Chapter 281
Roxanne was about to tell Lucian she could manage to pull herself up when he hugged her even more tightly.
“Don’t move. Otherwise, it will be difficult for me to climb up.” His voice sounded a little hoarse.
Roxanne felt a brief surge of strange emotion in her chest as she listened to his voice. She stayed still afterward and allowed him to carry her out of the hole.
She broke away from his embrace right after they safely escaped the pit.
“Mrs-Ms. Jarvis, you are so kind to Ms. Estella.” Cayden could not help but say wistfully.
He had been utterly shocked when he saw Roxanne hugging Estella at the bottom of the pit earlier.
Cayden was already surprised that Roxanne was willing to venture deep into the forest in the middle of the night to search for Estella. Unexpectedly, Roxanne even located Estella before
them in the wilderness.
If it weren’t for Roxanne, they wouldn’t have known how long they needed to search.
Roxanne pursed her lips and smiled. “This is my obligation.”
Lucian gazed at her and piped up, “It’s not your fault.”
Roxanne was dazed for a few seconds before she made sense of his words. When she realized that he was comforting her, she did not know how to react.
“Essie ran oui in anger after she quarreled with Aubree. I am to be blamed for this matter. Essie is a wilful child. I did not stop Aubree in time and took proper care of Essie,” Lucian explained sombrely Roxanne felt a little less guilty after listening to him. She pursed her lips and expressed her gratitude to Lucian, “Thank you.”
Lucian bent down to pick up the torchlight on the ground and said with all seriousness, “I should thank you instead. Thank you for locating Essie.”
If Roxanne had not found Estella first, they might not have been able to discover this pit the latter had fallen into,
They had walked in that direction earlier because they coincidentally noticed the light originating from Roxanne’s torchlight.
Roxanne glanced at Estella, who was now resting in Cayden’s arms. “I wonder how Essie is. She was here for so long. She must be scared out of her wits. She couldn’t stop crying just now.” Roxanne’s heart ached when she was reminded of the way Estella bawled her eyes out earlier.
Lucian was in low spirits as well. “We can only check her condition when we return.
Holding Estella in his arms, Cayden uttered sympathetically, “Ms. Estella doesn’t seem to have sustained any serious external injuries. I’m just afraid that…”
Estella suffered from psychological illness to begin with. Cayden was fearful that the unfortunate incident would traumatize her and aggravate her existing condition.
Lucian and Roxanne could guess the rest of Cayden’s unfinished sentence. Their faces darkened at that possibility.
Along the way back, everyone kept quiet as a heavy atmosphere lingered in the air.
After arriving at the hotel, Lucian informed the good news of locating Estella in the WhatsApp group before contacting his mother. Then, he instructed Cayden to handle the checkout procedure while he brough Estella, Roxanne, Archic, and Benny back to the city and headed straight to the hospital.
Inside the car, Archie and Benny eyed Estella concernedly. “Mommy, will Essie be fine?”
Roxanne patted their heads and comforted them, “She’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
Archie and Benny looked up at their mother and said with their hearts aching, “Mommy, you’re losing your voice.”
She smiled at them without saying a word.
Roxanne could not care less about losing her voice as long as she could find Estella.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Lucian gazed intently at Roxanne and the little girl in her arms through the rearview mirror with an unfathomable look on his face.
Soon, the car came to a halt outside the entrance of the hospital.
Cayden got out of the car, received Estella from Roxanne, and hurried into the hospital.