The fog of mystery around Charlotte’s disappearance only seemed to thicken.
When Zachary finally arrived at Coldbridge with a palpitating heart, he ended up with the same findings. Having lost his calm, he ran around like a maniac and went to every location he could possibly think of to search for Charlotte.
In the unrelenting storm, Zachary sprinted down the streets yelling Charlotte’s name.
His clothes were completely drenched, his voice turned raspy, and his eyes were bloodshot.
As he stared at the wrecked ambulance with an unmistakable pool of blood in front of it and the tainted shreds of Charlotte’s bridal gown, he felt his heart being torn into pieces.
He could not forgive himself for putting Charlotte in harm’s way and letting Henry send her off to a foreign country.
Nor could he accept that he failed to rescue her in time.
Dark thoughts invaded Zachary’s mind. What if she was tortured and has already died? What if…
It pained him just thinking those thoughts.
With his brows furrowing deeper, he swept his eyes around him in panic. He had never felt so helpless and afraid in his life.
What if she’s really dead?
What am I supposed to do then?
What am I supposed to do?
Zachary was on edge. “Charlotte! Where are you? Can you please come out? I don’t want to play this game of hide-and-seek anymore! Come out! Come out!” His raspy cries were lost in the raging storm.
“Robbie, Jamie, and Ellie are all waiting for you to come home! They’ve been missing you every single day… I promised them that I’d bring you home! You can’t do this to me! Charlotte, Charlotte! Come out… I’m begging you…”
Out of sheer terror and fear, his voice grew softer, and he eventually trailed off.
Tears trickled down his cheeks as he looked down at the dirt below in devastation. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” he murmured those words incessantly.
In a dark corner some distance away, Henry watched on as his grandson cried in the rain.
He had never considered his actions as immoral or wrong. On the contrary, he had even strongly believed that his plans would help reduce the damage to both Charlotte and his grandson. Never did he imagine that Charlotte would get attacked, nor did he consider the possibility of his grandson and great-grandchildren being emotionally scarred by her death.
“Mr. Nacht, don’t be too hard on yourself,” Spencer tried to comfort him. “Nobody knew that this would happen.”
“Who is it? Who did it?” Henry slammed his hand hard against the handles of his wheelchair. “Have you found out who’s behind this? Zara is involved, isn’t she?”
“I have done a preliminary check. Ms. Zara is still in E Nation. Our people and Mr. Zachary’s subordinates have had their eyes on her for a while now to prevent her from harming Ms. Windt, but she has not taken any form of action,” Spencer replied.
“If not her, then who is it?” Henry furrowed his brows. “Who else knows about the antidote?”
“That’s the part I can’t wrap my head around too…” Spencer sighed. “Let’s take our time to figure this out. Our top priority now is to find Ms. Windt. Otherwise, Mr. Zachary would hold a grudge against you for life.”
“That’s right.” Henry nodded. “Inform everyone in our search teams and get them to concentrate on finding Charlotte. We have to bring her back, dead or alive!”
“Understood!”
…
The Nacht family exhausted much of their human and financial resources in the search for Charlotte.
However, Coldbridge was an underdeveloped town with no surveillance cameras on the streets. Without surveillance footage, it was almost impossible to figure out what happened to Charlotte that day.
The group of police officers and medical staff who had gone to the scene back then recounted that Mrs. Berry had died from a gunshot, and Charlotte was suffering from severe mental trauma even though she was not seriously injured.
However, they could not provide any information about the actual assault since they left the scene shortly after.
The only witness they had, Arthit, ultimately survived despite getting shot. Unfortunately, the bullet had caused permanent damage to his brain, resulting in him becoming mentally disabled and losing his memories of the incident.
The locations where Charlotte last appeared were all cordoned off and preserved. From the evidence found at the house that Charlotte stayed at with Mrs. Berry, the investigation team deduced that the assailant was not after money because everything was intact other than the broken bottle of antidote.
That narrowed down the list of suspects to the few who knew about the existence of an antidote for Charlotte.
Zachary immediately put Zara at the top of the list of suspects and did all he could to force an answer out of her. He even interrogated her personally.
However, Zara denied all offenses and even told him her alibi.
Of course, Zachary would not let her off that easily. He began oppressing her company and businesses openly while continuing his desperate search for Charlotte.
