He walked up to her and silently pulled her into his embrace.
His presence immediately enveloped her entirely, and she suddenly burst into tears, letting out all the fear and terror from the kidnapping and the betrayal of loved ones that she had been suppressing.
He stood there, his arms around her shoulders, allowing her tears to soak the front of his shirt.
After a long while, she finally stopped crying and suddenly remembered he was injured. She quickly lifted her head to look at his shoulder and was relieved when she saw she hadn’t pressed against his injured side while she was crying.
"Feeling better?" he asked.
"Yes, much better." She took a deep breath and then asked, "Aren’t you going to ask me why I was crying just now?"
"If you want to cry, just cry. Does there have to be a reason?" he said.
She was grateful for his not asking—it spared her the embarrassment of having to lay bare too much of what was difficult to talk about, although he might have overheard her phone call and guessed some things.
But Mabel didn’t expect that half an hour later, Alice called her.
"Mabel, could you come to the school now? Your mom is at the dormitory, shouting and making a scene to find you," Alice urgently said. She found it strange that Mabel’s mother didn’t know that Mabel had moved out of the dormitory.
Mabel was shocked; she didn’t expect her mom to go to the school and cause a disturbance.
"Alright, I’m coming right away." She put away her phone and prepared to rush to the school.
"I’ll take you there," Kyle Kinston said.
"You’re injured; I can go by myself," Mabel replied.
"I’m taking you!" Kyle insisted, pulling on Mabel’s arm and instructing the driver to prepare the car.
Seeing Kyle’s determination, Mabel no longer refused.
The driver drove to the main gate of K University, and Mabel said to Kyle, "Wait for me in the car. If you show up, it might cause an even bigger commotion." After all, he was a CEO. Though normally there weren’t many reporters writing gossip about him, there were probably quite a few people at the school who could recognize him, like Alice.
Mabel hurriedly got out of the car, and Kyle instructed the driver, "Follow her and make sure nothing happens to her."
"Yes," the driver acknowledged and followed her out of the car.
When Mabel arrived at the dormitory building, she saw her mother standing in the lobby on the first floor, loudly declaring, "I won’t leave unless I see my daughter today. So what if I cause a scene all night? Can’t a mother come to find her daughter?"
A crowd had already gathered around, and Alice and Evelyn were trying to calm Evelina down, while the dorm manager looked helpless, wondering how she encountered such an unreasonable person.
"Mom, I’m here. You can stop making a fuss now," Mabel said.
Alice, Evelyn, and the dorm manager all looked relieved.
"Mabel, thank goodness you’re here at last!" Alice said.
As soon as Evelina saw her daughter, she immediately stepped forward and grabbed her daughter’s wrist, "Come on, let’s go to the police station and get your brother out."