And just you wait, I know I
will be leaving this place alive!"
That offended him as anger flashed across his eyes. He tightly clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.
He couldn't help but simply sigh and leave after he carefully examined her face.
She raised an eyebrow in surprise and observed him walk out the door. She didn't expect him to leave
just like that without losing his temper. But she realized that it didn't matter because she was still stuck
in this place, hopelessly looking for any form of refuge.
She slowly walked over to the window, and sighed as she stared at the setting sun from the horizon.
'I could only imagine Kevin so anxious right now,' she thought. Kim had left H City and came straight to
M City. One wrong direction, and Kevin would always end up in a dead end.
Days passed, and there was not a single news about Anne's whereabouts. Kevin's anxiety only grew
stronger as time passed by, leaving him thinner than before. But he never once lost hope. His weary
eyes only made Selma get more concerned that he wasn't taking good care of himself.
She made Rose appear in the public once to preserve the Fu Family's reputation, but it was not a long-
term solution. Now, everyone was suspecting that something was fishy inside the Fu Family, but luckily,
nobody knew the whole story. Not a single soul.
The public image of Kevin and the Fu Family once again stood at the shaky ground.
Sally couldn't bear to live without a mother, so she cried day after day that her mother wasn't coming
home. Almost everyone in the Fu Family lost weight as a result, including her.
Eddy, on the other hand, wasn't any less concerned about Anne. However, he was the one that was
most used to these things. He was well aware that he must protect himself no matter the
circumstances.
He had a certain heart disease and his family hadn't found a heart donor for him yet. He was worried,
but he also had to stay on guard to protect himself from the disease's danger. That was the only way to
make sure that he was able to see his mother again.
Meanwhile, Kevin desperately used all his remaining resources to try and find Ryan.
At this point, Ryan had already gotten the property. Both Kevin and Anne thought he would leave A
City, but he didn't. He continued to run the company as usual.
In the office, Kevin silently stared at him as the latter sat comfortably in his seat.
The worries in Ryan's eyes were visible, together with his frown. He spoke slowly. "Because of the
photos, I had a short dispute with Kim. He hasn't contacted me for quite some time now. I don't have
the slightest clue of where he is right now!"
Kevin squinted his eyes as if letting him know that he wasn't convinced.
Ryan sighed, and tried to explain further as he reached out his hands to gesture that he was being
sincere. "As you know, I just wanted my money. Now that I have got what I wanted, I have no ties to
him anymore. Believe me when I say that I don't know where he is!"
Finally, Kevin nodded. He simply turned around, and left without a word. He didn't have the time to
waste hanging around here any longer.
Meanwhile, Sam also pooled his own resources into looking up about clues that might lead them to
Anne's whereabouts. But Emily stayed at home and didn't bother helping him. She decided not to pay
attention to him doing that stuff anymore.
Eventually, Sam lost his patience and grabbed Emily who had just attempted to leave.
The weary expression on his face told almost everything she needed to know. "Emily, I know you also
got very anxious when something happened to Anne before, right? How can you act like you don't care
anymore now? Didn't I already tell you that you're the only one in my heart? Anne is nothing but a
friend to me. Why can't you just trust me for this?"
Her eyes looked calm and didn't budge at all. However, he could tell, as he looked into her eyes, that
she was still being obedient. "What are you talking about, Sam? You are my husband now. How can
you say that I don't believe you? I know for a fact that you are not in love with Anne."
Deep inside, those words were nothing but mockery. She constructed such words as if she had already
practiced them more than once.
At that very moment, Sam was filled with an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness. He couldn't find
the right words to answer her, so he could do nothing anymore but sigh in disbelief.
Now, he knew for certain that he couldn't communicate well with her like this. No matter how much
effort he exerted into trying to convince her, she wouldn't listen to a single word he'd say.
How did they end up like this?
"Do you have anything else you want to say? If not, I'll go upstairs now and have a rest," she added.
She looked down as if trying to hide an expression she didn't want him to see.
Since they got married, the two of them had never slept together. Their relationship only went downhill
from there.
He slowly turned around and heaved a heavy sigh of disappointment. In such a grim situation, what
should he do? Could it be that he had done something wrong that might have offended her?
She finally raised her head, but the sadness remained in her eyes. She slowly turned around as she
couldn't stop a teardrop from streaming down her cheek.
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