Chapter 421: Chapter 421

At around six in the morning the next day, Simon Rhodes woke up without intending to disturb Skylar Vance.

However, as he was getting dressed, he saw Skylar Vance silently watching him with open eyes. The most update n0vels are published on Novᴇl_Fire(.)net

Meeting her gaze, Simon Rhodes couldn’t help but smile, and while buttoning his shirt, he said to her, "Sleep a bit more."

Simon Rhodes nodded, "Yeah, Mrs. Morgan is arriving soon. Just tell her what you want to eat. I’ve also arranged a driver for you, but try not to wander around. If you really want to go out, take a walk. I’ll be back in a couple of days."

Simon Rhodes finished dressing, draped his coat over his arm, walked over to the bed, bent down, and gently kissed her forehead, "Call if anything comes up."

Skylar Vance nodded in agreement, and he worriedly reminded her a few more times.

Watching him turn to leave, she felt as if a piece of her heart had been carved out, causing a pain that was suffocating.

Breaking up with Owen Bellamy didn’t make her feel this miserable.

Owen Bellamy’s betrayal left her cold, but for that very reason, she didn’t have much regret when they parted.

However, with Simon, there was more regret and unwillingness in her heart.

Clearly in love, yet unable to end up together.

After curling up under the covers and crying her heart out, she felt much calmer inside.

When Mrs. Morgan arrived, she was not particularly warm towards her, with a look of aversion in her eyes.

Probably because she was also dissatisfied with her in her heart.

But due to Simon Rhodes’ instructions, Mrs. Morgan still prepared breakfast for her.

After eating breakfast, Skylar Vance left the house with nothing but the bag she always carried.

She took almost half an hour’s ride to the city center.

It was an unfamiliar city, her first visit there.

Wearing a baseball cap and mask, she roamed the streets, and when the time was almost up, she went to the arranged café, waiting for the media she had contacted not long ago.

Around noon, Simon Rhodes sent a WeChat message asking if she had eaten lunch.

Skylar Vance sent him a photo, showing two plates of snacks and a large glass of juice.

He immediately responded with a voice message, "You went out, didn’t you?"

Skylar Vance typed back: Just out for a stroll.

Simon Rhodes: "Always snacking, eat less of those."

Skylar Vance replied: Got it.

She added an emoji of a well-behaved cat.

Simon Rhodes: "When are you coming back?"

Skylar Vance: Will head back after a while.

Simon Rhodes: "Stay safe, don’t wander too far in unfamiliar places. I have a meeting now, will call you after it ends."

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

A little past three in the afternoon, Simon Rhodes was still in a meeting room.

The phone charging in his office was ringing persistently, but there was no one to answer it.

On the bus, Skylar Vance sat by the window, listening to the "beep-beep" sound of an unanswered call until it automatically ended. She sighed softly and exited the call screen.

Not getting through is probably better; she hadn’t even figured out what she wanted to say to him.

Let them part and each be well on their own.

She turned off her phone and removed her SIM card, heading to some unknown place by herself.

Everything would soon calm down, back to how it was before they met.

When the meeting ended, it was already close to five in the afternoon.

Simon Rhodes rubbed his temples, feeling slightly fatigued. But dealing with all these tedious tasks, as long as he thought of a woman waiting for him, he felt a bit better.

Back at the office, when he picked up the phone to call Skylar Vance, he discovered a missed call from her.

He immediately called back, but was greeted by a cold, female voice: "Sorry, the number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable, please try again later..."

He frowned and called Mrs. Morgan, who replied that Skylar Vance hadn’t returned since leaving that morning.

The driver who had taken her out didn’t follow her afterward, so they didn’t know where she was now.

At that moment, Simon Rhodes didn’t think about her leaving, but rather feared something had happened to her.

The messages on WeChat remained on their noon chat with no new content.

He called Shannon Quinn and Claire Wilde to ask, but both said Skylar Vance hadn’t contacted them.

Simon Rhodes wasn’t sure if it was a phone issue or a person problem; his heart was uneasy.

The company had Landon Sutton temporarily covering for him, allowing him to leave.

Given the situation, he couldn’t worry about much else, so he handed over the remaining tasks to Landon Sutton and drove to look for Skylar Vance.

On the way, he kept hoping for a call from Skylar Vance, expecting her to tell him: Don’t worry, my phone just ran out of battery earlier.

Even if the phone had been stolen, as long as she was safe, it would be fine.

But when he reached the villa, Mrs. Morgan said she still hadn’t returned.

By then, it was already close to nine in the evening.

If it were a phone problem, she would have figured out a way to contact him by now; it wouldn’t result in absolutely no information at all.

Every time he dialed that number, he was met with the indifferent prompt tone.

Simon Rhodes had the daytime driver take him to the spot where she got off.

The bustling commercial street was lively with people coming and going even at that hour.

The driver pointed to a street and said, "The lady got off here during the day and went in that direction. She told me to head back first and that she’d call me for a pickup after having enough fun, so I didn’t follow her."

Simon Rhodes gazed at the busy street, realizing that searching aimlessly in the sea of people here was impractical.

This was not a city she was familiar with, and he didn’t know where to search for a specific spot.

Ultimately, Simon Rhodes chose to report it to the police.

They found her consumption record from the café she was at noon, but beyond that, there were no clues to her whereabouts.

The police started looking into Skylar Vance’s whereabouts based on surveillance around the café, but they couldn’t provide any definite result immediately.

Simon Rhodes went to the café, took out a photo of Skylar Vance, and asked the staff there, who said, "I seem to remember her. She was sitting there alone for a long time around noon."

Simon Rhodes: "Was she alone?"

Staff: "No, she seemed to be waiting for someone. Later, a man and woman came, and the three of them chatted for a while before leaving together."

Simon Rhodes frowned, puzzled, as she shouldn’t know anyone in this place.

"Do you recall what they were talking about?"

The staff shook their head, "That we don’t know."

Simon Rhodes suddenly felt Skylar Vance’s disappearance wasn’t simple, even suspecting those two might have targeted her to swindle and abduct her.

Throughout it all, he never thought that she might have left voluntarily.