Though Tom thought so, he did not dare to speak his mind. Clearing his throat, he replied, “Sure. I’ll send them to you right now.”
With that, Toby handed Tom his phone. After receiving the phone, Tom sent the photos to Toby’s phone right away. Toby’s eyes relaxed as soon as the message tone on his phone sounded. “Alright, you may go now.”
“Yes, sir.” With that, Tom left, leaving Toby all alone in the office.
Toby picked up his phone and opened his Messenger to see the photos that Tom had sent him. There were two photos, one of which he had not seen. So, he opened the photo.
In the photo, Sonia’s pose had changed though the background stayed the same. One of her hands held onto the skirts of her dress, while her other hand was raised in the air as if she would fly away any moment.
There was no doubt that she looked beautiful, but he did not like it. Hence, he tapped and held his finger there to delete the photo. His finger hovered over the delete button, yet he could not bring himself to press it. In the end, he gave up.
At this moment, Tina called out anxiously from outside the office, “Toby!”
Immediately, he furrowed his brows and exited his Messenger before putting his phone back to its original place. “Come in.”
Meanwhile, Sonia and Rebecca had just walked out of a shoe store after buying shoes.
“President Reed, let’s go have something to eat. I’m feeling a little hungry.” Rebecca rubbed her belly.
Looking at the time, Sonia saw that it was nearly one in the afternoon. In truth, she was also feeling a bit hungry now. “Sure, let’s go to the fifth floor. There are many restaurants there. Come, I’ll treat you to lunch as thanks for coming with me today.” She smiled as she lowered her wrist.
As Rebecca nodded, she replied, “Thank you, then.”
“Don’t mention it. Let’s go!” Sonia took Rebecca’s arm.
After a few steps, Rebecca halted and pointed at a shop across. “Isn’t that Tina’s mom?”
Hearing that, Sonia looked in that direction. It was indeed Julia. The woman must have just finished her facial appointment because her face was glowing. She did not look like a woman in her fifties at all.
“What an unlucky day to go shopping. We bumped into Tina just earlier. And now, Mrs. Gray’s here too. It’s such a small world,” Rebecca sighed.
With a smile, Sonia said, “It’s alright. We all live in Seafield after all, so it’s pretty normal to bump into each other.”
Perhaps they were being too obvious as Julia looked in their direction after sensing that someone was watching her. As soon as she saw Sonia, she frowned unhappily.
At that, Sonia was amused at her reaction. Then, Julia turned away coldly and headed toward another store without giving Sonia and Rebecca any response. Upon seeing this, Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Look, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. It’s no wonder Tina’s like that. She must have learned it from her mom.”
“There’s no need to bother about things like this. Didn’t you say that you were hungry? Let’s go already,” Sonia said while gazing at Rebecca.
Rebecca conceded and walked toward the escalator with Sonia. However, never had they thought that they would bump into Julia again after lunch. Fortunately for them, Julia did not notice them this time. She left straight after coming out of Delancey & Tatienne Jewelry. As she was leaving, an unpleasant expression was plastered on her face as if she was very disappointed.
Seeing this, Sonia could not help but recall the time when Julia brought Rina’s necklace to Delancey & Tatienne Jewelry. It was then that the shopkeepers told Julia about Rina’s necklace. Because of this, Julia started to suspect that Rina was still alive and began to look for her.
Did Julia come out of the shop with a disappointed look on her face because of Rina? As Sonia thought, she narrowed her eyes and asked, “Rebecca, help me with something, will you?”
“What?” Rebecca looked at Sonia while sipping her milkshake.
Softly, Sonia told Rebecca, “Go to Delancey & Tatienne’s, and ask why Mrs. Gray went there.”
“Why do you need to know?” Rebecca stared at Sonia curiously.
Sonia’s eyes flickered. “For something very important. Help me, please?”
“Okay, okay. Hold this for me. I’ll go ask.” Rebecca passed her milkshake to Sonia. After passing it to Sonia, she went to Delancey & Tatienne Jewelry, then came back out a few minutes later.
“So, did you manage to ask them?” Sonia handed Rebecca her milkshake.
“I did.” Rebecca took the milkshake and nodded. “The shopkeepers said that Mrs. Gray asked them if they saw a woman coming in with a necklace recently.”
“Just as I thought.” Sonia bit her lip. It seemed that Julia was still searching for Rina, so she came to the shop to try her luck.
“What are you up to, President Reed?” Rebecca was genuinely curious.
However, Sonia just smiled. “Oh, nothing. Mrs. Gray’s just looking for her eldest daughter.”
“Eldest daughter?” Rebecca exclaimed. “You mean she has another daughter?”
“Yup, her eldest daughter is Rina Gray. Tina’s the younger sister,” Sonia nodded and explained.
“Ah, I see… But why do you care?” Rebecca asked suddenly.
“Because her eldest daughter has some unfinished business with the Reeds.” Sonia furrowed her brows. “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Let’s go home.”
Rebecca nodded.
It was already four in the afternoon by the time they returned to Bayside Residence. Quickly, Sonia put the things that she had bought earlier on the couch. Then, she brought her phone into the room to call Zane. At that moment, Zane was both happy and surprised that she called him. After all, she seldom contacted him.
“Why are you calling me all of a sudden? Did you miss me?” he answered casually.
Knowing how the man loved to flirt, she did not get angry listening to him say that. Instead, she laughed. “Alright, get yourself together. I have something serious to ask you.”
“You could’ve just said that you missed me even if it’s regarding a serious matter.” He sighed.
Upon hearing this, she was dumbfounded. “Fine. I’ve missed you, alright?”
Though he knew that it was not true and that she was just trying to brush him off and make him happy, he was delighted nevertheless. “Hmm… I guess so.” He pretended to make do.
Hearing that, she smiled faintly.
“So tell me. Why are you looking for me?” he coughed.
“I saw Mrs. Gray today, and it seemed that she was asking about Rina’s whereabouts. So, I wanted to ask you about the progress of the investigation regarding Rina’s case.” She sat at the edge of the bed and explained to him seriously.
The corners of his mouth lifted. “How timely. I just found something.”
“Oh?” She sat up. “What is it?”
“Firstly, Rina really isn’t dead and is still well alive. To confirm this, I went through the old case file and found the officer who was in charge of this case at that time. He told me that your dad had thrown a doll into the river. Not Rina,” Zane reported.
Hearing this, she narrowed her eyes. “My guess was right. Before this, I had guessed that my dad threw something else into the river.”
“That’s correct.” Zane nodded.
Clenching onto her phone, she questioned, “What about Rina? Where’s she now?”
“This, I don’t know. Your dad may not have thrown her into the river, but he did kidnap her. No one else except your dad knows about her whereabouts––not even the officer,” Zane replied helplessly.
With a frown, she complained, “How could this be? We lost the trail again.”
“Yeah, looking for her is not easy.” He pulled at his hair in frustration.
Biting her lip, she responded, “Wait, you said ‘firstly’ earlier. Does that mean you found something else?”
