CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 56: MOM, DAISY MISSES YOU SO MUCH

Veridia City Traffic Command Center.

The surveillance footage of Daisy’s disappearance was meticulously reviewed frame by frame by the staff.

The large display screen was divided into many small squares.

Aiden Grant, along with the staff, was watching the footage without blinking.

"Stop for a moment."

When he saw a small figure walking while wiping tears, Aiden’s heart was fiercely pierced.

"Rewind, replay it."

The leader of the Transportation Bureau quickly instructed a subordinate, "Zoom in, President Grant, is it this little girl?"

The zoomed-in footage showed Daisy dressed in a blue Princess Elsa nightgown.

Her tiny feet were completely bare.

She walked while wiping her tears.

Aiden’s heart was breaking.

However, as the footage continued, Daisy walked into a surveillance blind spot, and her small figure could no longer be seen.

The leader of the Transportation Bureau promptly instructed, "Focus on a three-kilometer radius from this surveillance point."

Aiden Grant: "Thank you!"

Julian Fletcher beside him didn’t know what to say.

Yesterday, when Aiden talked about sending Daisy abroad, his eyes were bright.

Now, the light in his eyes had disappeared.

Julian Fletcher asked, "Aiden, what should we do? Should we tell Tiana?"

Lily Roland was very guilty, "If Tiana knew, she would definitely be worried. No mother could bear their child being lost like this. It’s all my fault, I didn’t take good care of the child. I should have slept with her."

Julian Fletcher looked at Aiden, "Aiden, tell Tiana, she is the child’s mother, she has the right to know."

Aiden felt guilty about losing the child.

But he also resented Tiana.

Since Tiana had already given up on Daisy, "No need to tell her."

...

Kaneport.

Tiana Linden’s last acupuncture session was finally over.

Today’s pain was still quite intense.

She gritted her teeth and endured it.

Because she promised Ms. Hayes to video call Daisy at noon today.

For some reason, a particularly uneasy feeling brewed in her heart.

Leo Sutton, seeing her forehead covered in sweat, handed her a towel, "Rest for a while."

"I want to video call Daisy." Tiana took the towel.

After drying the sweat on her face, she tidied her hair and clothes.

She wanted to look spirited in front of Daisy.

"Leo, give me my phone."

Leo Sutton persuaded her, "You should rest for a while first. Daisy will feel bad seeing you so weak."

Tiana, with an urgent heart, wished she could fly back to Veridia right now.

She wanted to immediately return to Daisy’s side and hold her tightly.

She smiled slightly, "It’s okay, today is much better than the past two days."

Maybe it was because of the acupuncture, her complexion was more flushed than the previous days.

She had much more strength in her body as well.

Leo Sutton, knowing her urgent desire, had to hand her the phone.

Before making the video call, Tiana sent a WeChat message, asking: Ms. Hayes, are you free now? I’d like to see Daisy.

Ms. Hayes: Daisy’s Mom, Daisy took the day off today.

Tiana suddenly had a bad premonition: personal leave or sick leave?

Ms. Hayes: Daisy’s adoptive parents just said she needed to take a leave today, nothing else. I texted them to ask if Daisy was sick, but they didn’t reply to me.

The ominous feeling grew heavier, like a stone pressing on Tiana’s chest.

She immediately called Daisy’s adoptive mother, Lily Roland.

...

Veridia City Traffic Command Center.

The incoming call on the mobile phone made Lily Roland nervous.

"Julian, what should I do? Tiana is calling."

Julian Fletcher didn’t know what to do either.

He looked at Aiden, "Aiden, why not tell Tiana the truth?"

Aiden frowned, thinking.

Tiana was unwilling to let him adopt Daisy in the first place.

If she found out Daisy went missing under his care, he would have no chance of gaining custody of Daisy.

Lily Roland, seemingly shaking as she held the phone, feeling guilty and flustered, "Aiden, what should I do? Tiana is calling again."

Aiden calmly said, "Tell Tiana that it’s your grandmother’s eightieth birthday, and you and Julian took Daisy to the celebration."

Lily Roland nervously asked, "What if she wants to video call Daisy?"

Aiden: "Say the signal is bad and hang up."

Lily Roland pondered and cautiously pressed the answer button.

On the other end, Tiana was a bit anxious, "Lily, didn’t Daisy go to school today? I finished my work and will return to Veridia today."

"Oh... well, Tiana, it’s my grandmother’s eightieth birthday today, so I took Daisy to the celebration, and we didn’t go to school."

"I want to see Daisy, let’s video call."

"Wait a bit, Tiana, call again in the evening, the signal here isn’t very good."

"Let me just say a few words to Daisy then."

"Oh, um... hold on a sec..."

Feeling guilty and remorseful, Lily Roland didn’t want to deceive Tiana like this.

On the phone, Tiana’s worried and anxious voice came, "Lily, let Daisy answer the phone. Why isn’t she speaking? Did something happen?"

Aiden: "Hang up."

Lily Roland burst into tears with guilt.

Not only did she not hang up, but she also cried out, "Tiana, I’m sorry, Daisy, she..."

"What happened to Daisy?"

Tiana’s face turned pale and weak.

Her heart tightened suddenly, jumping into her throat.

A massive sense of unease and panic, like an overwhelming tide, consumed most of her strength.

In worry, she hurriedly asked, "What happened to Daisy? Speak up, Lily, talk."

Lily Roland cried, "Tiana, I’m sorry, Daisy... I lost her."

Traffic Command Center, Surveillance Dispatch Hall.

The atmosphere was incredibly tense.

...

Equally tense was Vivian Linden and her mother Sharon Sullivan.

Sharon looked at Vivian sitting opposite her, urgently saying, "Did you hear, Vivian? A great opportunity. We wanted that little girl dead, and it turns out she’s unlucky, she ran out and got lost on her own."

Vivian Linden’s eyes were somewhat dim, "Daisy is still so young, what if something happens to her?"

Sharon Sullivan slapped her, "Why are you sympathetic? It’d be good if she died. If Aiden keeps this dead girl, he’ll eventually find out Daisy is his biological daughter."

Vivian knew all this well.

She just thought Daisy was somewhat pitiful.

Sharon Sullivan stirred her coffee and said thoughtfully, "We can’t let Aiden and Daisy continue to be together. This little girl must die. Otherwise, Aiden will unravel the truth, and we’ll all be exposed. At that time, even the truth about your real parentage will come out; we cannot let James Linden know you aren’t his daughter."

Thinking of something, Sharon forcefully placed the coffee cup on the table.

"Vivian, do everything you can to find Daisy before Aiden. Then, swipe..."

After speaking, Sharon made a slashing gesture across her neck.

The gesture frightened Vivian, turning her complexion ashen.

With a loud crash, the cup in her hand shattered on the ground.

"Vivian, what are you afraid of?"

"Mom, Daisy is just a child. Selling her to the mountains suffices, why does she have to die? She’s innocent."

"Innocent? Your sister was also innocent back then. But she died horribly."

Seeing the hatred in Sharon’s eyes, Vivian dared not speak again.

Putting away her animosity, Sharon warned, "Vivian Linden, you should know, what kind of grave consequences the plan’s failure would bring."

...

Five hours later.

Tiana Linden and Leo Sutton arrived in Veridia.

The sky was completely dark.

Tiana headed directly to the surveillance hall of the Traffic Command Center as fast as she could, without stopping.

Seeing her gasping for breath, Lily Roland cried with a hoarse voice.

"Tiana, I’m sorry, I didn’t take care of Daisy."

"How did Daisy go missing?"

Tiana Linden couldn’t believe it. How could Daisy possibly go missing?

Guilt-ridden and self-blaming, Lily Roland knelt directly in front of Tiana Linden, "Tiana, I will definitely find Daisy for you. If I can’t find her, I’ll pay with my life."

"I’m asking you, how exactly did Daisy go missing?" Tiana Linden had no reason to blame Lily Roland.

Lily Roland was her high school classmate.

She understood Lily Roland.

Back then, she would even take good care of stray animals on the roadside.

She would certainly take good care of Daisy too.

Intuition told Tiana Linden that there must be another reason.

She helped Lily Roland up, "Get up first, Julian, help your wife up."

Leo Sutton, standing beside them, reminded Tiana Linden, "Tiana."

Tiana Linden lifted her eyes and followed Leo Sutton’s gaze, seeing Aiden Grant, exhausted and filled with guilt.

Aiden Grant came to the crowd and said, "Don’t blame the couple. The responsibility lies with me for Daisy’s disappearance."

It must have been last night when Daisy secretly overheard that he was going to send her abroad.

So Daisy climbed over the courtyard wall overnight.

The small body fell from the wall, got hurt, but limping, she still wanted to escape.

One should be responsible for their actions.

Aiden Grant briefly told Tiana Linden his assumptions.

Listening to it, Tiana Linden trembled all over.

She swung her hand and slapped Aiden Grant’s face hard.

One slap wasn’t enough.

She grabbed his collar again.

She hit, scratched, yelled, and screamed.

"Aiden Grant, why won’t you leave Daisy and me alone?"

"I clearly begged you to stop interfering in Daisy and my affairs, why do you insist on meddling?"

Aiden Grant, being shaken madly by her like a puppet, remained motionless, allowing her to vent her anger.

Leo Sutton was worried she might hurt herself out of overly intense emotions.

He pulled her arm and brought her to his side, "Tiana, let’s find Daisy first."

"Daisy’s disappearance is my responsibility," Aiden Grant admitted, acknowledging his fault.

But what about Tiana Linden?

He looked at Leo Sutton and Tiana Linden with a tight brow.

"Where were you when Daisy went missing?"

His eyes fell on Leo Sutton, and Aiden Grant’s neck muscles bulged with anger, "You were having an affair with this man out of town, Tiana Linden, do you really think you bear no responsibility?"

He was utterly disappointed in Tiana Linden.

Originally, out of past affection, he always wanted to pull her away from her mistakes back to shore.

He wanted her to turn back, be a good mother, and live a good life.

"Tiana Linden, you’re not fit to be a mom!"

That cold voice carried a lot of disappointment.

To Tiana Linden’s ears, it was all humiliation.

She raised her hand, but before it landed on Aiden Grant’s face, he caught it.

"Tiana Linden, stop going crazy here."

The slender arm in his hand was harshly flung away by him.

Behind her, Leo Sutton quickly supported Tiana Linden, "Aiden Grant, don’t go too far. Tiana and I are innocent."

With a dark face, Aiden Grant said coldly, "Whether you’re innocent or not doesn’t matter, what matters is finding Daisy."

In fact, looking at Leo Sutton supporting Tiana Linden, Aiden Grant was consumed with jealousy.

The madness and anger were suppressed by him.

He forced himself to calm down, and as he strode away, he methodically plunged into the busy search for Daisy.

Leo Sutton also started searching for Daisy with Tiana Linden.

Joining them was pregnant Kiera Chaucer, along with helpers called by the couple.

At ten in the evening.

Daisy limped on a deserted path.

She was tired, hungry, thirsty, and scared.

Seeing a discarded water bottle on the ground, she picked it up.

She unscrewed the cap and drank the remaining water clean.

The bottle was empty, she shook it and disappointedly threw it back on the ground.

Looking around, it was dark and eerie.

Mom, where exactly are you?

Mom, Daisy really misses you.

Boo hoo hoo...

Tears filled her big eyes, but Daisy didn’t cry.

Mom had said, Daisy must be strong.

The more scared she was, the more she needed to be brave.

"Caw! Caw Caw!"

Several large birds suddenly flew overhead.

Daisy didn’t know that those incessantly cawing large birds were actually crows.

In the pitch-black night, the ceaseless sound frightened her so much she hugged herself tightly.

The small figure curled into a ball.

But she didn’t forget to keep moving forward.

She wanted to go home; she wanted to see her mom. Once she found home, she could wait for mom to return.

Daisy didn’t know she had wandered into a cemetery beyond the suburbs.

Seeing the headstones, with black and white photographs lit by moonlight, Daisy realized this must be where the dead lived.

How terrifying!

Still, her tears didn’t fall.

Daisy bit her lip and bravely stepped forward.

The lady in the photograph looked so young, was it because like mom she got sick and passed at such a blossoming age?

She knelt in front of the headstone and bowed several times.

Then pitifully asked, "Ma’am, can I ask you, has my mom already died and turned into a star in the sky?"

Otherwise, how could mom not come back for so long?

A chill wind blew by, causing Daisy to shiver.

"Ma’am, can you hear me?"

"Mom said the deceased become stars, could you please tell mom that Daisy misses her very much, so much..."

Boo hoo hoo, Daisy couldn’t hold back anymore and cried into a puddle of tears.

...

Recent update, surveillance showed Daisy appeared under a bridge in the suburbs.

Aiden Grant, Tiana Linden, Leo Sutton, Julian Fletcher, Lily Roland, and others hurried over one after another.

Everyone acted separately, but no one found Daisy’s whereabouts.

The people searching for Daisy had created a chat group.

If there’s any news of Daisy from the traffic control center’s surveillance hall, it’ll be immediately notified in the group.

The group was filled with several hundred people.

It was already midnight.

Tiana Linden hadn’t stopped.

Leo Sutton advised her beside him, "Tiana, take a break, your body can’t take it."

"No way." Tiana Linden seemed to have endless energy at this moment.

Sickness and fatigue couldn’t defeat her.

Thinking of Daisy still waiting for her, she had more strength than anyone else.

"Daisy is still waiting for me!"

Her Daisy was just five years old.

It was so dark, Daisy baby must be very scared.

What if she encountered danger, met bad people, what then?

"Leo, you go back and take care of Kiera, don’t worry about me."

"No way, Kiera gave strict orders that I must take good care of you."

Tiana Linden felt she owed Kiera too much, but right now she had no time to think about anything else.

She just wanted to find Daisy.

...

Suburban cemetery.

A beam of a flashlight swept from afar, floating steadily onto little Daisy’s body, "Found her, found her, over there."

"Shh, keep your voice down, afraid others might hear?"