Chapter 123: Ch 123 - Where Is My Daughter?
When Vivian saw Alex and her daughter Monica returning, it was clear to her that they were now friends. She was surprised, and although she couldn't work out how it had happened, she felt very happy.
Alex left Monica with Vivian and went away.
**
The next three days passed by as usual. Ken Stokes still hadn't heard anything useful about Debbie.
Alex went to Ramsey Lake every day and sat on the rock where he and Debbie had once eaten seafood risotto together. He looked at the lake in a daze.
**
With Debbie still missing, her classmates at Preston University graduated without her. Alex watched them dragging their luggage behind them as they left the school for the final time. As they celebrated their successes and praised each other on their grades, Alex's pain deepened.
One particular day, he was sitting on the rock staring blankly at the lake when Vivian called.
She asked, "Alex, are you busy right now? If you're not, can you do me a favor?"
"I'm not busy. What is it?" Alex answered. In the background, he could hear Monica crying.
"I wondered if you could help me by taking Monica out to play today. I was hoping to take her myself, but the man who is taking over the bar called me unexpectedly, saying he needs to discuss the details with me this morning. I tried to explain it to Monica, but she refused to listen," Vivian said worriedly.
"No problem, I'll come to your place now. Then you'll be free to do what you need to do," Alex said. He ended the call and stood up to leave.
He felt a bit worried about Monica after hearing her anguished crying over the phone.
As he left the university campus, he stood at the intersection to find a cab. He suddenly felt that something was wrong behind him, but when he turned around to take a look, he couldn't see anything unusual.
He shook his head doubtfully as a cab pulled up next to him. He climbed in and headed to Vivian's home.
When he arrived, Vivian thanked him profusely. She asked him to take Monica to the amusement park and then to the Sunrise Special Education School, where she could play with the other children.
"Why there?" Alex asked. He was happy to take Monica to the amusement park, but he couldn't understand why she wanted him to take her to a special school. He assumed the other children there would also have learning disabilities.
Vivian replied, "Because there, Monica is equal to the others. No one will look at her with discrimination, pity, or mockery. She can feel normal there." She looked sad.
In the past, she had taken Monica to many different places, but when people saw that Monica was lacking in intelligence, they always looked at her with pity.
I understand, Alex thought. He always looked at Monica with pity too.
They spoke for a few minutes, then Alex and Monica left. They took a cab and went to the city's amusement park.
The amusement park had all kinds of fun rides and other attractions. Together, they went on the pirate ships, tried the sledgehammers, and rode the carousels. They spent several happy hours at the park, and Monica spent the whole time laughing and cheering. Alex was filled with joy when he looked at her gleeful face.
After eating lunch, then resting in the shade for an hour, they made their way to the Sunrise Special Education School.
It was a private school and was worlds apart from the city primary school. It was not run for profit, but purely to help these children with learning disabilities.
Alex took Monica to the school field.
He watched the other children as they approached. Their ages ranged from about six to sixteen, but all were behaving as if they were much younger. As soon as Monica arrived at the sports field, she broke away from Alex and ran toward a group of children. It was obvious that she had been there many times before.
She went over to a small group of kids, and they started chatting like old friends. They seemed like normal adolescents from a distance, but the content of their conversation was more typical of much younger children.
Monica was saying to her friends, "My mom is always too busy to bring me here. She's busy doing thousand-dollar business deals. Otherwise, I would have flown over on a big plane to see you guys a long time ago."
"Big plane? What are you bragging about? That's nothing. I came by steamer the last time. Your family is so much worse off than mine. At most, you can drive a Rolls-Royce—" bragged one of the boys.
Another said, "Monica, my family has just moved to the Himalayas. When I have time, I'll invite you to my house to be a guest, and you can eat tiger meat."
Monica seemed so natural and relaxed. Alex had never seen her looking so comfortable.
He felt a tinge of sadness for her.
Twenty minutes later, he heard a scream and a boy's voice shouting, "Don't run, you stinky Monica. I'll beat you to death." When Alex looked around, he saw that Monica was running toward him as fast as she could. She hid behind him and gasped for breath as she looked at the boy who was chasing her. The boy saw that she was hiding behind Alex and stopped running.
Alex was afraid that she had been hurt, so he quickly pulled her to him and checked her body nervously, asking, "What did he do to you? Let me see. It's okay," he said softly, as he gently hugged her.
Monica let out a soft moan, which surprised him. He rolled up her sleeves and then looked at her waist. There was a purplish-red bruise on it.
Alex got angry when he saw it. He was about to grab the boy who had been chasing her.
"Alex, where are you going?" Monica asked as she rubbed the bruise.
"He was the one who beat you up, so I'm going to get him to apologize," he replied.
"Oh," Monica said, then she paused for a moment before laughing out loud. "But he wasn't the one who hit me."
Alex stopped and walked back over to her. "Who hit you then?"
"Um—" Monica suddenly felt at a loss. She lowered her head and a few seconds later, two tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Monica, don't cry. It's all right—" Seeing her like this, his heart sank. He held her and tried to comfort her, "Monica, tell me who hit you. I promise I can sort it out."
Her eyes and nose were red, and she looked pitiful. Looking into his eyes, she felt warm inside.
"I don't know who they are. These men sometimes come to our house at night. They hug mom for ages, and it makes me really scared, so last time I hit the man. But he hit me back, and then he hit mom and dragged her into her bedroom and locked the door so I couldn't get in. I heard mom shouting inside, and I was so scared—" When Monica remembered what had happened, she was so frightened that more tears streamed down her cheeks, and her chest heaved up and down. She pulled up her sleeves and the legs of her shorts. "And here, and here. This is where they hit me."
On Monica's snow-white skin, Alex could see lots of scars and bruises. He was horrified.
"Does your mom have bruises too?" he asked as he helped her to straighten her clothes.
"Yes, she's got more than me. And she cries every night."
"Do you remember what this man looked like?" His heart was filled with anger.
"It's a different man every time. I can't remember them all. That's why I was so scared when you came to the house the first time. I thought you wanted to hit mom and drag her into the bedroom. That's why I hit you—"
"It's all right, I understand. I'm not going to let anyone bully you anymore." He said, and he patted her head as he began to think about how he could protect this girl and her mother.
"Alex, let me go. I want to apologize to my friend. We were just playing a game. I shouldn't have pretended that I was so scared." Monica recovered her composure. She smiled at Alex and ran toward the little boy.
Watching her holding the boy's hand and apologizing, Alex became lost in thought. Vivian seemed so bright and confident that he was shocked to find out about what she was going through.
Then he heard a cheerful voice. He looked up and saw Vivian smiling at him, "I'm done with my work, so I've come to meet you both. Thank you so much for today," she said.
"It was a pleasure," he replied. He looked at her with increased respect.
"Where's Monica?" she asked as she looked around the field.
"Playing with the kids over there—" he replied, pointing toward the location where he'd just seen Monica with her friend. His voice stopped abruptly as he saw that she had vanished. He looked around the field, but he couldn't see her anywhere. He quickly stood up and ran toward the little boy who she had been playing with.
He grabbed the boy's shoulder and asked him anxiously, "Where's Monica?"
"Her father just came and collected her," the little boy said with a relaxed smile.
Alex looked anxiously at Vivian and saw that she was on the verge of tears. She was mumbling to herself, "Who would pretend to be her father—"
"When was this?" he asked the little boy again, but the boy was struggling to explain himself properly.
"Don't be afraid. Come on, follow me," he said to Vivian, trying to console her. They went to the school's CCTV control room and asked the security guard to playback the film of Monica being carried away.
On the screen, they could see two middle-aged men waving to her from the school's side gate. One of them was waving a candy bar at Monica, and when she saw this, she happily ran over to them. When she reached the gate, the other man quickly grabbed her and covered her mouth. Then two men ran off with her in their arms.
"I'm so sorry," Alex said to Vivian. At that moment, he hated himself.
Vivian couldn't hide her grief as she howled, "Shut up. You being sorry isn't helping anything. I only want my daughter back." Tears were streaming from her eyes.
"You call the police right now. I'm going to find her and get her back," Alex said. His gaze sharpened as he ran outside. Vivian called the police, then ran out of the school behind Alex.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone