Chapter 26 — The Night Everything Changed
400 Words
Ella held the necklace tightly.
Five years.
She searched everywhere for it after leaving the city.
She thought it was lost forever.
But someone had kept it.
Someone who knew exactly how important it was.
---
“Who could have taken this?” Lucas asked.
Ella looked at the necklace.
“The night I left… I had it with me.”
Lucas’s expression became serious.
“So whoever gave it to Noah was there.”
She nodded.
“And they saw everything.”
---
Lucas immediately called his assistant.
“Check every person who was at the hotel that night.”
“Even employees?”
“Everyone.”
He paused.
“Especially the ones who disappeared afterward.”
---
Meanwhile, Ella sat with Noah.
“Baby, did the person who gave you this say anything else?”
Noah thought carefully.
“He said…”
He looked up.
“He said mommy would understand.”
Ella’s heart stopped.
Because that sentence meant one thing.
The person knew her.
---
That evening, Lucas found an old hotel employee record.
One name had been hidden.
A staff member who worked the night of the engagement party.
A person who resigned the next day.
“Sir…”
Lucas stared at the file.
“What?”
“The employee’s name is Clara Evans.”
Ella looked at the screen.
Her face changed.
“No…”
Lucas turned to her.
“You know her?”
Ella swallowed.
“She was my friend.”
---
The room became silent.
“My friend from university,” Ella continued.
“She was the only person I told about my pregnancy before I went to the hotel.”
Lucas’s eyes narrowed.
“Why didn’t you mention her before?”
“Because I never thought she had anything to do with it.”
---
Lucas looked at the information again.
A missing employee.
A hidden record.
A necklace returned after five years.
Everything led to one person.
Clara.
---
That night, Ella received a message.
Unknown number.
Only one sentence.
“I’m sorry for what happened, but I did it because I loved you.”
Her hands shook.
Lucas saw the message.
“Clara.”
Ella looked at him.
“I need to know why.”
Lucas nodded.
“Then we find her.”
Because after five years of secrets…
They were finally getting close to the truth.
Chapter 26 End.
- Writer
