Their Mistake, Her Rise - Chapter 252: Chapter 252

The attacker's target was clear—and of course, Shawn had already figured it out.
"Zoe, have you figured out who did this? Tell us now! We have to go save Sean and Charlie!" Gerald was growing anxious beside her.
Jacob and Herbert were equally tense. Though the Evans siblings often bickered, whenever one of them was in danger, the others would drop everything to help—never backing down.
The White brothers had now more or less grasped what was going on. They saw this as their best chance to make amends with Zoe, and no matter what, they were determined to be involved.
Samuel immediately stepped up. "Zoe, the White family has extensive connections and a strong intel network. If you need anything, just say the word. We can start pulling strings right now to help find them."
Alex and Simon nodded in agreement, but Zoe simply said, "That won't be necessary."
Samuel thought Zoe was just being stubborn with them and insisted, "Don't turn us down just yet. I have an intelligence team—I can access classified information from all over the world. I'm confident we can find Sean and Charlie."
"Yeah, Samuel's really good at that kind of thing," Simon added.
"Please, let us do what little we can," Alex chimed in.
The White brothers all looked at Zoe with pleading eyes.
"Zoe, we're on the same page here. Let us come with you to save Sean and Charlie." Seeing that even outsiders were so eager to help, the Evans brothers naturally didn't want to be outdone.
But Zoe only gave them all a glance before flatly refusing: "I won't allow it. With your abilities, you'd only be a burden."
Her blunt words left both the Evans and White brothers speechless.
They were all prodigies in their respective fields, but in Zoe's eyes, they were nothing more than dead weight in this situation.
It wasn't a pleasant feeling—but they couldn't argue with her. After all, none of them were as powerful or capable as Zoe.
Zoe had already made up her mind to handle this alone. She turned around, ready to depart. But just then, Shawn quickly reached out and grabbed her slender wrist.
She heard him say, "I'm going with you."
Zoe turned to look at Shawn, gave him a small nod, and then took the car keys from Gerald's hand and got in the vehicle.
That nod was her answer—and the best one she could give. Right now, Shawn was the only one truly capable of helping her.
Seeing this, the Evans brothers immediately surrounded Shawn and started giving him a barrage of reminders, clearly treating him like their future brother-in-law.
"Mr. Ludwig, you have to protect Zoe."
"Yeah! Even if you're a legend of war, if anything happens to her, we're not letting it slide."
"If Zoe so much as breaks a nail, we'll be the first to object to her marrying you!"
Shawn glanced at them and replied coolly, "I will protect her—completely."
Of course, that was if she really needed him to.
The Evans brothers finally stepped aside. They watched the car make a sharp turn, drawing a perfect arc before speeding off into the distance.
That sight stirred something in Herbert, Jacob, and Gerald. It made them realize one thing: If they wanted to protect their family, they had to become stronger.
On the road, Zoe focused on driving while Shawn was on the phone, mobilizing every resource at his disposal to search for Sean and Charlie.
"Don't worry, Sean and Charlie will be okay," he said in reassurance.
Zoe believed that—after all, this was all aimed at her, not them. But still, she couldn't shake the vague, creeping sense of dread building inside her.
What Zoe and Shawn didn't know was that, somewhere else, something terrifying was happening.
"Sean, what do we do now?" Charlie asked, his face pale. His face was dirty, and he had cuts and scrapes all over.
Sean didn't look much better. He had a wound on his forehead, quickly wrapped with a torn piece of his shirt.
They weren't alone. There were others with them, all looking just as beaten up and scared. It seemed like their lives were hanging by a thread.
Sean had no idea what to do either.
At first, they came out here because something had gone wrong at an Evans Group factory near the border. Sean was in a hurry, so he asked Charlie to drive him there.
He didn't expect they'd get ambushed on the road. Luckily, Sean was quick-thinking. In the chaos, he and Charlie had jumped onto a passing freight truck and barely escaped.
Even then, Sean, being the workaholic he was, didn't forget why they were there. Since their phones got damaged during the escape, they didn't try to call their family. Instead, they paid the truck driver to take them straight to the factory.
But things only got worse.
Turned out, the ambush wasn't over. A violent local gang stormed the factory and started attacking everyone without warning.
The workers were just regular people with no way to fight back. Even running was hard.
The whole factory became a war zone. Sean and Charlie couldn't do anything to stop it.
Now, they were stuck inside with some of the workers. The attackers had trapped them, and no one could get out.
Suddenly, one of the gang members spotted Sean and Charlie and shouted, "It's Sean Evans and Charlie Evans! They're over there—kill them!"
If Sean and Charlie stayed, the workers would be in even more danger. In that moment, they made a decision. They ran out of the factory, drawing all the attackers away with them.
"They're running!" someone shouted. "Catch them—kill them!"
Sean and Charlie ran as fast as they could, straight into the wilderness. They had learned some self-defense, but there were too many attackers. They weren't like Gerald, who was a pro at fighting.
While Charlie was busy trying to fight off a few of them, he didn't see a man with a huge machete coming up behind him, swinging straight at his neck.
The blade came so fast that Sean stopped breathing for a second. He saw Charlie about to be killed—and then he moved.
"Charlie, look out!" Sean yelled and rushed forward, throwing himself in front of Charlie and taking the hit instead.
"Sean!" Charlie screamed. His cry echoed through the empty wild.
Then he saw something truly horrifying.