Imperfect Desires

285 A Silent Storm

While there were laughter and happiness spread around Jing Family house on this fine Friday night, all the way at the Xin villa, dark clouds were looming around. The entire villa seemed to have been stuck in a storm. However, it was a silent storm.

As Darren took a step inside the villa, he could feel the heavy and depressing aura in the air. Earlier, he was supposed to join Xiu for dinner with her family but he suddenly received a call from Xin Xiaoli and he chose to come here instead. Because as soon as he heard that something was wrong with Ah-Si, he couldn't stop himself from coming all the way here.

\"Can you please eat something first?\" he heard Xin Xiaoli's frustrated voice as he entered the lounge area.

There Xin Xiaosi was sitting on the ground, hugging his knees he had buried his face down. While Xin Xiaoli was trying to persuade him to eat something.

\"What's the situation?\"

Hearing Darren's voice, Xin Xiaoli tilted his head and found Darren at the doorway. He immediately dragged him inside and said, \"Can you please ask him to eat anything? He hasn't eaten anything for the past two days.\"

Darren's eyes widened at this revelation. He sat down beside Xin Xiaosi and shook his shoulder. \"Oi! Why are you acting like a kid? Eat something before your brother really loses his mind.\"

\"I don't want to, Darren,\" came a reply in a low and extremely hoarse voice.

Hearing that voice, Darren felt like he had been crying. So, he directly held his head and made him look up. Indeed, Ah-Si's eyes were red and puffy. But the worst part was the desolation in his gaze.

\"What happened to you?\" Xin Xiaosi stayed quiet for a long moment which simply enhanced Darren's worry. He was feeling perturbed and his intuition told him that whatever it was, it wasn't gonna sound good.

Sure enough, Xin Xiaosi hugged him and started sobbing again, \"Darren, I'm the worst father in the whole world. I couldn't even take care of my daughter!\"

Darren's heart shook at the million possibilities, \"What are you saying? What exactly do you mean? Where is Ava? Tell me!\"

But he didn't get any answer from Xin Xiaosi. With a sigh, Xin Xiaoli patted his brother's back as he related the whole incident, \"On Wednesday, his friend who was taking care of Ava in New York was gonna bring her here. In the morning he received a call and ran to the airport. He waited for the flight for hours but his friend Emily came alone.\"

\"What do you mean?\"

\"She lost Ava at the airport.\"

\"What?!\" Darren was shocked.

Apparently, when his friend had collected the luggage, she placed Ava in the luggage trolly while trying to deal with the customs. But during that short moment, the little girl of three years vanished into thin air. Xin Xiaosi had checked the security footage and got to see that Ava had indeed crawled down from the trolly herself and with her tiny legs ran around at the airport. However, after the little girl had made her way out of the airport all on her own, hiding in another person's luggage, she was nowhere to be found.

The girl hugging Ah-Si at the airport whom Nora saw was, in fact, his friend Emily who was just as much depressed as Ah-Si himself. She was apologizing to Ah-Si again and again for her slight moment of carelessness. He was trying to placate her while he had completely lost his soul the moment he heard that his daughter was missing. She was the only one he had and he couldn't even imagine losing his reason to live.

\"What about the police?\" asked Darren.

\"Already working on it but its been two days we still have no clue about her whereabouts.\" Xin Xiaoli was already stressed because of his own project and suddenly Ah-Si told him this news. He really didn't know what was going to happen now.

\"What if someone kidnapped her?\" asked Xin Xiaosi with tears falling from his eyes.

\"That's a possibility we can't omit as well.\" Agreed Darren.

\"For the time being, can you convince him to eat? He needs some energy to find his daughter as well! He has already fainted twice today,\" told Xin Xiaoli while rubbing his temples that were throbbing now.

\"Li is right. Ah-Si, you should eat something first,\" Darren also tried to coax Ah-Si into eating something but the latter was as stubborn as a mule.

\"I can't eat! I don't want to eat! I don't even know how my baby girl is right now. Just how can I eat?\" Ah-Si suddenly bellowed in exasperation. He was tired of all of this. Just how could anyone expect him to eat anything when he didn't even know if his little baby girl ate anything or not. He was holding his hands together as if praying as he kept mumbling, \"Ava, baby please be safe. Daddy is sorry for leaving you alone but don't punish me like this. I'll really die without you. Please, God! Keep my daughter safe and bring her back to me already.\"

Darren was also quite helpless in this situation. He knew both Xin brothers must have done everything they could but if the result was still like this then...

\"Why don't you ask your dad for help?\" His suggestion earned him a stare from both brothers. \"Don't look at me like that. There is a rumor in our business circle, Xin Zimen can find a person even in hell! I really think you both should now come clean to your dad before it's too late already.\"

Xin Xiaoli thought about his suggestion calmly and said, \"Ah-Si, I think Darren is right. We should really seek dad's help now. I know he'll be angry but it's better than losing Ava.\"

'Losing Ava?' Ah-Si shuddered visibly as he held his brother's hand and said, \"I don't mind. Talk to dad. I just want my daughter back safe and sound. I don't even mind him beating at this point.\"