Farewell to Love: The CEO's Desperate Chase novel Chapter 230

No one could predict how the day would turn out. Emilia could only hope she’d make it through in one piece.

She glanced down at her phone, but there were no new messages—just the blank, silent screen.

She didn’t dwell on it. With a sigh, Emilia set her phone aside and headed to bed.

***

Across town, Vivienne was just about to turn in for the night when her phone rang.

She checked the caller ID. It was one of the men who’d been threatening her.

“What is it?” she answered, her tone sharp. “I already paid you. Why are you calling again?”

“Don’t play dumb, Vivienne. We said ten million. You only transferred two,” the man’s voice was cold.

“You were the ones who agreed to give me more time,” Vivienne shot back, her voice icy.

On the other end, a group of men lounged around a table, feasting and laughing. One of them chuckled, “Well, turns out we learned a little secret today. We want five million more—by three this afternoon.”

Vivienne felt a surge of anger. “I don’t have it!” she snapped.

“If you’re short on cash, ask Tyler,” the man replied, his tone mocking. “We just found out today’s the final day of the cooling-off period for Emilia and Tyler’s divorce.”

“So here’s the deal: five million by three, or we send those little secrets straight to Emilia and Tyler.”

He laughed, savoring the threat. “You want today to pass smoothly, don’t you? If Emilia finds out and calls off the divorce, you’ll be stuck for a long, long time.”

Vivienne clenched her fists and slammed her hand against the table.

“I really don’t have the money,” she gritted out. It was true—she had assets, but nothing she could liquidate on such short notice.

“It’s been ages since your last livestream. Looks like you never took us seriously,” the man sneered. “Where you get the money is your problem. Ask Tyler.”

Across from her, a colleague was pouring a cup of coffee. “Want to join me?”

“Sure,” Cynthia replied, grabbing her mug and following.

As they walked down the hall, they chatted idly.

“Almost wrapped up that case of yours?” her colleague asked.

Cynthia nodded. “It’s been a slog—Emilia’s background is complicated. We’ve had to split up: I interviewed her mother, another officer visited her stepfather in prison, we spoke with people connected to the Dennis family, tracked down Emilia’s friends Joyce and Felix McCarthy, gathered info from every department at The Erickson Group, questioned Vivienne… The list goes on. We’ve revisited the scene so many times, tried to spot any new clues near where the disguised suspect disappeared, and combed through hours of security footage looking for holes.”

Just thinking about it made Cynthia’s head spin.

“No kidding,” her colleague agreed.

Cynthia took a sip of water. “And that’s just what comes to mind. There’s a million little details, and I’ve had to travel out of town more than once. It’s exhausting.”