The Years Between Signing and Seeing novel Chapter 445

Even as she fought him, she cast a worried glance over her shoulder at Zoey. Whatever Aaron was saying to her, complete with exaggerated facial expressions, had the little girl giggling uncontrollably.

Only when Zoey was completely out of sight did Suzie realize Jamie had dragged her into the stairwell. The heavy door clicked shut behind them.

"Suzie..." Jamie said, his deep voice laced with an undeniable undercurrent of sorrow.

She yanked her arm again, and this time, he let her go. He switched to a softer, almost pleading tone. "I stood quietly and listened to everything you had to say. Now, you need to listen to me, okay?"

Suzie looked up, her gaze icy as she studied his face. "You were the one behind the trending news, weren't you?"

Back at Timefly Studio, Hayden had analyzed the situation with her, and she had scrutinized the photos again when she got home.

Judging by the angles, she could vaguely recall who had been standing in those spots. Given her background in photography and the circles she ran in, those didn't look like shots taken by typical journalists. Worse, they seemed to be taken by multiple different people.

For someone of Jamie's status, even if he were mingling alone in a banquet hall, his security detail would be intensely monitoring his perimeter from the shadows.

Without his explicit permission, no one would dare snap photos of him like that. And absolutely no one would dare publish them!

She was absolutely certain Jamie had either authorized the leak or orchestrated the entire thing himself.

Suzie swallowed hard. It was true. The bank card Stella had given her was a completely different account. Simply put, the moment she walked out of that mall years ago, she erased her entire digital footprint.

As the memories rushed back, Jamie's voice broke through the silence.

"I have connections in law enforcement, Suzie. If I had really asked them to hunt you down... it wouldn't have been impossible. But every time I thought about doing it, I remembered that you were hiding from me. You chose to live off the grid like a fugitive for years just to stay away from me..."

He paused, turning away to face the concrete stairs. Taking a ragged breath to steady himself, he continued, "I thought about it constantly. If you hated me enough to disappear completely, what was the point of dragging you back? But... I couldn't let it go. I just couldn't let you go. I told Aaron he had to find you, and I never retracted that order..."