Chapter 7
Chloe Miller heard those words outside the study. With reddened eyes, she pushed the door
open.
“Daniel, have you fallen in love with Emily Carter? Otherwise, why would you care about her so
much?”
Daniel’s expression turned uneasy. He pulled Chloe into his arms.
‘Silly girl.”
‘I’m looking for her only so she can have our child, remember? With you here, how could I ever ove her?”
Chloe tilted her head, half-believing, searching his face.
Really?”
Of course.”
But even Daniel himself felt the hollowness in his words, the unease in his heart.
And deep down, he asked himself-was it really true?
A week later, they finally retrieved the smashed surveillance footage from the countryside cottage. Within two days, the technicians had repaired it.
When Daniel got word, he rushed there immediately.
Did you find Emily’s whereabouts?”
His assistant, who had just watched the entire footage, turned deathly pale, trembling from head
o toe.
Mr. Reed… Miss Emily is… right beneath your feet.”
Daniel’s frown deepened sharply.
He glanced down at the smooth cobblestone path and let out a cold laugh.
What nonsense are you talking about?”
He snatched the footage from the technician’s hand.
‘Give it here. I’ll see for myself how she’s trying to trick us.”
But even as he spoke, he felt the absurdity of his own words.
t wasn’t disbelief-it was fear.
Fear that the truth aligned with his darkest suspicion.
Fear that the woman he thought would always be by his side was truly gone.
And then he saw the video.
Daniel’s entire body began to shake uncontrollably. If not for his assistant supporting him from behind, he would have collapsed.
“How… how can this be?”
At last, he realized-I was dead.
A group of men had crushed my remains, burned me on the spot without even sending me to a
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crematorium, and buried the ashes beneath the cobblestones.
Daniel’s body went rigid, the color draining completely from his face.
And there, in the footage, he saw the one standing behind it all-the one orchestrating everything.
t was Chloe.
‘No… no, this can’t be real. The video must be fake. Al-generated. It has to be!”
Emily, where are you? You couldn’t possibly end up like this. You were always such a firebrand- how could you be beaten down like that?”
Daniel staggered toward the cottage, crawling as if he could somehow see me again.
He longed for me to suddenly appear with a grin and say:
Daniel, I fooled you. I was just teasing.”
But no matter how long he waited, I never appeared.
Finally, his assistant, voice choked with pity, spoke:
Mr. Reed, I know it’s hard to accept, but this is the truth. Miss Emily… she died two months ago.”
Daniel went mad on the spot.
le ordered his men to tear up the cobblestone path.
But the lime and concrete were packed too tightly. After two months of rain and sun, everything
ad hardened.
here was no telling which was lime and which was my ashes.
No… this can’t be real. I refuse to believe it.”
Maybe… maybe her Social Security record was erased only because she left the country. Yes- hat must be it! I’ll go abroad and find her!”
lis voice was hoarse and broken as he demanded his assistant buy him a plane ticket on the
pot.
¡ut the assistant only shook his head.
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