The Abandoned Wife Dumped Him First (Victoria and Elias) novel Chapter 390

"Explain," Elias said succinctly.

Hawk quickly lowered his head, not daring to look at Elias's expression. He recounted everything in detail, from the detention center to the drunk driving and the staged accident.

When he heard that Victoria had agreed to go back to The Imperial Crest Estates to get the file, only to leave in a hurry after finding it, Elias's left eyelid twitched involuntarily.

At the same time, Hawk had a look of hesitation on his face.

Elias's voice grew even colder. "What else?"

Hawk was silent for a moment before speaking.

"Mr. Shawn, after Miss Sanger left The Imperial Crest Estates, she went to that custom shoe shop on Cedar Street."

"The owner just called. He said Miss Sanger looked very unwell when she left and he was worried something might happen…"

Before he could finish, Elias, who had been sitting calmly behind his desk, shot up from his chair, his expression changing drastically. He threw out a cold command:

"Notify everyone that all afternoon meetings are canceled!"

By the time Hawk registered what was happening, Elias's figure had already vanished through the office doorway. All he heard was the 'ding' of the elevator doors opening, followed by the 'clang' of them shutting.

-

Willow Creek Estates.

After returning from the custom shoe shop, Victoria had been lying in her room, replaying Anne's and Mr. Laurent's words in her mind.

It was as if countless fine threads were tangled together in her head. The more she tried to untangle them, the tighter they became.

In the end, Victoria didn't even remember how she fell asleep.

When she woke up again, she was met with pitch darkness.

She rolled over, using the faint moonlight streaming in to grope for her phone. The sudden bright light of the screen stung her eyes. The time displayed was 11:53 PM.

Dawn stared at her, blinked its big, round eyes as if it understood, and licked the back of Victoria's hand before hopping from her lap to another chair.

Victoria's phone was on that chair.

Just then, the phone suddenly buzzed, and the screen lit up with a notification.

[Confirm sending birthday message to 'Elias'?]

A flicker of recognition crossed Victoria's face as she saw it. She was about to grab the phone, but Dawn, startled by the vibration, let out a sudden "meow" and swatted at the screen with its paw.

The text in the notification box instantly changed to [Message sent successfully.]

Victoria frantically opened her text message history.

Sure enough, the recipient of the top message was 'Elias', and the content was something she had written a long time ago:

[Ding ding ding! Happy Birthday, Elias! If I'm not mistaken, I'm probably the first person to send you a birthday message, right? Elias, I’m here to wish that in this new year, everything goes your way and you don't have to work so hard. And of course, I'll always be by your side.]