Chapter 657 Hope Abandoned

Ashley looked down at her hands and smiled bitterly, remembering every bit about her baby. "Of course, how can I not worry about my daughter?" she said as she glanced at Chloe with a sad look in her eyes, "She was inside me for nine months. She is my own flesh and blood. But now, what? She was taken away from me before I could even be with her for a day!"

Ashley's eyes started to well up with tears. Panic started to overwhelm her as negative thoughts flooded her mind. Before Chloe could even say something to comfort her, she suddenly grabbed Chloe's arm. "Chloe, I am really worried about my daughter. I keep thinking the worst... What if she had been taken by a human trafficker? What will I do? Will she be sent somewhere? Will she be raised by evil people? What could be happening to her right now? Will they do bad things to her? Or make her do bad things?" Ashley stopped as she gasped for air, the negative thought overwhelming her. "But she is still so young… so little…"

Ashley swallowed the lump on her throat. She started to shake in fear as unimaginable thoughts entered her mind. The thought of her daughter kidnapped by a human trafficker scared her the most. Her daughter had just been born, after all. She was just a little human being who just started to open her eyes into this world, and she was still too young to understand how evil reality was.

As this little girl's mother, Ashley was on the brink of collapse and the verge of breaking down.

As Chloe looked at Ashley with worry and pity, she knew that even though Ashley looked soft and gentle, Ashley was still a strong woman, even stronger than Chloe herself.

However, right now, Chloe saw a vulnerable Ashley, one who looked really anxious and frightened with tears now brimming the sides of her worried eyes.

Chloe sighed softly and pursed her lips. As the thought of Ashley's daughter crossed her mind, she, too, could not help but feel anxious and depressed. How much worse would Ashley feel, being the mother of a missing child? Even though she knew how Ashley felt, Chloe could do nothing but comfort her and reassure her that her daughter would be fine.

"How could you think that way?"

a cold voice suddenly chimed in. Both women turned to the owner of the voice.

Recognizing that familiar voice, Chloe felt a little surprised as she turned to look at the man. "You came," she said with a raised brow.

"Why wouldn't I?" Nolan replied with a nod.

As he turned his gaze onto Ashley and met her pale face and swollen eyes, Nolan's soft and gentle stare turned to annoyance. 'Indeed, all women are troublesome, and when they are faced with problems, all they do is cry and won't stop doing so until they are saved by men, ' he thought, rolling his eyes behind Ashley and Chloe's back.

With that thought in his head, he was oblivious to the fact that he wasn't even bothered at all or felt annoyed seeing Chloe cry in front of him. It was as if everything that Chloe felt and thought was important to him, like he himself could feel what she was going through without even realizing it.

Before he could think about it more deeply, Chloe interrupted him, "Shouldn't you be in a meeting? I thought your schedule was packed today."

Nolan looked at her with a dry smile, "I came here as soon as the meeting was over.

Anyway, never mind that. So how did the child disappear?" Nolan blurted out indifferently.

Chloe's eyes went wide after hearing his remark. She was certain that Addis must have told him everything, so she knew that Nolan was asking just for the sake of asking.

Ashley was in such a miserable and anxious state at that moment. How could he make sarcastic comments about the situation! This was not the right time to joke about these things. Chloe gave him a light kick in the leg.

Nolan winced in pain and reached down to massage his shin. As he saw Ashley's eyes ready to cry again, he stood up straight and cleared his throat. "Don't worry too much about the child. I will do my best to help find her," he said in confidence. Deep inside, he didn't really want to get involved in Ashley's problems, but since Chloe was the one asking for his help, he could not dare refuse her. He did not want to disappoint Chloe.

So that Ashley wouldn't have time to dwell on Nolan's sarcastic remark, Chloe immediately held Ashley's hand and reassured her, "He's right, Ashley.

e. If that's the case, send a team out now to look for the baby. Find leads, witnesses, anything. Find anything relevant and then report to me."

"Yes, sir, as you wish,"

Addis nodded. For fear that he would see something that he wasn't supposed to see, Addis left without raising his head to look at them.

As soon as Addis took his leave, Chloe pushed herself away from Nolan. "What's wrong with you, Nolan?!! Why didn't you let me talk to him?"

Nolan looked from Addis to her and winked.

Chloe looked at him with confusion, but as soon as she saw the awkward expression behind Nolan's amused face, she finally understood and felt embarrassed again as she fixed her hair. With a brief smile, she said nothing more.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days, but there was still no news or any information that would lead them to finding the child. Every time Chloe visited Ashley, Ashley would keep telling her how worried and sad she was. This really made Chloe also feel frustrated and depressed.

Every time Ashley asked if they found anything about her missing daughter, Chloe could only shake her head helplessly and hold on to Ashley's hands to comfort her.

Three days had passed, and still there was no progress. It looked like everything was leading to a dead end. Even Nolan's confidence turned into doubt. Even then, he still did not give up, for fear of disappointing Chloe.

Ashley was becoming thinner and paler with each passing day. Her ghost-pale skin and thin face were a reflection of what she was really going through in her heart. The sudden disappearance of her daughter was destroying her every day.

Even her eyes stayed glassy and swollen. Only when she saw Chloe did a glimmer of light appear in her worried and hopeless eyes.

As for Chloe, she felt extremely sad when Ashley's face lit up seeing her enter the ward, knowing that she didn't have any good news to tell her. Despite this, she wanted to be there for her all the time until they found her missing child. 'Who on earth would dare take away a baby from her mother? What kind of creature would make a mother so miserable like that?' Chloe thought, unable to comprehend how something like this could happen.

Chloe sighed as she recalled what the nurse told her earlier -- Ashley was not touching any of her food, and they had no choice but to take the spoiled food away. Seeing that Ashley had gotten thinner than she was just a few days before, made Chloe sigh once more. "Ashley, please, eat something! You haven't eaten anything for several days now. How could you starve yourself like that? How are you supposed to do anything to find your daughter in this state, huh?" Even though Chloe only had an idea how Ashley felt, she could not help but feel really worried about Ashley. Now Chloe did not just worry about Ashley's missing child -- she was now also worried about Ashley and her sanity.