Chapter 39: Saving the Kidnapped Little Boy

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Saving the Kidnapped Little Boy

Manager Collins stared at Rian Sinclair in shock. She turned and left right after speaking, leaving him staring at her retreating back, her words echoing endlessly in his mind.

He thought, "So what if I rely on my connections?

"I have the connections to rely on!"

But recalling everything he had just experienced, Peter Collins felt a wave of delayed fear. This time, his own connections probably wouldn’t be enough to save him.

Rian stepped out of the teahouse and got into her car. Suddenly, she felt the urgent call of nature. Seeing no public restrooms nearby, and knowing the nearest one was quite a distance away, she drove to the closest shopping center.

Right after taking care of her pressing need and preparing to leave the stall, she heard a flurry of hurried footsteps followed by a child’s cries.

Just as Rian’s hand touched the restroom door handle, a shrill female voice pierced the air. "You little brat, if you don’t stop crying, I’ll kill you! Damn it, you’ve been a thorn in my side at home, but I finally caught a break today. Tiger will be here any minute. You can follow him to North Boro, and he’ll make sure you’re well taken care of!"

"WAAAH... I want my mommy! I want my mommy! You bad woman, mmph—"

"Shut up, you little brat! Your deadbeat mother is long gone. Why didn’t you just go with her back then? Instead, you stuck around to ruin my life! Cry, cry, cry, that’s all you do! Are you mourning that dead bitch?"

Rian paused for a few seconds before pulling the stall door open and stepping out.

The two voices came to an abrupt halt.

The woman was covering the child’s mouth and pinning his arms behind his back. The boy looked to be about four or five years old.

Hearing the noise, the shrill-voiced woman snapped her head around. Seeing a young woman, she sneered viciously, "Get lost."

Taking advantage of the woman’s momentary lapse in focus, the little boy pried her hand away from his mouth. "Miss... save me..."

The woman immediately slapped her hand over his mouth again and glared menacingly. "Listen here, girlie, this has nothing to do with you. See that door? I suggest you leave while you can. Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong."

Rian stopped three paces away from the woman and leaned against the wall. "Auntie, kidnapping a child is a crime."

The woman hated nothing more than being called "Auntie"! And this girl was clearly doing it on purpose!

"Listen to me, you little tramp. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This isn’t something you can handle. You’d better leave now, because when Tiger gets here, a scrawny little thing like you will be beaten within an inch of your life."

Rian watched her quietly for a moment. She noticed the woman glancing at her watch every few seconds, which meant this ’Tiger’ was either running late or about to arrive.

Kidnapping a child was a serious crime. Usually, the timing was calculated down to the minute. This meant Tiger must have been held up by something.

To make a move right inside East Argent Mall... Rian didn’t know if this woman was incredibly stupid or if this Tiger was just incredibly brazen.

Rian stepped forward, twisted the woman’s grip off the boy, and pulled him behind her.

As she made her move, she casually remarked, "Don’t mind me, kiddo. I haven’t washed my hands yet, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

Her words didn’t just shock the little boy; the woman who had been holding him was completely thrown off too. It felt as though a highly dangerous situation had just been reduced to a comedy routine with a single sentence.

Because of the woman’s stunned hesitation, Rian managed to pry her hands away with ease.

The woman glared viciously at Rian. "What do you think you’re doing? I’m warning you, don’t look for trouble! This child is from my family. Why are you trying to snatch my kid?"

Rian patted the boy’s head to calm him down. He hid behind her, sobbing quietly.

"Auntie, I heard everything loud and clear from my stall. If you’re going to kidnap a child, at least come up with a decent excuse. That one is so pathetic even a dog would laugh at it."

"You... you!" The woman was so furious her entire face turned beet red, looking just like a baboon’s rear end.

Rian grabbed the boy’s hand and tried to step past her, but the woman immediately blocked their path.

"You’re not going anywhere! Leave the brat here, and you can... No! You can’t leave either! You’re both staying. I’ll package the two of you together and hand you over to Tiger!"

Rian looked at the woman blocking her way. She was skin and bones, tottering on towering high heels, and squeezed into a tight red minidress paired with flaming red lipstick. If one didn’t know any better, they’d think she had just escaped from a circus.

Too lazy to waste any more breath on her, Rian simply grabbed the woman’s shoulder, shoved her aside, and led the boy toward the exit.

The woman hadn’t expected Rian to just walk away like that. Snapping back to her senses, she lunged forward to grab Rian’s arm. But her sky-high heels betrayed her. She stumbled and face-planted rigidly onto the hard floor.

Hearing the heavy THUD, Rian glanced back to see the woman flat on her chest. She couldn’t help but mentally light a candle for the woman’s dignity. She crouched down, looking at the back of her head.

"Auntie, it’s best not to walk on stilts when you go out. This time you only fell in a restroom, but what would you do if you face-planted in the middle of a busy street?" Rian’s tone sounded genuinely concerned. After all, the streets were crowded; if she tripped and hurt a random pedestrian, it would be terribly unfair to the innocent bystander.

The woman lifted her head, her eyes boring into Rian’s face with pure malice. "You little brat, you’d better pray I never see you again. Otherwise, I’ll make you pay! You just wait!"

Rian was thoroughly tired of hearing such empty threats. Why did everyone nowadays love saying the exact same lines? She wondered, "Did she even graduate from elementary school?"

She had only meant to mock the woman internally, but she accidentally muttered the thought out loud. The woman spat back angrily, "So what if I didn’t graduate from elementary school?! I’m rich now! Do you know how much this handbag costs? A million bucks!"

Watching the woman frantically brag about her designer bag, Rian was genuinely at a loss for words. She calmly looked down at the little boy and pointed at the woman. "Is she mentally ill?" After all, the woman’s comeback was truly baffling.

The little boy shook his head innocently. "I don’t know."

Ignoring the woman’s furious shrieks behind them, Rian turned and led the boy out of the women’s restroom.

The child walked carefully by her side, his little hands anxiously twisting the hem of his shirt. He looked up and asked timidly, "Miss, thank you for saving me."

Having stepped out into the corridor, Rian stopped at the sinks to wash her hands. Seeing that the little boy was barely as tall as the counter, she grabbed a paper towel, wet it, and crouched down to wipe his hands clean.

Bringing herself to eye level with him, she said, "You need to be more careful next time, kiddo. Do you know that woman? What’s your family’s phone number? It’s best if we let the police handle this."

The boy was exceptionally good-looking, albeit a bit frail, but his clothes were clearly of the highest quality. Drawing on her extensive experience from reading web novels, Rian took a blind guess that this was some classic wealthy family inheritance drama.

"That lady is my daddy’s wife," the boy said, still fidgeting with his shirt. "Miss, we don’t need the police officers."

Rian didn’t press the issue. She figured she would wait until his guardians arrived to assess the situation. "So that lady walking on stilts is your stepmother? Did she bring you out here?"

The boy nodded, then corrected himself. "But I didn’t come here with Aunt Cora. I snuck out because I wanted to visit my mommy. I was planning to buy something at the mall, but then I bumped into Aunt Cora, and she dragged me into the restroom."

Rian nodded and pulled out her cell phone. "What’s your family’s number? I’ll call them to come pick you up."

"Miss, I can use my smartwatch," the little boy said, raising his wrist.

Rian silently put her phone away, then took the boy to the arcade to wait—and play—until his family arrived.