{"id":578,"date":"2026-09-28T15:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/chapter\/in-my-desperate-time-554\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T15:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:47:20","slug":"in-my-desperate-time-554","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/chapter\/in-my-desperate-time-554\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 554"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter 554<br \/>\nIn My Desperate Time novel Chapter 554<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where is Penelope? How is she? Is she alright?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I ask Mindy hurriedly, with my heart in my mouth.<\/p>\n<p>God knows how hard these days are.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m worried about Penelope every single day, afraid that something might happen to her, or perhaps something worse awaits me.<\/p>\n<p>Now finally there is information about her, but I can&#8217;t summon the courage hear it.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m scared.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really frightened. I can&#8217;t take another loss anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Penelope, you must be fine.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If David&#8217;s investigation is on the right course, then Penelope was taken away by Frances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Frances?<\/p>\n<p>I breathe a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, Penelope is not in danger, since she&#8217;s in Frances&#8217; hands. Fierce as he is, he doesn&#8217;t lay a hand on his child. I&#8217;ve misunderstood him about Earl. Now I know very well that he won&#8217;t do anything to his children.<\/p>\n<p>Our relationship ends, but he won&#8217;t hurt Penelope for this.<\/p>\n<p>Such trust in him finally puts me at ease after I spend so many days fretting about Penelope.<\/p>\n<p>However, I don&#8217;t understand why Frances takes Penelope away. Besides, I tell him about it, but he says nothing.<\/p>\n<p>What exactly does he want?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Then does David know the reason why Frances did that? What about Penelope&#8217;s illness? How is she now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better ask Frances about all this. He does a good job of keeping it a secret. The babysitter who takes care of Penelope happens to be the elder sister of one of David&#8217;s boys. If it weren&#8217;t for her, we probably wouldn&#8217;t have known about it now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mindy&#8217;s words make me even more curious about his intention.<\/p>\n<p>After finishing the phone call, I dial Frances&#8217; number.<\/p>\n<p>I call him twice, but he doesn&#8217;t answer.<\/p>\n<p>I want to send him a message, but somehow I recall what Hilda once told me.<\/p>\n<p>When I ask her about Penelope, she regrets leaving Penelope unharmed.<\/p>\n<p>If Hilda accidentally finds out about Penelope, will she touch Penelope?<\/p>\n<p>I have no choice but to wait for him downstairs.<\/p>\n<p>At first, I think that I would have to wait until the afternoon when he gets off work.<\/p>\n<p>Unexpectedly, those guards go to lunch at noon and this gives me the opportunity to get in.<\/p>\n<p>When no one is around, I take the elevator to the 28th floor and make my way to Frances&#8217; office.<\/p>\n<p>The door to his office is unlocked, and I push it open and go in, only to find that he is not inside.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe he&#8217;s having lunch outside.<\/p>\n<p>His coat is on the back of the chair. I walk over and gently caress the coat the way I once caressed him.<\/p>\n<p>It is only when there is no one around that I can unleash my feelings.<\/p>\n<p>It has been so long, but I still can&#8217;t let it go.<\/p>\n<p>As for him, I&#8217;m afraid he doesn&#8217;t care about me in the slightest.<\/p>\n<p>I smile bitterly and catch a glimpse of a sharp edge poking up from his coat&#8217;s inner pocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-578","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}