Middle Child Syndrome - Chapter 373

Chapter 373: Ch 373: Getting Answers from them
“Hello! Emily, you called quite early today. What can I help you with?”

Natasha Goodwill’s heart was racing, and a sense of urgency crept in. She sensed something was amiss, but the gravity of the situation had yet to fully dawn on her.

She knew she needed to keep calm, or she would lose herself. She needed to believe that nothing happened and things would be fine.

“Alpha Goodwill, I need you to brace yourself to hear what I say to you. Please, don’t panic after hearing my next words. Rika has gone missing. The cruise ship she was on sank to the bottom, and we don’t have Rika among the surviving people.” The words hit Natasha like a ton of bricks, leaving her stunned and speechless.

The words hit Natasha like a ton of bricks, leaving her stunned and speechless.

Don’t start overthinking. I will brief you on this incident in the next ten minutes. Read it before you do anything.”

Emily seemed to be barely holding herself back from erupting in tears, which told Natasha how dire the situation was.

She turned ashen, the shock of the news hitting her like a tidal wave. She tried to heed Emily’s advice, but it seemed futile in the face of such a sudden and devastating event.

“Mother, what happened? Are you alright? Do you need me to…mother!”

Natasha stood up to calm herself down, but her legs gave up as soon as she put any pressure on them.

She tried to gasp for breath, but it suddenly felt so painful to try and breathe. Natasha was not in a happy state of mind right now.

Her husband noticed that Natasha was not doing well, and he quickly kicked Mark to the side and closed his arms around Natasha to pull her close to his chest.

“It will be fine, Natasha! Take deep breaths, and don’t think much about anything else. Everything will be alright. Yes, do it like this. Do you feel calmer now?”

Natasha looked at her husband from where she was tightly clutching his clothes. Having something to hold on to and ground herself with was nice.

Every time the older alpha closed her eyes, she could see Rika’s face looking back at her.

“Darling, take a deep breath and tell us what happened. You might feel better if you share the news of what happened.”

Her husband advised her, and despite Emily’s common sense telling her that it was a horrible idea, Emily decided to tell her family what happened.

The reaction was instantaneous. Mark almost collapsed, and as soon as he heard the news, her husband had gone pale as well.

It was a big shock to hear about what happened to Rika.

“I will call for help and investigation right now. Since this is a fresh incident, we might be able to recover Rika’s body from the ship-”

“She’s not dead! Rika has to be alive! Even if she is not among the rescued people, Rika is resourceful enough to make her way out of this troublesome situation alive somehow. So, we must look for her, keeping this in mind!”

Mark reminded his mother and father about this. He looked sure about Rika being alive, which made Natasha feel slightly comforted.

If Mark could believe in Rika being alive, she also needed to believe in it.

Minutes passed into hours as Natasha and Mark called up every contact they could think of to help them. They forgot about everything else and focused on what was happening around Rika.

Natasha’s husband was the first to realize that Suzie did not come down for breakfast.

He called for Suzie’s maid to ask what happened, but the maid simply shrugged and said that the young miss was not interested in breakfast or coming down.

This was not the first time this happened, and someone had gone to check up on Suzie every other time.

But for the first time, they all decided not to do that and focused on Rika instead. As Natasha noticed later, that turned out to be a mistake.

They only found out that Suzie was not at home sometime around the next day when Mark went to check up on her.

And that caused the family’s worries to become even worse.

So, when Suzie returned in the condition she did, it was obvious that no one would be happy about her return.

Suzie had caused unnecessary panic, and she refused to say why she had gone out in the first place.

“Ugh, I cannot take it anymore! I feel like I am losing my mind! Suzie is an adult, so she should know better. Mom! Mom! Where are you going? Wait! I will come with you.”

Mark looked at his mother, who suddenly decided to stand up and leave the house.

She had a determined expression on her face, and Mark was afraid that she could kill someone today.

He needed her to stay out of prison so that she could help look for Rika.

“Don’t worry, Mark! I am not going to kill someone…at least, not yet. I would, however, like to hear why all this happened from the mouth of the one who caused this mess. Ren Li needs to give me answers and give them to me fast.”

Natasha cracked her knuckles in an intimidating manner as she sat down in the car and started driving. She had a person to meet and get answers from and could not wait to get to him.

Mark suddenly feared this confrontation but knew he could not back down and refused to go.

He needed to be the mediator and ensure that both parties emerged alive and with a somewhat functioning relationship.

When her mother barged into his office, he expected to see Ren Li angry. But he did not expect to see his grandmother, Alpha Lawlock, sitting there and planning something with Ren Li.

Mark knew that his grandmother did not like to participate in the mafia.

So, to see her here was suspicious indeed.