Chapter 207 She Ran Away?
After who knows how long—maybe a few seconds, maybe a few minutes—Cecilia finally moved.
She took a step back, putting even more distance between herself and Stefan.
This small gesture was like erecting an invisible wall between them.
"Mr. Hensley, your promises mean nothing to me."
"Our relationship is business. I create profits for you, you provide me protection. There won't be a next time for occasions like today, because I won't be attending again."
Stefan stared at her resolute profile, his Adam's apple bobbing once, finally releasing only a low, hoarse sigh.
"You're right. This is on me."
Just as he was about to say "Let me drive you," his phone vibrated sharply in his pocket.
Dione's incoming call flashed on the screen, making Stefan's eyes instantly turn cold.
He hung up without hesitation.
But the next second, the phone stubbornly rang again, carrying a crazed determination to reach him.
The temperature around Stefan plummeted. Just as he was about to hang up again, a text message popped up.
[Stefan, if you don't get your ass back here right now, I'll personally go greet that Ms. Martinez of yours!]
Dione's threat hit precisely at his only weak spot in this moment.
His finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before he finally gave in.
"I need to go back." He looked at Cecilia, his tone filled with barely suppressed irritation and apology.
Cecilia showed no expression, seemingly completely uninterested in his family affairs.
She simply nodded, turned, and walked toward the main road outside The Hensley Mansion gates, ready to call her own ride.
"Wait."
Stefan quickly caught up while dialing a number.
"Tate, come to the south driveway. Take Ms. Martinez home."
"Make sure she gets safely to her building."
After hanging up, Stefan said to Cecilia: "My driver. You can trust him. Safer than getting your own ride."
This was a fact, and an arrangement Stefan wouldn't allow her to refuse.
Cecilia paused mid-step but didn't insist further.
She just wanted to leave this annoying place as quickly as possible. Whose car she took didn't matter.
Soon, a black car glided silently up to them. The driver, Tate, got out and respectfully opened the door for Cecilia.
"Ms. Martinez, please."
Inside the car, all was quiet.
Driver Tate drove in silence, leaving the private space of the back seat entirely to Cecilia.
Cecilia leaned against the seat back and closed her eyes, but her mind involuntarily replayed Dione's face twisted with anger and those bitterly cutting curses.
Cecilia thought she had long been immune to everything.
But when words like "cheap" and "dirty" came up, that fury she'd forcibly suppressed still burned in her chest.
Just then, an abrupt phone ringtone cut through the car's silence.
It was her personal phone in her bag.
Cecilia frowned and answered: "Hello."
"Hello, is this Ms. Martinez?" A somewhat anxious female voice came through, with some noise in the background. "I'm a nurse from Evergreen Mental Rehabilitation Hospital."
Cecilia's heart suddenly sank.
"This is she. What happened?" Her voice immediately tensed.
"Ms. Martinez, I'm very sorry to inform you that Ms. Thorne, the patient you sent us—she's gone missing."
The voice on the phone continued saying something, but Cecilia's ears were already filled with buzzing.
Gone missing?
How could she be missing?
That place where she'd spent a fortune to ensure top-level care and the tightest security—how could Bronte be missing?
"What did you say?" Cecilia's voice carried a sharp, icy edge she herself hadn't noticed, highly aggressive.
Driver Tate noticed her change through the rearview mirror and involuntarily slowed down.
The nurse on the phone was startled by her tone and hurried to explain: "We're very sorry too, Ms. Martinez. This evening, Ms. Thorne's mood had been very stable. She even took a walk in the garden with the caregiver. But half an hour ago, when the caregiver went to prepare her dinner—no more than ten minutes—when she returned to the room, Ms. Thorne was already gone. We've searched the entire facility and haven't found her..."
Cecilia's mind went blank.
Though Bronte was deranged, she was extremely alert to her surroundings. In an unfamiliar rehabilitation center, she would never easily trust anyone.
For her to leave without a trace, there were only two possibilities.
Either she had briefly regained her sanity and planned her own escape.
Or someone was helping her.
Either way meant huge, uncontrollable risk.
"Send me the address." Cecilia swallowed the dryness in her throat and issued the command as quickly as possible.
After hanging up, she immediately said to Tate: "Tate, let me out at the next intersection."
Tate asked with difficulty: "Ms. Martinez, what happened?"
"Personal matter." Cecilia didn't want to explain.
Seeing her grim expression, Tate didn't stop the car but tried to persuade her: "It's so late, it's not safe. Let me drive you to your destination."
"I said stop the car!" Cecilia's voice suddenly rose, and that forcibly suppressed calm finally showed a crack.
I can't let Stefan get involved.
Bronte's existence is my biggest secret. I don't want anyone to catch even a glimpse of it.
Tate was intimidated by Cecilia's presence and didn't dare say more, pulling the car to a stop by the roadside.
Fortunately, it wasn't rush hour, and there were plenty of available cars. Shortly after Cecilia got out, the new car she'd called arrived.
She showed the driver the address of Evergreen Mental Rehabilitation Hospital, then began forcing herself to calm down and analyze the situation.
In her current state, Bronte was extremely mentally unstable, penniless, with no one to shelter her—where could she run to?
The places where she usually collected trash? The people from Evergreen Mental Rehabilitation Hospital would definitely check there first.
So where else?
Cecilia's mind began frantically flashing back through those memories from her past life, the ones she'd deliberately buried.
Bronte's preferences, her habits, the places she occasionally mentioned when lucid...
The Ember Mansion? Impossible, Rufus had razed that place to the ground long ago.
The Thorne family home? Even more impossible. The Thorne family had long fallen, and relatives avoided Bronte like the plague.
Where else...
Cecilia's head hurt badly. A long-absent feeling of powerlessness, of fate gripping her by the throat, enveloped her again.
She thought she'd already severed the past, settled all debts.
But reality told her in the cruelest way that as long as blood ties remained, she could never truly break free.
That entanglement spanning two lifetimes couldn't be settled with money alone.
The taxi came to a sudden stop in front of Evergreen Mental Rehabilitation Hospital.
Cecilia paid and practically jumped out of the car.
The hospital director and several supervisors were already waiting anxiously at the entrance. Seeing Cecilia, the director immediately came forward.
"Ms. Martinez, we're truly sorry. This was our oversight..."
"The surveillance footage?" Cecilia cut off his apology and got straight to the point.