Chapter 498: "There’s Another Little Girl in the Room.
Chapter 498: Chapter 498: "There’s Another Little Girl in the Room.
Renee’s gaze shifted slightly. She asked in a low voice, "Sir, why would you say that? What’s wrong with your daughter?"
Uncle Victor suddenly furrowed his brow and snapped, "None of your business!"
He shot Renee a wary glance before heading toward the building’s entrance with his groceries.
Uncle Victor buzzed himself in with his phone and went inside.
Renee and the other two followed him up the stairs.
Hearing footsteps, Uncle Victor glanced back and couldn’t help but quicken his pace up the stairs.
Renee followed him all the way up to the fifth floor without a break.
Uncle Victor walked up to the door of 503, unlocked it with his key, and said with a cheerful laugh, "I’m back with the groceries! How’s our daughter?"
Raleigh said in a low voice, "The landlord replied."
"What did they say?" Director Leto asked.
Renee also turned to look at him.
Raleigh slowly began, "Uncle Victor is forty-nine years old and has lived here for twenty-three years. He married late, around thirty, and had a daughter two years after that."
"When his daughter was four or five, Uncle Victor took her out shopping. While he was chatting with a shopkeeper, his daughter vanished. They think she was abducted by human traffickers."
"The landlord said that in the days after, when Uncle Victor couldn’t find his daughter, it was like he aged years overnight. His hair turned white, and his mental state deteriorated. He started seeing children on the street and claiming they were his daughter. The police were even called on him a few times."
Director Leto, who also had a daughter, couldn’t bear to hear such stories. His eyes grew misty. "Uncle Victor has really had a hard life."
’He couldn’t even imagine if something like that happened to his own daughter...’
Renee pressed her lips together, her heart filled with a complex mix of emotions.
’Human traffickers are truly vile, despicable creatures.’
Goldie also whimpered softly. "So that’s the story. Woof, I’ve seen the old man grab other young women before, calling them his daughter. I thought he was a bad person! I had no idea it was because his own daughter was stolen from him!"
Renee stroked its head and asked quietly, "Should we go knock on the door and check, then?"
Director Leto nodded. "We might as well."
Raleigh took the lead, walking to the door of 503 and knocking.
A voice called from inside, "Who is it?"
Raleigh replied in a mild tone, "Is Uncle Victor home? We’re looking for him."
There was a moment of silence, then the sound of the door opening.
A middle-aged woman stood in the doorway. She wore a plaid, long-sleeved shirt, and her hair was tied back in a messy, low ponytail. Seeing Raleigh and the strangers behind him, she asked, "Who are you?"
Raleigh presented his badge. "Police. We have a few questions for Uncle Victor."
The woman seemed completely accustomed to this. "Alright," she said calmly. "Please, come in."
Renee slipped on a pair of shoe covers and entered. The living room was small but tidy. An old wooden sofa set sat in the room, and on the coffee table, water glasses were arranged neatly next to a faded rainbow pinwheel and a hair clip.
From beside the sofa, the kitchen was visible. Uncle Victor stood there in an apron, chopping vegetables.
He glanced over at the sound of them entering, frowned for a moment, then went back to his chopping.
Next to the kitchen, a bedroom door was slightly ajar.
"Please, have a seat." The woman gestured for them to sit, then righted the overturned glasses on the table and went to boil some water.
"May I have your name, ma’am?" Director Leto asked.
The woman replied, "My surname is Conway."
Director Leto nodded. "Ms. Conway, besides you and Uncle Victor, is there anyone else in the apartment?"
"There’s a young girl in the bedroom," Ms. Conway answered truthfully, not attempting to hide anything.
Upon hearing this, Renee asked directly, "Is that the girl Uncle Victor brought back from Leondis Street two nights ago, in the early morning?"
Ms. Conway looked at Renee, a weary expression on her face. "Yes. Two nights ago, I was working overtime at the factory. He went out wandering, and when he came home, he was carrying a little girl who was soaking wet."
In the early hours of two nights ago, Ms. Conway had just finished showering and was sitting in the living room, waiting for Uncle Victor to return.
She waited for what felt like an eternity, growing anxious. Just as she decided to go out and look for him and opened the door, she saw Uncle Victor returning, carrying a girl who was drenched from head to toe. The sight made the color drain from her face.
"York, you... what... What is this?"
Uncle Victor laid the girl on the sofa and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, uncertain if it was sweat or water.
He turned to his wife, a wide smile breaking across his face. "Jane, I found our daughter!"
He pointed at the unconscious girl, his voice trembling with excitement. "Jane, look! I brought our daughter home! Aren’t you happy?"
Jane Conway looked from the girl on the sofa to her husband, her mouth opening and closing. She was torn between anger and tears.
She wanted to scold him for his foolishness, but seeing the pure joy on his face, she couldn’t bring herself to say a word of blame.
Uncle Victor urged her, "Our daughter is soaked. Hurry and get her into some dry clothes before she catches a cold."
Jane Conway nodded. "Carry her into the bedroom. I’ll get her changed. You need to get out of those wet clothes yourself."
Uncle Victor carried the girl to the bed in the bedroom, then rushed to the bathroom to change his clothes. Afterward, he began to pace anxiously in the living room.
’What can I do for my daughter?’ he thought.
After Jane Conway had changed the girl’s clothes, she opened the bedroom door to find Uncle Victor standing there, holding a basin of water.
"I brought some hot water for you to wash her with." Then he immediately corrected himself. "No, wait. Her hair’s wet. We need to dry her hair first."
He set down the basin and turned to find the hairdryer.
He didn’t normally use it, so he searched for a while without success. "The hairdryer? Jane, where’s your hairdryer? I want to dry our daughter’s hair."
Jane Conway handed him the hairdryer. Only after she had waited for him to finish drying the girl’s hair did she ask with a frown, "York, where... where did you find her?"
"In the river over by Leondis Street," Uncle Victor replied.
Jane’s frown deepened. "What do you mean? What was she doing in the river?"
Uncle Victor looked at her, his expression both blank and innocent. "She must have been desperate because she couldn’t find us, so she jumped in."
Jane Conway was speechless.
She sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the still-unconscious girl. "She jumped into the river," she said, worried. "Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?"
Uncle Victor’s brow furrowed as well, and he cried out anxiously, "Is our daughter sick? What are we going to do? I didn’t take good care of her! It’s all my fault, all my fault!"
His shouting gave Jane a headache. She quickly pulled out her phone and called emergency services. "Hello? Yes, my daughter... she was just pulled out of the river. What do I need to do?"
She followed the dispatcher’s instructions and administered first aid to the girl.
A short while later, Addie Sutton woke up. She murmured, weak and faint, "Am... am I dead?"
"Our daughter is awake! She’s awake!" Uncle Victor exclaimed, overjoyed.
Jane let out a sigh of relief, then began to hesitate over whether she should call the police.
"Honey, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" she asked. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"
Addie Sutton stared listlessly at the ceiling. After a long moment, she whispered, "I don’t want to go to the hospital."
"Okay." Jane nodded. "What about your family? I can give them a call for you."