Alaric was speechless at Mischa's words. His hands were clenched, and his c.h.e.s.t felt tight with anger. He couldn't blame Mischa for choosing to go to Provins to save Lisa. He understood how it felt like to be a man in love. Lisa, after all, had been Mischa's girlfriend for many years.

If he received any threats on Aleksis' life, Alaric would leave everything to save his wife.

He patted Mischa's shoulder. The man looked so sad, so Alaric spoke to him in a soft voice. He now sounded exactly like Alaric Rhionen, who coaxed little Mischa 35 years ago to stop crying when his parents were lying dead, and he asked the boy to come with him.

"Mischa ... you are innocent. Don't blame yourself for what happened to Vega. I will catch the culprit and avenge Lisa's death. No one can touch my family and escape punishment. I will go after them, even to the ends of the earth. ... "

Alaric looked at Mischa with sharp eyes. His foster son stared back at Alaric and both seemed to make a silent promise to avenge Vega's abduction and Lisa's murder together.

Lauriel looked away while taking a deep breath. He was despondent and depressed. During his life for almost six centuries on this earth, only twice did he experience situations that were this heartbreaking.

Based on his knowledge, the longer they could find Vega, the less likely they will find her alive. He could not imagine how heartbroken his family would be, especially his children, if Vega ended up dying at the hands of her kidnappers.

He had also asked for help from all members of the Wolf Pack, and they were all ready wherever they were to wait for orders from him. If Lauriel got word that Vega was brought to Asia, Peach and Endo would search the entire continent to find her tracks.

He had Neo in Australia. They could also count on former Rhionen Assassins members who were still spread all over the world. All were awaiting orders.

"Alaric ... you have to see this!" Suddenly Nicolae went inside and showed the tablet in his hand. Lauriel and Alaric looked up and stared at him attentively.

"What is wrong?" Alaric asked. He stood up to approach Nicolae and looked at the tablet in his brother's hand. Instantly, his expression turned very murky. His hands were clenched into fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Who is it?"

Lauriel got up and looked at the contents on Nicolae's tablet. His face also turned murky. His blue-green eyes flashed with anger.

"I recognize that person ..." he hissed.

In Darknet, there was a very interesting post that attracted many people's attention. There was a photo of a teenage girl passed out on the floor and an old man in his 60's who was tied to a chair beside her. The teenage girl was clearly Vega. Then ... who was the old man who was held captive with her?

The text in the photo was short:

'If you don't want Vega to experience what happened to Alexei, stop searching.'

Alaric turned to his father. "Do you know him? Is he really Alexei?"

Lauriel studied the old man in the photo and took a deep breath. He still remembered Alexei's face, Luna's nephew, who was given the death sentence 35 years ago and got his memory taken away. After more than three decades, Alexei had turned old and wrinkled, but Lauriel could still recognize him.

He nodded slowly. "That's right, that's Alexei. Caspar still sent people to check on him in Switzerland every now and then. Every year we saw his face grow older. This is indeed him."

"That means that whoever kidnapped Vega must know what happened to Alexei! Do you think they have a grudge against him? Do they have a relationship with the Meier family?" Alaric asked again.

He had told Pavel to track Sophia's whereabouts. He was worried that his cousin had something to do with Vega's kidnapping because she wanted to take revenge on him. He was still waiting to hear from Pavel.

Eleven years ago, Alaric punished Sophia by kicking her out of the family castle in Yorkshire. He didn't return the Meier family's business to her for her evil deeds. Now Sophia had fallen into poverty and gone off the grid.

Sophia had long held a grudge against the Schneiders and Lauriel's family. She always assumed Lauriel was responsible for making her lose her only brother, Alexei.

"Hmm... I don't think Sophia did this," Lauriel said. "She doesn't have the resources and money to mobilize this many people ..."

"And it is clear from this photo that they also took Alexei," Nicolae added. "Do you think Sophia would sacrifice her own brother?"

"I don't care whether Sophia has money or not, whether Alexei is a victim or not ... I will look for Sophia." Alaric snorted.

"One moment ..." Suddenly Nicolae held his brother's hand and tapped the screen of his tablet. He just saw a new notification. "Marie sent me this news ..."

He showed them the contents on his screen. His brother and father immediately held their breath. They saw the news on an internet portal. The body of a man in his 60's was found on a roadside in Switzerland. His corpse was thrown out of a fast-moving car. The perpetrator didn't leave any trace.

"This is Alexei!" Lauriel said as he managed to observe the photos of the victims that were spread in Darknet. "They really killed him."

"This incident happened only one hour ago. That means they are now in Switzerland ..." Nicolae said. "That is very fast. I think they drove all night, and they are very well organized."

"I will send my people to Switzerland," Alaric said quickly. He turned to his father and nodded. "Father, you are right. I don't think this is Sophia's doing. She couldn't have killed her own brother. Nevertheless, I will still look for her and interrogate her."

"I will check Darknet and look for new information," Nicolae said.

"I will go to Switzerland," Lauriel decided. "You should stay here with Aleksis and coordinate with Caspar and the others."

Alaric nodded. For some reason, he felt the instructions left by the kidnappers were too excessive. Why did they dump Alexei's dead body in Switzerland? They might do it just to distract his attention. Therefore, he was glad his father wanted to investigate there while he continued to coordinate with everyone.

It's been 12 hours after Vega was gone. They were racing with time. Everyone felt tired and stressed. Lauriel immediately left for the airport to fly to Switzerland. Overland would take too long, he thought. He preferred to use small aircraft that would take him directly to Basel.

***

There a commotion at the Amarylis Hotel that morning. George Washington High School students surrounded Tatiana, who came to the breakfast room with a haggard face. They all wanted to hear directly from her about what had happened.

"Is Vega really missing? Weren't you still texting with her yesterday?" Sharon asked in confusion. "What happened?"

"Are all the announcements on Splitz true? Vega is the daughter of the RMI owner?" Stu asked in an urgent tone.

Everyone was very surprised when they woke up in the morning and found social media and almost all parts of the internet were filled with news about the reward offered for finding find Vega Linden.

They immediately recognized the girl in the photo as their school friend. No one thought that the modest and beautiful girl was the daughter of the world's wealthiest family. It felt like it was all a dream.

They had heard that Tatiana had been asked to meet Vega's parents, and now all of them were swarming around the girl like flies swirling rotten fruit to find out what really happened.

Tatiana was actually exhausted and stressed, but she liked being the center of attention. So, she asked Sharon to hold her new cellphone and record while she made a statement. She would immediately post it on social media to her followers.

She was only doing what Alaric asked her to. He told her to ask all her followers to open their eyes and ears if they saw any clues about Vega's whereabout, anywhere in the world.

"I want to make a statement about the shocking incident that happened last night. So, please listen to me ..." Tatiana began her recording in a hoarse and sad voice.