“What strange thing?”
Samuel spun around, and Dick was startled by him.
"The supplies of our ship are rationed, but since we left the Back Sea, the supplies have been reduced,
and the ship's medical kits have disappeared. Everyone thought there was a thief, but no one
suspicious was found. As you know, this is a freighter, and we have a certain number of sailors on
board, but we have less food every day, and at last, we had no choice and went ashore the city nearby
to gather some food, and then we came back. Otherwise we wouldnt have survived.”
Hearing this, Samuel's hope lit up again.
"Your food is all rationed?"
"Yes!"
“No one stole it?"
“It can't be! Our sailors are professionally trained, and as they have been at sea for a long time, it is
impossible to be unruly. Everyone knows that, at sea, food and fresh water are the basic things that
keep us alive, so no one would do that. But since we pass by the Back Sea in the United States, our
food and fresh water have been decreasing, and we cant find who ate it. It is really strange. A lot of
people said the ship might be haunting.”
As Dick said so, he looked not well.
Sometimes after a long time at sea, many people would believe some legends. No matter whether they
were scientific or not, they had to believe them. After all, no one could find a reasonable explanation.
Samuel didn't think so.
The food and water couldn't disappear into thin air, especially that they lost the medical kit.
Medicine kit?
Did someone get hurt?
Could it be Nicole?
“Can I go up and check it?”
"Yes!"
Dick knew that Samuel, the President of Eternal Group, had shipped cargo too, and of course he would
not mess up with anything. Besides, the Director of the Port always brought in people himself who
wanted to see the cargo. He couldn't stop them.
Samuel and Jacob followed Dick to the freighter.
The freighter was large and wide, and seemed very empty with all its cargo unloaded.
When Samuel got on board, he asked, "Where do you usually rest?"
“We have our own room. All rest in yonder room.”
Dick pointed to the rest room.
Samuel went to check it. It was a dorm room, because all men lived in there, it was messy, and it
smelled stinky feet!
He held his nose for a look, then stepped back to make sure Nicole wasn't hiding there.
“Are there any other places where you can hide people?”
"Yes, but we've been down there, and there's nobody. We checked it several times.”
“Here,” said Dick, pointing to the store-house under the cabin, "We usually keep our private cargoes for
our families and children, which are piled up here. It is strange that the food and water is getting less,
but none of these private cargoes are lost.”
And when he heard Dick say so, Samuel went down and checked it.
Jacob stopped him at once.
“Mr. Green, let me go down. It's narrow down here, and it is damp.”
“I'll do it.
Samuel didn't care.
If he could find anything about Nicole, he wouldn't mind the dirty place at all.
Seeing him like this, Jacob did not stop him and made way for him.
Samuel walked down from Jacob.
The storehouse was so low that Samuel had to bend down, unable to straighten himself all the way.
The warehouse smelled damp, but because the goods had been removed, it was empty and clear.
There was no way to hide people here.
Samuel felt a little disappointed.
Where would Nicole be if she weren't here?
Would it be possible that she did not climb up all alone, but with others?
Samuel guessed.
Jacob could not see any clues. It was very smelly there and he said in a low voice, “Mr. Green, we'd
better go up first.”
Samuel didn't say a word, looked at it again, and even walked around every coke oven in the
warehouse. Suddenly, he found some hairs.
Those were woman's long hair!
They were about the same length as Nicole's, and a few of them were stuck in a corner of the
warehouse. Because it was dark, it was hard to see them. Samuel would not have found it if he had not
walked very carefully round it.
He quickly pulled back the long hair, carefully put it up, then whispered, “Let's go back."
"Yes."
Jacob helped Samuel out of the warehouse.
When Dick saw them coming out, and they seemed to have found nothing. “That's all I know, Mr.
Green,” he whispered.
"Thank you.” Samuel said softly, and walked away.
Seeing that Samuel didn't find the clue he wanted, the Director of the Port said embarrassedly, "Mr.
Green, I'm sorry that..."
“It’s fine, thank you."
"You're welcome.”
Samuel left the port and said to Jacob, "Check every port they have anchored to see if anyone has
landed”
"Yes!"
Samuel returned to the Seapolis City in the first place, handing over the long hair to the forensics
department and compared it with the DNA Nicole had left.
And then the result came out. It was indeed Nicole's hair.
Samuel’ suddenly got excited!
She was still alive!
She was not dead!
She came back in a freighter.
But where was she now?
Samuel didn't know about it. It felt like the clue he just found was now disappeared.
He told Audrey the good news.
Audrey was also very excited.
When the people in the Don Family knew Audrey was back, they called Audrey and arranged to meet
her. Audrey asked Samuel to accompany her and Samuel didn't refuse.
They met at the Hilton Hotel.
Years later, when Jason and Mrs. Don saw Audrey, they both froze.
Even though the years had left their mark on Audrey's face, Jason and Mrs. Don still recognized
Audrey at a glance.
“Minister Shaw."
Jason spoke politely.
"I've already submitted my resignation,” said Audrey faintly, "I'm not a minister now. You can call me
Audrey.
Mrs. Don kept looking at Audrey and suddenly said, "Are you the girlfriend of my oldest son, Xander?"
“Yes.
Audrey took Mrs. Don at ease and told her all about it.
Mrs. Don sobbed after hearing this.
“If I had known you were pregnant, I would have brought you back to the Don family.”
“Mrs. Don, it is fate.” Audrey also felt helpless.
How could she have left her child if she had not been cornered?
At that time, Xander went to the war, and she had to take the diplomat exam due to the pressure from
her family. Unexpectedly, she passed the exam.
But she was pregnant and could not go to school. The conditions were harsh then, and it took a lot of
efforts for Audrey to keep it out of the political trials. When she knew she was pregnant, she had to
apply for a leave of absence, saying that she had a strange illness that needed treatment.
At that time, her idea was very simple. Xander quietly joined the army and went to the war, regardless
of her feelings. Then she would be admitted to be a diplomat and become an excellent diplomat. She
wanted him to know that she was not a drag for him.
But she did not think that they would be set apart forever.
Mrs. Don felt really bad after hearing all this.
“Xander told me before joining the army that he had a beloved girlfriend, but the life in the army was
very hard and if you had no rank and military merit, it was forbidden for soldiers to develop a romantic
relationship in the first three years. At the time, Xander said he would come back and propose to you if
he could get over the three years. Unfortunately, when he came back, you were gone. Xander was so
regretful that he didn't leave any contact information to you. He had been looking for you for
a long time, but he hadn't heard from you."
"I had already gone to the Foreign Ministry, which is a state secret agency, and all my schedules are
secret, so he couldn't find me.”
Audrey had no idea that Xander had come back to find her and perhaps if she knew it, they would have
met again.
Mrs. Don was very upset when she talked about her eldest son.
“You are the only woman my son has ever loved in his life. He said if he couldn't find you, he'd give
everything he had to his troops and his country. He spent most of his holidays looking for you, but there
was no news, and at last he returned to the army in despair. Since then, he has hardly been back, and
when we heard new of him, it was the news of his death. Inside his belongings were all the pictures of
you. I have known you, and seen your portrait twenty years ago, though we have never met.”
The old lady's eyes were red.
Audrey was also upset.
Jason gave Audrey Xander's belongings.
“My brother said that one day if we could see you, he asked us to give you these things.”
Audrey took it and saw that in addition to her portrait, there was a watch.
It was an old watch that Audrey had bought for Xander not long after they had established their
relationship.
Xander joked at the time that as long as the watch was there, he would be there. Audrey was angry as
he said the unfortunate remark.
Now the watch was broken, and Audrey's tears kept running down.
The watch was still here, but where was Xander?
Audrey clutched the watch tightly and cried, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I lost the child. I lost Nicole. I'm
sorry.”
Mrs. Don took her hand and said, "It’s fine. We now know that Nicole is the child of the Don family, but
Mr. Bush and Mrs. Bush haven't known about it. We have to discuss about it. Mr. Bush and Mrs. Bush
raised Nicole for more than 20 years. They thought that Nicole was his own daughter. How could they
bear it if we tell them that Nicole is the child of the Don family's child?"
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