Sonia’s forehead wrinkled as she looked at the photograph for a moment. She clapped her hands together, exclaiming, “Right! That’s him! The kind old man who guided me through the whole body retrieval process at the crematorium. Dapper as a cat in a velvet suit, I recall thinking it was a tad much for a hospital, but he proved helpful, so I kept my mouth shut.”
Ariana, leaning in to look at the photo when she heard Sonia’s words, blurted out, “Hold on! Isn’t this Devin?”
“Yes, it’s Devin.” Holden nodded as the puzzle pieces fell into place.
It seemed his granddad had been playing hide and seek with his past since then. Cooking up Theodore’s death must have been his granddad’s brainchild, and Devin and the others had kept hush about Theodore’s real identity on his orders.
Ariana lapsed into silence, her mood restless.
The agony she had endured for half a decade, thinking she was the only survivor of the accident, now felt like a wicked prank. Theodore hadn’t been dead; he had changed into Holden. The shadows from five years ago hung heavy only on her.
Theodore hadn’t been dead, which should have been happy news for her, but now, she felt her past sufferings were like a joke.
She was stuck in a pickle on how to process it all.
In the midst of this, Holden’s phone rang, and it was Shawn calling.
Holden picked up, catching the urgency in Shawn’s tone. “Mr. Fredrick, Miss Adele has disappeared from the church.”
“What? How did she disappear?” Holden anxiously stood up. “Search for her, pronto!”
“We’ve turned the place upside down, but we couldn’t find her,” Shawn replied.
Books Chapters Are Daily Updated Join & Stay Updated for All Books Updates…
Holden was equally jittery. He calmed his nerves and replied, “I’m on my way.”
Originally, he hadn’t planned to bring Adele to the church, but if he didn’t, Sadie would have sensed something fishy. So, he had put Adele in the lounge with someone watching her.
He had planned to celebrate her birthday with her once he ironed out the kinks with Sadie and Zayden. After all, Sadie had deliberately chosen their wedding day to overlap with Adele’s birthday.
Holden turned to Ariana, explaining, “I need to leave now. Adele is missing, and I have to find her.”
Sensing the urgency in his voice, Ariana got anxious, too. “What are you still doing here? Go and find her!”
Attempting to get up, her head began to spin, and she plopped back on the bed.
“You stay here and rest. I’ll handle this on my own,” Holden said as he gently helped her back onto the bed. After that, he rushed out of the room, leaving only Ariana and Sonia there.
Ariana and Sonia remained silent for a while.