"Thank you for all your hard work. I'll excuse myself now."
Joanna then nodded slightly at the police officers, turned around, and left.
Meanwhile, Liam and Clara had been anxiously waiting for Joanna in the waiting area. As soon as they saw her coming out, they rushed toward her in excitement.
"You're finally out, Boss! So what's the situation? Do we know Adie's whereabouts now?"
Joanna had no desire to say too much, so she simply told them, "If you see Alice coming out later, capture her immediately. She knows where Adie is."
"Alice?" Clara lost her temper as soon as she heard the woman's name. "That nasty b*tch! Why does it have to be her again? Don't tell me that she's the one who kidnapped Adie?"
Joanna neither confirmed nor denied it. Instead, she turned to Liam and said, "I must rely on you for this. I believe the Blackwood family is vastly experienced in this sort of matter."
The Blackwood family started their business by dealing with many underground groups and black markets. They made their name by constantly dancing on the knife's edge, so they inevitably picked up a torture method or two along the way. They certainly had more than enough skills to make Alice sing.
Joanna had intended to let Alice go once she obliged her and revealed Adie's whereabouts, but it seemed that the gentle method did not work on Alice, so she could not be blamed for resorting to the cruel method instead.
The only reason she asked the police to release Alice just now was to make it more convenient for them to "have a nice talk" with Alice later.
"Don't worry," Liam assured her, his captivating eyes gleaming with a frightening cold light. "I'll make sure she reveals every single detail she knows soon."
In the past, Ace had always protected Alice, so he had to be careful and not go too far when dealing with her. But now that her protector was gone, he had nothing to worry about anymore!
Alice was startled when she heard the news that she would soon be released, but it also came as a pleasant surprise for her.
"Mr. Moran demanded you to release me, didn't he? I knew it! Ace would never abandon me!"
Alice wept with joy and wiped her tears away excitedly.
"You're free now, so just hurry up and go! Don't waste our time here with your nonsense!"
The police officer kept hastening her to leave, and was in no mood to chat with her.
Now that she had regained her freedom, the first thing Alice thought of doing was to pick up her phone and call Ace.
But no one answered her call.
"This can't be right. Ace wouldn't ignore me after getting me out of jail. Unless…"
Alice was no fool. She immediately sensed that there was something fishy going on. Now was not the safest time for her to leave the police station.
Just as she was trapped in a dilemma, someone gently patted her on the back…
"Excuse me, are you Ms. Alice?"
Alice turned around. She was somewhat puzzled when she recognized the person in front of her.
"J-Jovan Moran?"
Jovan smiled affably with his hands in his pockets.
"You're okay, aren't you?" Ace asked me to take you home
Liam had been waiting outside the police station for ages, but Alice was still nowhere to be seen. His patience was wearing thin, so he threw caution to the wind and went inside to ask the police officer who handled Alice's case. That was when he found out that Alice had been released a long time ago.
"Damn it!" Liam cursed with a scowl before immediately reporting the development to Joanna.
"I'm sorry, Boss. This is all my fault. That cunning woman must've guessed that we were trying to ambush her outside, so she escaped through another exit."
"Never mind. I'll find another way then."
At the time, Joanna was sitting in front of the computer in her apartment, her fingers incessantly tapping on the keyboard as she tried to track Alice's movements in the past few days. She found out from the police officer in charge that Alice was arrested in a five-star luxury hotel, so she hacked into the surveillance system of that hotel to sniff out any helpful clues.
She did not find any clues. She simply saw Alice taking care of Adie as if he were her own son. She even took Adie out to shop for everything the boy desired-be it snacks, clothes, or toys!
What infuriated Joanna even more was how she saw Adie affectionately holding Alice's hand in the surveillance video, as if he now regarded Alice as his real mother! He was acting all cheerful and bubbly, looking nothing at all like a boy who was kidnapped!
"Oh, my God… My blood pressure is rising…"
Joanna massaged her temples. She wished she could climb through the screen and spank the cheeky boy!
"Look at that. My dear eldest child! It's like he's trying to make my blood boil! We've all been so worried about him, yet he'd been happily following someone else as if he was a puppy on a leash all along! Oh, the betrayal!"
Clara, who was sitting next to Joanna, almost burst into laughter as she watched it all play out on the screen.
"Hahahaha, who would've thought that our cool handsome guy would have such a sweet and docile side? I guess the lure of snacks and toys had more influence on him than his own biological mother…"
But just as she was laughing away at Adie's antics, her expression suddenly froze. She clenched her fists.
The cause of this drastic change was in the surveillance video, where she saw William Jones, her boyfriend whom she was madly in love with, was knocking on Alice' door!
Joanna noticed this too and she hastily turned off the monitor as quickly as she could. Then, she got up and stretched her body before deliberately changing the topic, saying, "Forget it! I won't bother checking it anymore! If that little rascal was so smart that he could hand Alice to the police himself, then he's probably fine. He'll come home once he's had enough fun."
Clara's throat felt tight, and her eyes began to sting. She tried her best to keep calm as she looked up at Joanna and asked her, "D-Did you see that just now?"
Joanna did not have the heart to upset Clara, so she acted dumb, albeit poorly, and replied, "What are you talking about? I didn't see anything!"
"I beg you. Please play that video again."
"I'm afraid I can't do that. The permission has expired so we can't watch it anymore."
But Clara was not so easily fooled. She grabbed Joanna's arms and repeatedly pleaded, "You've got to help me hack into that surveillance video again, Joanna! I need to know if I was just imagining what I saw!"
"You don't need to see it again. You weren't imagining it."
Joanna sighed helplessly and decided to come clean with everything that she knew.
"William Jones does indeed know Alice. In fact, they used to be in a relationship with each other."
Clara was aghast. Not only was she heartbroken, she suddenly felt as if she was the biggest dumbass in the world and could not stop herself from slapping herself across her face.
"I'm such a moron! How could I just let him trick me and use me all this time… No wonder why he's been asking about you all the time! He approached me with an ulterior motive all along!" "Stupid, stupid me! It's all my fault that Adie went missing! I'm so sorry, Joanna! I've caused you trouble again! You have to beat me up. Otherwise I'll never be able to forgive myself!
Clara felt that she had committed a heinous crime against her best friend. Tears poured down like rain on her face as she took Joanna's hands and slapped them on her own body, wishing that she could make amends to Joanna by dying.
"Nonsense! How can I ever blame you? The only person at fault is that bastard William Jones."
Joanna gently wiped away Clara's tears and patiently explained to her as if she was Clara's mother, "Now you've learned your lesson, right? Men are completely unreliable, so from now on, you must always be on guard. Don't just listen to your heart; use your brain as well, otherwise someone could be playing you like a fiddle and you won't even notice it!"
Clara nodded repeatedly. She clenched her fists and angrily vowed, "I'll never forget it! Being with men only leads to a lifetime of misfortune, and trusting in men only leads to three whole lifetimes of misfortune! Once I'm done killing that b*stard William Jones, I'll become a nun and live in a monastery for the rest of my life!"
Joanna could not help but laugh at Clara's sweet silliness.