Chapter 5
But Chloe never truly replied.
Sometimes, she deliberately sent a short message back-
just enough to make Daniel Reed believe I wasn’t dead, only hiding.
I watched as Daniel’s texts came one after another, piling up higher than all his earlier
accusations.
His tone shifted from anger, to helplessness, to something almost pleading.
“Emmy, sweetheart, I’ve been looking for you for so long. Please stop hiding from me, okay?”
Chloe’s smile froze instantly.
Realizing what she had done, she hurled the phone to the ground, smashing it to pieces.
‘Emily Carter, you’re dead! How dare you still make him speak to you so tenderly? You don’ deserve it!”
stood nearby, and for the first time in a long while, I felt a flicker of satisfaction.
Perhaps seeing Chloe so enraged was a form of revenge in itself.
That night, after failing to find me anywhere, Daniel drowned himself in liquor at a nightclub drinking until he was senseless. For a fleeting moment, his eyes showed a trace of regret.
‘Was I wrong?”
‘I knew Ryan Brooks was no suitable match, but the marriage alliance had to happen. If Emily hadn’t gone, it would have been Chloe.”
‘Chloe was raised like a pampered princess-how could she have endured such abuse?”
‘So Emily was the better choice.”
He confessed this to his friends, and I hovered beside him silently, realizing he had always <nown what kind of man Ryan truly was.
When it came time to choose, he discarded me without a second thought.
‘Daniel, it’s not your fault. Compared to a highborn lady like Chloe Miller, anyone in your place would’ve made the same choice…”
Daniel shook his head, about to reply-
out just then, his assistant rushed over in a panic.
‘Mr. Reed, Emily Carter may… already be dead.”
Daniel’s head snapped up. “What did you just say?”
‘I checked the hospital records. More than two months ago, her Social Security record was terminated.”
The assistant spoke gravely.
‘In the United States, there are only two possibilities. One, the person left the country and their
record was closed.”
“The second reason is that the person has died.”
1/2
15.0
1:25 pm D
Daniel’s face darkened instantly. For the first time, he realized my disappearance was not simple at all.
“No… I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
With a sudden crack, the glass in his hand shattered. He grabbed his coat and bolted for the door.
Alarmed, his friend shouted as he chased after him:
“Daniel, where are you going? Don’t do anything reckless!”
But under the haze of alcohol, Daniel-usually calm and restrained-lost all reason.
Ignoring the façade of cordiality between the two families, he stormed into the Brooks residence and landed a solid punch on Ryan Brooks’s face.
“Where is Emily Carter?”
Ryan, infamous for his violent temper, would normally have fought back immediately.
But instead, he let out a sharp scream, crouched on the floor with his hands over his head, and cried for help.
His reaction was so strange that Daniel froze in shock.
“Stop pretending! Tell me where Emily is!”
“She was perfectly fine two months ago. Why has her Social Security identity been terminated?”
“What did you do to her? I’m warning you—this marriage alliance doesn’t change the fact that Emily is a daughter of the Miller family. If you dared harm her, I’ll be the first to destroy you.”
Ryan, who had been trapped in his own nightmares, suddenly focused on the man before him.
His pupils cleared, the terror in his eyes slowly fading as he recognized Daniel.
1:25 pm DD
