Chapter 149: Chapter 149: A Roadside Ambush

Melody Summers went downstairs and found that Winnie Summers and Colin Summers were already home, but her aunt, Grace Sutton, had yet to return.

Grace had mentioned she would be working overtime at the clothing factory for a couple of days to meet a deadline. She said she might be late and that they shouldn’t wait for her to eat dinner.

But the Summers family wanted to eat together, so they sat in the living room, watching TV and waiting for Grace to come home.

By a little after 8:00 PM, Grace still hadn’t returned, and everyone was starting to worry.

Just as Colin Summers was about to call her, they heard the sound of the front door opening.

Colin hurried to the door. "Honey, you’re finally back..."

But the words caught in his throat.

Grace Sutton wasn’t alone. She was flanked by two people: Joanna Dunn on one side, and, to his astonishment, Officer Roman Rhodes on the other.

Colin froze on the spot. "Wh-what’s going on?" he asked, completely stunned.

Supported by Roman and Joanna, Grace limped through the door. "Don’t even ask," she grumbled. "On the way home, we ran into some sons of bitches trying to stage a roadside kidnapping."

Colin rushed forward to help his wife, his heart aching as he guided her into the living room.

The rest of the Summers family was startled as the group entered. "Officer Rhodes? Miss Joanna? Why are you all here?" Melody asked in surprise.

Colin and Joanna helped Grace sit down on the sofa. Seeing her limp, their grandmother jumped in alarm. "Grace, dear, what happened to you?" she asked quickly.

Before Grace could answer, Officer Rhodes explained, "They encountered roadside kidnappers on their way home. It’s a group that uses the cover of darkness to commit their crimes. But you can rest assured, after tonight’s incident, all of them have been apprehended."

With that, Officer Rhodes excused himself. He had to get back to his patrol; he had only been dropping Joanna and Grace off on his route and couldn’t stay.

After Officer Rhodes left, Joanna looked guilt-ridden. "I’m so sorry," she said. "When it comes down to it, this is all my fault... It was my foolish kindness that caused all this trouble for everyone..."

Grace immediately grabbed Joanna’s hand to comfort her. "How could you possibly blame yourself? You were just trying to be kind. Who could’ve known they were a bunch of bastards?"

Melody and the others were completely in the dark and pressed them for details about what had happened.

As Grace and Joanna recounted the tale, the family pieced together the sequence of events.

Apparently, Joanna had picked up Grace from work as usual. On the drive home, they saw a woman with a child blocking the road, seemingly trying to get their help.

The driver was about to steer around them and keep going, but the woman suddenly dropped to her knees in the middle of the road.

Joanna had a soft heart. ’I have a driver and two bodyguards with me,’ she thought. ’Out there, it’s just a woman and a child. It should be safe enough to stop and see what’s wrong.’

So, despite Grace’s warnings, she rolled down the window to ask if they needed help.

Unexpectedly, the woman scooped up her child and yelled into the car, "Please, save my child!"

The child was covered in blood, a horrifying sight in the car’s headlights.

Fearing for the child’s life, Joanna quickly got out of the car with one of her bodyguards to take a look.

The moment they stepped out, a van pulled up. Four men jumped out and tried to drag Joanna and the bodyguard into their vehicle.

It was pitch black on a road with no streetlights; Grace and the others hadn’t seen the van at all before it pulled up.

The other bodyguard and the driver immediately jumped out of the car and began to scuffle with the four men.

Just then, the woman who had been on the ground suddenly pulled out a knife, scrambled to her feet, and lunged at Joanna.

Grace had already hit the panic button. Seeing the new threat, she rushed out of the car, pulled out a stun gun, and zapped the knife-wielding woman from behind.

The woman convulsed from the shock and collapsed.

In the struggle, she managed to slash Grace’s calf with the knife.

Luckily, Officer Rhodes and his team were patrolling nearby. They heard the alarm and came running.

The officers got out and subdued all of the kidnappers.

Joanna’s eyes were filled with remorse. "It’s all my fault," she said over and over. "I was wrong. I shouldn’t have told the driver to stop, and I definitely shouldn’t have gotten out..."

Joanna was consumed by regret and self-blame. ’I swear,’ she thought, ’I’ll never be so naively compassionate again!’

Seeing Joanna’s tormented expression, the family members all tried to comfort her again.

"It’s not your fault," the grandmother said. "It’s those goddamn kidnappers! Using a child as bait... they’re completely heartless!"

Grace agreed. "That’s right, you can’t blame yourself. That child was covered in blood. My heart ached just looking at him. Who could have possibly known... Ugh!"

The kidnappers had deliberately wounded the child to lure in passersby for their kidnapping and robbery scheme.

By the time the police arrived, the blood-soaked child had already stopped breathing...

As everyone comforted her, Joanna finally began to recover from her guilt. She arranged with Grace to call in a couple of days when her leg was feeling better, insisting she would still drive Grace to and from work.

After Joanna left, the Summers family crowded around to check Grace’s injury. Seeing their worried faces, Grace quickly reassured them, "It’s nothing, really. The cut isn’t big or deep. It’s already been treated."

But Melody was still worried. "Aunt Grace, you should still go to the hospital tomorrow to have it looked at."

Seeing their serious expressions, Grace hesitated before relenting. "All right... It’s just so expensive to go to the hospital."

Then she sighed again, complaining, "But now I’ll have to take a couple of days off from work until the cut heals. Ugh, those bastards. This is going to hold up the factory’s schedule."

Colin looked at his wife’s injured leg, his heart aching. He hesitated before saying, "Honey, it’s really not safe out there right now. Maybe you should quit your job for a while... at least until the long nights are over?"

The moment he suggested she stop working, Grace refused. She frowned and said, "Absolutely not. The factory has a state-assigned contract. We have several shipments of winter clothes that have to be delivered in the next two months. They can’t manage without me!"

There was another reason Grace didn’t mention. The factory originally had six experienced managers. Two had died during the heat wave last year, and another two, unable to bear the high temperatures, had left Anworth for cities farther north.

Now, only Grace and one other manager were left to run everything. She truly couldn’t afford to be away.

Besides, her boss had promised her a substantial bonus, and Grace couldn’t bear to lose that money. Her son, Ian, wasn’t married yet, and she needed to save money for his future.

In their household, Grace always had the final say. Seeing her determination, Colin knew it was pointless to argue further.

Everyone knew how stubborn Grace could be, so no one else tried to persuade her either. The grandmother sighed. "You’re just so headstrong, dear. What will you do if you run into danger again?"

Grace smiled. "It’ll be fine once we get this rush order finished. It’s only for another month or two. Besides, we only got into trouble because we took a shortcut. Next time, we’ll stick to the main roads. There are police patrols on every section. It’ll be fine, so don’t you worry."

Grace thought for a moment, then added with a touch of pride, "And what’s more, Officer Rhodes said these weren’t just ordinary kidnappers. They found a gun on one of the men! It’s a good thing we reacted quickly, or they might not have been caught!"

Melody froze at her words. ’Armed robbers again?’ she thought. ’Could they be connected to the group that broke into The Metropolis Residences a few months ago?’

*

After reading the report from his subordinate, Flynn Adler slammed his phone down in frustration, grabbed a glass from the table, and threw back a large gulp of liquor. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The harsh burn of the alcohol down his throat barely managed to quell the fire raging inside him.

The last couple of days had been one frustrating disaster after another for Flynn Adler.

First, the joint business the Adler and Hayes Families were running out of the Oceanus Hotel came under investigation, forcing him to hastily relocate his operations.

Then, Sylvia Lancaster had messaged him to say she’d lost the baby. A five-month-old male fetus, gone just like that.

Yesterday, another report came in: a few of his people had run into the police during a job. Four men and one woman, all captured. That team of five was his top-performing crew, and now, just like that, they were gone.

Flynn had been furious when he got the news yesterday. His client was in urgent need of a kidney and corneas and had already called to complain several times. The kidnapping had not only failed, but his people had gotten arrested.

Just then, another message from Sylvia Lancaster buzzed through. Flynn didn’t even bother to look at it. He threw the phone aside and violently knocked back a few more gulps of his drink.