Chapter 27: He’s Not My Family
The police had a few more questions for Cathryn. She loosened Grace's arm and stood up. Just then, she saw Keith standing outside the door when she looked up. She had remembered her promise to him that she would keep herself from having a miscarriage. She couldn't help herself; she still had to save the young girl regardless of the danger. She felt somewhat ashamed when she saw the look in Keith's eyes.
However, Keith had no intention of blaming her. He went up to Cathryn and said to the police, "I'm part of her family, could I accompany her into the room?"
"No, he's not my family." Cathryn blurted out.
The policeman was in a daze for a second, then he smiled and asked, "Do you know him?"
Cathryn was so anxious not to have him come into the room with her that it made Keith feel disappointed. Fixing his eyes on Cathryn, his lips pressed into a hard line.
"Yes, we're friends," replied Cathryn.
Keith looked at her in silence. It was such a fixed stare that it made Cathryn feel nervous. Cathryn was so soft-hearted that she always tried to look at the better side of things whenever there was a problem. Having such a character, she was the most passionate and energetic woman, and she could also be a coward. As it seemed from the matter happening today, Cathryn was by no means acting cowardly.
"Well, as long as he's not a human trafficker." The policeman said with a smile, very gently and kindly.
The policeman was very complimentary about Cathryn's behavior because there would have been a broken family if Cathryn hadn't helped the young girl today. Though her behavior was uncontrolled, she was still courageous.
Sitting on the chair, Cathryn gave a rough statement of what had happened, but some of the details she could not describe, for she had only wanted to save the girl without paying attention to anything else at all.
"So how did you know that this wasn't a simple family dispute but human trafficking?" He had already taken her statement, so why was he asking such a question? Out of curiosity.
Cathryn looked up at the police and said honestly, "those women were different. They had an accent." Cathryn's parents traveled a lot.
Therefore, Cathryn knew a lot about the accents in some regions. Today, among those women, there was only one woman who spoke with a local accent while the other woman had a different language. She wasn't familiar with her accent.
"If it were only a simple family dispute, it would be impossible to gather the relatives together from so far away to help. She was beaten and pulled by her hair, is that normal? What was I supposed to do?" Cathryn asked, sounding confused.
Just then, the girl's mother came up to Cathryn, held Cathryn's hand, and said gratefully, "Thank you very much, Miss Riley, or I would have lost my daughter forever."
Cathryn politely responded to her and gave her a satisfying look. Then left the police station with Grace and Keith. Outside the door, Grace took a jade bracelet out of her bag and handed it to Cathryn. The bracelet had sentimental value to her. It was supposed to protect her from harm.
When Cathryn was pushed down by the women, she twisted her wrist, and the bracelet had gotten broken. Looking at the bracelet that had been broken into three pieces, Cathryn felt a little relieved unexpectedly. The bracelet was a gift from Jordan on her birthday, and she should have given it back to him after they divorced. Now the bracelet was broken, and it was all over between her and Jordan.
Keith let Jack drive Grace home and then got in his car with Cathryn. After Keith started the car, the only thing that could be heard was the wheels rubbing against the road. The two of them kept silent all the way, and the atmosphere in the car was very embarrassing.
Cathryn had been blaming herself for rushing to save the young girl regardless of the child's safety and even embarrassing Keith in front of the police.
The atmosphere in the car became more and more awkward. Keith was concentrating on driving, while Cathryn felt uncomfortable, moving her legs and twisting her waist.
Cathryn's movements quickly caught Keith's attention, and he asked softly, "Are you uncomfortable?"
Cathryn stiffened, then quickly sat up straight and sneaked a glance at Keith. He was concentrating on driving. She looked at the side of his face. She was captivated by his looks, he was so perfect and handsome.
"I'm sorry." Cathryn built up some courage and decided to apologize first, "I didn't protect our baby as you asked."
Hearing Cathryn's apology, Keith slightly turned his head to look at her without any smile in his eyes. After a while, Keith said, "That's all right. You did a good thing by helping that girl."
His voice was low and magnetic, as steady as a massive object landing on the floor without making a noise. However, no one knew that his heart almost stopped beating when Jack called to inform him about Cathryn.
He hurried to the underground garage from the conference room and immediately drove to the police station. He had to park two blocks away and run the rest of the way. His heart raced, afraid that Cathryn might have been hurt.
"Why did she still rush out to save others when she was pregnant?" Keith had been wondering that on the way to the police station. But that was precisely who Cathryn was, and she could never change.
She could have died. Thinking of this, Keith pulled over to the side of the road and then put his hand on Cathryn's head when Cathryn was still trying her best to think about how to apologize.
The palm of his hand was always warm and dry. He pressed it on her head without any weight. He gently rubbed her hair as if kneading in her heart, rubbing away all her nervousness and apologies.