Filed to story: The Regretful Billionaire: An Unpredicted Reunion
“If you don’t have what it takes, then just give up.Put the phone back where you found it, and I’ll get it myself,”
Danika hissed.
The man chewed on his lip, somewhat scared.It was his first time finding a lost phone, after all.
He also knew very well that blackmail wasn’t lawful.
But this person wouldn’t call the cops on him just for a few hundred bucks, right? He wasn’t happy with Danika’s attitude, though.
“Hey! Keep that up, and I’ll toss it into the river right now!”
“Are you sure you’re ready to deal with the consequences?”
“So, it’s my fault I recovered a lost phone, then?” the man huffed.
Danika scoffed again.
“If you meant well, you would’ve given it back to its owner without charge or handed it over to the police.If you think that’s not worth doing, then just leave the phone where you found it so the owner can trace their steps to recover it.”
A couple hundred dollars was nothing to Danika, but she refused to let the man get his way.
If he hadn’t picked the phone up, Stephanie still might’ve recovered it if she traced her steps back to where she’d been.
No way would she tolerate a stranger who immediately demanded money as payment for recovering the phone.
The man didn’t feel like putting up with his act any longer.
“You can find it yourself then.”
He then hung up and plopped the phone behind some random bushes.
Now he’d be out of trouble, right? Danika then used her PC to track the phone’s location.She’d already installed software on Stephanie’s phone just in case something happened to her, so she could easily track the phone’s location down.
On the drive to recover the phone, Danika called Stephanie’s father, who told her his daughter would most likely be at work.
So, Danika decided to go find her friend at the office.
She soon found Stephanie’s phone and was about to head to her office when the phone suddenly rang.
It was a stranger’s number, with nothing except an ‘M’ on the caller ID. Danika curiously answered the call.
Can You Stop?
“What do I have to do for you to forgive me, Stephanie?!”
A man yelled from the other end of the call, much to Danika’s surprise.She instantly recognized it to be Paul Wagner, currently pissed off, it seemed.
“Why should Steph forgive you? You can’t expect a simple ‘sorry’ to make up for all the wrongs that you did, Paul Wagner,”
Danika replied, hackles rising.
Compared to Paul, Eustace was a saint.
“Danika? What—“
Paul’s tone calmed down the moment he heard it was Danika.
“Where’s Stephanie? Hand her the phone.This is our personal business we need to settle.”
“Stephanie lost her phone.I got it back for her.” Paul frowned.
“Lost it? But I just saw her earlier.How could she have lost it so soon?”
He was still at the place he met up with Stephanie, having grown so upset that he couldn’t help but call her number again.Now it was Danika’s turn to frown.Something was wrong.
“I’ll head to her office right now.”
She then hung up the phone and went over, needing to make sure Stephanie was safe.
Paul, meanwhile, was on his way over too.
When Danika learned that Stephanie hadn’t come to work today, her worry grew like a tangled vine.
Where could she be? Danika was deadly worried something might’ve happened to her.
She then had Melissa check on Stephanie’s whereabouts while she went to inspect the local CCTV footage.
Just then, Paul turned up at the door.
Danika immediately asked, “Where were you with Stephanie just now?”
She needed this information to access the right cameras.
“Where is Stephanie?” Paul asked, evidently unaware of how serious the situation was.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Paul asked sternly.
Danika shot him a look.
“It means Stephanie is missing.No one knows where she went after leaving the rendezvous spot you set, nor was she at the office.”
“Missing?!” Paul gaped.
“Can you stop with that?” Danika waved a hand in the air, annoyed.
“Just tell me where you last saw her so I can check the cameras.” Paul swiftly told her the location of the cafe he’d met up with Stephanie at. How did she go missing?”
“How would I know? It could’ve been because of you, for all I know.”
Danika eyed him warily.
Paul was one of Bardoff’s new rich folk.He was bound to get unwanted attention—him and the woman he was after.
Paul’s eyes darkened, understanding what Danika was implying.
“I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
He then left to get to work, while Danika went to the local library to use the computers there for her tracking.It wasn’t the most appropriate location, but she could care less at this rate.
After finding the cameras located by the cafe Paul had met Stephanie, she traced back to the footage of when Stephanie left after what seemed like an unhappy conversation with Paul.
The moment Stephanie turned around the corner of the store, she never showed up again.
“That must be the spot where something happened to her,” Danika thought.
Do as I Tell You
There were no cameras at that corner, so Danika wouldn’t know what happened exactly based on the footage alone.She then left for that location, ready to find any clues leading her to figure out what happened.
Unfortunately, she found nothing.
There was nowhere to hide behind that corner, nor were there any signs of struggle.It was as if Stephanie disappeared into thin air.
Danika went back to the footage, determined to find some clues.
Sure enough, she soon noticed a specific van leaving the area.
It had stopped by the sidewalk just before Stephanie walked around the corner, then left a little after she disappeared down it.
No other person or car has come or left from that corner since.
Danika sent the car plate number to Melissa, who quickly reported that the vehicle attached to the number had long been reported missing, so there were no available leads to track it down.
But Danika didn’t plan on giving up.
She returned to the footage, rewatching the van and memorizing its features.She’d find it no matter what.
Just then, her phone rang.
It was a stranger’s number, which Danika swiftly hung up on.She wasn’t in the mood to be the victim of a sales pitch.
But the stranger soon called again as if determined to have her answer it.
With a sigh, Danika picked it up.
“Lost a friend, Miss Danika Zellweger?” someone said over the phone before Danika could say anything.
Their voice was old and scratchy—familiar, yet Danika couldn’t for the life of her recall who it belonged to.
“What did you do to Stephanie?” Danika asked coldly.
The man only said, “I’ve sent you an address.Do come over ASAP.”
Danika scoffed.
“If your target was me, why bother going to this length?”
