Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

Quentin Grant made a call, and the surveillance footage was delivered. The video showed a middle-aged woman saying something to the children. Afterward, Dorothy and Claire skipped off happily, hand in hand. Elmer seemed to call out to Dorothy, but she didn’t turn back, so he ran after them. They headed toward the east side of the plaza. Following them on the eastern cameras, the group was seen stopping at the entrance of Building D before going inside together.

This meant that Dorothy and Elmer had to be in Building D.

Instantly, everyone’s tension eased considerably. Quentin Grant took Dylan with him personally. When they arrived at Building D, the father and son started knocking on doors from the first floor all the way up to the ninth. The building only had nine households, with one apartment per floor, so by the time they reached the top, they still hadn’t found any trace of the children.

At that moment, Quentin Grant knew something was wrong.

Building D had only one exit. There was no back door, no basement. Where on earth could they have gone?

He stood his ground and sent Dylan running back to the residence to get more men. They began searching each apartment, one by one.

The search felt agonizingly long. Over ten minutes later, the answer came back: no sign of Dorothy or Elmer.

Quentin Grant immediately had the complex’s security team pull all the surveillance footage. It was impossible for two children to just vanish without a trace.

He immediately notified Ethan Ellsworth and Chloe Marshall.

After watching the video, Chloe Marshall burst into tears. Dorothy was so much like her: naive, without the mischievous cunning of Dylan or Elmer, and with a poor sense of judgment. The group concluded that the drink must have been drugged.

But Dylan added that her granddaughter had drunk it too.

The three children had likely seen the middle-aged woman’s granddaughter drink from the bottle, which was why they had let their guard down. From a child’s perspective, a woman wouldn’t poison her own granddaughter, right?

However, the footage revealed that the drink Claire first drank was fine. When the middle-aged woman took the bottle back from Claire, her other hand slipped something into it.

Only after that did Dorothy and Elmer drink from it.

People don’t just grow wings and fly away. Quentin figured there were two possibilities: either the kidnappers had found a way to smuggle the children out of the complex, or they were still hiding somewhere inside.

Up until the security guards were dispatched, the surveillance footage showed only two vehicles had left the complex.

Quentin Grant immediately and secretly reported it to the police. The police split into two teams: one to trace the two cars that had left, and the other to search the complex with the Men in Black.

Finally, the surveillance footage revealed the answer: the ground-floor apartment in Building D had a window without security bars. That was their exit point. From there, they had gotten into a car and left.

The footage clearly showed Elmer trying to pull Dorothy out of the car. When that failed, he tried to make a run for it, but an old man forcibly picked him up and threw him back inside.

In other words, by that point, Elmer knew the middle-aged woman was a kidnapper.

He had tried to escape with Dorothy, but failed. When he tried to run on his own, his short legs were no match for an adult’s.

The police immediately began tracing the vehicle’s route out of the complex, pulling up footage from one camera to the next. But after a short distance, the car turned into an alley—a blind spot with no surveillance.

The other end of the alley branched into several winding roads, all leading in different directions.

As the police launched their investigation, Quentin Grant was already certain in his heart. The children had most likely been taken by Toby Dalton and his associates.

Still, he couldn’t be absolutely sure it was them.

The kidnappers’ identities remained unconfirmed.

The living room of the Grant Residence was deathly still. Dylan, in particular, was racked with guilt and anxiety. If only he had brought Dorothy and Elmer back with him, this never would have happened. He had been careless. He was blaming himself, forgetting that he was still just a boy.

Quentin Grant had already arranged for all bus and train stations, highway toll booths, seaports, and airports to be on high alert. Any suspicious individuals were to be checked against the descriptions.

"As long as they can’t get out of Fravia, we will find the children. I’ve already sent people to intercept planes and ships heading to Grestin."

Nora Ainsworth was exceptionally worried. "What if they go to another country first, and then to Grestin?"

"We can intercept any plane or ship leaving the city. I have men posted at every checkpoint. I guarantee they won’t get the children out of Fravia."

Just as Quentin Grant finished speaking, a phone rang abruptly. Everyone tensed, looking at each other. Ethan Ellsworth waved his hand, signaling for silence.

Quentin Grant answered. "Hello?"

"..."

"Hello?" he repeated.

"Quentin Grant, I will make you pay. Get ready to collect your child’s body!" The voice was sinister and androgynous, but the words sent a cold sweat down Nora Ainsworth’s back.

She snatched Quentin Grant’s phone. "What do you want? Don’t hurt the children! I’ll give you anything you want!"

"I only want two things. First, your son’s life. Second, your husband’s company. You’d better think carefully about the exchange."

Nora Ainsworth took a step back, speechless.

"Since you’re not willing to part with the Grant Group, then you can forget about your son’s life..." The line went dead.

Quentin’s expression was terrifyingly dark. Everyone knew that Master Grant had founded the Grant Group. It had enjoyed decades of success, now in Quentin’s hands. If he were to lose it so easily, he would be seen as a disgrace to the Grant Family.

"Nora, what do we do now... Will they... do something to the children..." Chloe couldn’t bear to finish the thought. The idea of Dorothy losing her life at any moment made her heart ache unbearably.

Nora Ainsworth forced herself to calm down. She sat on the sofa, pressing her hands to her temples, and didn’t speak for a long time.

Finally, she raised her head abruptly. "Quentin, I think they must be trying to find a way to leave right now, but they can’t go without eating or drinking. They’re bound to show up at a supermarket or restaurant near the ports and airports. Send the Men in Black out in plainclothes to search. Distribute the blurry images of the suspicious little girl and the middle-aged woman from the surveillance video. It’s better to misidentify a hundred people than to let a single one slip by!"

Quentin Grant’s eyes lit up, and he nodded.

Once Elmer got in the car, he felt drowsy and wanted to sleep. He looked over at Dorothy, who was already fast asleep.

He then closed his eyes but didn’t let himself fall asleep.

The middle-aged woman’s voice reached his ears. "That boy’s older brother is extremely vigilant. He wouldn’t drink the beverage at all. If he hadn’t sent his brother home to get water, I wouldn’t have been able to get these two out of there."

"Getting these two is already a big score. Even though we didn’t get that other one, it’s not bad. Let’s lay low for now and see if there’s any unusual activity at the port," the middle-aged man driving nodded.

"Mommy, are they not going to wake up?"

"They’ll wake up. They’ll be up in a little while."

Elmer’s eyelids were too heavy to keep open any longer. Finally, he lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, Elmer didn’t immediately open his eyes. He could hear Dorothy’s crying. Peeking through his slitted eyes, he saw Dorothy sitting next to him, terrified, having finally realized the gravity of the situation.

Her crying must have irritated the middle-aged woman, because a sharp slap followed. "Cry again and I’ll throw you to the wolves!"

"WAH!" Dorothy cried even harder, a heart-wrenching wail that filled the entire room.

The middle-aged man, smoking on the sofa, yelled, "What damn good does hitting her do? You have to coax little kids. What does a kid her age know?"

The middle-aged woman looked down at her own daughter and said, "Honey, go play with her for a bit. Stop her from crying."

Dorothy’s crying stopped abruptly. "You’re a liar! This is your daughter, why did you say she was your granddaughter? You look so old! You tricked me!"

The middle-aged woman snorted in annoyance. "That’s right. How else was I supposed to trick you if I didn’t say I was her grandma? Let me tell you, if you don’t start behaving, I’ll sell you off. Go ahead and try me if you don’t believe it."

After speaking, she looked at her husband. "The higher-ups don’t want this girl anyway. We might as well sell her. We could get a few tens of thousands for her."

"Sell her? What are you talking about? If we sell her now, doesn’t that just announce she was kidnapped? Let’s just keep her with us for now, and we’ll decide later. Besides, it’s thanks to this girl that you were able to trick that boy."

The middle-aged woman thought it made sense and didn’t say any more. "There are fewer people out now that it’s evening. Let’s send the girl out to buy some food. We can’t leave, but we still have to eat."

"I’ll go with the girl. We’ll buy a lot at once. We’re staying here for the time being. Didn’t you hear what the higher-ups said? They told us not to move, to just stay put here. They’ll send someone to meet us."

"Okay, you two go. I’ll watch these two kids here. Good thing you had the foresight to rent this house in advance, otherwise... Alright, alright, go on. I’m going to get some sleep."

The middle-aged man left with Claire. The door was locked from the outside, just in case.

Elmer again peeked through his slitted eyes at the middle-aged woman. He saw her lying there with her back to him. She probably thought that with the door locked from the outside, he and Dorothy couldn’t escape. This was the moment she was at her most relaxed.

A few minutes later, he heard her snoring. She was asleep.

Dorothy sat there, crying silently.

She had never been in a situation like this before. She didn’t know where she was or how to get out.

Elmer waved her over and made a "shushing" sound. Dorothy immediately stopped crying and crawled past the middle-aged woman toward him.

She tightly gripped Elmer’s small hand, as if it was the only thing that could make her feel safe.

Elmer slowly stood up. Tiptoeing, he picked up the kitchen knife from the cutting board. Because his hands were small, the knife trembled as he held it, looking as if it could fall from his grasp at any moment.

Elmer pulled his hand free from Dorothy’s grip. He clutched the knife with both hands and walked, step by step, toward the sleeping middle-aged woman.