Tabitha's POV
Upon hearing what Klein said, somehow, I thought of my own situation.
If I hadn't fallen in love with Derek then, and if I hadn't become his Luna, would things be different for me now?
I sincerely said, "Choosing a mate needs serious consideration. One might fall from heaven to hell if one ends up with the wrong guy."
"Exactly. All we want is for her to mate with someone who's really nice to her, and no matter how we think about it, he just doesn't fit the criteria," sighed Klein.
I had roughly guessed what had happened, so I kept quiet.
Klein frowned tightly as if recalling some bad memories.
He continued, "For the past six months, she's been fighting with us because that guy got in her head, thinking we wanted to marry her off just to solidify our family's status. But why would we do that? I mean, we're not in any kind of financial crisis.
"And even if an arranged marriage is needed, she has four elder brothers. We'll be forced into marrying someone before she does. No way we'd sacrifice her future!"
Klein sounded heartbroken. "But she wouldn't believe anything we said. In the end, she took a billion dollars and eloped with that guy."
I could tell how much he and his family loved her, and at the same time, his family's wealth made me slack-jawed.
"She hasn't contacted you?"
"No. Before she left, she blocked every one of us, so we couldn't reach her at all."
"What about the money? She's gotta spend it sooner or later, right? Can you track her down by her spending records?"
Klein shook his head. "I wish we could. When she left, the whole family was cleaning up the mess she made.
"We were afraid that if we pushed her too hard, she'd do even crazier things, so we figured that we'd let her do whatever she wanted temporarily.
"We guessed maybe she'd come home voluntarily after she knew how dangerous and complicated it was out there.
"To our surprise, as soon as she left, she deliberately covered her tracks and moved assets from her account at once.
"By the time we realized something was off, she was in Seattle, and not a dime was left on her account. So we couldn't track her through spending records."
The more I listened, the more it felt off. So I analyzed, "Mr. Hartley, I think this wasn't just a runaway situation. It feels like someone planned this from the jump.
"Given the fact that her assets have been transferred in such a short time, someone professional must have been helping her. Or even a team.
"Not to mention that her tracks have been covered perfectly. Is it possible that she's been played?"
He nodded, replying, "That's also one of our speculations, so we searched for that man's family especially. Then we found out that everything about him was fake, including his nationality and identity.
"No one had a clue who he was. We've been looking for her for a whole month. I flew here for her because she had said before that she really liked it here and wanted to settle down here.
"But I haven't heard anything from her in the week I've been here."
Klein sighed heavily, "We're like ants on a hot pan these days. Just desperate to find her..."
Just then, Klein's phone buzzed on the table. He gave me an apologetic look and answered the phone.
"Hello," he said, his voice gentle.
A sweet female voice came through. "Have you found her yet?"
Klein replied truthfully, "No. Not yet."
"Maybe she left Seattle long ago. Promise me you'll take care of yourself, OK? After all, you're out there alone, and I've been worried sick about you all day."
"I'm fine. Stay at home and take care of Mom and Dad. I'll bring her back."
"OK. I'll get out of your hair then."
He hung up the phone and voluntarily told me, "That's the other sister of mine. She's the sweetest, most gentle person I've ever known."
I saw the tenderness in his eyes and couldn't help but sigh, "You've got a big family. I bet your parents are happy to be surrounded by you and your siblings."
"Yeah. They've been lovey-dovey all these years," Klein said. After pausing for a moment, he continued, "Anything else you wanna eat?"
I shook my head. "No. I'm full already. Thanks."
I returned to the topic and said, "Mind if I ask a few more questions about Poison and Wolf Shadow? I heard that they've done a lot of experiments in different countries and harmed a lot of people. Is that true?"
Klein took a sip of his lemonade and said, "Yes. But you don't know their history, do you?"
I was somewhat surprised. "Their history?"
Klein traced the rim of his glass, and there was something so deep in his eyes that I couldn't tell. "Everything in this world has two sides. There is no such thing as absolute good or absolute bad."
Klein looked around.
After making sure no one was around us, he whispered, "Actually, the organization's original intention was for scientific research. It was founded to tackle those tough medical issues we can't solve—like cancer, leukemia, rabies, and various virus-induced ailments. But over time, there were some disagreements within the organization."
"On what?"
"Some experiments were inhumane. Experiments often required clinical trials, so they'd offer big bucks for people willing to sign a life-and-death contract. But not everyone was willing to do so. When there were not enough subjects for the experiments, they needed to obtain them through some special channels."
I listened attentively.
Klein glanced at me and continued, "You know there are a lot of organizations that sell werewolves for profit by illegal means, right? Whoever bought through these channels often has a strong will to survive, and that's where the conflict came in.
"One part of the members felt it was unethical to experiment on those driven by survival instinct, basically equating it to murder. But others believed that as long as there was a good outcome, the sacrifice of these individuals would save more lives, so, it was totally worth it."