Sharon signed with her right hand and Tatiana immediately began her narration.
"Hello, my name is Tatiana Petrova. As you all know, I am the owner of this channel, and for the last ten days, my friends and I have been on a study trip to Paris and Bordeaux. You have seen my best friend, Vega, appear in my videos. She is a friendly girl and she is very down to earth. So, we all did not expect, some bad people have the heart to kidnap her.
"All announcements that you read on the internet are true. Vega who sometimes hosted my videos is Vega Linden, Mr. Elios Linden's daughter. Earlier, I have met Vega's father and he asked for my help ... for all of you, to open your eyes and ears, wherever you are. We must let her family know immediately if we saw or know something.
"You can contact me directly by private message. You can also contact all RMI representative offices and all company offices under the Schneider Group. There will be a hotline number available that you can contact from all over the world. Toll-free."
Her school friends listened to her sympathetically. However, once Tatiana confirmed that Vega was indeed the girl who caused a stir in the world this morning with her mysterious disappearance, they all became very shocked.
Immediately there were muffled exclamations. They exchanged glances and pressed their lips in surprise. Nobody expected this. Like Tatiana, they thought Altair and Vega, the twins, were ordinary people.
Now their view of the two had completely changed.
Never judge a book by its cover, they thought.
***
The atmosphere in the penthouse was really tense and the air felt heavy. It's been 20 hours after Vega disappeared and they still hadn't found a clue.
Lauriel had arrived in Switzerland and immediately headed for the hospital where Alexei's body was being examined by a coroner. He actually thought there was a possibility that the body was not really Alexei, but someone who was made to look like him and was killed to distract them.
Unfortunately, he was wrong. The corpse turned out to be Alexei. He confirmed this from the rapid DNA testing on the man's blood sample and they compared the results with Nicolae's DNA in Paris. Their mothers were sisters, so their DNAs could be matched to find their relations.
"This is really Alexei," Lauriel said with a sigh. He was on the phone, talking to Elios in Paris. "I have coordinated with the police in Switzerland to block the roads all over Switzerland, including the border. If Vega is still here, we will find her..."
Elios punched the wall next to him furiously. He did not suspect that Vega was indeed taken to Switzerland. Aleksis who sat next to him immediately jumped and hurried over to him.
"What did Father say?" asked the girl anxiously. "Is there bad news?"
"Hmmph ... Father just confirmed that Alexei is indeed dead. They actually held Vega with him in Switzerland before Alexei was killed." Elios could not feel the pain from his bleeding knuckle after he punched the wall. He clenched his fist even harder. "I don't know what they want ... Why don't they just call me and tell me what they want? If this is kidnapping for money, they should have told me the ransom. If it's out of spite ... they should have contacted me to make fun of me .. asked me to do something bad to save Vega ... But this, there is absolutely no news."
Aleksis hugged Elios and buried her head in the man's chest. "We'll wait ... We have to be patient. This morning they already sent news via Darknet, right? Maybe now they are still on the move. Later, after they feel safe, they will definitely contact us."
Elios rubbed Aleksis's head, unable to say anything more. He had not slept for more than 24 hours, and he was mentally exhausted.
Nicolae and Altair were still busy checking and sorting out all the videos taken by Tatiana, one by one. Marie also helped from Grosseto.
In addition to checking all the videos, they also checked all CCTV recordings from the places that Vega and Tatiana visited in the past ten days. They worked diligently for hours without a break.
Marion checked back and forth with Larkin's men to find out their progress. She and Petra also coordinated with the police in France to deal with the Lisa and Vega cases.
Until nightfall, they still hadn't found any clues. Vega had been missing for 24 hours. Elios still hadn't slept after two days, and this made Aleksis very worried.
***
The next morning, after Vega disappeared for 36 hours, Pavel reported the location of each people that they suspected to hold grudges against Elios. They managed to find Sophia, who now lived in the Netherlands. The girl hid for years by changing her identity. She was now making ends meet by running a small cafe.
When she heard about what happened to Vega, Sophia just burst out laughing and specifically said hello to Elios.
"You are Pavel, aren't you? I know that you are my evil cousin's right hand," Sophia hissed, grinning. "I am honored that you came to me personally. Tell Alaric, I am delighted because, after a dozen years, my cousin finally paid for what he did to me. I hope the tragedy that befell him does not stop here. We know his sin is still far greater than this ..ha ha ha..."
Pavel raised his hand to hit Sophia over her presumptuous and evil words, but he refrained because he never hit women, unless that was part of their mission. At this time, he was only ordered by Elios to track those who were suspected to have the motive to kidnap Vega.
"I'm not done with you," Pavel said in an icy voice. "I'll be watching you. If we found out that you're involved ... we'll make you regret ever being born."
Sophia just rolled her eyes. She was not afraid. For her now, her life was already bad. She didn't think it could get any worse than this.
"If the kidnapper needs my help, I will definitely help him. You will see ..." Sophia replied with a sinister smile.
Kai, who was staying in America, had also found the Blue family's tracks. The Blues were another potential suspect since they offended Elios Linden 6 years ago and were punished accordingly. They lost all their wealth and had become the target of the Russian mob.
The Blue family now opened a small inn in a small town in the midwest, the United States. They tried to live low profile and survived through their small inn business.
According to Kai's assessment, the Blue family also did not have enough resources in America to pay for such a mysterious and professional kidnapper group.
Elios and his family ended up with another dead end. After 48 hours of Vega's disappearance, her father's spirit slowly dimmed.
They had mobilized all their people, power, and wealth within their reach to search for Vega all over the world ... but apparently, that was not enough.