Free Web NovelChapter 238: Chapter 241: He Won’t Collapse
Holding Sandy, Felix Preston poked his head out from the third-floor hallway. "Come on up. I need to get Sandy to sleep."
Evan Yates: "You got it!"
He had been to the Shaw residence many times. He could find Felix Preston’s room with his eyes closed.
He took the stairs two at a time, and familiarly made his way to Sandy’s room.
"Here." Seeing him, Felix Preston’s first move was to hand the baby over. "You get Sandy to sleep. I’m going to sit down and rest for a bit."
"Oh." Evan Yates pocketed his phone, carefully took Sandy, and after adjusting his hold, began to expertly soothe the baby.
"Be good, Sandy. Godfather’s going to get you to sleep." He gently patted Sandy’s bottom while rocking his arms back and forth.
Sandy stared straight at him with big, bright eyes, but in less than two minutes, their gaze started to grow hazy.
"What did you need to see me about?" Felix Preston asked, sitting on the edge of Sandy’s bed, kneading the sore spot between his brows with his eyes closed.
Evan Yates glanced at him, his expression conflicted. "It’s about the Quincy Group falsely accusing ’Law of Love’ of plagiarism. It’s not a huge deal, and I was originally going to call you, but your phone was off. When I couldn’t reach you, I had no choice but to drive over."
Hearing this, Felix Preston immediately started patting his pockets, only to remember after a moment that he’d left his phone in the other room.
"...I was running around all last night. The phone ran out of battery and died a long time ago." He sighed and looked up at Evan Yates. "What about it? Has the Quincy Group pulled some new stunt?"
Evan Yates: "No. The studio staff finished organizing the evidence Yvette Fuller gave us. They want to know when you want to release it."
"When was the originally scheduled release time?" Felix Preston asked.
He hadn’t slept for a day and a night. Although he had no desire to sleep, his brain was too exhausted to function properly. He had completely forgotten things that had been decided long ago. With every sentence Evan Yates spoke, he had to ask a confused, "Why?"
"..." Evan Yates fell silent for two seconds, his gaze filling with worry. "Preston, the originally scheduled release time is today."
Felix Preston: "Then release it today. Have the studio staff register an official account and post the evidence directly."
Evan Yates grunted in agreement. "I already registered the official account this morning. Since you’ve given the go-ahead, I’ll have the staff pick a time and release the evidence."
"Fine." Felix Preston kicked off his slippers and swung his legs onto the bed. But he didn’t sleep. Instead, he stared blankly at the ceiling, fiddling with the ring on his finger.
Sandy was a very good baby. After Evan Yates had only been soothing him for a few minutes, he closed his eyes and obediently fell asleep.
"Preston." Evan Yates lowered his voice, carrying Sandy over to the bedside. "Sandy’s asleep."
Felix Preston took the child and gently laid him down by his side. "Thanks."
"Tsk..." Evan Yates shot him a look. "Are we really saying things like that to each other?"
Felix Preston gave a slight tug at the corner of his mouth but didn’t speak.
Evan Yates walked over to the sofa at the foot of the bed and sat down. Looking at Felix Preston’s exhausted, pale face, he couldn’t help but say, "Preston, you should get some sleep. Don’t push yourself anymore."
"I can watch Sandy here, and I can hold down the fort at the studio. We still haven’t found Charlotte. You absolutely can’t let your body fall apart."
"I won’t fall apart." Felix Preston gently stroked Sandy’s cheek, a hint of tenderness hidden in his bloodshot eyes.
"Charlotte is an incredibly strong person. Willow Quincy has taken her to some unfamiliar place, but she must be trying everything she can to escape. She’s so thin, and so timid, yet she’s stubbornly fighting a battle of wits and courage against Willow Quincy. So I absolutely won’t fall apart over here."
"I’ll take good care of Sandy, take good care of Mom and Dad, and I’ll run the studio well, waiting for Charlotte to come back safely."
"Exactly!" Evan Yates’s nose stung, and the anxiety that had been crushing him for a day and a night finally eased a little. "Preston, this is how you should be! Besides satisfying his own perverted mentality, Willow Quincy kidnapped Charlotte because he wants to see you tortured by this ordeal until you’re just a shell of your former self. You can’t fall into his trap. You have to pull yourself together!"
"Charlotte is fighting over there, so you have to fight over here. I refuse to believe he can tear a loving couple like you two apart!"
"Yeah." Felix Preston nodded, a faint smile finally appearing on his face.
Evan Yates: "But pulling yourself together starts with taking care of your own body. You haven’t slept for a day and a night. Go take a nap. I’ll watch Sandy."
"No need." Felix Preston held out a finger for Sandy to grasp. "I’ll just sleep here next to Sandy for a bit. When I wake up, I’ll go to the police station to look at the surveillance footage again. I have a feeling something’s wrong with it."
"What’s wrong with it?" Evan Yates asked.
Felix Preston narrowed his eyes slightly and said in a low voice, "Have you been to see those two alleys?"
Evan Yates: "I have. What about them?"
Felix Preston: "Of those two alleys, one is a straight dead-end that leads to someone’s backyard—there’s no exit at all. The other is at a fork, and it loops around to the next street. The time Charlotte disappeared, the route she was taken on, and the suspect vehicle have all been basically confirmed. So why can’t we find any trace of her?"
"The suspect black car had stolen plates. The police have already taken the owner to the station, but he swears he never saw Charlotte in the alley. They didn’t even find anything related to her in his car. Don’t you think that’s too strange?"
"Hmm..." Evan Yates raised a hand to his chin, a look of confusion in his eyes. "It is strange, but wasn’t that the only suspicious vehicle there at the time? Other than that car, what else could have taken Charlotte away without a sound?"
"He must be lying when he says he didn’t see Charlotte."
"...Not necessarily." Felix Preston shook his head. "There were actually two cars in the alley at the time. It’s just that one of them belonged to a resident, so the police quickly ruled it out as a suspect."
"But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been the vehicle used to take Charlotte."
"...What do you mean?" Evan Yates’s heart skipped a beat, and the hair on his arms stood on end. "Preston, are you suspecting that the ’suspect’ car was just a decoy?"
Felix Preston: "It’s just a suspicion. We’ll have to let the police investigate to know for sure if it was a decoy."
"Right." Evan Yates nodded. "You should sleep first. You can go to the police station and follow up on this suspicion after you get some rest."
Felix Preston took a deep breath, then closed his eyes. "Wake me up in two hours."
Evan Yates: "No problem."
BUZZ—
BUZZ—
Felix Preston had just closed his eyes when Evan Yates’s phone suddenly, and inopportunely, started to vibrate.
"...Renee Sinclair?!" He stared at the name on the caller ID, his eyes wide with astonishment.
