Chapter 24: Where is Elena?
Noah finally returned to the villa two days later. He loosened his tie, removed his suit jacket, and dropped heavily onto the sofa, exhausted.
"Elena, water..." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
The footsteps approached slowly.
"Your water, sir."
Noah stiffened.
That wasn’t Elena’s voice.
His eyes snapped open. He found Linda standing before him. A deep frown formed on his face.
"Where is Elena? In her room?"
The thought that she had not come out to welcome him even after knowing he had returned irritated him.
"Call her."
Linda fidgeted with her fingers, clearly distressed. "She is not here. In fact, she has not come home for two days."
"What?" Noah straightened up.
For the past two days, he had spent the daytime in the office and nights with Tessa at the hospital. In all that time, he had completely ignored Elena.
Now that he was finally home, he suddenly realized he had not heard a single thing from her.
𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
His brows furrowed tightly. He had no idea Elena had not returned home for two days.
Where could she have gone?
Then he thought she might have been in her old house with her aunt. His tense muscles relaxed, and he snorted in his mind.
"I tried calling her," Linda said again. "But I couldn’t get her on the phone."
Her tone turned urgent with worry. "Something must have happened to her. Please find her."
For a brief moment, worry crossed his face.
He checked his phone.
No missed calls or messages from Elena. It surprised him.
’Is she alright?’
The thought made her strangely restless. But he dismissed it soon.
’What could happen to her? She is just throwing tantrums.’
He quickly typed a message: ’Come home right away. I have something to tell you.’
As he sent the message, he dropped the phone on the central table.
"She will return soon," he said casually. "Go bring me coffee."
Linda sighed helplessly and walked away.
Noah glanced at the phone, expecting Elena’s reply to appear immediately. But the screen remained dark.
A minute passed. Then another.
Still nothing.
His frown deepened.
Elena used to reply to him instantly. Why was she delaying this time?
Impatient, he grabbed the phone and checked it. To his surprise, there was not a single message from Elena in the past two days.
’How could this be possible?’
Whenever he worked late or went on business trips, she would keep texting him endlessly and refuse to sleep until she talked to him. And now, there was not a single message from her in the last two days, as if she had stopped caring about him.
The thought unsettled him deeply.
"Seems like I have spoiled her a lot," he muttered with irritation.
His fingers moved quickly as he typed another message: ’If you want me to resume your aunt’s treatment, come home.’
He looked at the screen eagerly, hoping her reply would come.
Nothing came.
"Elena," he grumbled. "What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t you always worry about your aunt’s health? What happened now?"
In truth, he had only stopped Sarah’s treatment temporarily to force Elena to apologize to Tessa. He never truly intended to harm her aunt.
Shouldn’t she admit her mistake and apologize? But here she was, continuing this stubborn act.
His face darkened further.
’Come home, or I’ll bring Tessa here.’
He hit the send button again and then waited for her reply. But there was nothing.
Something inside him finally snapped.
His grip on the phone tightened. The next minute, he threw the phone away.
The phone shattered against the wall.
Linda froze midway as she returned with a tray of coffee. Her eyes widened at the broken phone on the floor.
Noah clenched his fists, breathing rapidly. "Elena," he growled, fury burning in his eyes. "You forced me to do this. Don’t blame me."
He stormed out.
Linda sighed and headed back to the kitchen.
At the hospital...
Elias stood by the bed as he watched the doctor examining Elena. He rarely lost his patience. But at that moment, he was struggling to remain calm.
"It has been two days," he started gravely. "Why hasn’t she woken up yet?"
The doctor sighed and turned to him. "She had only recently recovered from the miscarriage. And then she suffered a severe physical assault..."
He paused. "She is lucky to be alive. But..."
Elias frowned. "Say it clearly."
"She may face difficulties conceiving again in the future."
Elias’s fingers curled into balls.
"Her condition can still be treated. But she needs proper care, not only physically but emotionally as well."
Elias lowered his gaze toward Elena’s bruised face. A storm raged violently inside him. He wanted to kill every single person who hurt her like this.
’Just how much suffering did you endure?’ he wondered grimly.
He couldn’t understand how the bright, stubborn Elena had ended up in such a miserable state.
"Don’t worry." The doctor squeezed his shoulder gently. "She will wake up soon."
With that, he left.
Silence descended over the room.
Elias lowered himself beside the bed, his gaze never leaving her face.
"It’s been two days, Elena. Aren’t you tired of sleeping?"
Elena’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, but she didn’t wake up.
The door clicked open again. This time, Owen entered.
"Sir, the kidnappers have been tracked down," he informed, his tone serious.
At that, Elias’s head snapped up.
Owen knew what Elias wanted to ask even before he had opened his mouth. "During interrogation, they confessed everything."
After a moment of pause, he added, "Miss Tessa paid them."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop instantly.
Elias’s jaw locked. Rage burned fiercely inside his dark eyes.
"First, she faked her kidnapping and framed Miss Hart for it. And then she asked those guys to kidnap Miss Hart and kill her."
Elias said nothing, but the fury radiating from him was terrifying.
"They thought she was dead," Owen continued. "So they left. Miss Hart survived with sheer luck. Or she would have been dead by the time we found her."
Elias suddenly rose to his feet and walked toward the window. He was losing his temper.
"Those men deserve to die," he muttered. "And that woman Tessa... dig up everything about her."
"Right away, sir." Owen gave a curt nod before going out of the room.
Elena slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the white ceiling above her. She slowly let her gaze roam around and landed on a tall figure by the window.
His back faced her, his hands deep inside his pockets.
She tried sitting up. But her body ached all over.
"Uh..."
At that sound, Elias turned around and saw her awake. Relief flooded inside him. He wished he could run over and pull her into his arms. But he moved slowly toward the bed; his dark eyes didn’t move from her face even for a second.
"Have you slept enough? You have been sleeping for two whole days."