CHAPTER 210: CHAPTER 210

After Raymond had waited for what felt like an eternity, sitting silently in the stillness of Maria’s living room, the minutes stretching like hours, an uncomfortable weight began to settle in his chest. The longer the silence dragged on, the clearer it became—something wasn’t right.

He checked the time. Again. And again. Still nothing. Not a knock at the door, not the sound of a car approaching, not even the creak of footsteps outside. Just silence. Cold, heavy silence.

At first, he told himself to be patient. That maybe they were running errands, maybe they were caught up somewhere. But the deeper the quiet sank in, the more his mind started racing. Why was no one here? Why hadn’t anyone returned? Why had the house been so spotless—almost too clean?

Then the realization began to dawn on him like a creeping shadow.

They knew.

Somehow, they knew he was coming.

Maria. Luca. They didn’t just step out by chance. They left. On purpose. They cleared out. Quietly. Discreetly. Without alerting anyone. Without leaving a single trace behind.

Raymond stood up from the edge of the couch, his eyes darkening with every passing second. His jaw clenched hard, his fists balled at his sides. "No..." he muttered under his breath. "No. This can’t be happening."

But it was.

These were the people he had warned himself about. The ones he knew he had to keep close, to watch carefully. He had been preparing for weeks, maybe longer. He had told himself they wouldn’t slip through his fingers. That when the time came, he would confront them, corner them, and expose them for everything they’d done.

And yet now, they were gone.

Gone—just like that.

No signs. No warnings. No explanations.

And worst of all, he had been the one sitting there, waiting, while they slipped into the shadows unnoticed. He was supposed to be ahead of them, not two steps behind.

Raymond’s chest heaved, his breath sharp. His mind roared with a thousand curses, but all he could feel was one thing—blistering, boiling rage. Not at them. No, not yet.

At himself.

Because this... this was not how he planned anything to go. Not at all.

He had let them go.

He had let them go scot-free.

So Raymond is going to be very, very mad at himself because this was not how he planned everything to be.

At that moment, without wasting any more time, Raymond’s eyes sharpened with purpose. He had spent too long sitting in Maria’s house like a fool, waiting for ghosts that were never going to show. His patience had run out, and his anger was growing like wildfire. But Raymond wasn’t the type to explode without action. No—he moved.

He remembered the annual mask.

A smart device he had specially modified and gifted to Luca under the guise of luxury—sleek, stylish, and embedded with a concealed surveillance system. One of his personal tricks. It had been designed not just for fashion, but for control. If Luca had activated it, even once, then Raymond would have access to everything: conversations, movements, even exact locations. And if Luca had nothing to hide, the footage would show that. But if he did...

Raymond clenched his jaw. "Enough of this."

There was no use wasting another minute standing in that empty house, waiting for truth to come to him. It was time to go and collect it himself.

He spun on his heels and marched out. His footsteps were hard, controlled, his mind already racing ahead of him. His car roared to life the moment he slipped inside. The road home blurred as he sped through the city, not even noticing the passing cars or flashing lights. All that mattered now was finding out what was really going on.

Valentina’s sudden collapse wasn’t just a coincidence. Her health hadn’t been deteriorating slowly—it had hit her like a storm, sudden and violent. That didn’t happen without a cause. That didn’t happen unless someone had triggered it.

By the time he got home, Raymond didn’t even drop his keys. He moved straight toward the concealed control room beneath his private office. The room was quiet, filled with soft lights and a screen that took up an entire wall. He approached the operating system like a man with fire in his veins.

He typed in the access code. The interface booted up, recognizing him instantly. He scrolled to the linked surveillance tabs—specifically the one tagged Luca: Annual Mask.

Click.

A blank screen.

No data. No playback. No recordings.

Nothing.

His heart dropped for half a second—but then it hardened.

Raymond stared at the screen, brows furrowed, chest rising and falling in silent fury. The realization hit like a hammer: Luca never wore it. Not once. The mask had never been activated.

He had never even put it on.

Raymond’s fists slammed against the console as rage surged through him like an electric current. "Unbelievable," he growled under his breath. "I’ve been played... again."

Maria and Luca. Two people he had been watching. Two people he had tried to outmaneuver. And now? They were gone, and he had no trace. No proof. No clue. He had been careful—he thought—but they had still found a way to blindside him. And worst of all, he had handed them the opportunity with his own hands.

He looked at the screen again—still black, still blank. A quiet, taunting void.

He couldn’t just believe it. That he had been deceived. Again. Not by seasoned enemies. But by a charge. A family member.

Everything was just so strange to him.

So at that moment, without wasting any more time, Raymond stood up—angrily. The force with which he pushed away from the desk sent his chair rolling backward. His blood was boiling, his thoughts spiraling, but one thing was crystal clear—he needed to check on Valentina.

He should never have left her alone.

Storming through the hallway, his steps were fast and heavy, the anger from the failed surveillance still burning in his chest. But it wasn’t just anger now—there was a growing unease, a prickling at the back of his neck. Something wasn’t adding up. Something didn’t feel right.

He reached her room and pushed the door open in one swift motion.

But what he saw—or didn’t see—stopped him in his tracks.

The bed was empty, the room was quiet, Valentina was gone.

Gone.

The pillow still held the faint indent of where her head had rested, and her towel was still hanging on the rack nearby—meaning she hadn’t gone far, or at least, she wasn’t planning to. But she wasn’t there. And she hadn’t told anyone she was leaving.

Raymond froze for a second, his heart thudding so loudly he could hear it in his ears. "No," he muttered, his voice breaking with worry. "She was supposed to be resting."

She wasn’t just anyone. She had been struggling—fighting to stay strong through something they still didn’t understand. She needed rest. She needed care. And now... she was gone?

He stepped back slowly, trying to think, trying to breathe, but his mind was already racing ahead of him. Where could she have gone? Why would she leave without saying anything? Who let her walk out of the house in that condition?

And then the worst thought hit him like a bullet.

He had left the house—left her—just to chase down Maria and Luca. He had left her vulnerable. Unprotected. Alone.

And now she was missing.

He ran a hand over his face, panic tightening in his chest. "This can’t be happening," he whispered.

He paced the room once, then twice, then stopped suddenly.

Sterling Designs, Could it be?

Could Valentina have gone there? She was supposed to resume work there soon. Maybe she thought working would distract her. Maybe she just needed space. Maybe she went there to breathe, to escape.

But as he considered it, another realization struck him—one darker, colder.

Those men.

The ones who had come for her the other day. Who claimed they were there for business. What if they weren’t? What if there was something else behind their presence? What if it was never just about the company?

At that moment so many thoughts were running towards Raymond head, What if they came for her?

Raymond’s fists clenched tightly at his sides. His breathing was now shallow, his thoughts unraveling. "No, no, no," he muttered. "What if this was all a setup from the beginning? What if they knew?"

The questions multiplied, each one heavier than the last.

And he was so worried—extremely worried—to the point that he didn’t even know what he was going to do or what he was going to say.

At that moment, Raymond was worried to the core. His chest felt tight, like something was pressing down hard on him, refusing to let him breathe. His mind was spinning, thoughts racing wildly from one terrifying possibility to the next. Every second that passed without knowing where Valentina was felt like another knife twisting into his gut.