The Sweet Rival (Mango Shen and Nathaniel Ye)

A slight pause in Mango's movement allowed the man to violently grab hold of her hand. Then, a harsh numbing feeling raced up her arm and sapped her of all her energy.

"You..."

Before Mango could finish her sentence, the man knocked her out cold.

Her body collapsed limply to the floor.

Next, the man caught Mango before she could collapse fully to the floor and he looked around quickly. When he confirmed that the coast was clear, he swept Mango off her feet and stuffed her into a van before he drove off.

Just a moment ago, Rainie had been able to spot Mango, but she seemed to have disappeared the very next second.

Panic started to set in uncontrollably.

"Mango! Mango! Where are you?"

She was so anxious that she starting pushing around blindly, but the burgeoning crowd restricted a lot of her movements.

At last, Rainie had no choice but to shout, "Murder! Someone's been murdered!"

As soon as she said that, the crowd around her dispersed immediately.

During this time, Rainie took the opportunity to run over to where she last saw Mango, but her best friend was no longer there.

Then, Rainie immediately burst into tears.

"Thomas, what do I do? I've lost track of Mango. She was just here, so where could she have gone?"

Rainie quickly called Thomas in a panic.

On the other hand, Thomas was flabbergasted when he heard this.

"Where did you last see her?"

"Come quick!"

Thomas immediately ditched the car as soon as he heard Rainie's panicked cries and he rushed over to her location. However, Mango was nowhere to be found. At the same time, the police had finally arrived at the scene.

As a result, the situation became even more chaotic.

Mango was a well-known individual in Ocean City, so Thomas immediately contacted the police station to inquire if they could search the surveillance camera footage for Mango.

As soon as the police commissioner heard that Nathaniel Ye's wife was in danger, he immediately recruited a few police officers for help.

However, there was a blind spot in the surveillance coverage which comprised of the alley behind the Celestial Clubhouse.

Then, Thomas rushed over only to find fresh tire tracks on the ground. It seemed to him like a car had driven away at high speed not long ago.

"Get in the car!"

Thomas led Rainie into the car and he paid no need to the traffic jam in front of him as he drove onto the sidewalk, following the tire tracks.

Unfortunately, there was a crossroad near the alley and Thomas lost the trail there. After all, there were far too many cars here and it was difficult to pinpoint a singular tire track. Thomas's heart clenched painfully in his chest.

What was he going to do?

Before he left, Nathaniel had reminded him multiple times to take good care of Mango and the children. But now, he ended up losing track of Mango!

Thus, Thomas felt incredibly remorseful and he picked up the phone to call Nathaniel.

Alas, his boss's phone remained off.

This was something that Thomas had never experienced before, and it could be said that he'd never been unable to contact Nathaniel ever since he started working for the man. However, Nathaniel's phone was completely turned off.

Anxiety seeped out of every pore in Thomas's body while Rainie kept on blaming herself for losing Mango.

Despite making more than a dozen phone calls, Thomas was unable to get through to Nathaniel. Thus, he had no choice but to call Noah instead.

"Dr. Soo, do you have any idea how to contact Mr. Ye?"

"I'm not sure. What seems to be the matter?"

At the time, Noah had just returned home. Before he could even speak to Genevieve, Thomas had already called him.

Of course, Thomas didn't dare to hide anything from him during this critical time.

"We lost Mango. I've been calling Mr. Ye all this time, but his phone is always turned off. Dr. Soo, I don't know what you and Mr. Ye are doing, but can you tell him about this if you manage to contact him?" Thomas seemed close to tears as he spoke.

Meanwhile, Noah frowned deeply.

"What do you mean by Mango is missing? Isn't she resting over at her parents' home?"

"Yes, she was, but we found out that Susie had escaped from the Ye family's custody. Out of concern for Madam Ye and Zion, Mrs. Ye decided to return to Ye's Mansion and check on them. However, we ran into a traffic jam on the way and there was an incident at the Celestial Clubhouse, so Mrs. Ye got down to explore on foot. Due to the crowd, she..."

Thomas spoke with a remorseful tone. He should have never allowed Rainie and Mango to get off the car.

However, the incident was related to Gianna and he had no idea how to tell Noah about it.

Upon hearing this, Noah immediately reached for his coat as he asked, "Have you contacted the police?"

"We did, but there's a blind spot in the surveillance coverage in the alley behind the club. Unfortunately, we lost their trail."

"Don't worry, I'll be right there."

Then, Noah hung up the phone and he prepared to leave the house.

"What happened?"

Genevieve couldn't help but ask when she saw how panicked Noah was.

Her expression became grim as soon as Noah recounted what happened to Mango.

"It's best to find Mango as soon as possible."

"What's wrong?"

Noah heard a different implication from Genevieve's tone.

Then, she replied in a low voice, "I finished the blood test, and Mango has a severe bacterial infection. Furthermore, she seems to be showing signs of massive uterine bleeding. I left her some medication, but I'm not sure if she's taking it. If her condition isn't brought under control soon, I'm afraid she might die."

Noah frowned even more deeply after hearing his wife spoke.

"Right now, I can only do my best to find Mango. But what do I say to Nathaniel?"

Noah sighed softly before he turned to leave.

As Thomas waited for Noah to arrive, he started a search for Mango via the Ye family's connections but to no avail.

When Noah arrived, he brought some very skilled trackers with him. With a thorough examination of the back alley, they quickly picked up the trail of the van.

"Follow us!"

All of them followed the trail all the way to the beach, where the trail ended.

In other words, this was where the trail ran cold.

Had Mango been dumped into the ocean?

Rainie almost couldn't bear such a thought.

"No way, I'm sure the kidnappers must have a reason for kidnapping Mango. They will never hurt her, so this must be some sort of trick to throwing us off." Noah was the quickest to react.

However, when they returned to the alley, the crowd had mostly dispersed. Thus, the footprints of people nearly obscured all traces of the van's tires. "Everyone try your best to find where Susie is!"

Right now, Noah could only hope that Mango hadn't been kidnapped by Susie.

On the other hand, Nathaniel was undergoing what seemed to be extremely inhumane torture right now.

He only had a couple of glasses of wine, but the dosage was enough to make him this addicted.

Right now, Nathaniel was securely fastened to the bed. His expression was especially ferocious as his addiction reared its head, and he wanted to destroy everything around him. "Give it to me! I need it!"

Nathaniel bellowed, and his manic gaze was enough to strike fear into people's hearts. He was like a savage beast, aiming to bulldoze everything around him.

Thankfully, the rope that secured him was specially made and extremely tough because no one dared get near him. Right now, he bellowed and growled like a caged animal.

Who would have thought that the high and mighty Nathaniel Ye would face such a devastating situation?

During his fleeting moments of lucidity, Nathaniel was grateful that Mango had no idea what he was going through. If not, he reckoned that she would be heartbroken.

If Mango saw how pathetic he was right now, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

The dizziness and desire for the drug pierced into him like a white- hot dagger, and it seemed to release every dark impulse in his body.

It wasn't until the withdrawal symptoms passed that Nathaniel finally laid back in bed drenched in sweat. As he gazed up at the ceiling, he felt as if he'd just been to hell and back.

He gasped for air as if he'd just run a marathon non-stop.

Nathaniel had no clue how long his withdrawal pangs lasted this time, but he knew that this was only the beginning. Frankly, he was sure that the successive bouts of withdrawals would be even more difficult to endure.

The moment his rational thought left him, he wanted nothing more than for Mango and their children's smiles in his mind, but alas it was not to be.

"Please do me a favor."

Nathaniel's voice fluttered weakly like a piece of paper in the wind, and it was so weak that almost no one could hear it. However, someone still attended to him immediately. "What's the matter, Mr. Ye?"

"Could you develop the photo of my wife and paste them around the walls of this room?"

His voice was weak only because he was building up the energy to endure the next bout of withdrawal symptoms.

The person quickly did as Nathaniel told and found his phone. When it was turned on, there were dozens of missed calls from someone called Thomas.

The attendant was just about to tell Nathaniel about this, but then he received a phone call from Noah.

"How is Nathaniel?"

"He's just passed the first bout of symptoms, and I think it'll be about ten minutes before the second bout hits. I suggested to give him something for his pain, but Mr. Ye refused me."

The man replied in a low voice.

Meanwhile, Noah just kept frowning the whole time.

"It's a good idea not to give him anything for the pain. He's not an ordinary man, so weathering the addiction with aid may be the best course of action. However, there's something you shouldn't inform him about."

"What is it?"

"No matter how many times someone calls his cellphone, he must never know nor can he touch his phone, got it? The effects of the drug are strong, and once you start, you can't stop. If you do, you'll die! No matter what happens over here, rest assured that I'm trying my best to fix it, but make sure no one disturbs him, okay?"

Noah's voice was cold and hard, and it didn't sound like the 'doctor voice' he usually employed.

The man immediately understood what he meant.

"Yes, Dr. Soo. I understand."

Then, he quickly deleted any trace of Thomas's missed calls before he printed out photos of Mango from the phone and stuck them around the cage.

Next, Nathaniel smiled weakly at Mango's photos plastered all around him.

Perhaps this was the only way he could feel as if Mango was by his side.

He had to hold on!

"Mango, wait for me!"

"When I come back, I'll tell you everything! I won't ever hide anything from you again!"

Nathaniel kept these thoughts close to his heart as he welcomed his second bout of withdrawal symptoms. Right now, he had no idea of what was going on with Mango, nor how much she wished for him to appear.