Filed to story: My Husband Regrets Divorcing Me (Audrey & Cornell)
At the cemetery, flowers and offerings were placed by Wesson’s grave. Jarrod paid his respects in silence. Nicole, touching the photograph on the headstone, whispered, “Dad, I promise to find the killer. Justice will be done. Don’t worry about Mom. She’s in good hands and she’s doing well.”
In a poignant moment, Dora reached out, caressing Wesson’s photograph, and shed a tear. Nicole hugged Dora, weeping as Dora offered awkward but heartfelt comfort.
After the ceremony, they returned to the car. During the drive, Dora became agitated again. Nicole, now attentive to her mother’s needs, realized that Dora needed to go to the bathroom.
“Jarrod, is there a bathroom nearby?” asked Nicole. After consulting the GPS, Jarrod directed them to a nearby mall, opting for the safety of such a busy place. Along with their bodyguards, Jarrod and Nicole escorted their mother to the restroom.
Jarrod escorted them to the restroom entrance, prompting Nicole to comment, “You don’t have to get so nervous. People stare.”
Jarrod, unperturbed and stern, merely said, “Your safety is paramount.”
Nicole realized that arguing was futile and dropped the subject. Once Dora had finished, they made their way to the car, walking past the elevators. Suddenly, a boy burst into their path, running erratically and nearly colliding with Nicole.
“Stop!” Jarrod intervened abruptly, catching the child just in time to avoid an incident.
“Why are you running, who told you to run?” asked Jarrod, his voice filled with concern for the potential danger Nicole was in due to her pregnancy.
The child, intimidated by Jarrod’s stern tone, began to cry loudly.
“Don’t cry. Now, tell me, who sent you?”. Jarrod continued, unfazed by the tears.
Nicole, still recovering from the shock, remained silent. At that moment the boy’s mother appeared, running toward them. “What are you doing?” she exclaimed, pushing her son away and looking at Jarrod suspiciously. “Why are you frightening my son?”
“He almost ran into my wife,” Jarrod replied coolly.
“So what if he did? He’s just a kid. Do you think he did it intentionally? Even if he had bumped into her, it wouldn’t have been fatal, would it?” the mother argued, her tone curt and dismissive. “You’re an adult, bullying a child. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” the mother commented.
Nicole was taken aback, struck dumb by the woman’s harsh criticism, who ignored her son’s risky behavior and focused solely on scolding Jarrod. Uninterested in further debate, Jarrod turned to his bodyguard and instructed, “Track his movements today.”
As the bodyguards began to approach, the mother became alarmed and shouted, “What’s going on? Are they trying to kidnap my son? Somebody help me! Kidnappers!”
Her alarmed cries attracted a group of onlookers who, observing Jarrod and his imposing bodyguards, mistook them for the instigators. Curious and concerned murmurs arose from the crowd.
“What’s going on, could it be child traffickers acting in plain sight?” one person wondered.
Another added skeptically, “They look reputable, but they look like criminals. Someone should call the police.”
“Typical of these wealthy individuals, always making trouble and intimidating others,” commented another passerby. The murmuring intensified, fueling a charged atmosphere.
Amid the confusion, the boy’s mother tried to slip away quietly with him. Jarrod, ever vigilant, quickly intercepted them and asked, “Where do you think you’re headed?”
The boy’s mother became even more upset when Jarrod grabbed her, throwing herself to the ground and shouting, “If you want to hit someone, hit me! Don’t hurt my son! He was just running a little too fast, and he hasn’t even touched your wife ??why are you treating us like this?”
The boy’s mother probably heard the murmurs from the crowd, realizing that they were accusing Jarrod of being a bully. With the wealth gap in society, it was common for people to feel hatred toward the rich, resenting their tendency to dominate others.
“Don’t drag them down like that. It’s not right.”
“Yeah, why are you taking them, are you playing vigilante? Our laws don’t support that.”
“Just because you have money doesn’t give you the right to mistreat people! It’s shameful.”
Although many voiced their disapproval, only one man intervened to pull the bodyguards away from the mother and child. The man shouted defiantly, “Arrest me if you have to! I refuse to accept that there is no justice ??has our society really become a playground for the rich?”
The chorus of complaints intensified.
Jarrod frowned and asked sternly, “Did anyone actually see the boy not bump into my wife?”
Jarrod’s serene but commanding presence, molded by years in a position of influence, briefly quieted the crowd.
Someone murmured, “Still, you and your group are bullying a mother and her child. It’s clearly your fault…”
“So, the smaller number justifies supporting the aggressor?”. replied Jarrod with an icy smile. “I saw the child head straight for my wife’s pregnant stomach. There was plenty of room to dodge it, and yet he ran right into her. If something had happened to my wife or our unborn child, would any of you defenders of justice accept responsibility?”
The crowd fell silent. Jarrod’s argument was hard to refute. The mall had room to spare, and the child could have easily avoided Nicole. Ramming a pregnant woman seemed intentional. If a child acted recklessly like that, appropriate discipline rather than sympathy was warranted.
As the crowd’s support waned, the child’s mother became frustrated and tried to change the narrative. “Why should we believe their version? No one saw my son come in contact with your wife. You may be making false accusations.”
Jarrod’s lips twisted into a cold smile. “You still want to debate?”
Jarrod snapped his fingers, and instantly the mall’s LED screen lit up with surveillance footage. Jarrod had ordered a bodyguard to retrieve the video footage to check for any suspicious behavior by the boy.
The footage was compelling evidence. It showed the child turning a corner and pointing at Nicole’s belly. Despite having plenty of room to avoid Nicole and the presence of bodyguards, the child headed straight for her. If the child had not seen him, one could argue that he was blind, but how could a blind child run with such precision?
The evidence was irrefutable. The child had deliberately targeted Nicole. Those who had supported the mother and child felt ashamed, recognizing that they had fallen for a false plea for sympathy.
The mother’s full-throated defender was the first to apologize to Nicole. “I’m sorry, miss. I was wrong. That child is out of line. I fully support your right to hold them accountable.”
The audience began to express similar sentiments. Imagining themselves in the same situation, they understood the frustration of dealing with such a troubled child.
It was clear that the mother and child were a team. The child was causing the disturbances and the mother was eloquently defending her actions. Anyone would be outraged in such a scenario.
When the crowd dispersed, only the mother and child remained. Jarrod approached with a stern expression and looked at the child. “Who ordered you to run toward her?”
The mother quickly shielded the child and stated, “No one said anything to her. My child was just misbehaving.” Tears welled up as she sobbed. “Does he really have to react like that? It’s okay. If I have to, I’ll apologize….. Oh, why is my luck so terrible?”
The mother impeccably played the role of the victim. Even as she continued to act, her eyes averted, avoiding contact, a telltale sign of her guilt.
Nicole, exhausted, tugged on Jarrod’s sleeve and said, “Let’s go.”
“Just a minute.” Jarrod sensed something wasn’t right. He looked past the mother, fixing his intense gaze on the child. “Who put you up to this? If you don’t tell me, you and your mother will face legal consequences.”
Terrified, the child urinated right there. He burst into tears and confessed, “It was that man…”.
The mother tried to silence the boy, but it was too late. Jarrod pulled the mother aside and demanded as he looked coldly at the boy, “Explain it all to me clearly!”.
The boy sobbed and said, “A man told me he would give my mother five thousand dollars if I met this lady…. My mother promised to buy me a video console…”.
Tears streamed down the boy’s face. Jarrod’s serious expression frightened him even more. The mother could no longer deny the truth.
Jarrod looked at the boy, judging whether he was telling the truth. Feeling scared, the boy pointed to his mother’s pocket and said, “Sir, I’m not lying. The money is in my mother’s pants pocket. Check it out if you don’t believe me.”
The mother’s voice trembled. “He’s just talking nonsense. He doesn’t know what he’s saying…. Please don’t listen to him.”
Jarrod stood his ground. “You might want to explain it to the police. You still have the five grand, don’t you?”
The mother blushed. She still hadn’t spent the five thousand dollars she’d been given. She thought she could easily cash in for the day, but now she was in serious trouble, on her way to the police station. Just his luck…
Jarrod’s suspicions were compounded. Was this incident specifically aimed at Nicole’s pregnancy? He suspected there was more to it.
Unexpectedly, Nicole shouted from behind him, “Mom! Mom, where are you?”
Jarrod rushed over and asked, “What happened, where’s your mother?”
“My mother is missing,” Nicole replied, her voice trembling with emotion.
Shortly before, in the midst of the chaos, Dora had been at Nicole’s side. Suddenly, she was gone. Given Dora’s limited cognitive abilities, similar to those of a small child, she could not have gone far on her own.
Nicole frantically set out to search, but Jarrod calmed her down by telling her, “Don’t panic. We’ll review the surveillance footage. I’ve sent the bodyguards to check it out. You can’t outrun them.”
Nicole accepted his logic and struggled to maintain her composure.
In the security office, the staff had already retrieved the images showing Dora initially behind the bodyguards, next to Nicole. In the midst of the altercation involving a man struggling with a bodyguard, the rest of the bodyguards repositioned themselves to protect Nicole and Jarrod, inadvertently leaving Dora unattended. For reasons unclear, Dora quickly moved to a nearby corner, captivated by something invisible.
The bodyguards, focused on Nicole and Jarrod, failed to notice Dora slipping away. Later footage showed Dora entering through the emergency exit stairway, which lacked surveillance, ruling out that exit as her path. The remaining exit through the subway parking garage became the primary target, but the camera was not functioning properly, complicating efforts to confirm Dora’s direction.
Realizing the urgency, due to the short time since Dora’s disappearance, Jarrod ordered all bodyguards to search the garage and all possible exits. He also had the crisis management team examine all available surveillance video from the mall, thanks to his connections with the mall owner that granted him full access.
Restless, Nicole insists on checking the garage herself. Jarrod, unable to refuse her request, agreed to accompany her. The police quickly arrived, and Ethel was among them. After being informed of the situation, Ethel comforted Nicole and assisted in the search.
The police began their investigation in the stairwell where Dora was last seen and descended to the garage. Near the entrance to the subway parking garage, Nicole spotted a pearl hair clip on the floor. She picked it up and recognized it immediately. She said, “This is the hairpin I chose for my mother, selected specifically for the roundness and luster of the pearls.”
This discovery confirmed that Dora had been in the garage, suggesting that it might have been taken from there. Ethel took it upon herself to check the surveillance cameras that monitored the garage exits. She quickly identified three suspicious black vehicles, one in particular with forged license plates, which raised immediate concern.
Ethel led a detailed follow-up on this vehicle and, with the support of Jarrod’s crisis team, they quickly traced the vehicle’s route. Jarrod coordinated the vehicles to follow the suspect, opting to keep Nicole behind for safety, concerned that the real target might be Nicole herself due to her pregnancy: a high-speed chase posed too great a risk to her.
Understanding Jarrod’s caution, Nicole agreed to stay behind, waiting anxiously while Jarrod deployed a team to pursue the vehicle. The rest of the security team stayed with Nicole at the mall to protect her, and Jarrod joined the chase.
Nicole was sitting in the mall lounge, anxiety rising. An on-site doctor advised her to relax to avoid any stress that could harm her or induce premature labor. During this tense period, Ethel stayed by Nicole’s side, reassuring her and even accompanying her to the bathroom.
To reassure herself, Nicole splashed cold water on her face. Ethel comforted her by saying, “Don’t worry. Your mother is strong and has faced worse. She will be fine. Trust the police and Jarrod’s team.”
Despite trying to remain calm, Nicole was still overcome with worry, anxiously awaiting any news from Jarrod. Just then, Nicole’s phone rang. It was Jarrod.
In her haste to answer, Nicole accidentally dropped the phone. Ethel noticed Nicole struggling to get down and quickly said, “Don’t move. I’ll get it.”
Ethel picked up Nicole’s phone and handed it to her. Just then, Ethel’s phone rang with a call from a colleague, apparently with urgent news.