A Replacement Bride

Chapter 177

Anger rushed through Sally's veins after she heard Adam's criticism. "What's the use of shouting at me?! Is it my wish that Ryder is in this state now? The doctor already said that it's an injury to the nerves. What can be done about that? My poor child, why does he have such a tough life?"

"Enough!" Charles interjected in annoyance and looked at Ryder with a sullen face.

He had used a measured force earlier, and even though Ryder would be hurt, he wouldn't have sustained injuries on his spinal nerves, much more an injury as serious as being impotent. Recalling that Ryder was already on the floor and crying in pain when he entered the private room, he reckoned that Ryder was already hurt at that time.

"Joaquin's wife probably causes Ryder's injury," he said coldly.

"What?" Stunned, Sally and Adam turned to him with shocked faces.

"Stay here and take care of Ryder. I'm going out for a while," he said without telling them the details.

There was nothing Charles could do because of Joaquin's background. Not even if both the Flynn and Fanning families worked together could they touch a hair on Joaquin. Regardless, for a woman like Katherine, who didn't have any strong background, he could easily kill her thousands of times.

After leaving the ward, he paced to the side and finished a cigarette. Then, he took out his phone, found a number, and called. "Hi, Mr. Muller."

"Fanning? Why are you calling me out of the blue? Did something happen?" Charles' sudden call got him a little confused. Although they were old acquaintances, they went into different professions

afterward. Furthermore, Charles was in a different department, so they hadn't contacted each other for a very long time.

Charles pursed his lips with an austere look on his face. "I remember you know a miracle doctor with superior medical skills, and I heard she could even save a person with dead brain cells. Will you please ask her if she has any idea about spinal nerve injury?"

"Injury at the spinal nerve? Did someone in your family hurt their spinal nerve?" Theodore asked in surprise.

"Yes, it's my grandson, and it's quite serious. The doctor said that he may become impotent." At this point, there was nothing to hide anymore.

However, Theodore didn't agree to help directly. "I'll ask on your behalf, then, but she may not have a remedy. It's better if you're mentally prepared."

After Charles chatted with him a little more out of courtesy, Theodore hung up and gave it a thought before calling Katherine.

Katherine and Joaquin had just walked through the door when she saw his call, and she raised her brows in surprise before hitting the green button. "Hello, Mr. Muller. Did something happen at the research center?"

Shaking his head, Theodore roughly told her about Charles' call. "The research center is fine, but it's about you. Someone contacted me, and he hopes that you can help to treat a person. His spinal nerve is injured. Do you have a way with that?"

"Did Charles Fanning call you?" A smirk appeared on Katherine's face as she didn't think that Charles would be so resourceful to be able to contact Theodore. Nevertheless, she wondered if he had a way to investigate her. If he had, then things would be really interesting.

"Do you know about it?" Theodore gasped in shock.

"Yeah, his grandson's spinal nerve injury is done by me," she admitted straightforwardly.

Suddenly, Theodore didn't know what to say, but he didn't ask her why she would hurt Ryder. After years of friendship, he already knew her all too well.

Helpless, he smiled and shook his head. "I'll reject him on your behalf, then."

"Okay, thanks." After saying her thanks, Katherine ended the call.

"Kathy, Grandma, and Noah are missing." A second after she had hung up, Joaquin came over with a worried expression.

"What?" Katherine's face fell. "Are you sure they're missing and didn't just go out?"

"I'm sure of that. Noah will always put on this GPS tracker watch whenever she leaves the house, but this was left on the desk in the room. Also, Grandma didn't take her phone or any money with her. So it's impossible that they will leave the house like this. Will they just go out without even changing shoes?" While speaking to Katherine with a solemn face, Joaquin dialed Jeremy's number.

Twirling around, Katherine returned to her room, turned on her laptop, and found the surveillance recording of the house. NôvelDrama.Org owns all content.

After she left with Tiara, Jennifer had been watching TV in the living room until about a little past 3.00PM when the doorbell rang. Then, she stood up to answer the door, and there was no more footage after that.

The look on Katherine's face turned solemn when she watched until this point, and her fingers flew across the keyboard swiftly. She repaired the damaged footage within seconds, and the following footage appeared on the computer.

After Jennifer opened the door, two well-built men came in, and a woman's voice speaking Dolivian also echoed from the door.

As it was quite a commotion outside the door, Noah came out of her room to check on the situation, but she was knocked out in the end.

When he noticed the solemn look on her face, he pressed his lips together and said, "I've instructed Jeremy to check on the surveillance from every junction in the vicinity. They will be fine, for sure."

Katherine did not reply, but her fingers were still dancing across the keyboard deftly. Very quickly, the entire city map of Hovington popped up on the screen with two blue dots blinking on it. From the dots, they could see that they were still in Soulin International.

They've discovered the tracking device in Grandma's body, and they even took it out and threw it away.

Closing her eyes, she closed the laptop. "I'm going out for a while."

Worried that she would encounter danger by herself, he grabbed her arm. "Kathy, I'm coming with you."

She lowered her head as she peered at his hand that had grabbed her arm and nodded after a few seconds of silence. "Let's go."

They left in a hurry and took the lift, which already had someone inside, and it was a familiar face at that—the neighbor upstairs who had an argument with Catheryn back then, Selina.

At the sight of Katherine, Selina's eyes lit up, and she greeted her happily, "Oh, it's you, Little Miss Pretty. Are you going out?"

In reply, Katherine merely nodded without a word, and Selina stole a look at Joaquin next to him, finding him a little familiar as though she had seen him before.

However, her attention was more focused on Katherine, so she retracted her gaze from him. "Where are you going? I'm living on the 19th floor and only come home on weekends. I had something to do today, so I returned."

"Oh, yeah?" Katherine answered nonchalantly, looking at the elevator lights jumping from floor to floor rather anxiously.

"Little Miss, why do you look so anxious? Did you run into some trouble? You can tell me, and maybe I can help you," Selina couldn't help but offer her help when she saw how Katherine was.

Katherine took a glance at her, hesitated, and asked, "Did you use the elevator around 3.00PM?"

She hurriedly nodded and told her exactly what she saw, "What a coincidence! I came home around that time, and it was rather weird because I saw two men taking an old lady and a young girl downstairs. They looked so fierce, and the old woman even gave me a look. I keep feeling that it was a little odd…"

"Did you notice where they're going?" Katherine asked rather anxiously.

"I think I heard one of the men saying they're going to the Miller Residence."