Sonia raised her eyebrows. “If you’re looking for Miss Gray, why are you here? Isn’t she with you?”
“Exactly!” Charles agreed, crossing his arms.
In response, Toby lowered his eyes. “She’s not with me.”
“What?” Charles paused for a moment before smiling gleefully. “Have you lost her?”
Toby didn’t reply. No longer finding the situation as funny as before, Charles questioned in surprise as the smile slipped from his face, “Are you serious?”
Looking at Toby, Sonia continued, “Are you looking for her here because you think we hid her?”
Toby met her gaze. “She never returned from the restroom, and the only people here that have bad blood with her are you two.”
Annoyed, Charles barked a laugh. “You think we hid her because we have issues with her? How stupid do you think we are? Everyone knows we’d be the foremost suspects if something happened to her.”
Silently, Toby pursed his lips. In truth, he, too, knew the chances of Tina being there weren’t high. Thus, he had gone over only hoping he would find Tina by sheer luck.
“President Fuller.” Sonia grabbed the split hem of Charles’ suit jacket and pulled him to the side before walking up to Toby. “I’ll admit I bumped into her in the restroom, but I left before her and have no idea where she went. You can check the video surveillance of the areas close to the restroom.”
“I did. There’s no trace of her,” he said, clenching his fists. After Tina failed to return to their private room, he called her, but she didn’t pick up. Then, he had the manager send the restaurant staff in search of her. Even after checking the entire place, they could not find her.
The strange thing was that the restaurant’s video surveillance system was operating normally but had not captured any trace of her. Something seemed amiss.
Back in the present, Charles curled his lips. “If there were no signs of her in the video surveillance footage, that only proves she avoided being captured and is now in hiding. Maybe she’s doing it on purpose and making you anxious because she wants to see what position she holds in your heart. That sounds like something the drama queen would do.”
Instantly, Toby’s face darkened, and the temperature in the room dropped.
Meanwhile, Sonia gave Charles a warning glance and indicated to him to be silent. Wasn’t he seeking death to call the love of Toby’s life a drama queen to his face?
“My apologies, President Fuller. Charles here tends to speak without thinking. Please don’t take it to heart,” she apologized somewhat insincerely before looking down at the watch on her wrist. “It’s getting late. It’s time for me and Charles to leave. Take your time in finding Miss Gray. We hope you find her soon. Goodbye!” Then, with a courteous smile at Toby, she took Charles’ arm and walked away with him.
As Toby watched them walk away, joking and squabbling, his gaze darkened, and he felt immensely irritated. For six years, she had acted numb toward him, but now that they were divorced, she instantly surrounded herself with men, offering them warm and brilliant smiles. How could such a fickle woman compare to Tina?
When he recalled his grandmother’s dislike of Tina and her warning him not to regret divorcing Sonia, he couldn’t help thinking that it was ridiculous. Regret? How could that be possible?
Kicking Sonia out of his mind, he pulled out his cell phone with a cold expression on his face and made a call. “Have you found her yet?”
“No. My men and I have searched the areas near the restaurant, but we couldn’t find any traces of her.” Standing at the door of the restaurant, Tom suggested while scratching his head, “Maybe we should file a police report, President Fuller.”
Tightening his grip around his cell phone, Toby responded in a low, restrained voice, “It’s pointless. Since we don’t know if her disappearance was an accident, the police are unlikely to take action immediately. They will only take action after 48 hours.”
“So, what should we do now?” Tom looked around the place and shivered in the cold.
After thinking for a moment, Toby instructed, “Continue asking around to see if anyone saw her.”
“Yes, sir!” Tom nodded his head.
After putting his cell phone away, Toby left the restaurant and drove in the direction of Gray Residence.
Soon, he reached his destination. As he followed the butler inside, Julia and Titus both happened to be coming down the stairs. When Titus saw that Toby was alone, he asked in confusion, “Where’s Tina?”
At the same time, Julia looked behind Toby. “Is she still outside?”
After glancing at her, Toby answered in a low voice, “She’s missing!”
Upon hearing that, Julia froze. “Tina’s missing?”
In response, he nodded.
As his face sank, Titus questioned loudly, “Wasn’t she with you? How could she go missing?”
“She went to the restroom while we were eating and never returned. I have men looking all over the place for her, but she hasn’t yet been found. I fear that something has happened to her,” Toby answered apologetically.
With a roll of her eyes, Julia passed out.
“Julia!” Titus shouted, quickly catching hold of her falling body.
Hurriedly, Toby went forward to help. Together, they carried her to the couch. After they laid her down, Titus kept patting her cheek. Finally, she coughed twice and woke up, hammering her chest as she cried, “My Tina! Honey, our Tina has gone missing…”
“I know.” He pulled her into his arms, patting her on the back as his heart ached for her. “Don’t worry, I’ll find her and bring her home!”
As soon as he said that, Toby’s phone rang. Toby pulled out his phone and checked the caller ID before answering the call. “Hello?”
“We found a lead, President Fuller,” Tom said excitedly. “A passerby saw a masked man carrying her into a van.”
“A van?” Toby’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Get the surveillance footage of the surrounding roads at once. Find the path the van took.”
“Understood.” Tom nodded.
When Toby hung up the phone, he realized that Julia and Titus both were staring at him. “Is there news about Tina?” Titus asked.
Putting down his phone, he answered murderously, “Tina has been kidnapped.”
When Julia heard that, she began to sob louder and almost passed out once more. At the same time, Titus’ expression was also extremely ghastly. He clenched his jaw so hard that his cheeks bulged. “Who dared kidnap my daughter?”
“It’s unclear who it is right now, but when the person is apprehended—”
Coldly, Titus interrupted, “When you find the person, please bring him to me. I’m going to make him wish he was dead!”
He would let that person know Titus Gray’s daughter wasn’t a good target! Now that the person had kidnapped Tina, he would teach them a proper lesson!
Having no objection to that, Toby proposed, “We should file a police report. Since we know someone deliberately set out to harm her, the police can take action at once. After all, we’re a limited number of people. We will be able to find her more quickly with the police’s help.”
Finding it reasonable, Titus nodded in agreement.
Hastily, Julia stopped them, shouting sharply, “No! You can’t go to the police! You can’t tell them about the disappearance of Tina! I don’t want to lose her!”
As if provoked, she started trembling after saying that, terror written all over her face. She looked nowhere near as refined as she usually was.
Shocked, Toby stared at her. “Is Julia okay, Titus?”
Titus hugged Julia even more tightly and coaxed her like she was a child, saying, “Alright, we won’t go to the police.”
At that, the trembles in her body lessened, but she still looked terrified. Stroking her hair, Titus sighed, “Julia’s sick.”
