Chapter 184

For the first time, Cecilia felt as if the sky had fallen. The sand chafed her legs painfully, and it seemed as though a knife had been plunged into her chest. Not touching it hurt, and touching it hurt even more. Alston was also in shock. The kidnapping of Gladys was something he learned about hastily, and he hadn’t prepared at all for the ransom. When he heard the words "tear the ticket," his heart constricted suddenly. His phone was broken, and instinctively, he wanted to ask Cecilia for her phone to contact Caleb. As he lowered his head, he saw Cecilia kneeling on the beach facing the sea. All the noise seemed to fade away, leaving only her, desolate, as if her soul had been sucked out, leaving just a shell. His throat tightened, and he surprisingly felt Cecilia's despair, so much so that he felt it himself, making his heart twinge with a pain akin to being pricked by needles. His silence lasted only a moment. The car was parked too far away, and the kidnappers had already left. To