Days flew to weeks, and weeks gradually became one month.
Jasmine's life was very fulfilling and happy. It turns out that anyone in this world can live without others.
The kind of love Noah bestowed upon her made her crave for every bit of him every day.
Their love life wasn't oblivious to anybody around everywhere in the city as it had become a routine for them to always appear on the internet.
Within this short time, they had visited places in the world. Places Jasmine never imagined she would ever see in reality. Noah made it come to pass.
However, while they were always on trips, Alicia would stay with Aurora in the villa.
Aside from Jasmine, Alicia was the next person Noah could trust with his only child.
Currently, Jasmine and Aurora walked hand in hand out of the grocery store.
Jasmine was carrying the items they had just purchased in her left hand, while a small shoulder bag was crossed over her neck.
“Until when are you going to learn how to drive a car, mommy?” Aurora asked Jasmine while they waited patiently for a cab.
Jasmine chewed down on her bottom lip, thinking in her heart that it was high time for her to really learn how to ride a car.
“Soon, baby. I'll enroll in a driving school very soon,” Jasmine replied in a way that Aurora could not further talk more about it.
Right then, a cab rolled to a stop in front of them.
Jasmine opened the backseat door and helped Aurora mounted on it, and afterward got in and sat beside her.
She told the cab driver their destination, and after she pronounced their address, she sensed that something was missing.
She quickly opened her bag and discovered that her phone was missing.
“Please, stop,” she instructed, and the car halted abruptly.
“I'll be right back, Aurora. I left my phone back on the counter,” she explained, and got off the cab directly.
In a matter of minutes, she ran back to where the cab was parking, only to find it empty.
There was no sign of the cab, the driver, neither Aurora.
All her systems stood up in alert while her heart began to hammer strongly against her chest right immediately.
“Aurora!” she shouted, pacing up and down, only at the spot in panic.
She ran to meet the few people who were standing in the area, obviously awaiting a taxi.
“Please, ma'am. I don't know if you saw me come down from a cab that was parking here a moment ago, but I can't find the cab anymore,” she narrated her ordeal to the not-too-old-looking woman with just a few strands of gray hair.
“I'm sorry, young lady, but the car rode away as soon as you left,” the woman told her, and she became highly strung up and felt like collapsing with shock.
“No, no, no, no, no, no… The cab can't just leave like that, my daughter is in there,” she said in a crying tone while looking from the woman's face to the man standing right next to her.
The both of them stared at her with sympathy, but couldn't really understand what was going on.
With shaky hands and tears streaming down her cheeks hysterically, she dialed Noah's line and waited impatiently for him to pick up.
“Hey, sweetheart. Are you on your way home now?” Noah's cheerful voice conveyed into her ear, and she burst out in tears this time.
“Aurora is missing, Noah,” she choked on her words and crouched to the floor immediately.
Tears had never stopped rolling down Jasmine's cheeks while she gave her statement in the police station.
All this while, Noah could only comfort her while harboring his own pains deeply in his heart.
He didn't know what to think anymore as to why would a cab driver drove away with his daughter?
“Don't worry, Mr. Cooper. Your daughter would definitely be found soon,” the police officer who had attended to them assured while he escorted them out.
Noah stopped walking and turned to the officer as soon as they got close to where his vehicle was parking.
“Please officer, put in your possible best to find my daughter as soon as possible,” his voice trembled without him realizing it.
The police officer nodded his head and assured once again, “You have nothing to worry about, Mr. Cooper. I give you my word,”
Noah then forced a faint smile onto his lips and shook hands with the officer.
After the police officer had left, he opened the passenger side door and gently made Jasmine sit down and afterward turned around to the driver's seat.
He stared at Jasmine, who was whimpering so bad and wouldn't look at him in the face.
This image made his heart hurt a lot, but he didn't know what else to say to make Jasmine stop crying.
“Jasmine,” he called out softly, reaching out to hold her hands.
“I've failed as a mother, Noah,” her cries intensified while her shoulders trembled violently.
“I'm so sorry, Noah, please forgive me,”
Noah south deeply and held her hands tightly, “None of this is your fault, Jasmine. So stop blaming yourself, please”
“Our daughter will be found soon, I believe that. You're hurting me more with yours, do you know that?”
Jasmine sniffed back her tears and looked up at his face, “You're not mad at me?”
Noah smiled, “Come on, babe. I know how much you love Aurora like your own daughter. You would never wish something bad to happen to her,”
Hearing these soothing words from his mouth brought back tears into her eyes uncontrollably as she reached over and hugged him spontaneously.
Alicia was pacing back and forth right in front of Noah's villa when she suddenly heard the honk of his car.
She calmed down a bit and watched as Noah control the gate, which opened automatically.
She immediately followed the car into the house before the gate would close back.
Running from the main entrance to where the car had parked in the garage and both Jasmine and Noah got down simultaneously.
“How true is this, Jasmine? I still find it difficult to believe even after hearing the news all over the media,” Alicia rushed up to Jasmine and blurted out her words in a breath.
Tears blurred Jasmine's vision in an instant, while she slowly nodded her head twice.
Alicia's eyes dilated as she stepped backward continuously.
By this time, Noah had turned around and grabbed Jasmine's arm.
“Let's go in, Alicia,” Noah muttered as he headed into the house, passing by Alicia.
However, Alicia's mind was no longer right in her presence. Her mind had traveled wide, and she could only think of one person.
Mrs. Antonio.
But then again, she thought that how would Mrs. Antonio stoop so low to kidnap Noah's daughter.
She was a mother too, she would never hurt a child, or would she?
She ruffled her hair in desperation while these thoughts kept rumbling in her head.
*Breaking news. It was reported earlier this noon that Mr. Cooper's only daughter had been kidnapped by an unknown cab driver, *
These dialogues wafted over to where Danica was standing behind the counter and preparing some coffee.
She swiftly looked over at the TV screen and saw the image of Aurora on it, and instantly felt her heart breaking down in her chest.
How could an unknown cab driver kidnap the little girl? She thought.
Work wasn't moving smoothly with Danica. She served the customers their orders with a sour expression all the time.
In her eyes, Aurora was such a sweet little girl who would never hurt her neighbor with her words, let alone physically.
She didn't seem like someone who loves trouble as well. So, where could she have gone wrong to deserve to be kidnapped?
Danica was still dwelling on this painful thought while she walked home.
She arrived home and realized that her mother wasn't home yet.
Huh?
It was weird. Her mother arrived home much more earlier than her. So, what happened today?
She opened her bag and produced the key, and then went in.
She sprawled on her bed as soon as she got inside her room, her gaze upon the ceiling, and her mind slowly drifted off to the first day she had met Aurora.
*Do you like my daddy?*
She recalled her question from that day and regrets how awful she had treated her.
Tears welled up in her eyes and disappeared into her ears.
Buzz! Buzz!
She sniffed and collected her phone from her bag to see her boyfriend calling.
Jason.
They had got back to how they used to be before her mother had insisted that she lured Noah into his bed.
“Hey, babe. How are you?”
She shut her eyes and allowed the tears to spill out of her eyes.
“I'm not good, Jason, but please don't ask me why yet. I would tell you when the time comes,” she told him in a low voice.
And as an understanding man Jasmine was, he didn't press any further. He respected her decision.
“But remember that you've got a listening ear always, I'm always here for you, Danica,” Jason spoke persuasively.
His words brought a smile to Danica's lips, “I will. Thanks, Jason,”
Shortly after his brief conversation with Jason over the phone, she stood up from the bed and slipped out of the door to go and prepare dinner for herself.
However, her pace stopped dead in her tracks in the passage after heeding her mother's conversation.
“Give her food once she wakes up and make sure you don't frighten her. She's not my real problem, but her father is,”
Danica felt her heart rose and broke down into a million pieces immediately.
“Don't worry, I'll come back to check on her tomorrow after work,”
Danica's heart wasn't as calm as it seemed anymore. She clung to her dress tightly, as if wanting to rip it off her body.
So, her mother was the real culprit? She had kidnapped the innocent child just to get at her father?
Gasping for breath, she went back to her room with a quiet movement and thought of what to do next.
She frantically paced the length of her room with her fingers under her chin in worrying.
Should she just go back to the living room and blast her mother?
No, that would be too dangerous.
She needed to save Aurora from her mother first before taking any drastic step.
But how?
Thinking of how, she recollected her mother had said she would come back tomorrow.
A slow smile crept on her face as she stared onward at the door.
“Don't worry, Mr. Cooper, your daughter will return to you so soon,”