You Had Me, You Lost Me, You'll Never Find Me novel Chapter 97

Ashton set his phone down, frowning deeply. "I'm talking about Sylvia."

At this, even Gideon looked up from his laptop. "Mr. Wyatt? I've been sitting right here the whole time. Nobody came in."

Ashton remained stubbornly convinced. "Sylvia came back earlier."

He strode over, pushed the door open, and flicked on the switch. The pitch-black room was instantly flooded with bright light.

The bed was entirely empty, save for a large body pillow.

The indentation on the mattress clearly showed that only one person had slept there.

Sylvia hadn't come back. It had all been a vivid hallucination born from his feverish sleep.

Ashton stood rooted to the spot, completely numb. After what felt like an eternity, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Zelda's hesitant voice broke the silence. "Should I... still clean the room?"

"No." Ashton killed the lights and pulled the door shut.

Gideon hadn't been working for Ashton long and was still trying to navigate his boss's volatile moods. Seeing Ashton like this rendered him completely speechless.

He knew Finley had been exiled over his mishandling of Sylvia's situation, so he was hyper-vigilant whenever her name was mentioned.

But Ashton's moment of vulnerability vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Like a turbulent ocean suddenly returning to a dead calm, his face smoothed into an unreadable mask.

Gideon glanced at the dark circles still lingering beneath Ashton's eyes and asked cautiously, "Would you like me to contact Ms. Harlow for you?"

"No," Ashton replied. He stared out the window into the driving rain, murmuring almost to himself, "This storm will pass."

Soon.

Just like the jagged cut on his hand, no matter how excruciating it was now, eventually, it would scar over.

-

With The Golden Horizon Awards approaching, an explosive new video suddenly dominated the trending charts.

It was footage of Sylvia being forcefully dragged away by Ashton outside her agency's building.

Even though she was wearing a mask, anyone familiar with her could easily identify her.

And it was painfully obvious she wasn't going willingly.

She was stumbling, physically yanked along against her will.

Gossip Kingpin's comment section was instantly obliterated by furious users.

The public sentiment violently flipped overnight. The vitriol aimed at Sylvia pivoted into a crusade against the paparazzi.

"Are you kidding me? Are you literally kidding me?!"

"I'm so sick of this. Playing us all for absolute fools?"

"People who destroy lives for clicks should be locked up."

...

The debunking videos were mass-shared. The internet loved a good redemption arc almost as much as a scandal.

The crossfire inevitably hit Ashton:

"Wait, he's engaged and pulling this crap? Men are literally trash."

"Rich guys think they own the world. Are actresses just playthings to them?"

"Where are all the haters now? She was fighting for her life to get away. The guy is a total creep who won't take no for an answer even after they broke up."