One Night With My Alpha Professor by Eve Above Story

Chapter 261

Audrey

“Does this man look familiar to you?”

Edwin slowly pushed the drawing across the cold metal interrogation table. Sophia sat on the other side of that table, her hair hanging in her face, her eyes ringed with dark circles, and her orange jumpsuit wrinkled.

She’d been in solitary confinement for days, and yet somehow, she still hadn’t cracked.

But she would today. Because the drawing that Joseph gave us… It had to mean something. And Sophia knew what it meant. We were sure of it.

Her expression was unreadable as ever as she slowly leaned forward and inspected the drawing. There was a brief silence before she shrugged and leaned back in her chair.

“I’m afraid I don’t recognize that man,” she replied casually.

I leaned forward, pressing my fingers into the cool metal. “Really? Because that little human boy with soot in his lungs, Joseph, seemed pretty adamant that this man–‘Mr. B‘–had something to do with his torment.”

Sophia’s lips curled into a small smile, cold and humorless. “Children say and do the darndest things, don’t they?”

My blood began to boil at the corrupt orphanage director’s cool attitude. I wanted to throttle her until she finally spilled whatever secrets she was hiding. And I almost did. I could feel my muscles tingling to leap across the table and show her what happened to people who didn’t cooperate.

But then Edwin’s hand brushed against my arm, pulling me out of my temporary stupor. “Tread lightly,” his voice echoed through our Mindlink. “She’s cracking. I can feel it.”

He was right; I could see the flicker of something in her eyes, the tiniest crack in her calm facade.

So I took a breath to steady myself and stepped back, letting my mate take over.

“Let me tell you what I see,” Edwin said, his voice deceptively soft. “I see the face of a man. A man who is apparently connected to you. A man who is involved in the illegal buying and selling of human children from your orphanage.”

Sophia remained silent.

“At least, that’s how it seems,” Edwin said, folding his arms across his chest. “Perhaps I’m wrong. And perhaps, if I sentence you to death, I’ll never get the opportunity to find out if I am wrong.”

Her smile faltered. Just for a second, but it was enough. “You’re bluffing,” she said with a huff.

But when it comes to children,

you know,” I said slowly, carefully, “then

a little too quickly, “I don’t

long and hard, searching her face for any crack in the mask she had so carefully constructed. She was trembling

shred of uncertainty in her mind. The barest fracture

chance. Before she could steel herself

was suddenly plunged into the storm that

flashed around me–children crying, men in uniforms, unmarked vans. A pile of cash. A

fat with cash. “He wanted me to instruct you to put this money toward your infirmary. We need the kids

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Chapter 261

“I hope he left extra for me. I won’t sink all of my

worry. There’s plenty

out of Sophia’s mind. Those mental walls of hers slammed back up, thicker than before, but it was too

could see for himself. “She has been selling the children. To a man

eyes widened. “Atticus B.,” he said slowly. “I can think of one man with those initials:

from beneath my feet. Mr. Black… Was he truly the one

to face Sophia again. “This ‘anonymous benefactor‘ of yours… Was his

shoulders slumped as she realized

choked out. “I–I just took the money. He… he wanted the children in good condition before they were

he was sick, wasn’t he? Atticus didn’t want him because he

miserably, crocodile tears pooling

shred of pity for her. She knew what she had done. She could have refused the offer, could have

each other and left the interrogation room. Sophia’s sobs were cut off as the door slammed shut behind

we can’t just

walls. Peter ran his hands through his hair in one of the armchairs, Tina sat

discuss what we had learned. We needed as many minds working on this problem as we could

think we should follow one of the trucks,” Charles, who was pacing behind the sofa, mused. “See where

want any more kids getting loaded up on one of those trucks,