Chapter 73 Empty Room
Sebastian’s POV
I didn’t sleep that night.
I stood outside her door for hours. Leaning against the wall. Staring at the crack under the door where light should have been. But there was nothing. Just silence at first.
Then she started crying.
Not the quiet kind. Not the sniffle-and-stop kind. The kind that tore through walls. The kind that came from somewhere deep, somewhere she’d been hiding for years.
I heard it all. Every sob. Every broken breath.
Through the gap in the door, I saw her. She wasn’t the sharp-tongued woman who’d called me predictable. She wasn’t the one who’d stood in front of my car and refused to move. She was just a girl who had been hurt too many times.
My chest felt like someone was squeezing it.
I wanted to go in. I wanted to say something. Anything.
But what could I say? Sorry I locked you in a car? Sorry I gambled you away? Sorry I made you cry like this?
She wouldn’t want to hear it. That much I knew. She was too proud. Too stubborn. She’d rather bleed alone than take comfort from the man who caused the wound.
So I stayed outside. Listening. Waiting.
She cried for hours. I stood there for hours.
When the sun finally came up, the crying stopped. I heard her moving inside. Then the door opened.
I saw her wrapped hands. Her swollen eyes. She looked at me like I was a stranger.
"Do you feel better?" I asked. My voice was hoarse.
She didn’t answer. She just walked past me. Down the stairs. Out the door.
Gone.
I wanted to follow. But my feet wouldn’t move. What was the point? She’d made it clear. She didn’t want me near her.
I didn’t go home that night either. I drove around. Ended up at some bar. Drank until my head was numb.
But it didn’t help. Her face was still there. Her crying was still in my ears.
By ten o’clock, I had no choice but to go back. My father would kill me if I stayed out all night.
I walked up the stairs. The house was quiet. My feet carried me to the room with the landscape painting. I stood in front of it for a moment, then knocked.
"Can I come in?"
No answer.
I pushed the door open.
Empty.
Her bed was made. Her stuff was gone. She hadn’t just left the room — she’d left the house.
Where the hell did she go?
I pulled out my phone. Dialed her number.
"Sorry, the number you have dialed is unavailable. Please try later..."
Her phone was off.
I stood there, staring at the empty room. A weird feeling settled in my chest.
She hated me. Of course she ran off.
I tossed my phone on the bed and went to take a shower. The water was hot. I stood under it, letting it hit my face.
But I couldn’t shake the restlessness. The anxiety. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her cold gaze from last night. The way she looked at me before she walked away.
I got out of the shower and dried off, but the feeling didn’t go away.
I walked down the hall and stopped at my sister’s room. The door was half open. Tiffany was at her computer, clicking away at some game.
I knocked once. She didn’t look up.
"Come in."
I walked in and leaned against her desk. Tried to sound casual.
"Where did Emilia go tonight?"
"I don’t know."
She didn’t even look at me. Just kept clicking.
I didn’t believe my sister for a second. That woman was important in this house. If she still wasn’t back by this hour, I had to know where she was. Otherwise, things would fall apart.
"Don’t lie to me. Where is she?"
"I said I don’t know."
Her voice was flat. Careless. It pissed me off.
I raised an eyebrow. "Fynn Jaymond."
That did it. Her fingers stopped. Her face turned red.
"Sebastian! That’s not fair!"
"Then tell me where she is."
She huffed and crossed her arms. "She went on a trip."
"A trip?"
She left this morning with nothing. No bags. No suitcase. How could she be on a trip?
"Yeah. She called in the afternoon. Said so herself."
"Where did she go?"
"I don’t know."
"When is she coming back?"
"I don’t know."
"Who is she going with?"
"I don’t know."
I reached out and pinched her cheek. It was soft and round. She hated when I did that.
"Why don’t you know anything?"
She slapped my hand away and stood up, hands on her hips.
"Excuse me? She’s your wife. You don’t know where she is, but I’m supposed to? That’s not how it works."
She was right. I had nothing to say to that.
I left her room and went back to mine. Stared at the ceiling for hours.
The next afternoon, I drove to Hanson Group.
I parked under a tree across the street and watched the main entrance. People came and went. Suits. Briefcases. Coffee cups. Normal people doing normal things.
At five sharp, the employees started flooding out. I scanned every face.
No Emilia.
Then I saw Lily. She was walking out, phone pressed to her ear.
I got out of the car and called her name.
"Miss Adams. Wait."
She turned around. When she saw me, her eyes went wide. She said something into the phone quickly and hung up.
"Alpha Sebastian? What are you doing here?"
I stuffed my hands in my pockets. Felt awkward.
"Did Emilia not come to work today?"
Lily shrugged. "She went on a trip. Didn’t you know?"
"Where did she go?"
"Sorry. I don’t know."
My brows furrowed slightly. I stared sharply into her eyes, as if trying to see whether what she said was true.
She flinched under my gaze. Her voice got shaky.
"If there’s nothing else, I’ll go first. Goodbye."
She turned and walked away fast.
"Goodbye."
I watched her go. Then I got back in my car.
But I didn’t drive home.
I followed her.