Chapter 333

Chapter 333

My heart plummeted. I felt like I might collapse.

"You okay?" Fortunately, Leopold caught me, his voice full of concern.

I shook my head slightly and turned to Fanny for details.

"Orion went upstairs with you. How could he suddenly disappear?"

Fanny was frantic. "I'm not entirely sure. He said he wanted to get his favorite pajamas to pack in our suitcase. But ten minutes passed and he never came back."

"Your dad told me to check on him. When I went to the bedroom, there was no one there!"

I urged Leopold to take me to Orion's bedroom.

The blankets were neatly folded on the bed. Only a small pumpkin-print pajama set lay at the foot of the bed.

I'd bought those for Orion before coming to Gravenford Kingdom.

They were our matching set.

I bent down, picked up the pajamas, and pressed them gently against my face.

Leopold followed close behind me and immediately began inspecting the room.

James came in a step later, also searching.

"Cindy, I'm so sorry. This is my fault. I should have gone with him."

Fanny was consumed with guilt.

As devastated as I was, I hadn't lost my mind.

"Mom, this isn't your fault. If someone wanted to take Orion, we couldn't have prevented it anyway."

To keep Fanny from feeling worse, I quickly composed myself and comforted her.

"Leopold, is something wrong here?"

Suddenly, James spoke up.

Fanny and I immediately looked toward Leopold.

He stood by the window, frowning as he stared at something outside.

I couldn't help getting up to join him.

"There's something here." Leopold opened the window and lightly touched the edge of the windowsill with his fingertip.

I immediately saw the gray dirt on his finger. "Someone climbed through the window and took Orion?"

James and Fanny were startled.

"Climbed through?" James came over to check. Seeing the gray dirt on Leopold's finger, his expression turned serious. "Someone was definitely here."

He said to Leopold, "Check the security footage immediately. They couldn't have left long ago. We might find something."

A spark of hope rose in my chest. I urged Leopold to check.

Soon, Teddy hurried in.

"Mr. Percy, Mr. Wipere, Mrs. Wipere, Ms. Wipere."

He held out a tablet. "The surveillance was tampered with. All the footage is just static."

"What about the other cameras?" I pressed. A house this big couldn't have just one surveillance point.

"They were prepared. They disabled every camera in the house," Teddy explained.

My heart sank to the bottom. The hope I'd just felt vanished instantly.

"If they left without alerting us, there aren't many routes they could've taken." Leopold turned around, his expression calm, showing no sign of panic.

Then he opened the window fully and climbed straight out.

"Leopold!" His sudden action scared me. I rushed to the window.

Seeing him land safely, my heart settled back into place.

James and Fanny were also startled, but they saw he hadn't run off. Instead, he crouched on the ground, observing.

Fanny couldn't help asking, "What's Leopold looking for?"

"Footprints," James explained.

I understood immediately. The gray dirt on the intruder's shoes could only have come from the garden.

Clearly, they'd come and gone through the garden.

It hadn't rained, and it wasn't time for the gardener to work, so the ground wasn't cluttered.

Footprints would be easy to spot.

While we talked, Teddy had already reached the first floor, waiting for Leopold's instructions.

Five minutes later, Leopold slowly stood up and pointed in a direction.

"The footprints go that way. Follow them!"

Teddy quickly led his team in pursuit.

We waited in the living room.

When Leopold came in, I couldn't help saying, "It has to be Ethan. No one else could trick Orion into leaving."

Leopold came to stand in front of me and gently touched my head. "Not necessarily."

"It is him!" I clenched my fists and argued loudly. "Orion trusts him so much, but he keeps putting Orion in danger over and over."

Leopold sat beside me, his large hand enveloping mine, his thumb gently stroking the back of my hand.

"Right now, Ethan's busy blocking the airport to keep us from leaving."

I opened my mouth to argue further, but realized he was right.

More than Orion, Ethan wanted to cut off all our escape routes.

And this house—Leopold had used someone else's name. Even I didn't know whose.

For Ethan to track it down would be even harder.

"Then who else could it be?"

At a time like this, an unknown enemy was more terrifying than Ethan.

If Orion was with Ethan, at least I knew he was temporarily safe.

But in someone else's hands, there were no guarantees.

Just thinking about it terrified me.

My hands and feet began to turn cold.

"I can't think of anyone right now either." Leopold said quietly. "But whoever it is knows where Orion's bedroom is and understands the layout of this place. Which means they definitely know this property belongs to me."

I looked at him sharply. "Your friend!"

"Sophia's father."

Leopold's answer made us all look up in shock.

"You're saying this house is in Sophia's father's name?" James asked for confirmation.

Leopold nodded slightly. "This was the first overseas property I purchased. David and the others were watching me closely at the time, so I asked Sophia's father to help with the paperwork."

"Later I got all the documentation ready, but I've been too busy to transfer the deed. Sophia said she wanted to see the place, so I brought her here. That's why she's familiar with the layout."

For a moment, I didn't know what to say.

James and Fanny exchanged glances but didn't ask any more questions.

Silence spread through the room.

Leopold continued, "I've already had Teddy track down Sophia's whereabouts. We'll have answers soon."

I remembered the conversation that had been interrupted earlier. "So when Sophia came to Ethan's castle to see me, that wasn't your arrangement. Whose was it?"

I'd thought Sophia was out of the picture long ago. I never expected her to be involved in everything that came after.

I couldn't read her.

I didn't know what she was after.

"We'll only know once we see Sophia."

Leopold couldn't offer any reasonable theories either.

My mind couldn't help replaying Sophia's words—that I would regret this.

My heart was restless, unable to find peace.

More than ten minutes later, Teddy returned with an update.

"We didn't find any trace of the child, but there's a suspicious person in black. They left via North Street and got into a white Porsche heading toward the southern suburbs."

"North Street?" I looked at Leopold questioningly. He explained, "North Street is in a direct line with the north entrance to the villa's garden."

My gaze sharpened. "So there's a good chance this person left through the garden?"

"Yes." Leopold's eyes shifted to Teddy. "Did you get the license plate?"

"We did." Teddy's expression was complicated. "It's Mrs. Seymour's car."

"Mrs. Seymour?" James looked at Leopold. "The current head of the Seymour family?"

"Yes." Leopold's face darkened. "She deliberately didn't hide the license plate. She's telling me Orion is with her."

I was both furious and frantic. "What are we waiting for? Let's go to the Seymour family right now and get Orion back!"