Meanwhile, back in F nation, Mr. Preston put down the phone in his hands and turned to look at his inconsolable wife with a distressed expression flashing across his eyes. He sighed softly before taking her into his arms.
His tone was unbearably soft as he wiped the tears in her face with unprecedented gentleness.
"Our daughter will be fine, okay? She survived years ago when we lost her. She definitely will this tine around as well. We have to believe that she would..."
"Besides.. crying at this time would neither solve anything nor make things better for her wherever she is. Therefore, rather than crying and wallowing in sorrow, don't you think it's better to channel that energy into finding her ourselves after going down to Country Z?"
The moment Mrs. Preston heard her usually taciturn husband saying those gentle but reasonable words, her tears instantly stopped. Then, without warning, she struggled lightly and got out of her husband's embrace and just as Mr. Preston was about to ask her where she was going, he heard her speak as she walked towards the wardrobe.
"Yes. You are right. My crying solves and changes nothing. It would not save our daughter from her kidnappers' hands nor help her in any way. In fact, it was highly likely that while I was crying, she was also feeling scared and helpless somewhere my eyes couldn't reach...", Her voice choked at this point but she never stopped walking and soon arrived in front of the wardrobe.
Taking a deep breath, Mrs. Preston got hold of her emotions after which she opened the wardrobe. She grabbed a dress without really paying attention to what she took, anyways, none of the clothes inside her wardrobe were unwearable. It just depends on what occasion she wore it to..
After grabbing the dress, she turned to walk into the changing room but before entering, she gazed back to see her husband still looking at her from the bed and lightly frowned. With a hint of dissatisfaction in her voice, she asked, "What are you still doing over there without changing? Our daughter is still waiting for us!"
At her words, Mr. Preston quickly said sorry and hurriedly got up from the bed to grab his clothes.
Mrs. Preston was only satisfied after seeing him walk into the changing room adjacent to hers and only then did she also walk in.
A while later, the couple stepped out of their bedroom fully dressed, but just as they were about to go down the stairs. They heard the sound of doors opening and the couple gazed back with surprise in their eyes and saw two doors following side by side suddenly opened one after the other.
Two identical heads popped out and when they saw the both of them, they greeted at the same time.
"Mom. Dad."
Mrs. Preston was pleasantly surprised on seeing her two sons at the same time. It also dispelled some of the sorrow in her heart after hearing the news of Selena's kidnapping.
"Tyler! Ethan! When did you both get home?! And at the same time for that matter!", She asked joyfully and couldn't be blamed for asking as both of her sons had gotten increasingly busy since they became adults. And although, she felt pride in the fact that both of them were so outstanding, it also made her sad as it meant that the time she could spend with them was short considering that the two of them were home only a handful of times a year.
Tyler, the older of the twins looked mature and a bit cold, taking after his father in that. However, the coldness on his face softened a lot on meeting his mother's joyful gaze before he answered her question.
"Ethan and I arrived few minutes ago...", He paused here for a bit before looking at his mother with a hint of worry and concern in his eyes.
"But mom... we heard you crying.. Is there a problem?"
Tyler who looked gentler and more approachable also walked up to her and held her hand gently before saying, "Yes, mom. We passed by your bedroom's door after arriving few minutes ago and heard your cries. You can tell Tyler and I whatever is going on."
While he spoke, he secretly sent his father a glare, showing his dissatisfaction with him blatantly.
What an insensitive man, he thought to himself.
However, both Tyler and Ethan never expected that their questions would make their mother cry. They only reacted upon seeing tears falling silently from her eyes.
Both of them panicked and surrounded her as they tried to console her and ask her what happened to no avail. Realizing that his mother was currently unable to tell them what iis happening, Ethan turned to his father and asked him why their mother was crying anxiously, forgetting he had glared at the man moments ago.
Mr. Preston didn't keep him in suspense and summarized to them what happened truthfully. He didn't take Ethan's glare to mind at all after all, he was already quite used to this particular son of his who was close to years older than Selena acting out periodically.
Ethan didn't know what his father thought of him and even if he knew, his mind was currently too occupied to pay attention to it.
"Our sister was kidnapped?", He asked in disbelief.
Tyler's brows were also furrowed tightly after hearing his father's explanation.
"Why did she suddenly go back to Country Z?", He directed his question to his father who was already holding his wife in his arms.
Mr. Preston thought for a second before shaking his head, "I don't know. She didn't tell us. That day, she only came to inform her mother and I that she had something to do back there, but I noticed that she looked anxious. So I guessed that what she was going to do was relatively very important to her."
Tyler nodded at his words before he continued asking, "Is that where you are going now?"
Mr. Preston nodded and hummed.
"Yes. I think it's better for us to be there to look for her ourselves, though when I called her bestfriend back there earlier, I heard they were also already searching for her and planning her rescue."
Tyler and Ethan's face softened a bit after knowing that someone was already searching for Selena. But that didn't mean that they could rest easy.
Tyler took out his phone while saying, "I will call in some favors and see if they could join the search for our sister." He hated to owe people favors but his sister's safety was more important than anything else. Therefore, he doesn't mind owing those people some favors for helping find Selena.
Ethan immediately followed after and also took out his phone while saying he would also ask some people he knew in Country Z for help.
Satisfaction flashed in Mr. Preston's eyes on seeing his sons being so proactive. But that aside....
"So ,.are you going with us or not?", He directed his question to both of them.
Ethan was the first to answer as his voice rose unconsciously, "Of course, we are going as well!"
Tyler also nodded his head in affirmation to his words, expressing that he would be going as well.
Mrs. Preston who had also stopped sobbing at some point looked gratified on hearing their answers before she turned serious again, "Then what are we still doing here? Let's be on our way, shall we? Selena is waiting for us."
.....
On the other hand, Selena had no idea that her parents and brothers were now aware of her kidnapping and were on a flight to country Z at the moment. Instead, she who had perfected her escape plan in her head was now ready to carry it out.
And the first step in her plan was...
She turned to gaze at the corner in which the scar-faced man had withdrawn to and was about to tell him that she wanted to use the toilet. But before she could open her mouth, she heard the door open and hurriedly looked at the entrance with additional wariness in her eyes.
She soon saw the person who had came in. It was an ordinary looking man.
Selena saw the man walk up to the scar-faced man and whispered softy to him after giving her a meaningful glance.
Mid-way the ordinary looking man's whispering, she saw the scar-faced man turned to look at her with deep surprise in his eyes before he withdrew his gaze and listened to the other man's whispering carefully.
Selena felt both unease and also a little anticiaption on remembering the ordinary looking ma's meaningful glance after he came in and now, the surprise in the scar-faced man's eyes after listening to the man's whispering.
Somehow, she was able to tell that whatever they were talking about was related to her, however, she had no idea whether it was good or bad.
Moments later, she saw that both men had finished talking and was now headed in her direction. This made Selena tense up subconsciously as her brain ran through possible actions that she could take to get away from both men if they were to grab her.
While her nerves was already tightly strung with nervousness, the two soon arrived in front of her and stopped. Selena showed no weakness and gazed up at them in defiance, seemingly not willing to show cowardice and go down without a fight.
However, behind her back where her hands has been bound tightly together, Selena tried hard to remember an untying technique she had once seen on the internet and secretly tried to free her restrained hands.
Yet, she didn't expect that the two men had no plans of taking her away to who-knows-where because after the scar-faced man took another glance, he soon left with the other man in after leaving some confusing words behind.
He said, "You are one lucky woman."
She didn't understand or maybe she just didn't dare to understand, fearing that huge disappointment would follow after realising she had read it all wrong...
Fortunately...
She thought to herself, the worst scenario she had imagined had not happened but still, she didn't relax and concentrated single-mindedly on freeing herself. She planned to take the time where those men weren't around to escape from this place.
....
Outside the abandoned refinery.
Ryan and company were currently in a face-off with Selena's captors with both sides pointing guns at each other.
They been sighted the moment they had enetered the abandoned refinery, though that was hardly a surprise since they hadn't bothered to conceal the fact that they were here in the first place.
At first, Ryan really planned on breaking in but after he noticed the familiar aura on these men's bodies, he instantly changed his mind and sent the Nighthawk team a message to rescue Selena secretly while they lure all the men in this place out.
"Mercenaries", He stated with conviction after putting back his phone.
Dan who had also noticed didn't look surprised at all after hearing Ryan's words, only Justin frowned and asked with concern, "They are all mercenaries? Doesn't that make things more troublesome?"
"Retired mercenaries", It was neither Ryan nor Dan's voice that answered him, instead it was a strange male's voice. Justin looked up to see a scar-faced man walking up to them followed by another man.
Ryan looked at the man silently for a while before asking, "You are their leader?"
"I am indeed their leader. I wonder how I may be of help to you?", The scar-faced man answered politely and continued asking even though he knew very well why the people before him had come.
But still, one had to put up an act, right? Even when he knew that there was no chances of winning against these people and had no plans of fighting against them. The only reason he asked that question was so not as to seem gutless in front of his men, after all, he still needed them to follow his orders without too much questions in the future and mercenaries like them although they were all now retired still stuck to the habits of their previous profession and only listened to the one with the strongest fist.
Therefore, it would seem quite ridiculous if the one they perceived to be the strongest acted too cowardly in their presence.
To be honest, mercenaries valued their lives very much and they would compromise in matters that they could. This meant that his men doesn't really need him to win against an opponent which they obviously knows is stronger than him, rather, they just needed him not to give in too fast and act obsequiously which they considered shameful.