“Good!” Eric’s feet barely grazed the ground as he sprinted. Even at night, the international airport swarmed with people.
He crashed into someone head-on but didn’t even stop.
The airport manager led the charge, with Eric stalking closely behind. Phillips and a battalion of bodyguards flooded the cabin.
“Search the plane! The instant you find Miss Pearson, notify me immediately!” Phillips motioned to the bodyguards. “Be careful—Miss Pearson’s health is fragile. Don’t frighten her! Now go!”
“Yes, sir!” The bodyguards nodded in unison and scattered to search the plane.
Meanwhile, Eric’s mind was stretched razor-thin, like a wire about to snap. Although the ticket bore her name and seat number, he didn’t dare take any chances. Hadley was cunning. She might have switched seats with someone. He checked seat after seat, his heart hammering with each unfamiliar face he encountered.
Man after man, woman after woman—none of them were Hadley. With each disappointment, his heart grew colder, and the pounding in his head intensified.
He had already combed through this section of the plane. Nothing. Hadley wasn’t here.
“Mr. Scott.” Phillips noticed his ashen, tormented expression and tried to reassure him. “Don’t worry. Maybe Hadley is in another cabin…”
But even as he spoke, the bodyguards had no updates.
Eventually, they regrouped at their original position, standing before Phillips, shaking their heads silently, not daring to breathe too audibly.
“Nothing?” Eric’s bloodshot eyes were threaded with furious red veins. “That’s impossible! How could this be?”
“Mr. Scott!” Suddenly, the airport manager interjected. “We overlooked checking the lavatory earlier… There’s a lady inside. Could it be her?”
“Hadley!” Eric’s face blazed with hope, the pallor melting into a flush of color. In mere seconds, his emotions catapulted from despair to euphoria.
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“Where is she?”
“This way!”
People instinctively moved aside, parting like a tide as someone approached. Eric pushed through without hesitation, closing the distance in a matter of seconds until he reached the lavatory door.
Standing just outside, a flight attendant tended to a trembling girl. She gently wrapped a blanket around her and offered a cup of water.
“Mr. Scott will be here any moment now…”
“Hadley!” With long strides, Eric rushed forward, yanking the blanket away with one hand while gripping the girl’s arm with the other.
“Ah!” Terror flooded her face. Her voice cracked as she recoiled. “Why are you touching me?!”
That stopped Eric cold. He hadn’t just startled the girl—he had stunned himself, too.
“Who are you?” Eric said sharply, narrowing his eyes.
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