The Day Silence Spoke novel Chapter 147

Ziven sighed and shook his head. “Nothing. You?”

Killian’s expression was grim. “The same. Those two are better at disappearing than I thought.”

He had called in every favor he had, but there was still no trace of them. For all he knew, they weren’t even in Etherea City anymore.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Ziven mused. “I mean, your sister… no offense, but she’s not exactly the subtle type. How could she evade both our search parties?”

“Exactly,” Killian agreed. “Nikita doesn’t have the patience for this kind of planning. That’s why I came to talk to Clifford. He’s not answering his phone.”

No one knew Nikita better than her older brother. Her impulsive, straightforward nature made her incapable of sophisticated counter-surveillance. The idea that she could vanish so completely, without a trace, from a city locked down by both him and Clifford was absurd.

Even if they had been incredibly secretive, they would have needed a car, a train, or a plane to leave the city. They would have needed money. But there were no transactions, no sightings, nothing. It was too clean.

“Mr. Lambert has been sitting in there all afternoon without moving,” Ziven warned. “Are you sure you want to go in?”

Killian hesitated for a moment, then squared his shoulders. “This needs to be resolved. Avoiding it won’t help.”

He walked into the darkened room, fumbling for a light switch but finding none. He navigated by memory toward the sofa where Clifford sat.

“Clifford.”

The moment he spoke, the lights flickered on, blinding him. Killian shielded his eyes, waiting a few seconds for them to adjust before sitting down across from Clifford.

“I’ve found some discrepancies,” he began. “I’m sure you have too.”

“Find them, Killian. Because if I find them first, don’t expect me to hold back for old times’ sake.”

Killian’s face paled. “Clifford, even if Nikita was wrong to take Latisha, she did it out of concern. You, on the other hand… not only do you not care about her, you actively hurt her. Have you ever once tried to see things from her perspective? I don’t understand if you want to keep her or torture her. What is going on in your head?”

He leaned forward, his voice rising with frustration. “If you love her, then treat her right. If you don’t, let her go. This—this is just a contradiction.”

Clifford didn’t respond, silently drawing on his cigarette. The smoke curled into the air, blurring the light and thickening the silence.

After waiting in vain for an answer, Killian tried a different approach. “Forget Nikita for a moment. The priority is to find them both. Do you have anyone in mind? A suspect?”

The silence stretched on for so long that Killian thought the conversation was over. But then, Clifford finally spoke, “Of course I do.”