Chapter 18
The mament Sammel the bed on the lights, the entire mom was laid bare before his eyes
All the wedding photos that used for towed the walls were gone, leaving behind the tattered plaster.
The little trinkets Catherine ce adored, the furniture she used every day none of it was there anymore,
Heavy silence hung in the air, as if reaming at him that the villa had been unnerupted for quite some time.
“Cathy?”
Samuel’s voice echoed off the barren walls of the living room
He made his way upstairs, realising the bedroom was just as empty inside the wardrobe, the clothes he had once bought her were still hanging there, untouched.
The sleeve of the one on the far right still bore the faint smudge of the lipstick he’d given her during the New Year. It had faded into a soft brownish stain–like a dred up tear
Bawn buke, but Sammel was still slouched on the dusty couch The phone in his hand kept flashing nonstop with messages from his assistant.
Every message said the same thing they still couldn’t locate Catherine
Ever since he found out that she had left him after their divorce, he’d gone mad He dispatched every member of the Lynch family, pulled whatever strings he Could, and scotted every comer in the city for her
Trainstations, airports, highway checkpoints any place she could’ve possibly shown up turned up nothing
In the end, he even sought help from an old rival
but when Dylan Wight heal that Catherine had disappeared, he only laughed the told Samuel that the day Samuel used Catherine to trade for Natalie, he’d given het a chance to escape
“she could’ve left,” Dylan said “It she’d just managed to get through toy
But she failed Even after she jumped from a building to escape, she still e ldn’t reach Samuel’s phone,
Only then did Samuel truly understand how deeply he’d hurt her
Like a mad dog, he beat Dylan senseless. They both ended up bloodied and bruised.
“Samuel, you abandoned her like she meant nothing to you. Yet now you’re trying to look for her… do you think she’ll let you?” Dylan sneered, spitting out a mouthful of blood “And also, I suggest looking into that mistress of yours.”
The wound on Samuel’s lips began to throb again.
He hadn’t bothered to check on Natalie since handling her that check last one, but after what Dylan said, he did a bit of digging.
What he found made him reallee how dangerously foolish she was
During her internship at the hospital, she’d caused multiple serious accidents due to her incompetence—including mixing up Logan’s medication.
The only reason she wasn’t held accountable was because Logan had been too land to pursue it.
Later, when she came to live at the villa, she continued to be a nuisance, She spilled Alice’s ashes, and during the kidnapping, she was the one who tipped off the
enemy
“I’m just a caregiver here. Why are you taking me? If you want someone, take his wife instead!” she had said.
Samuel’s blood boiled,
Natalie had been pestering him these past few days for Agatha’s sake, and out of some leftover pity for what they once had, he’d helped her.
But now, clearly, that was no longer necessary.
He called his assistant, ordering him to stop helping the Sullivan family to let them fend for themselves.
After hanging up, Samuel gazed at the sunrise, his heart still heavy
A full week had passed, yet ng one managed to find Catherine. He’d searched everywhere he could inside and outside the country–and yet, it was all in vain.
He’d considered asking the Jackman family, but knowing Catherine despised her father for remarrying, he figured she’d never go back there. So he dropped the idea,
But then… where could she possibly go?
“Keep searching!” he basked into the phone. “If you still can’t find her, issue a missing persons report!”
News of Catherine’s sudden disappearance spread across the city overnight, but still, no one could find her.
because she’d been with the Jackman family all along.
