When it was all over, Ste fell into a deep sleep.


    By the time she woke up, it waspletely dark outside.


    Ste grabbed her phone to check the time. It was already eleven at night.


    She rubbed her tired temples. She couldn''t believe she and Joshua had spent the entire afternoon tangled up in bed like that.


    ncing around, she noticed Joshua wasn''t in the room.


    Lately, Joshua seemed to have undergone some inexplicable change. While his attitude toward her remained the same, she could clearly sense something unusual about him.


    It was most obvious in bed. He was no longer as gentle as he had been in the beginning; it was as if some seal had been broken, some restraint lifted, leaving herpletely overwhelmed.


    Her phone showed several missed calls and unread messages.


    She opened them one by one. Neville Connolly had called her just after eight o''clock.


    When she hadn''t answered, he''d followed up with a text.


    "Star, give me a call back if you''re not busy."


    Ste checked the time again. It was prettyte, and she wasn''t sure if Neville was already asleep.


    After a few seconds of thought, she texted him back.


    "Sorry, I was tied up earlier. Is everything okay?"


    Neville replied almost instantly.


    "Star, are you free to talk?"


    "I am," Ste typed back.


    A momentter, her phone rang with Neville''s name on the screen.


    "Star, what are you doing up sote?"


    Too embarrassed to admit she had just woken up, she simply said, "I''m just not that tired."


    Neville didn''t press the issue. Instead, he asked softly, "Star, did you hear what happened to the Burton family earlier today?"


    "The Burton family? What happened?" Ste asked.


    Neville''s voice was low and serious. "Sellers has vanished."


    "How long has he been missing?" Ste asked.


    "Not long. Just about a day."


    "Are they sure he''s missing? Could he have just gone somewhere, or maybe left on a business trip?"


    "The staff saw him return to the


    Burton estate, and he never left. Blis phone, documents, and everything


    else in his study are still sitting right


    there on his desk, Even his


    "Basically, everything in the house points to him disappearing into thin air."


    "Did the security cameras catch anything?"


    Neville let out a dry chuckle. "That''s the strange part. All the security cameras from that day glitched out for no reason.


    "It''s hard not to read into something like that.


    "Right now, the Burton family is sending people everywhere to look for him. He''s the head of the family,


    after all; he can''t just drop off the face of the earth.


    "Though, I suppose we can''tpletely rule out the possibility that he had an


    emergency and left before he could tell anyone."


    Ste furrowed her brow.


    Neville''s voice was deep and


    maic over the line. "Star, are you


    free tomorrow?t''s been a while.


    Since west saw each otherd


    love to catch up."


    Since she was still resting her injured hand, her schedule was pretty wide open.


    "Sure," she agreed readily.


    After settling on a time and ce, Ste hung up.


    She was just about to get out of bed to look for Joshua when she suddenly spotted


    a tall silhouette standing in the doorway like a ghost.


    It waste, and the room was swallowed in darkness.


    She had only turned on a small readingmp by the bed.


    That warm yellow glow wasn''t nearly enough to pierce through the shadows.


    Seeing someone suddenly standing there made her jump, but she quickly realized who it was.