Chapter 2 One Pregnancy, Four Babies
Lena stood in the airport terminal, her fingers lightly tapping the handle of her suitcase.
Eight years.
She was finally back in this city.
If she had a choice, she would never have returned.
She hated this place.
Hated the home that forced her to leave.
And she hated Killian, the man who stumbled into her life during its most chaotic and desperate moments.
Back then, she was just trying to find a way to survive, but she got dragged down.
But this time, she had no choice.
Her youngest daughter, Zoe, had been taken from the school gate, and the last location signal stopped in the city's south district!
Besides, things were different now. She was no longer the Lena who could be easily trampled on.
A deep male voice came through her earpiece. "Ms. Voss, the surveillance shows Miss. Zoe Voss was last seen in the south district cargo passage."
"Keep watching," Lena ordered.
Laughter erupted behind her, and she put away her slightly cold expression, turning to see three little ones quietly playing around the luggage cart.
She had four children. All conceived unexpectedly after that one night.
Max, the eldest, sat sternly on the carry-on, his fingers flying over a tablet, the screen flashing with dense lines of code.
At five, he could reconstruct basic firewall structures, and at seven, he remotely hacked the border control network. He was now her most reliable assistant.
Jade, the second, leaned casually against the wall, fiddling with an old baseball card he recognized as a genuine collectible from a local auction last month. Despite his young age, his observation and memory skills were extraordinary. He was the next heir to the world's top treasure appraisal family, the Blackwell Syndicate.
Liam, the third, was idly spinning a small, unsharpened butterfly knife with his fingers, still not very skilled.
He was the most mischievous and perceptive, fascinated by knives, deconstruction, and the aesthetics of violence. He had an exceptional understanding of medical knowledge.
Zoe was her quietest and most sensitive child. She barely cried at birth, initially suspected of having hearing development issues, and later diagnosed with mild autism.
She didn't speak, disliked being touched, but always stuck close to Lena, recognizing only her.
She had been missing for thirty-six hours.
Lena glanced at the locator on her wrist, her knuckles tightening, her eyes growing colder.
"Put it away, be careful not to get caught," Lena reminded, her gaze fixed on the crowd ahead.
Liam stuck out his tongue, flicked the knife into his sleeve, hiding it cleanly.
Jade shrugged and pocketed the baseball card.
Max looked up at her, then raised the tablet. "Mommy, the reverse tracking results are out."
Lena bent down, staring at the screen.
A man in a baseball cap, holding a small figure, was quickly passing through the VIP passage.
No doubt, it was Zoe.
Her heart tightened, her eyes turning icy.
"How long ago?"
"Half an hour ago, then it cut off," Max replied.
Lena pressed her earpiece. "Tracking team, continue monitoring the south district exit, focus on the air cargo warehouse."
"Yes, Ms. Voss."
Sunlight streamed through the glass dome, and Lena squinted, taking a deep breath.
That rainy night eight years ago felt like yesterday.
Twenty-three-year-old Lena knelt at the door, her knees scraping against the concrete. Cold, hard, and painful.
She had nowhere else to go. She just hoped for a place to shelter.
Not for herself, but for the child in her belly.
The child was innocent.
But when the door opened, she saw her foster mother standing on the threshold, holding a stick, her eyes colder than the rain.
The next second, the stick came down, landing solidly on her shoulder.
She only raised her hand to block it, provoking an even harder hit.
The stick flew, and she was kicked down, falling into the house.
Then came the sound of high heels from upstairs.
It was the family's biological daughter, Seraphina Voss.
She came down, smiling, wearing a new dress from the supermarket, her nails freshly done.
Passing by Lena, Seraphina didn't even spare her a glance.
No one asked if she was in trouble.
No one asked if she was okay.
She lay at the door, shivering from the cold.
Her belly ached faintly, and mixed with the rainwater was a pool of blood.
She knew she wasn't their biological child.
But she never expected, after all these years, they would treat her like this.
Lena said nothing, her fingers clutching the pregnancy test report in her pocket.
Three days later, she disappeared from the city completely.
She reappeared at the border of Y Country.
Wearing an old trench coat, a single-shoulder bag, she stood among the crowd, like an unnoticed, ordinary traveler.
Suddenly, a group of men in black stopped her.
The elderly leader looked at the jade pendant around her neck, his eyes red. "It's Miss. Blackwell!"
"Miss. Blackwell, we've been looking for you for over twenty years."
Only then did she learn that she was the direct bloodline of the largest antique smuggling group in Asia, the Blackwell Syndicate.
Years ago, during a family feud, her mother was forced to flee with her. They lost contact, and she went missing.
After being brought back to the Blackwell Syndicate, in just three years,
She trained hard, enduring days with less than four hours of sleep.
In the following years, Lena gained the highest authority in the Blackwell Syndicate's intelligence system, directly mobilizing the Golden Triangle logistics line.
She participated in ancient painting transactions, underground auctions, artifact replacements, and overseas retrievals.
She led raids on black markets, negotiated and closed deals in three hours, cleared the scene in forty-eight hours, and could even empty an opponent's casino account overnight.
She was no longer the same person she once was.
Lost in thought, a commotion erupted near the VIP passage.
A group of bodyguards quickly emerged, surrounding a man and a woman, blocking Jade's path.
Lena's gaze froze.
It was Killian.
His presence seemed to quiet the surrounding noise, drawing attention instinctively.
A perfectly tailored suit wrapped around his cold, upright figure, the collar revealing a defined neck.
He was more composed than eight years ago, and his aura was sharp enough to make people glance sideways.
Isabella Cullen clung to his arm, pouting, "Killian, I rushed back from the set just for you..."
Jade, unable to stop in time, accidentally bumped into them.
The next second, Isabella screamed, "Where did this wild child come from? Can't you see?"
Lena quickly stepped forward, her nerves instinctively tensing as Killian looked up.
His cold gaze swept over her and Jade, without a hint of recognition.
It seemed he truly didn't remember at all.
"Sorry," Lena said calmly, shielding Jade behind her, her fingers already touching the needle hidden in her sleeve.
Isabella continued to rant, "Do you know how expensive this dress is? Selling you wouldn't even cover..."
"Enough, Isabella," Killian interrupted, his gaze lingering on Jade's face for a second.
Jade's features were delicate, his posture upright, and his eyes met Killian's with a feigned fear.
Especially those eyes, they looked just like his own when he was young, staring into a mirror.
The bodyguards hesitated, glancing at each other.
Lena's heart skipped a beat, ready to say something, when her earpiece suddenly buzzed urgently.
"Miss Zoe Voss's been found in the east district warehouse!"
"Sorry, I have an urgent matter; I must go."
Without waiting for Killian and Isabella's reaction, she grabbed Jade and hurried away.
Before leaving, she took one last look at Killian.
Killian was turning away indifferently, as if they were just insignificant passersby.
Once she found Zoe, she would make those kidnappers understand the price of provoking the Blackwell Syndicate.
And that woman with Killian, what did she call Jade? Wild kids? She'd remember that.
Lena looked away without hesitation.
She knew her priority now was to bring Zoe back.
As for Killian... she had no intention of explaining, nor any interest in starting over.