Chapter 326 What Was Left Behind


    Back then, he had brushed off her five years in prison like it was nothing.


    But now, after losing his own freedom, Elliot finally understood what that kind of suffocating torment really felt like.


    He looked up,


    The street, the trees, the sky-everything looked just at always had. And yet, to him, it all felt bleak and hollow.


    He remembered how, years ago, he had stood outside this very prison, waiting for Lauren with a smug


    smile.


    But now, as he stepped out, there was no one waiting for him.


    The gates had opened to emptiness.


    The cold wind of loneliness blew straight into his chest


    Elliot wandered down the road like a sleepwalker, feet dragging beneath him, subconsciously heading toward what used to be home.


    Before he knew it, he reached an intersection. The light turned red, and he stopped.


    His gaze drifted.


    A sleek ck Rolls-Royce rolled slowly past. Through the tinted window, he caught a glimpse of a teenage girl in a Hoverdale High uniform.


    She had a high ponytail and soft, pale skin. There was sall a touch of baby fat in


    her cheeks. Her eyes were wide, and her face glowed with youthful energy.


    She was beautiful-but what caught Elliot''s attention wasn''t her beauty.


    It was the fact that she looked exactly like Lauren.


    His pupils constricted,


    He instinctively broke into a run, shouting, "Lauren-


    But the car sped away before he could even get close.


    Elliot stopped, breathless, and let out a bitterugh. What was I thinking?


    Lauren had been twenty-three when he went to prison Ten years had passed. She''d be thirty-three by now. There was no way she could look that young.


    That girl couldn''t have been more than twelve or thirteen.


    Inside the Rolls-Royce, Nancy nced in the rearview mirror and frowned. "Dad, that man back there... I


    Chapter 326 What Was Left Behind


    Felix''s eyes narrowed slightly, a dangerous gleam flickering in his gaze.


    "Probably just mistaken her for someone else," he said tly.


    Ten years.


    It really had been ten years-long enough for even Elliot to be released.


    Finished


    Elliot walked for over three hours before finally arriving at the Bet estate.


    But when he reached the gate, he froze.


    The ce was unrecognizable.


    The iron gates were rusted over. The yard was overrun with weeds. The flowerbeds, once neatly trimmed, had grown wild and tangled.


    The outer walls of the house were cracked, paint peeling where no one had bothered to maintain them.


    Looking at what used to be home, Elliot felt his stomach drop.


    What happened to this ce?


    Where were his parents?


    Where was Lauren?


    In all the years he''d spent in prison, not a single person hade to see him.


    He had no idea what had happened out here while he was gone.


    And now, having experienced what it was like to bepletely forgotten, he finally understood what Lauren must have felt that day-sitting silently in the passenger seat, coldly telling him how not one family member had visited her in five years.


    A bitter taste filled his mouth.


    He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, and slowly pushed open the rusted gate.


    It creaked painfully-long, sharp groans that echoed through the stillness.


    Inside, the house was exactly as he remembered it... yet somehowpletely different.


    Nothing had moved. The furniture, the decorations-they were all in their ces.


    But everything was coated in a thickyer of dust.


    Ten years ago, this ce had been spotless.


    Now it was a graveyard.


    "Where is everyone?" he muttered into the silence. "Where''s Mom? Dad? Lauren?"


    Chapter 326 What Was Left Behind


    His voice bounced off the walls, unanswered.


    He walked through the house, taking it all in.


    Finished


    Every room was a monument to a life that no longer existed. His parents'' bedroom still held their things. only now nketed in dust. His own room, too- frozen in time, yet unfamiliar.


    Atst, he found himself outside what had once been Lauren''s room.


    The storage room.


    He remembered thest time he''d been in there-seeing her awards, her


    Northcrest University eptance letter.


    That day, the guilt had overwhelmed him. He''d thrown up blood.


    He''d seen the journal she''d left behind. But he hadn''t cared open it. He hadn''t had


    the strength.


    Now, ten yearster, everything in the storage room was exactly the same.


    The folding bed. The old desk. The cluttered corners piled high with forgotten things.


    Frozen in time.


    Like a crime scene no one had touched.