Third person POV
The mansion was no longer silent.
By dawn, it had transformed into a hive of tension and flashing lights. Police cars lined the long gravel drive, red and blue reflections crawling across the white stone façade. The once-serene Lim estate, always so immaculate, so untouchable, now felt like a crime scene in disguise.
Sonia sat near the window of the drawing room, her fingers tightening around a cup of untouched tea. She hadn’t slept. The blackout from earlier had stretched into hours of pacing, questioning, and the growing dread that no one seemed to know where Hayley was.
The clock ticked louder than it should have. Somewhere upstairs, Alexander’s voice cut briefly through the murmur of the officers, low, sharp, controlled.
“Search the gardens again, clues can be the
