盘.55%音。

Charles slowly lowered his hand. He thought, ‘If he is telling the truth, then where is Ivy? Ivy, where are you?‘

The room fell into a terrifying silence.

Suddenly, Andrew asked, “What about the cities near Kingtonelle?” His eyes were lowered, hiding the brief flicker of emotion before returning to their usual coldb, /bdistant look.

Realization struck Charles. He thought, ‘Right, the nearby cities. That amusement park is right on the outskirts of Kingtonelle.’

Donald shook all over as he racked his brain to remember. He stammeredb, /b“Well, we did go to

Riverdale once and picked up a bunch of kids there. The folks in charge told us to shuffle them through a few ces before making the sale.

“But honestly, I can’t remember where they all ended up. By the time we got to Magnolia Town, there

were only three or four little girls left.”

“How old were those girls?” Edward pressed.

Donald replied, “About three or four, I guess. There was this one little girl who wouldn’t stop crying, so we got fed up and just handed her over to some viger to be a child bride.”

Edward thought, ‘Three or four years old? That’s exactly the right age. Crying all the time? That’s gotta be Ivy. She was always the little princess, a total crybaby–we had to coax her for ages just to get a

smile.

‘How could they even think of selling her off as a child bride?”

Charles sucked in a sharp breath and demanded, “Tell me the time. Exactly when did it happen? And that family–where are they now?”

Donald replied, “From Riverdale to inville, then here, it must’ve been around mid–October, if I remember right.”

Charles was on the verge of blosing /bit, his voice raw with desperation as he demanded, “Where is that little girl now?”

Donald was btoo /bscared to say a word.

That little girl was sold to the family, and for more than a year she endured nothing but abuse- beaten and screamed atb, /bher body a mass of bruises.

08:29 Tue, 9 Sept

自b号/b65%音

When the traffickers passed by, they could hear her being cursed and beaten, the sounds echoing

from within.

Then one night, something inside the girl snapped. While the family slept, she set the house on fire. The whole family died in the ze.

The mes swept through the entire vige; every able hand turned out to fight them. A few of the other trafficked girls slipped away in the chaos; the rest were not so lucky and perished with the

vige.

Donald didn’t dare say any of that out loud.

Charles hadpletely lost it. He grabbed Donald by the cor, his eyes bloodshot with fury. He demanded, “Speak up.”

This was the closest Charles had ever gotten to Ivy.

Donald stammered, “That family was consumed by the fire. I have no idea if that little girl made it out,

or bif /bshe died in there too.”

Before he could finish, Edward kicked him to the ground.

Once again, the trail had gone cold.

Charles just stood there, totally spaced out, his mind feeling hollow and empty.

For more than ten years, they’d been searching for Ivy all over the ce. But every single time, it failed. When things bgot /bcrazy, they even went to a fortune teller for answers.

The fortune teller said Ivy’s luck was a mix of fortune and misfortune. He said that Ivy was still alive, but living on the edge–every day bwas /bba /bgamble with fate.

That was why Charles never stopped believing that Ivy was still alive out there somewhere.

But today, yet again, the trail had gone cold.

Charles’s eyes dimmed as he forced a bitter smile that never touched his eyes. He said, “The trail’s gone cold again.”

Andrew knew all about the Summers family’s search for lvy. He knew how much Charles and others. had been through over the byears/b, and just how much Ivy meant to Charles.

He put a hand on Charles’s shoulder and bsaid/b, “We’ll find her.”

Edward looked downcast for a moment, but quickly regained hisposure. He shot a cold look at

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9 bSept /b

Richard and said coldly, “Richard, you know what needs to be done here.”