Chapter 113: Chapter 113: How to Save Oneself
The color drained from the faces of everyone in the room. Beatrice, the person at the center of it all, was especially stunned. The words on the tip of her tongue changed to, "Tell me. I know what’s at stake."
Arabella took a deep breath and said in a hoarse voice, "In your ordeal... I saw a shopping mall."
"A shopping mall?" A jolt of fear went through Beatrice, and she asked instinctively, "What kind of mall?"
"I can’t say for sure." Arabella struggled to recall the fragmented images that had just flooded her mind. "It was a really big mall. There were jewelry stores, clothing stores, restaurants... Right, and a movie theater. On the day of the incident, there was a poster for one of my second brother’s movies outside the theater."
Hector Donovan’s expression was complicated. If he didn’t know his own sister better than to make things up, he would have suspected Arabella was a spy sent by his rivals to smear his name!
’Given Beatrice’s unique profession and the fact that her life was on the line, this was almost certainly a major case. For a celebrity like him to be connected to a major crime, it was obvious it couldn’t be anything good!’
Thankfully, Arabella was just trying to describe all the details she had seen as best she could, so that Beatrice could extract more information, and Beatrice certainly didn’t disappoint her.
Hearing this, Beatrice’s eyes flashed and she reacted instantly. "Do you remember which movie poster it was? What was the title?"
"I don’t remember clearly. I just remember my second brother was standing in the center, and there was a blaze of fire behind him." This was the most precise detail Arabella could offer.
After all, the visions she had just seen were fleeting, gone in a flash. It was impressive that she had managed to catch these details at all.
Beatrice sighed and didn’t press her further, instead looking up to meet Hector’s gaze.
A jolt went through Hector as he, too, realized the implication. He gave a solemn nod, planning to find an opportunity to talk with her properly later.
"Besides that, I also saw a clock—a square, digital clock inside a restaurant. The time it showed was 14:39 in the afternoon."
Beatrice frowned. ’A square digital clock is a pretty vague clue,’ she thought. ’So many stores use them now. The scope of a search would be massive.’
Beatrice’s parents had been listening to Arabella’s lengthy description but felt she still hadn’t gotten to the crux of how their daughter would be in danger, and they were growing anxious.
"Serena," Beatrice’s mother said, her voice strained, "in those visions you saw, what exactly... what danger did Beatrice face?"
Arabella was just about to get to that part and quickly gave the answer. "A man, about five-foot-nine, wearing a blue jacket, is lashing out. Inside the mall, he takes a six or seven-year-old girl hostage."
Though everyone had been bracing themselves, they couldn’t help but gasp.
Arabella furrowed her brow, trying hard to recall, but the image was a blur. "I can’t see his face, only that he’s holding a knife to the girl’s throat. He’s screaming for everyone to get back, to stay away, or the kid dies. The little girl is crying, screaming for her mom..."
Beatrice’s parents’ hearts pounded with fear as they listened. "So, Beatrice gets hurt trying to save that child...?"
"No, that’s not it. My cousin is on the rescue team, but it’s not because of the child..." Recalling the gory scene she had just witnessed, Arabella felt a wave of nausea and dry-heaved a couple of times.
The Donovan family members tensed up again at the sight. Before they could speak, Arabella dropped another bombshell—a literal one.
"There are bombs! There are bombs inside that mall!"
"What?!" Beatrice jumped, but as she calmed herself and thought it over, it started to make sense.
’She’d been wondering. If it were just a matter of rescuing a hostage and arresting a criminal, she had faced far more dangerous situations before. It made no sense for her to fail on what should have been a relatively simple case.’
’But if the assailant had also planted bombs around the mall beforehand, then it all made sense.’
’It just meant the severity of the situation had escalated by several orders of magnitude.’
"I heard five separate explosions, so there are most likely five or more bombs inside. That mall is always bustling with people, so..."
Arabella didn’t have to say the rest. They could all imagine it.
The destructive power of five bombs was no laughing matter. No wonder Arabella had dry-heaved just from recalling the memory.
But it was precisely because they understood the severity of the situation that Beatrice’s parents’ minds went blank, and they looked ready to collapse.
’No matter how capable their daughter was, she was still only flesh and blood. How could she possibly survive an explosion?’
"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" Beatrice’s mother was frantic, instinctively looking to her husband for help before grabbing Arabella’s hand as if it were a lifeline.
"Child, since you can see these things, you must know how to save Beatrice, right? She’s your cousin, please save her! If you can save her, I’ll do anything—I’ll give you my life, just please save her..."
Arabella had never been in a situation like this before. She stood frozen to the spot, at a complete loss.
The Donovan family hadn’t anticipated the woman’s sudden outburst, and in that moment of surprise, she had gotten right up to Arabella. Their expressions darkened.
It was Beatrice who reacted first. She stepped forward immediately, taking her mother’s hand and saying soothingly, "Mom, please calm down. My cousin just gave us a lot of crucial information. She’s helped immensely. Now, figuring out how to save myself, and how to save all the innocent people who will be caught up in this—that’s my job."
Beatrice’s mother was taken aback. She instinctively looked up and met the disapproving gazes of Mrs. Donovan and the others, only then realizing her own loss of composure.
She sheepishly released Arabella’s hand. "I’m sorry, Serena. Auntie was just so frightened by what you said... I lost my composure for a moment. I must have scared you."
Arabella wasn’t really bothered by it. Seeing that her aunt was no longer pleading with her, she breathed a small sigh of relief. "It’s all right, I understand. Auntie, you have to have faith in my cousin and her colleagues. I’m sure they’ll be able to minimize the damage from this."
"Right, right," her mother said to Beatrice. "Go back tomorrow and tell your people about this. Have them come up with a plan."
Beatrice gave a bitter smile. ’Of course she had to report something this major. The key now was how she was going to convince her superiors and colleagues that any of this was true.’
As she thought this, Beatrice instinctively turned her head to look at Arabella.
Arabella didn’t know about Beatrice’s inner turmoil. She lowered her head, hesitating for a moment, but ultimately chose to follow her instincts and voice her true thoughts.
"I’m not sure if the bombs are connected to the man holding the child hostage, but it’s a fact that his presence delayed the discovery of the bombs. And I suspect the reason he took that child hostage..."
Arabella paused, her expression darkening. "...was to deliberately lure you there."
