Chapter 80 Maintaining Distance
At Starlight Manor, Emily had been pacing the floor until she'd nearly worn a path through it, her eyes bloodshot and her voice hoarse from hours of anguish. The moment she saw the incoming call, she answered with lightning speed.
"Hello, Jasper? Jasper, how are you? Where are you? What about Emma and Ethan? Are they—" Emily's voice shook uncontrollably, fear and worry having driven her nearly to the brink of madness.
She'd raised the money, but the kidnappers had yet to tell her the exchange location!
She couldn't reach the children, couldn't contact the kidnappers, and had even risked revealing everything by calling Charles, only to have his phone ring endlessly with no answer.
Elodie had mobilized every connection she had, but the kidnappers had moved too quickly and kept calls too brief. Finding the children was like searching for a needle in a haystack!
Her heart had been in constant torment!
"Mom, please don't get upset. I'm fine, completely safe. Emma and Ethan are okay, too," Jasper said soothingly.
Emily felt her entire body go weak, collapsing onto the sofa as if all her strength had suddenly drained away.
"You're all safe now?" Her voice was barely a whisper, as if she didn't dare believe it.
"Yes, Mom. Charles arrived and rescued them. He took Emma and Ethan with him." Jasper kept his words brief, omitting any mention of how dangerous the kidnappers had been. He didn't want Emily to worry.
"Charles..." Emily murmured his name softly.
In that moment, all her resentment toward Charles, all the barriers she'd built, all her determination to keep distance between them—everything crumbled to dust.
"Mom, please don't worry. I'll come home to you right away. Emma and Ethan are with Charles, so they're safe for now. Please don't do anything rash, and don't expose yourself. Leave everything to me."
"Where are you? I'll come pick you up!"
"No need, I'm almost home already."
"Okay, okay." Emily gripped the phone tightly as tears finally poured out freely—the tears that came when nerves stretched to their breaking point suddenly snapped back.
She nodded vigorously at the phone as if Jasper could see her. "Jasper, be careful! I'll wait for you to come home!"
After hanging up, Emily buried her face in her hands and wept silently.
The crushing weight on her heart finally lifted, leaving only the limp exhaustion that follows a brush with disaster.
It was over. The children were safe.
Elodie stood nearby, watching Emily's complete breakdown followed by total collapse, and finally allowed her own tightly furrowed brow to relax slightly.
She gently patted Emily's shoulder. "It's okay now. As long as they're rescued, that's what matters."
Meanwhile, in the car returning to the Windsor Manor, Ethan caught the three faint, rhythmic vibrations in his smartwatch receiver, barely perceptible pulses that only he could detect. They meant Jasper had contacted Emily.
They'd acted on their own, and Emily must have been worried sick.
His tense expression finally relaxed completely. His head lolled to one side as he fell into genuine, deep sleep.
Charles looked down at the two small faces snuggled together in his arms, sleeping so trustingly. Even in slumber, their brows still held faint creases of distress.
He used his fingertip to gently smooth away those worried lines.
'I'm sorry. Daddy came too late and let you suffer.'
As for everything else, his cold gaze turned toward the night outside the car window.
Whoever had orchestrated this, whether they'd targeted the children or their mother, he would make them pay the price!
But one thing still puzzled him: the children had been missing for so long, but Emily didn't seem worried at all. Where was she now?"Nathan, contact Emily. Tell her that her goddaughter and godson have been rescued." Charles paused, then added, "Also, find out what she's doing. Don't make it too obvious."
Nathan had interacted with Emily at the school and knew how much she cared for these two children.
Even before Charles had given the instruction, Nathan had already called Emily to report that everyone was safe, so he knew Emily's whereabouts.
Emily had already raised ten million dollars, but for some unknown reason, the kidnappers never told her the exchange location, so she was left waiting in agonizing uncertainty.
Elodie had even mobilized the Garcia family's resources but found no leads whatsoever.
Clearly, someone behind the scenes was helping the kidnappers.
Charles thought this made sense. He'd only been able to find them so quickly because he'd received Ethan's distress signal and their location data.
Without knowing any of this, Emily naturally couldn't find the children.
"Mr. Windsor, does Ms. Johnson actually care about Ethan and Emma or not?" Nathan couldn't help asking.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if she really cared, she'd definitely be here demanding we return the kids by now. But why hasn't she come? Is it because she doesn't care about them? But that doesn't seem right either. When I called Ms. Johnson just now, her voice sounded muffled. She'd definitely been crying."
Nathan's casual observation made Charles's chest tighten with an odd ache.
Emily's eyes were so beautiful and clear—they should be sparkling with light and laughter.
He didn't want to see those eyes cry.
At this moment, Charles actually wanted to drive straight to Emily's house and hold her for comfort.
As for whether Emily would be angry, he didn't care. She'd disappeared for six years while carrying his children. If anyone should be angry, it was he.
Emily's contradictory behavior only reinforced his belief that Ethan and Emma were their children.
Emily cared but didn't dare show it—she was deliberately maintaining distance.
If Emily really was just the children's godmother as she claimed, why would she need to maintain distance?
This only proved that Emily was Ethan and Emma's biological mother!
Charles's mood brightened again as he adjusted his position to make the two children more comfortable.
---
Morning sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows into the Windsor Manor's great hall. William came down the stairs, leaning on his walking stick, and immediately spotted two small figures on the sofa.
"Emma? Ethan?" William's voice cracked with excitement, and he nearly dropped his cane.
Seeing two adorable children first thing in the morning, who wouldn't be delighted?
But how had they come to be here? What on earth had happened?