Chapter 2

"Hello, police department? This is Alex."

"Someone has trespassed onto my private property. Please send someone over."

Ten minutes later, the police arrived.

"Officers! I want to report a missing person! Chloe is gone! He definitely did something to her!"

"I have proof! They were on their honeymoon in Hawaii just half a month ago!"

The officers looked at me, then at Alex.

Alex wore an expression of weary resignation.

"Officer, I've been in the country for the past half-month, dealing with a corporate merger. I haven't been to Hawaii at all."

"If you don't believe me, you can check my travel records."

The officers immediately ran a check on their terminal.

Two minutes later, an officer showed me the terminal screen.

"Miss Miller, the system shows that Mr. Vance has no overseas travel records in the past three months."

Boom!

A thunderclap ripped through my skull, shattering whatever remained of my sanity.

No travel records?

"That's impossible! I clearly saw it... the waves, the beach..."

The officer put away his terminal, his expression serious.

"Miss Miller, filing a false police report is a crime. Considering you were genuinely desperate to help someone and perhaps misled, this will be a verbal warning."

"Please leave immediately, or we'll have to charge you with disturbing the peace."

I stood frozen, my hands and feet icy cold.

A monstrous wave of sheer terror engulfed me, stealing my breath.

Alex stood nearby, his gaze as cold and detached as if he were looking at a bag of trash.

"Mr. Hayes, escort our guest out."

"If she ever dares to step foot in the Vance mansion again, call the police immediately and have her arrested."

Mr. Hayes immediately stepped forward, roughly pushing my suitcase towards the door.

"Miss Miller, if you please."

I gritted my teeth, shaking with fury.

I refused to accept this!

Everything was clearly real, so why was it suddenly me who was going crazy?

I dragged my heavy suitcase, looking back every few steps.

As I passed the trash can next to a grand decorative vase in the entryway, my suitcase wheel accidentally bumped the side of the bin.

Clang.

The trash can toppled over.

A pile of crumpled paper balls rolled out.

Mr. Hayes immediately frowned, scolding me.

"Stop messing around! Just leave!"

Just then, a crumpled, wrinkled receipt caught my eye.

One look, and all the blood in my body instantly froze.

It was a convenience store receipt.

Item: Orange burst cigarettes.

Time: Yesterday, 2:30 PM.

Those were Chloe's favorite cigarettes!

3

I discreetly hid the receipt and walked out of the mansion, trying to appear nonchalant.

As soon as dawn broke, I called Ava, Chloe's former colleague.

"Ava, it's Mia! Where's Chloe? Did she contact you guys after the wedding?"

There was a pause on the other end, then Ava's voice rose in volume.

"Mia, are you sick? Chloe doesn't even have a boyfriend, what wedding are you talking about?"

A cold dread seized my heart.

"You didn't see the wedding streamed live across social media last month? Alex!"

"Are you delusional?"

Ava impatiently cut me off. "She quit her job last month and moved back home to clear her head!"

Before I could react, the call was disconnected.

My hands trembling, I dialed my mom.

"Mom! Something's happened to Chloe! Alex is denying everything, saying he never got married! You have to come!"

My mom was silent for five seconds.

"Mia... what nonsense are you talking about?"

"When did Chloe get married?"

I was stunned. "Didn't they send you the wedding money? Eight million dollars!"

"What wedding money? Are you running a fever, child?"

My mom's voice was urgent. "Chloe told me last month she was going back home to unwind, and she sent me pictures! Where would she get a boyfriend?"

"Don't talk nonsense and ruin Chloe's reputation!"

Click.

The phone was hung up again.

I was completely flummoxed.

Had they bought off my own mom too?

I refused to believe it!

I hailed a cab directly back to my mom's house.

The moment I walked in, I grabbed her. "Mom! Something's happened to Chloe! Everyone in the world is lying to me!"

I spilled everything that had happened in the past two days.

My mom listened, then looked at me, her expression bewildered, and touched my forehead.

"Mia, when did Chloe get married? How come I don't know anything about it?"

My brain imploded, a chaotic symphony of alarm bells.

"Mom! Don't joke with me!"

"We watched the live stream together last month! You even praised Alex for being handsome!"

My mom frowned. "Last month you were working late, and I was watching TV. When did we ever watch a live stream?"

"No, I'm not wrong!"

I pulled out my phone and shoved it in front of her. "Look! This is proof!"

"Chloe shows off her life as a billionaire's wife to me every day! Yesterday she even told me to hurry inside!"

My mom glanced at the screen and sighed.

"Mia, these are just those rich-guy fantasies you two used to play when you were little."

"Stop playing, you'll really blow things out of proportion."

Make-believe?

I stared intently at the screen.

A tsunami of unanswered questions threatened to drag me under.

If it was just make-believe, what about that wedding?

If I was dreaming, how did I know the layout of Alex's mansion's bedrooms?

What's more, if Chloe and Alex hadn't gotten together, I wouldn't even know who he was!

And most importantly, where was Chloe now?

Suddenly, something clicked.

There was one more place that could prove it!

I rushed out, hailing a cab.

"To the city's financial district! 'Everlasting Love' Wedding Planners!"

4

Chloe's wedding had been handled by Everlasting Love, the biggest wedding planning company in the city.

I refused to believe such a huge company could just vanish into thin air!

Ten minutes later, I stared blankly at the sealed door in front of me.

[Everlasting Love Wedding Planners: Temporarily closed due to operational difficulties.]

The date on the seal was exactly half a month ago.

The day after Chloe's wedding ended!

I peered through the glass door. Inside, it was a mess, chairs overturned, documents scattered everywhere.

Did they just skip town?

The biggest wedding company in the city, which had just secured a billion-dollar deal from one of the country's wealthiest men, went bankrupt and fled the very next day?

I pulled out my phone and dialed the number I had for the owner.

"We're sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service..."

Another disconnected number!

An icy tendril of dread snaked up my spine, gripping my very soul.

Everyone and everything related to that wedding was slowly disappearing.

This only proved that something was terribly wrong.

I wouldn't give up!

There had to be something that hadn't been cleaned up yet!

"The spa! Yes! The spa!"

I remembered!

Just a week before the wedding, Chloe had taken me to a high-end spa for a facial and massage.

To show off, she'd directly charged a half-million dollar VIP membership card for me!

"Mia, here, take this card. Come whenever you want, it's on Alex's secondary card anyway!"

I immediately hailed a cab and rushed to that spa.

"Can you check the balance on my membership card?"

The receptionist typed a few keys on her computer.

"Miss Miller, your VIP card balance is still four hundred ninety-eight thousand dollars."

A wild, desperate hope surged through me! Four hundred ninety-eight thousand!

Where would I, an average office drone earning three thousand dollars a month, get half a million dollars to put on a card?

"Quick! Pull up the top-up history for me! Who charged it?"

The receptionist turned the screen towards me. "It says you charged it yourself."

I was stunned.

"What do you mean I charged it myself? Chloe swiped that card! Alex's secondary card!"

The receptionist looked utterly bewildered.

"Chloe? We don't have a member named Chloe here."

"Impossible!"

I shouted. "Check the surveillance footage! Chloe and I came here together that day!"

The receptionist was startled by my outburst and quickly called the manager.

The manager frowned, an impatient look on her face.

"I apologize, Miss Miller, but surveillance footage involves the privacy of other clients and cannot be arbitrarily accessed."

"You won't check it, huh?"

I scoffed, pulling out my phone. "Then I'll call the police! Suspicious financial activity involving a huge sum of money – surely the police have the right to check?"

Twenty minutes later.

The police arrived.

And following behind them, was Alex.

He still wore that same look of weary resignation. "Miss Miller, how much longer are you going to keep this up?"

"Stop wasting time! Check the footage!"

At the police's request, the manager reluctantly pulled up the recording from that day.

Everyone stared at the screen.

On the screen, I walked in.

Beside me... was no one.

I pulled out a black card and handed it to the receptionist, saying something.

But beside me, from beginning to end, there was no one.

The entire surveillance room was eerily silent.

The officers' gazes at me changed, filled with both sympathy and wariness.

Alex sighed, walking over as if to put a hand on my shoulder. "Miss Miller, you should go to the hospital. I'll cover the costs."

I stood frozen, my entire body trembling.

Was I really alone?

Had I truly gone insane? Was all of this just my imagination?

Just as the police were about to take me away.

Something suddenly clicked in my mind.

So that's it! That's how this all works!

I snapped my head up, staring intently at Alex.

"Alex, you can stop pretending. I know where Chloe is."