𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑰𝒔 𝑶𝒖𝒓𝒔 ✓

Chapter 7

HER eyes spotted her mother-in-law as she passed through the police station, making her way towards the detective's office. The two locked eyes for a mere second, and Mal could almost see the tears streaming down her in-law's face. She wondered why she was crying after making her son's life a living hell.

The audacity.

The woman spotted her as well. Through her speedy walk out of the office, she could also see Mal's puffy, red eyes despite many failing attempts from the girl to hide her expression with her long, dark brown hair.

Mal sent her a glare. An angry, heartbroken glare, based on what she had done to her husband. Before his disappearance, even. She knew, without being told by the detectives, that Hyunjin must have left his parents' house crestfallen and heartbroken, just like her at that moment.

And after what had happened with the detective earlier, the last thing her in-law wanted was to talk to anyone. Including Mal.

Pretending that they didn't know each other, the two tore their sight away from each other and glanced ahead, ignoring each other completely before hurrying to their destinations.

The mother-in-law hurried towards the exit, while Mal speed-walked towards the detective's office to show him what she had discovered.

"Nice to see you again, Mrs. Mohamed," the detective greeted, spinning his chair to face the girl with a small, side smile, "I didn't know you would come here again so soon."

She nodded, mentally rolling her eyes, "yeah, me neither."

"So why are you here?"

Mal took her seat across from the detective, placing her Louis Vuitton purse on her lap and opened its golden zipper, then brought something out to place it on the detective's luxurious, wooden desk.

Then proceeded to explain what had happened in the alleyway earlier.

"... And then I found his phone in the alleyway-"

"-why did you go there alone without telling us?!" The man yelled, making the girl flinch a little. He slammed his fist against the table and grabbed the phone from the other side of the desk.

"B-Because I had to! I thought he was there, and I wanted to save him!"

The man visibly rolled his eyes, his lips pursed together in frustration.

"This is dangerous!" He yelled back. "You could've gotten yourself killed!"

She sighed, her hands trembling slightly in sadness.

"I wanted to find him!" She replied, the image of her young, innocent husband popping up in her mind. "Only God knows what kind of trouble he's in at the moment! I really don't want him to get hurt, or worse!"

The detective shook his head, rubbing his temple in distress.

"Listen, Mrs. Mohamed," he began, shifting slightly in his seat to get comfortable, "we have every reason to believe that your husband has been kidnapped. Going after your husband's phone like that—it could get you in trouble."

She rolled her eyes, then reached up to wipe tears from her red, puffy eyes.

"I know that!" She replied sharply. "But so far no leads have popped up and, surprise surprise, I'm getting really worried!"

The detective paused for a moment before sighing heavily in regret.

"All I'm asking you is, please stay in your home. Don't play the hero and follow those kidnappers because they could harm you."

Mal thought about a sneaky, sarcastic comeback to reply with, but eventually found that it was useless. After all, the detective was trying to help her.

And he probably told that to everyone in various kidnapping cases. To the people in her husband's case, if there was anyone interested at all anyway.

"I'm not scared that they would harm me, detective Choi," she was quick to fix her sarcastic comment to a serious one, "I just want my husband to return home safe and sound."

He figured that she was right, but arguing back was pointless considering that he couldn't encourage her to go after the kidnappers. That was his job after all.

"Anyway," he began after a few moments of uncomfortable silence, reaching for the phone once again, "I'll give this to our forensic scientists to look through. I promise I'll give you updates as soon as something is discovered."

She sadly nodded, avoiding his gaze and nervously fidgeting with her fingers.

"Sure," she replied, his voice motionless yet heartbroken, "okay. Whatever."

She grabbed the leather arm of her purse, sitting up straight and eventually getting up from her seat.

"Thank you, Detective Choi."

The man nodded, guilt filling his insides at how he yelled at the girl earlier. However, he dismissed it as he saw the girl's figure getting up and walking towards the exit.

"Goodbye..."

Mal soon walked through the exit, hurrying out of the office and the police station soon enough. Her high heels continued to clunk beneath her on the ceramic floor as she tried to calm herself down and regain her composure. Tears unconsciously streamed down her face despite many attempts from her to wipe them away, and as soon as she hurried out of the station, she ran towards her car and sat in the driver's seat.

And allowed herself to break down into tears.

Why did no one understand her frustrations that she wanted to find her husband and not just sit around while the police do their job?

After all, the alleged kidnappers didn't take Hyunjin away from her for no reason.

They must've wanted something else. Money. Power.

His beauty, maybe. As she might have known, her husband was the most ethereal being on earth. And she wasn't the only one who thought that.

Or maybe they were after something she didn't want to even think about.

It hurt her brain to think about what might be happening to him.

And she didn't like it that she had to sit around and let the police officers do the work. She had money, power, and beauty. Everything anyone could ever want, including kidnappers.

But there wasn't anything she could do about it.

Or was there?