Unexpected Marriage With Mr. Leighton: Rebirth of the Villain-Chapter 308: THE PHONE CALL

River placed her finger in front of her lips, urging Archie to remain silent. "Do you want to see your mother?" She asked.

River found Archie in his bedroom. He was hugging himself under the cover, crying silently. The little boy startled when he felt someone pull down the cover.

Thankfully, Archie didn’t say anything. He even stopped sobbing. His eyes widened when he heard what River said.

"I want my Mama," Archie whimpered. Tears streamed down his cheeks.

River could see the resemblance to Logan in the boy. Although he must have taken after his mother, he had some features that reminded her of Logan, especially his eyes.

"Don’t cry. I will take you to your mother, but I need you to help me too, okay?" River stretched out her hand and wiped his tears.

He blinked his eyes in confusion, looking slightly afraid of River’s proposal. He shook his head. "No... they are scary. They said if I try to run away, they will break my legs."

River raised her brows. They threatened a child that way? Wow...

"Do you want to meet with your mother?" River asked again gently, but more firmly this time. She felt so terrible manipulating this young boy.

However, the only way River could think of was to use him. Those people wouldn’t pay close attention to him, unlike River.

"But..."

River took both of his hands. She smiled softly. If it were her in the past, she wouldn’t have tried this method. She didn’t use to be really fond of children until she had one. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"It’s okay, I know you are afraid, but I am here to help you out. Your mother and... Logan sent me here to save you."

"Do you know him?" Archie beamed. "I know he will save me."

River was not lying. She had every intention of saving this young boy before Logan kidnapped her daughter. She was very furious with Logan and had a strong desire to kill him, but her anger was not enough to leave Archie behind.

Damn. She grew soft after she had her own daughter—if she still could say Ashlyn was her daughter.

"Yes, that’s why you need to help me too. What do you say?" River caressed Archie’s head when he nodded in agreement.

"What should I do? Don’t ask me to do something difficult. I am afraid; they are so scary." Archie looked as if he was about to cry again.

River shook her head. "No, of course not. It is easy, but first of all, do you know all the places in the house?"

Archie contemplated for a while. "I think so... Ariel loves to play hide and seek, so I go around the house. This house is big."

"Is there any area that you are not allowed to come to?"

"Aside from the basement and Mr. Scar’s bedroom, I am also not allowed to go out of the gates, but they allow me to go anywhere."

"Great. Can you draw the area in this house for me?"

Even though Logan could be a dickhead, at least his son was smart.

***

"The phone cannot be tracked down. The phone call was also too short to capture anything. There was no background noise. I think she was inside a room."

Cam had a headache; he kneaded his forehead. He had not yet slept for twenty-four hours since this woman named River called.

"We can’t find her or know where she is. We can only wait for the phone call again."

Ranon had not been sleeping for two days straight ever since that phone call came. He spent his day in the office.

Therefore, instead of going back home, he asked Laurel to bring Ashlyn during the day and returned when it was evening, while Ranon stayed in his office.

As a result, there were so many toys that clattered all over his office and the private room inside.

"Go back, Ranon. You have been here for days." Lucian stretched his body. He was very exhausted. He and Ares took turns to accompany Ranon, just in case he was going to do something dangerous impulsively.

However, Ranon didn’t listen to him. He kept staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring.

On the other hand, Lucian had learned his lesson that he wouldn’t be able to convince Ranon otherwise once he was fixed on something.

Therefore, he gave up and climbed onto the sofa to sleep there. "Arthur will be here in two hours. I will take a nap for a while." Lucian yawned. "Are you sure you want to involve him? That can be a prank."

"She is his daughter. He will recognize her voice."

Ranon kept replying to the conversation between Valerie and River through his earbuds. River’s voice... He didn’t recognize it at all.

She was obviously not Hazel...

His wife was dead because of his incompetence.

***

River fiddled with the phone in her hand; she had had it for two days now. Rafael noticed that his phone was missing when they arrived at the house. He had asked the hospital staff to look for it inside River’s ward, but they couldn’t find it.

Rafael had tried to track it down, but the phone was not active.

River knew Rafael would do that; therefore, she turned the phone off. For that reason, she couldn’t make another phone call.

She would only have one more chance to use it, unless Rafael tracked it back to her and found out that she was planning to run away.

It was in the middle of the night, and River was waiting for Archie to come to the kitchen. She was cooking something for herself while Rafael was away for two days. It was a perfect time for them to leave this place.

Five minutes later, Archie came to the kitchen. He was still very timid around her, and she assumed this was his nature, which was good, since no one would have thought he was capable of stealing something.

"Do you want some noodles?" River asked when Archie approached her. She lowered her voice and added. "You need to have extra strength. We will have to run a lot tonight."

"I am a good runner," Archie said.

"Good." River patted his head. "Did you get it?"

"Yes."

***

"That’s her. That is her voice," Arthur said when he listened to the recording of the conversation between Valerie and River. "I know her voice. I know it’s her! Where is she? Where did you get this?!"

Arthur became very emotional as he raised his voice, which woke Lucian.

"You have tracked down the phone call, right?!" Arthur was heaving, while Rye calmed him down and told him to sit down.

However, Arthur was pacing back and forth instead. He was unable to calm down.

"I have tried to track down the call, but this one is untraceable," Ranon said and then explained briefly everything that happened in the past two days, ever since they got the phone call.

"Why did you only tell me now?"

Ranon didn’t like the tone that Arthur used. "I planned not to tell you at all."

Arthur glared viciously at him, but he said nothing. River had nothing to do with Ranon, so it was understandable that he couldn’t care less about her.

But there was something that no one could understand about: why was Ranon so fixated on River?

"So, what is your progress? What are you going to do now? What is the plan?" Arthur bombarded Ranon with questions.

He knew River was still alive. When he learned that he had buried the wrong body and someone had pulled the trick behind the scenes to make it as if River had died, he knew she was alive somewhere.

Or else, why would someone go the extra mile to play such a trick?

"We will wait for the next phone call, unless you have another idea," Lucian chimed in. He stretched out his body and yawned. "We have been waiting for the phone call for two days." He glanced at his watch. "Three days now," he corrected himself.

"That’s it? Is that all we are going to do? Waiting?"

"Do you have any other plans? We are all ears," Lucian said lightly. He stood up and was about to walk toward the bathroom to wash his face when suddenly the phone rang in the middle of Arthur’s rambling.

The room fell into silence when Ranon picked up the call.

"Hello?"

This was the familiar voice that Ranon heard countless times through the recorder.

"River?" Ranon put it on speaker, so everyone in the room could hear her voice. Arthur was visibly trembling when he heard her voice again.

It had been almost four years since the last time he heard her voice. Even through the phone, he knew it was his daughter without any doubts.

There was a long pause from the other end, as if River was shocked someone picked up her phone call, especially when it was Ranon himself.

"Ranon? Is that you?" Her voice was slightly trembling. She was breathing heavily as if she were running.

Was she running away from someone?

"Where are you?" Ranon asked immediately.

If they were not in shock, they would notice the strangeness in the way Ranon talked to River, as if he had known her for a long time.

It was not the way someone talked to a person they just met. No. They had never met before.

"I..." River must feel the confusion too, but she told him right away where she was.

"Stay there; I am on my way."