Chapter 548 Kidnap
“Yeah! Where’s Sophia?” Clayton looked around the vicinity to search for Sophia, but there was no sight of her anywhere.
“Where did she go?” Franklin asked, panic in his voice, “Could an accident have happened to her?”
“We can’t be twiddling our thumbs here like idiots. The temperature will drop even further when night falls.” Xavian said gravely, “Sophia might not survive the night with only a ski suit and without food.”
The boys immediately reported her disappearance to their teacher.
The teacher was stunned to hear Sophia from the Bowers family was missing. Feeling nervous, the teacher instantly contacted the ski resort worker and launched a search and rescue.
Worried about Sophia’s safety, Xavian, Franklin, and Clayton joined the search party and decided to split up, hoping they could cover more grounds and find her soon.
The temperature at the ski area dropped tremendously as the sun set, taking its warm glow with it. Panic and dread began to set in when the boys still couldn’t find Sophia. Thus, they started yelling as they searched, wishing she would call out.
“Sophia, where are you?”
“Sophia, stop playing tricks and come out. Call out if you can hear my voice.”
“Sophia, come out!”
Only the boys’ voices echoed against the snow-covered ground of the ski area.
Suddenly, Franklin tripped on something hard, lost his balance, faceplanted into the snow.
When he looked over his shoulder at the object, it turned out to be Sophia’s precious tumbler. She had promised Natalie to fill it with snow and show it to the latter.
The boys had even suggested holding the tumbler for her earlier, but she insisted to hold onto it.
Sophia won’t just leave the tumbler here under normal circumstances. Something must have happened to her.
“Xavian, Clayton, come over here quick. Come look at this!”
Franklin shouted for Xavian and Clayton. The two quickly raced to his side. When they spotted the tumbler in his hand, their expressions turned grim.
Finally, they knew that Sophia’s disappearance wasn’t because she got lost. Something must have happened to her.
Xavian took out his phone from his pocket and gave Natalie a call.
His call was picked up almost instantly. Natalie’s gentle voice sounded from the phone.
“Xavian, are you guys done skiing?” Natalie chuckled, “You guys must be freezing from the cold. I had Gavin prepare some steaks, so let’s have steaks tonight-”
“Mommy, something bad happened.” Xavian interrupted Natalie urgently.
“What happened?” Natalie asked somberly, the joy in her tone gone.
“Sophia is missing.” Panic laced his voice. “She was skiing with us earlier, but we couldn’t find her when it was time to gather. Franklin, Clayton, and I had searched for her for a long while, but we still couldn’t find her. We suspected that she didn’t get lost, but was kidnapped, instead.”
Natalie could feel her stomach dropped at Xavian’s speculation.
She knew Xavian and Clayton were mature and responsible children. They wouldn’t make any wild guesses before they were sure.
“Mommy, what should we do?” Xavian felt a wave of acid well up in his belly from feeling anxious. He was merely a five-year-old and felt helpless in such a situation.
“Did you manage to see any clue?”
Xavian shook his head and answered, “Mommy, we didn’t even get a look at the bad guy. We had no idea who had taken her nor her situation at the moment.”
Natalie’s heart raced, feeling a sense of dread creeping up on her.
Yet, she forced herself to remain calm.
“Sophia will be fine.” She paused to inhale a deep breath. “If someone had kidnapped Sophia, the kidnapper’s target would be either me or Samuel. “Listen to me carefully. I want you to stop searching for Sophia and go back to the assembly point. Listen to your teacher and take care of your own safety. Can you do that?
“Sophia has already fallen into the kidnapper’s hands. We can’t risk another one of you falling into their hands. The situation will be too disadvantageous to us.”
