Obedience No More He's the One I Deserved novel Chapter 353

**TITLE: Beseeched 353**
**CONTENT: Chapter 353 She’s Gone**

Eventually, Lucas could no longer maintain his balance. The weight of dread bore down on him, and he found himself crumpling to the floor, his knees buckling beneath him.

“Mr. Jackson, please! This has nothing to do with me! You have to believe me!” His voice was a frantic plea, a desperate attempt to claw back some of the control he felt slipping away.

“Dawn is my niece! Why would I ever want to hurt her?” He felt a surge of indignation, but it was laced with fear—fear of the truth that loomed just out of reach.

“I even sent people to search for her, but we still couldn’t find her…” His words spilled out in a chaotic tumble, each phrase colliding with the next, revealing the raw panic etched across his features. It was a panic that seemed far too genuine to be feigned.

Ethan, however, rose with a deliberate calmness, each movement measured and steady, as if he were a predator surveying its prey. He advanced with purpose, halting directly in front of Lucas, who felt dwarfed by the intensity of Ethan’s presence.

As Ethan looked down at him, his gaze radiated a quiet authority that made it nearly impossible for Lucas to lift his eyes.

“You claimed you knew nothing. And now you’re saying you dispatched people to search for her?”

“I… I got flustered and misspoke,” Lucas stammered, panic tightening his throat. He slapped himself across the face, the sound echoing in the tense air. “My mistake!”

“But I had nothing to do with Dawn’s car accident! I am her real uncle! Why would I ever harm her?” His voice trembled, a mixture of desperation and indignation.

“Real uncle?” Ethan’s voice dripped with skepticism as he leaned in closer, his presence now sharp and suffocating.

“You even betrayed your own sister for money. And you expect me to believe that you wouldn’t sell out a niece you barely care about?”

Lucas’s heart plummeted, his wide eyes reflecting disbelief and fear.

“What? You thought I wouldn’t find out?” Ethan’s icy stare bore into him as he straightened, retreating to his seat with a cool detachment. “Perhaps I know more than you realize. So, spill the truth. Because if my patience runs thin and I decide to throw you in jail, it will be a regrettable outcome for you.”

Lucas swallowed hard, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he wrestled with his conscience.

“I…”

He paused, wrestling with the weight of his own choices before finally relenting. “Alright. I’ll tell you.”

“Someone texted me. They said they wanted Dawn to have a ‘small’ accident and instructed me to pick her up under the overpass in Southville. I never thought it would escalate to this!”

Fearing Ethan’s disbelief, Lucas hurriedly added, “I swear it, Mr. Jackson! My men were there the entire time, monitoring every route your team overlooked. We came up empty-handed.”

Ethan’s brow knitted deeply, concern etching lines across his forehead. After a long, heavy silence, his voice emerged low and gravelly. “Who sent you those messages?”

A flicker of uncertainty crossed Lucas’s features.

He feigned contemplation, his voice shaking slightly as he replied, “I don’t know… He never revealed his identity. It was all through phone calls. But he knew everything about my family and Dawn.”

In that moment, Lucas appeared small and pitiful, the bravado stripped away, leaving only vulnerability in its place. “Mr. Jackson, I had no choice. He threatened to harm my wife and daughter. He assured me Dawn would remain unharmed. How could I have known—”

“The number you have dialed is not in service…”

The robotic voice drained the color from his face, leaving him pale and shaken. He glanced back at the house, a sense of urgency flooding his veins, and then hastened away.

A week passed in a blur of anxiety and uncertainty. The search along the river yielded nothing. The traffic police had withdrawn, leaving only Jonathan and the private rescue team Ethan had hired to continue their relentless pursuit, working day and night.

On the fifth day, Ethan’s body finally succumbed to the toll of exhaustion during the search.

His condition spiraled into a high fever, landing him in the ICU for two grueling days before he was finally moved out.

Though he lay unconscious, the search persisted.

“Mr. Day.”

Peter Murray, the captain of the rescue team, could no longer contain his frustration. He approached Tony, his voice low and filled with a mix of regret and helplessness. “How long are we going to keep this up? Perhaps we should suggest to Mr. Jackson that he call off the search. At this point, it’s painfully clear she’s gone.”

Tony ran a hand through his disheveled hair, exhaustion weighing heavily on him. He had been awake just as long as the rescue team, and with Ethan still unconscious in the hospital, he felt utterly drained.

But to stop the search? That was out of the question.

If Ethan awakened to discover they had given up, losing his job would be the least of Tony’s worries. He could practically envision Ethan tearing him apart, both figuratively and literally.