After getting rebuffed, Ashton looked away and smiled wryly. “I know the answer. It is no surprise to me.”
I smirked. “Who do you think I will pick?”
“I know you won’t pick me.” Ashton shrugged as disappointment flashed across his face. “But Scarlett, you’ll be my only choice no matter what.”
It seemed like he was joking, so I didn’t know how to react.
Without waiting for my response, he climbed out of the window deftly. “See you tomorrow.”
He then jumped and disappeared into the night.
I went to the window and looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. I waited a while longer before closing the windows.
The next morning, I woke up early.
Eager to see my son, I dressed up for the occasion.
After breakfast, Marcus brought me out.
I thought it was going to be a long ride, but ten minutes after we entered the city, our car came to a stop.
Marcus opened the door and left, so I hurriedly followed him. We entered a shop selling watches and clocks.
The shop had an old signboard hanging above the entrance. There were twelve clocks, each showing different time zones, on display.
We walked past the counter, where an elderly gentleman was examining an old watch using professional equipment carefully. He didn’t seem surprised at our arrival.
Marcus ignored the elderly man and went into the inner space. As he took long strides, I had to dash to catch up to him.
After taking a few turns in the house full of clocks, we finally arrived in a vast room. Bottles of red wine were lined up on both sides of the walls, and there was a velvet couch in the middle of the room.
Marcus went to the wine cabinet and took out one bottle of wine. After a momentary silence, the wall right in front of me move aside and revealed a door behind it.
My lips parted in surprise when I realized the red wine wasn’t a decoration but the key to the hidden door.
There were two wine racks and hundreds of bottles of red wine. It would take hundreds of attempts for someone to get the right key. Besides, no one would pay attention to the red wine as there were too many bottles of them.
“Come with me.” I was still in a daze when Marcus stepped into the secret space. I scurried after him at once while peeking at the wine bottle he picked up earlier.
I couldn’t remember which bottle exactly that Marcus picked up as he was too fast, but I forced myself to remember the direction. If I were to come here again, at least I wouldn’t be wandering around cluelessly.
I thought I would see my son as soon as I entered, but an underground factory appeared in my sight instead.
We were on the second floor, and below us was an assembly line. There were workers dressed in silver protective suits handling unknown bottles on the conveyor belt. I was too far to see what was inside the bottles.
“This way.”
Marcus’ voice snapped me out of my train of thoughts. I was still curious, but I followed behind him nonetheless.
Finally, after making a few turns, I heard a child wailing in the distance.
Just when I was about to get excited, something occurred to me.
I could hear children, plural, wailing.
The nearer we got, the more I was sure that there was more than one child here.
Indeed, when Marcus pushed the door open, I was greeted by the sight of over a dozen incubators.
Inside the incubators were newborn babies wailing at the top of their lungs as their mothers weren’t with them. It was a chaotic but heart-wrenching sight.
I immediately rushed in to find my son. Alas, after circling the room, I realized he wasn’t there.
Standing amidst the incubators, I demanded, “What is this?”
