Chapter 186: What the Hell Are You Doing
"What? I... I don’t know! How would I know where she is?" Tiana Vaughn’s eyes darted around, unable to meet his gaze.
"Sean Yates, interrogate her until she talks!"
"Yes, sir!"
Asher Keating didn’t spare them another glance. He ran to his car, and as he jumped in, Riley Sterling scrambled into the passenger seat. "Asher, what’s going on?"
"Leah Sinclair has been kidnapped! Call Shawn Grant!"
"What? Holy shit!"
Riley Sterling quickly called Shawn Grant and told him to meet them at Leah Sinclair’s house. Asher floored it, driving in grim silence and paying no attention to the traffic around them.
They nearly crashed several times. Riley wanted to scream but choked it back down. By the time Asher finally screeched to a halt, Riley felt like he was going to be sick.
When they arrived, Asher leaped out of the car and sprinted to Leah’s house. His hands trembled as he tried to enter the code at the door, but every attempt failed.
Asher squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to calm down. He entered 001207. The door opened. The house was empty.
The men who had been standing guard downstairs all came up. They stared, dumbfounded, at the empty house, its lights still blazing.
Asher spun around, his expression murderous. He grabbed the nearest man by the collar. "Where is she?! You’re here every day! You don’t know when she went missing?"
"She... Second Miss Grant came out the evening before last to take out the trash and went right back in. She hasn’t been out since. She’s been pulling all-nighters lately, so we didn’t think anything of the lights being on all night. During the day... we didn’t notice the lights were on."
The man explained frantically. They really hadn’t noticed the lights were on during the day. The lights being on at night was normal, and Leah Sinclair sometimes wouldn’t leave the house for days, so they hadn’t thought much of it.
Sheila Hughes and Ethan Shaw arrived right after. "Leah!" Sheila cried, bursting in. Her eyes fell on the laptop, still glowing on the coffee table in the living room.
When she saw the rendering on the screen was complete, tears began to stream down her face again. Her legs gave out, and Ethan Shaw quickly guided her to the sofa.
When Nathan Grant arrived, she stormed up to Asher and grabbed him by the collar, her face flushed with anger. "Why was Leah kidnapped? Asher Keating, what the hell have you done!"
Chester Hale stepped forward and pulled her back. She was in the early stages of a high-risk pregnancy. He had wanted her to wait at home for news, but Nathan Grant had been too worried and insisted on coming along.
The scene that greeted her made Nathan’s heart pound with panic. If anything happened to Leah, Mabel Grant would lose her mind.
"It was Madeline Sterling."
"Who? Madeline Sterling? Isn’t she supposed to be abroad?"
At Asher’s words, everyone in the room froze. They couldn’t understand how Madeline Sterling could possibly be involved.
Asher carefully saved Leah’s render before his fingers began flying across the keyboard. His lips were pressed into a thin line, and an oppressive aura emanated from him. Seeing this, Edward Yates, who had just arrived, immediately started to explain.
"Over a month ago, the men the Young Master had watching Madeline Sterling abroad suddenly lost track of her. We investigated and found she had returned to the country, but there was no sign of anything unusual from the Sterling family."
"We were still searching for her when, half a month ago, the Young Master received an anonymous message promising him a ’good show.’ We guessed it was probably from Madeline Sterling. And right after that, Leah Sinclair returned to the country."
The moment Edward Yates finished speaking, Asher spun the laptop around. "This is a list of all Sterling family properties. If Madeline wants to hide someone, it’ll be in one of these places. Edward, get your men searching. Now."
"Yes, sir!"
Edward Yates quickly transferred the data to his phone. His explanation had answered some questions, but everyone was still confused. They knew, however, that this wasn’t the time for questions. The only thing that mattered was finding Leah.
Asher stood up and headed for the door. Shawn Grant quickly grabbed his arm. "Asher, where are you going?"
"To the Sterlings’."
"It’s no use. Morgan Sterling isn’t in the country. I just checked. He’s definitely still abroad."
Shawn Grant said quickly. While Asher had been giving orders, he had also mobilized his own men to search. He’d considered the possibility of Morgan’s involvement, but the response came back fast: Morgan Sterling was still abroad and hadn’t returned.
Asher’s lips pressed into a thin, hard line. Riverfall was a huge city. With no leads, finding one person here was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Leah groggily came to again. She could feel waves of cold sweat breaking out across her skin. The hypoglycemia was agonizing. Nausea churned in her stomach, but with her mouth taped shut, she couldn’t vomit. A loud ringing filled her ears.
Just as Leah felt herself about to pass out again, the tape over her mouth was violently ripped away. The sharp sting of pain cleared her head slightly. A piece of chocolate was shoved into her mouth.
Leah chewed instinctively. After a few minutes, the dizziness finally subsided. As the person moved to force some water on her, Leah suddenly spoke. "Are you... Madeline Sterling?"
The person’s hand froze. They let out a soft chuckle and ripped the black blindfold from Leah’s eyes. The sudden, blinding light made her instinctively squint. When she opened her eyes again, she was met with the sneering face of Madeline Sterling.
"I’m surprised. You actually guessed it was me?"
Leah stared blankly at the woman before her. She didn’t look that different from three years ago, yet at the same time, everything about her had changed. After a long moment, Leah asked weakly, "Why did you kidnap me?"
"Why? You have the nerve to ask me why!"
Madeline slapped her hard across the face, then grabbed a handful of her hair. "Three years ago," she snarled, her voice full of hate, "you and Asher Keating had me thrown back to Arcadia in disgrace. And you’re asking me *why*?"
Leah’s scalp burned with pain. She took a moment to recover before spitting out, "You brought that on yourself!"
"Brought it on myself?"
Furious, Madeline slapped Leah again. Her face twisted into a snarl, her voice dripping with venom. "Oh, ’I brought it on myself,’ is it? Well, what about you now?"
With that, Madeline shoved her to the ground and stood up, looking down contemptuously at Leah on the floor.
After a moment, Madeline began to laugh. "So, Leah, how does it feel? Asher was supposed to be yours, but now he’s fallen for someone else. And not just anyone—a substitute who looks just like you. Tell me, how does that feel?"
Leah’s vision swam with black spots as another wave of dizziness hit her. She bit her lip hard, the pain a fleeting anchor to consciousness. Looking up at Madeline, she could only see a silhouette standing against the harsh light, her face shrouded in shadow.
"So, after I left the country, you arranged for Tiana Vaughn to get close to Asher?"
"That’s right! Asher should have been mine! He loved *me*! It was all because you, you bitch, showed up and seduced him! If it weren’t for you, I would have married him long ago! You homewrecking slut!"
Madeline shrieked, crouching down again to yank Leah’s hair. "How does it feel? Watching him fall in love with someone else? Does it hurt? Are you heartbroken? Are you in agony?"
The sharp pain in her scalp cut through the dizziness, clearing Leah’s head for a moment. Madeline leaned in close, a strange, twisted smile on her lips. "I was the one who drugged him back then, but you were the lucky one who benefited. Tell me, how was he? After he took that drug... was he especially rough? Especially *good*?"