Chapter 54 The Narrowing Corner

Chapter 54 The Narrowing Corner
The drizzle in the eastern outskirts of London felt harsher, colder against the skin.

In a narrow alley flanked by the weathered brick walls of garment factories, Emeli dragged her feet forward. The dark blue evening gown that had clung elegantly to her body only a few hours earlier was now soaked through, heavy, and sweeping through dirty puddles on the cracked asphalt road.

The soles of her bare feet had long gone numb, deadened by the cold and the cuts from sharp gravel she could no longer even feel. Her body trembled violently, not only because of the biting night air, but also because of the fear that had seized every ounce of her sanity.

When her eyes landed on a weathered green wooden door at the end of the alley, a faint glimmer of hope emerged.

With the last of her strength, Emeli pounded on the door repeatedly.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"May... Maya, please open up..." Emeli whispered, her voice hoarse, nearly drowned out by the howling night wind.

Silence lingered for a moment before the sound of a metal bolt being slid open came from inside.

The door opened slightly, revealing a short-haired woman wearing an oversized T-shirt who looked half asleep. However, that drowsiness vanished instantly the moment her eyes landed on the figure standing outside.

"Emeli?!" Maya gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "My God, what happened to you? How did you end up like this?"

Without answering, Emeli threw herself into the arms of her childhood friend.

Her drenched body shook violently against Maya's chest. The tears she had been holding back in the taxi finally broke free, painful and filled with despair.

"May, please... don't ask anything yet," Emeli pleaded between restrained sobs. Her hands clutched Maya's shirt tightly as if the woman were the only lifeline in the middle of a storm. "Just hide me for tonight. Please, May. Don't tell anyone I'm here."

Still overwhelmed with confusion, Maya could feel the overwhelming fear radiating from Emeli's embrace.

As someone who knew how difficult Emeli's life had been before this, she wasted no time. Maya immediately pulled her inside, locked the door tightly, and turned the metal bolt three times.

A few minutes later, Emeli had changed into an oversized white T-shirt and a pair of training pants belonging to Maya that were slightly too large for her. Her messy long hair had been dried as best as possible with a small towel.

She now sat curled up on a thin mattress spread across the floor of Maya's cramped rented room, hugging her knees tightly.

Her eyes kept darting nervously toward the small glass window covered by a thin curtain. Every time she heard the sound of a car engine passing along the main road outside the alley, her body automatically tensed and her breath caught in her throat.

She felt like a fugitive waiting for the moment of execution.

Meanwhile, several kilometers away from the quiet alley, a black sports sedan came to a screeching halt beneath a dimly lit overpass.

The vehicle's hazard lights blinked rhythmically, illuminating the raindrops falling onto its still-hot hood.

Ken stepped out from the driver's seat.

His expression was perfectly calm, yet that very calmness radiated a terrifying aura that could unsettle anyone who saw it.

Juna, along with two heavily built men, was already waiting beside a black public taxi with its door open.

Standing in front of the taxi was a middle-aged man wearing a worn-out jacket—the taxi driver.

His knees trembled continuously as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead despite the freezing night air.

"S-Sir, I truly don't know who that woman was," the taxi driver stammered, not daring to look directly into Ken's piercing hawk-like eyes. "She got in near the Mayfair Hotel. She kept crying and asked me to drive east."

Ken remained silent.

He walked toward the hood of the taxi, where Juna had placed an object.

A pair of luxurious dark blue high heels, now stained with black road mud.

Ken extended his hand, picked up one of the shoes, and rubbed the mud from the heel with his thumb.

The corner of his lips lifted slightly, forming a cold, crooked smile.

"She paid your fare with this?" Ken asked.

His voice was low and flat, yet it was enough to make the taxi driver swallow nervously.

"Y-Yes, Sir. She said her bank account couldn't be used, and she didn't have any cash at all. She begged me and offered the shoe as payment instead. Then she asked to be dropped off near the residential area by the garment factories," the driver admitted honestly, afraid that one wrong word might cost him his life.

Ken dropped the expensive shoe back onto the taxi hood with a soft but firm clack.

He turned toward Juna.

"She's out of money, barefoot, and hiding in a densely populated residential area," Ken analyzed sharply. "Emeli isn't stupid enough to run around on the main roads in that condition. She must have gone to someone she knows nearby. Someone outside her usual social circle."

Juna nodded quickly.

"I've already instructed the IT team to review Miss Emeli's entire background, Sir. There's one former school friend listed as renting a room near this garment district. Her name is Maya Natalia."

Ken turned back toward his sports car.

Before closing the door, he issued one final order.

"Narrow the search perimeter. Surround the area. No one moves until I arrive."

At the outdoor parking lot of the five-star hotel in Mayfair, the remnants of Alexander Senior's lavish birthday celebration were beginning to fade as guests gradually departed.

However, the tension was only just beginning for the two men standing beside their vehicles.

Aric Anderson buttoned his tuxedo jacket while staring at his phone screen, which still showed Emeli's number as unavailable.

The unease that had lingered in his chest since the ballroom had now transformed into a genuine sense of dread.

"Vic, I can't go home right now," Aric said suddenly, breaking the silence between them.

Victor, who had just been about to open his car door, turned around with a frown.

"Why? It's already past midnight, Ric. The event is over."

"I want to stop by Emeli's place first," Aric replied, his voice filled with concern. "She said she had a terrible flu since this afternoon, and now her phone is completely off. I want to bring her some medicine and make sure she's okay. I can't relax."

The moment that name was spoken so specifically again, Victor froze.

His heart stirred strangely.

An invisible thread suddenly formed in his mind, connecting several random incidents that felt far too suspicious to ignore.

Severe flu... at home... internship design draft...

Victor turned completely toward Aric, his eyes narrowing sharply.

"Wait, Ric. Who... what's the full name of the woman you're seeing? Which Emeli?"

Aric looked slightly surprised by the sudden seriousness in his friend's expression.

"Emeli. She's an intern at one of the fashion retail companies, as far as I know. Why?"

Victor's chest rumbled.

His logical mind tried to reject the possibility, telling him that in a city as large as London, there were thousands of women named Emeli who could be suffering from the flu on the same night.

But his business instincts and the sharp intuition he possessed as a Vice Director could not be fooled.

The excuse given by Aric's woman was exactly the same as the excuse Emeli had given him over the phone the previous night.

"You said she's at home right now?" Victor asked again, his voice suddenly turning colder.

"Yeah, as far as I know," Aric replied, beginning to sense that something was wrong with Victor's behavior. "Vic, what's really going on with you?"

Victor clenched his fist inside his pocket.

The curiosity and suspicion burning within him pushed him to make a quick decision.

"I'm coming with you, Ric. I need to confirm something."

Aric stared at his friend in confusion for several seconds, but his concern for Emeli outweighed everything else.

Eventually, he nodded.

"Alright. Get in my car."

Back at Maya's rented house, the atmosphere inside the tiny room was eerily quiet, with only the sound of rainwater striking the tin roof outside.

"Em, here's your phone charger. Try turning it on. Maybe your family or someone from home is looking for you," Maya said, extending an old charging cable connected to an outlet in the corner of the room.

Emeli stared at it hesitantly.

However, the realization that she could not continue hiding in ignorance forever made her move forward.

She plugged her phone into the charger.

As soon as the battery gained a few percent of power, the screen automatically lit up.

And in the very next second, the sight before her completely stole her breath away.

Bzzz... Bzzz... Bzzz...

The phone vibrated endlessly on the wooden floor, casting bright light throughout the dim room.

Dozens of missed-call notifications and text messages flooded in simultaneously, overwhelming the screen like a tidal wave.

The name Ken dominated the top rows with countless missed calls.

Beneath it, the names Aric and Victor appeared repeatedly alongside messages expressing concern and asking questions.

Emeli grabbed her head as a sudden wave of dizziness struck her.

Her lies had collapsed.

And now, the three men she wanted to avoid most in the world were searching for her at the same time.

Her trembling fingers had just reached for the power button to turn the phone off again when a message from an unfamiliar number appeared.

Emeli opened it, her heart pounding violently.

\[Miss Emeli, Mr. Ken is already at the end of the garment district road. Come out voluntarily right now, or we'll come in and drag your friend out with you.\]

Clatter.

The phone slipped from Emeli's hand and crashed onto the floor, its screen cracking at one corner.

Emeli's face turned deathly pale.

Every joint in her body instantly weakened.

"Em? What's wrong?" Maya asked anxiously after seeing the drastic change in her friend's expression.

Emeli couldn't answer.

Her eyes widened in horror as she stared directly at the green wooden door in front of them.

From outside the quiet alley, through the sound of the drizzling rain, Emeli's suddenly heightened senses caught the one sound she feared most in the world.

Footsteps.

The footsteps were heavy, steady, and carried a constant rhythm she knew all too well.

The sound of expensive dress shoes scraping against wet asphalt slowly but inevitably approached the door of their rented house.

Tok... Tok... Tok...

Three soft knocks, yet filled with overwhelming intimidation, echoed against the green wooden door from outside, cutting off every trace of air inside Emeli's chest.