Seeing her struggle, Lionel frowned and moved to help her. The moment he took a step, Hannah turned and walked in the opposite direction.


    Lionel froze, watching her walk away without a backward nce. He was torn, but then he heard a thud and a cry from Sandra. He rushed to her side.


    "What happened?"


    “Lionel.....” Sandra sobbed, copsed on the pavement. “I feel so lost. I miss my brother."


    Hannah didn''t hesitate. She kept walking.


    Back at the hotel, Hannah showered and changed. Lionel still wasn''t back. She nced at the closed door, her eyes empty. Without even bothering to dry her hair, she packed her suitcase, dragged it out of the room, and hailed a cab to a different hotel.


    The new hotel was farther from the old one but closer to her office. Once settled in her new room, she yed the recording from dinner. Just as she''d expected, Sandra had yed the victim, trying to manipte Lionel. But it wasn''t enough. Sandra needed to be more desperate, so desperate that Lionel would feelpelled to step in and save her from marrying another man. Only then, in that extreme moment, would he finally agree to a divorce.


    Hannah was terrified that in a few weeks, he would refuse to sign the papers.


    After taking Sandra back to her hotel and calming her down, Lionel finally returned to his own. He pushed open the door to find the room eerily empty. The suitcase was gone. The toiletries on the counter were gone. The slippers by the door were gone.


    He grabbed his phone and dialed her number, only to be met with the familiar automated message. She had blocked him again.


    Lionel pulled out a cigarette and walked onto the balcony. The glowing red tip cut through the darkness as he inhaled deeply, the smoke swirling around his handsome face. He thought back to his conversation with Sandra.


    ''Why were you at the restaurant?''


    ''Hannah invited me for dinner. She didn''t say you would be there. If I had known, I never would havee. It would have been too awkward.''


    Tonight had been a setup. Hannah had orchestrated the whole thing so he would find out about Sandra''s blind date. He knew what she was trying to do.


    He finished the cigarette and reached for another, only to find the packemmoty. With a fuistrated sigh


    into a wicker chair and


    he sank into


    called his mother.  fo


    "What is it?" Her voice was sharp, the background noise suddenly quieting.


    "Did you tell Zona to kidnap Hannah?" he asked, cutting straight to the point.


    There was no pause, only a cold, mockingugh. "You two are getting a divorce. What would be the point?"


    Lily had already told his mother


    about the divorce. In that case, what


    could she possibly gain by


    kidnapping Hannah? To force him to


    y the hero risking that arwah


    might change her mind


    out the


    divorce? It made no sense,


    "So Zona did it on her own?" he pressed.


    "She quit a while ago," Mrs. Mary Rosenberg said dismissively. "Whatever a former servant does is no concern of mine. If you want to get to the bottom of this, Lionel go find her. Don''te here ying the hero and interrogating your own mother."


    The moment she hung up, Mrs. Mary Rosenberg''s expression hardened. She


    looked at her eldest son, who was sitting across from her.


    "Where is she?" she demanded.