The Substitute Bride: Idiot Or Not?

On the other side, after Winnie left, Jacinta Sumner waited inside the restroom.

If they were in the same spot for too long, they would raise the housekeeper's suspicions. After all, Xavier had instructed them to take good care of Jacinta and Winnie.

When the housekeeper came to ask her about it, Jacinta had no choice but to say what Winnie had told her earlier-that Winnie had gone missing because she went to play.

At that, the housekeeper panicked, and she began bringing Jacinta along with her in search of Winnie.

Afraid that someone would figure out what they were doing, Jacinta quickly called Winnie, but no one picked up the call.

Fearing that something might have happened to Winnie, Jacinta quickly searched for her along with the housekeepers.

In the end, they really managed to discover Winnie's tracks, for many of the housekeepers said that they had seen Winnie and even talked to her.

Thus, Jacinta asked where Winnie's last destination was.

One of the housekeepers told her that Winnie went to look for Lagune Mansion's driver, saying that she was tired and wanted to go home.

At that, Jacinta went to the parking lot and found that, indeed, all signs pointed to Winnie leaving with the driver.

Everything seemed so rational, and nothing appeared out of the sort. Everyone thought that a mentally challenged woman just wanted to go home to sleep and forgot about her grandmother. However, Jacinta was the only one who knew that her granddaughter was not mentally challenged; Winnie would not leave the elderly woman alone and return home by herself.

Moreover, they had yet to find the youth with a birthmark on their chest. How could her granddaughter simply leave like this?

Left without a choice, Jacinta went to Louis, hoping to get him to verify the matter with Lagune Mansion's driver.

Louis was surprised to see Jacinta. "Mdm. Sumner, didn't you leave with Mrs. Fairchild?"

The "Mrs. Fairchild" that Louis mentioned was none other than Winnie.

Jacinta was surprised too. "You know Winnie's gone?"

"The driver did call and say that Mrs. Fairchild was tired and wanted to go home a while ago."

"Are you sure that Winnie's the one that the driver saw? I can't get Winnie to pick up my calls."

"I think so. I'm sure the driver won't mistake someone else as her." Louis furrowed her brows. "But I didn't ask many questions because I handed the phone to my CEO." "Where is your CEO, then? What about this? Make a call to the driver. I want to make sure that everything's fine."

"Okay." Just as Louis said that, Xavier appeared.

"What happened?" Xavier asked.

Louis immediately explained the matter to him.

Xavier frowned after hearing it.

Indeed, not long ago, the driver called to ask for his instructions, but just as Louis handed him the phone, Benjamin Fairchild came.

Xavier did not make Benjamin wait for long, and he did not want Benjamin to get the chance to lay a finger on Winnie because of his worries about her.

Therefore, he simply agreed with the driver. In fact, he did not even know that Jacinta had not been by Winnie's side at that time.

"Call the driver right away," Xavier ordered Louis.

"Okay."

However, just as Louis found the driver's number, the driver called.

Before Louis could come back to his senses, Xavier took the phone from him.

"Hello? This is Xavier Fairchild. Get Winnie to answer the call."

The driver never thought that the one who picked up the call would be Xavier. Instantly, he began stammering, "M-Mr. Xavier..." "Speak!"

"M-Mrs. Fairchild, she's gone!"

"What?" Xavier knitted his brows. "What do you mean by she's gone?"Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"It happened just now..." The driver was on the verge of crying from anxiety. "Mrs. Fairchild said that she urgently needed to use the restroom, so I stopped the car at the side of the road. But it's been over ten minutes, and Mrs. Fairchild hasn't come back yet. I searched everywhere around the place, but I can't find her, and she's not picking up the calls either!"

The more Xavier listened to him, the paler he became. "Send me your location. Louis, gather some men and look for her!"

Jacinta was baffled. How did things end up like this?

In the meantime, on a remote road, Kylie took off her cap and entered Yulissa's car.

"How was it? The driver didn't suspect a thing, right?" Yulissa asked.

"No. He's not familiar with the dumbass anyway, so he never noticed anything amiss. What about your side? Everything went well?"

"Yes, but Xavier has already sent his men to look for her. Ha! I've never seen him panicking as much as this before."

That night, Xavier used all the men and connections that the Fairchild family had to look for Winnie, and that annoyed Benjamin.

"Xavier, do you know what you're doing? Are you just ignoring everything I've said? If she's missing, call the cops! Are you going to stop going to the office for just a mentally challenged woman?"

A night went by, and Xavier still found no clues about Winnie's whereabouts. Even her phone was switched off.

Now, he was regretting it; he was regretting every wrong decision he had made earlier.

I shouldn't have distanced myself from her. I shouldn't have gotten a divorce from her. I shouldn't have let her go to the restroom alone. I should've just ignored my father when I was on the call with the driver. Xavier gave no heed to Benjamin's words, for he was too preoccupied with the myriad of thoughts in his mind.

Instead, he made a call and said, "Send out drones to look for her and make sure that they're transmitting video to us every second of the day. Also, pilot my helicopter over. I'm going to look for her myself." "Xavier Fairchild!" Benjamin cried out, utterly disappointed. "If you go out right now, I'm going to break your legs!"

Right then, Rufus appeared. "I should be the one breaking your legs!"

As he thumped his walking cane against the floorboard, he uttered, "Benjamin Fairchild, do you still think of me as your father? Who told you that you had permission to drive the girl, Winnie, away? Why didn't you discuss this with me earlier? You're even stopping Xavier from looking for her now that she's missing!"

"Dad, listen to me-"

"I don't want to!" Rufus shoved Benjamin aside before turning to Xavier. "Go and look for her. You have to bring her back."

"I understand. I'll definitely bring her back!" It had been more than ten hours since Winnie went missing, and Xavier had not had a single drop of water since then. Hence, his voice was exceptionally hoarse. However, despite his restless search for three whole days and nights, he found no traces of her.

It was as if Winnie had vanished into thin air that night.

Their fruitless efforts lasted until the police station came to them with tragic news. Apparently, they had found the body of a woman in the septic tank of a dairy farm ten kilometers away from where Winnie disappeared.

Upon hearing that, Xavier, Jacinta, and the others rushed to the police station.

As the body was found in a high-temperature septic tank, the level of decomposition of the body no longer allowed them to recognize who the dead woman was.

However, they had fished out a phone along with the body, and that phone belonged to Winnie.

It had been three whole days since Xavier caught a wink, and he had not eaten nor drunk during that time either. Despite how healthy he usually was, the shock hit him so hard that he collapsed. "Mr. Xavier! Mr. Xavier, what's wrong?"

"He's mentally and physically exhausted. Hurry up and send him to the hospital for an intravenous glucose infusion!" Jacinta could not hear anything the people around her were saying.

It had been four days since her granddaughter disappeared, and in the end, the police brought her to a corpse.

"Winnie... Winnie! Oh, my Winnie! How did things turn out this way? What happened?"

Everyone was too absorbed in taking care of Xavier, so no one noticed Jacinta breaking down.

Jacinta fell onto the floor and began bawling. All of a sudden, her phone rang.

It was from an unfamiliar number, and she did not want to pick it up. Nevertheless, she accidentally accepted it.

Then, she heard a familiar voice.

The elderly woman's eyes lit up, and she quickly placed the phone by her ear.

"Winnie? You're Winnie!"