A month later, it was finally the day when Angel was being discharged. The nurses bustled around, paperwork shuffled, and bags were packed.

But when Daisy met everyone waiting for them in the hallway, Ryle was nowhere to be seen.

When Daisy looked at Maxim, he slowly shook his head, "I met him yesterday. After that, I haven’t seen him..."

The rest of the people had similar expressions as well.

Daisy’s brows tugged together. At this moment, Diana stepped forward and took Angel’s stroller, "Look for him... I will take care of Angel..."

Within an hour, the private team of Chens were dispatched all over the city. The CCTV records of the hospital were claimed yet much to Daisy’s shock, there was nothing.

The recordings were destroyed completely and there were no signs of Ryle at all. As if he did not want to be found.

Daisy’s feet moved faster than her thoughts as she rushed down the corridor toward the VIP room where Ryle had stayed for the past month. At this moment, she didn’t know what she was feeling anymore.

A knot of emotions twisted in her chest, anger, frustration, and those damn furious tears that threatened to spill. Underneath it all, a raw sense of helplessness burned like acid.

An entire month.

An entire month where he had kept himself locked away, never letting her in, never telling her what was going on in that maddening head of his. And now, he disappeared. Just like that... As if she did not mean anything at all.

When she pushed the door open, the room felt eerily still. The bed was neatly made, the sterile hospital smell lingering and Ryle... was nowhere in sight.

A hint of white fluttering in the slow breeze caught her attention. Her gaze fell on the bedside table where a single sheet of paper was pressed under the weight of the glass.

Daisy slowly strode towards the bedside table. Her fingers trembled as she reached for it, the paper was light but it felt unbearably heavy in her grasp.

Daisy inhaled a deep breath as she let her eyes scan across the smooth cursive on the page.

[Sweetheart, I am sorry. I promised myself to protect you from every danger yet I failed to protect you from myself.]

Daisy’s grip on the paper tightened. Her vision blurred instantly, the ink on the page smudging as a teardrop fell on the paper.

The heaviness that had weighed on her for months came crashing down all at once, no longer stoppable, no longer something she could hide behind clenched teeth and forced smiles.

A sob tore through her chest, raw and unpolished, the sound echoing too loudly in the stillness of the room.

To the world, Daisy Chen was a cold hearted woman. Someone who was unpredictable, aloof and detached from every person around her.

And over the years, Daisy had accepted the truth about herself. She never let herself feel too much, grieve too much. Be it when she fell out with her parents, lost her child, was betrayed by her best friend.

Yet, at this moment, as she held Ryle’s letter in her hand, she felt her heart shattering, breaking apart like splintered glass.

"You said you’d be here... with me.." The words tangled in her throat, drowned beneath the next wave of cries that ripped out of her like they had been waiting their entire lives to escape.

Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the cold floor, clutching the paper so tightly it wrinkled and tore at the edges.

It hurt. God, it hurt so much she couldn’t breathe.

Daisy sucked in a shaky breath as she tried to ground herself, pull herself together. But in the next moment, her body sunk even lower, all the strength leaving her body.

Her sobs turned jagged, her breaths uneven, every inhale a battle.

Her hair fell messily across her face, sticking to her damp cheeks as she rocked forward, pressing the crumpled letter to her forehead. "Where... are you?" she whispered, voice cracking into something almost childlike.

The sound of approaching footsteps made Daisy stiffen. She looked up, her vision still clouded from the tears.

"Daisy..."

Daisy wiped her tears, looking up at Ivy, "Is there... some news of him? Did they find him?"

Ivy slowly shook her head. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Daisy’s heart sunk, twisting in a way that made it difficult for her to breathe.

"I..." Ivy opened her mouth, hesitating barely for a beat before she said, "I might know where Ryle is."

Daisy’s gaze snapped to her, her eyes narrowing.

...

The roar of the helicopter blades overhead was deafening, vibrating through Ryle’s bones. It was funny to him that he had taken this route countless times before but the wind felt heavy to him this time as it whipped his dark hair into a chaotic mess.

He looked fragile; a word that had never applied to Ryle Harper in his entire life.

He sat in the wheelchair, his frame slightly hunched, his skin still having the pallor of a man who had gone through a grueling surgery while his own body was still mending from previous wounds.

Locke stood behind him, his hands gripping the rubber handles of the wheelchair. The bodyguard’s expression was grim. He had served Ryle for years, but he had never felt such an energy around the man.

"The pilot is ready, Boss," Locke shouted over the mechanical roar.

Ryle didn’t look back, "Move."

They had barely covered ten feet when the roar of a high-performance engine drowned out the helicopter.

A sleek black superbike tore across the asphalt of the helipad, leaning dangerously low as it drifted in a sharp arc, skidding to a halt precisely three inches in front of the wheelchair’s footrests.

With a slow movement, Daisy reached up and unlatched her helmet.

She pulled it off, her long dark hair whipping violently in the wind, her eyes locked onto Ryle with an unmistakable intensity.

Ryle’s heart skipped a beat.