Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Chapter 87 Think Outside the Box
Seth smiled and looked at Josephine taking off her clothes one by one.
Then, she hugged herself and faced the wall, wishing she could bury herself in the ground. Her long black hair cascaded down her back. The contrast of her hair against her fair skin was
alluring.
“Your pants.”
Josephine froze. Her knuckles grew white from gripping her arms tightly. She shivered under
the water.
She had given up hope of someone coming to rescue her because no one would come. That she knew clearly. Whenever she prayed countless times for someone to rescue her, no one had ever reached out to her, not one person. She was no longer the young little mute girl protected by adults.
Old Mr. Alvarez was no longer around. Lewis no longer cared about her. She no longer had anyone. The only person who treated her as a friend and cared for her was being tied up by Seth. What was the point of her struggling? What was the point of her wanting some dignity?
Josephine resigned to her fate. She no longer tried to resist. She would do whatever Seth wanted her to do. If he wanted her to strip, she would. If he wanted her dead, she would kill herself. No one cared about her cheap life anyway. It no longer mattered.
Perhaps she was too exhausted, or perhaps the shower was too cold, or maybe Seth had tortured her too much, but Josephine suddenly felt the world spinning. That familiar dizziness overwhelmed her once more. She swayed and fell to the floor.
It was the third day Josephine had gone missing. Conrad still had yet to find her. He was anxiously pacing around in the mansion’s courtyard.
While everyone was worried, Lewis, on the contrary, was remarkably calm. For the past two days, he went to work and returned home as usual, as if Josephine was still around.
No, he was even better than when Josephine was around. He would head home almost every day. No one understood what he was thinking.
Conrad paced around for more than ten minutes when the door to the mansion opened, and Lewis came out dressed impeccably, seeming his usual self. Conrad immediately went up to him, and Lewis glanced at Conrad before getting in the car.
Conrad got in the driver’s seat and looked at him in the back seat through the rearview mirror. Lewis leaned on the chair, resting with his eyes closed. At that, Conrad thought he should not say anything, so he started the car and drove to the office.
When Lewis was at the elevator, he met Seth once more. Their eyes met, and they greeted each other politely, entering the elevator together.
Seth looked at him for a while before suddenly saying, “Have you found your pet yet?”
Lewis didn’t look at him. “The pet was not close to me. Why should I get it back?”
“Is that so?”
“Since it thinks the world outside is a much better place, let it explore and see for itself.”
Seth smiled a little, but only for a while. “You’re right. Once it has been through some suffering, perhaps it will return home.”
Lewis turned his head and looked at Seth; their eyes met. None of them said anything. The elevator was extremely quiet. If it were not for the numbers on the screen moving, it seemed like time had been paused.
The elevator dinged, it had reached the 20th floor, and Lewis stepped out. Before he left, he said, “Come and collect the investment proposals you sent.”
Seth was a little stunned. Before he could say anything, the doors of the elevator shut once
more.
Later, Seth went to the President’s office to collect the two proposals he had sent. He had a look and saw that Lewis had signed it already.
“It’s approved?”
Lewis rubbed the middle of his brow, looking exhausted. “Follow up closely, and don’t drag it on for too long.”
“Okay, I’ll
go and handle it right away.”
The investment proposals took up almost 50 percent of the company’s capital. The longer it dragged on, the higher the risk of loss.
If other projects had problems and their capital chain broke down, the company would be in trouble.
When Seth left Lewis’ office, he flipped through the documents. It was not much different than the one he did a few days ago. There were barely any edits, yet it was approved.
What did that mean? Did Lewis not go through it properly or something else?
Seth did not care. After all, he had Lewis’ signature already. His eyes twinkled, and he left.
Conrad knocked and entered Lewis’ office. Under the pretext of sending documents, he stuttered and reported the outcome of the search for the past two days.
“P-President Alvarez, w-we still haven’t found them.”
Tyler couldn’t find them either. It was like Avery and Josephine had vanished into thin air.
Lewis calmly flipped through the documents he was reading. “Then, keep on looking.”
“Y-yes, but we’ve combed through all the places. We don’t know where else to look,” Conrad said rather embarrassedly. He prided himself on his capabilities at work, but this time, there was no progress at all.
Lewis paused for a while and closed his documents. He looked at Conrad.
“Conrad, you have to think outside the box.’
“Ah, y-yes. Okay. I’ll think of another solution.” Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
Lewis replied, “What I meant is, sometimes what the eyes see is not always true. Do you understand?”
Conrad was puzzled for a few seconds. Truth be told, he didn’t understand.
“P-President Alvarez, sorry if I’m being stupid, could you please elaborate?”
Lewis impatiently threw the documents on the table. He did it lightly, but the loud sound made Conrad jump and shudder.
Lewis leaned back in his chair and looked at Conrad authoritatively, which made the man sweat profusely.
After a while, Lewis said, “Have you heard the saying that the most dangerous place is the safest place? If you always look at the security footage in the direction of where they went missing, what could you find?”
Then it dawned on Conrad. “I got it! I’ll go look for it now!”
Lewis tugged on his tie in annoyance. Then, he instantly undid his tie and threw it in his
drawers.
When Conrad came out of the office, he immediately ordered men to search around the city. He had always thought that the place where Avery and Josephine had disappeared must be where they were hiding, so they looked further and further away, missing the city entirely.
Any normal person would not think of escaping to the city to hide-it would make the hiding completely pointless.
Although Conrad was a little doubtful, he dared not say anything. After all, he had no leads for the past few days. What if Lewis’ hunch was correct?
When Josephine came around, she was already on the bed. She opened her eyes and looked at the white ceiling in a daze for a few seconds before remembering what had happened. She immediately sat up.
It was already dark outside, but she could still see some buildings. Seth didn’t tie her up, so her first reaction was to escape and then find someone to help rescue Avery.
She got out of the covers only to realize she was in a very large but thin T-shirt. It was so light that it was almost see-through. Even if she dared to run out in that, she might freeze to death outside.
Josephine got out of bed and searched around for clothes. She was in a two-bedroom unit. The other room was locked, so she couldn’t open it.
There was nothing in the living area that she could use to cover herself. She also went to look. around in the bathroom and the bedroom. In the end, she came to the conclusion that Seth had taken away her clothes!
She was about to head to the balcony to see where she was when the door behind her opened.