Xavier merely smiled and said nothing.

Rachel figured Jim would probably wake up hungry later, so she decided to head out and buy some food.

“Rachel—”

As Rachel passed by the emergency room, she heard a woman calling out to her in disbelief.

Rachel froze. She slowly turned around, as if unable to believe what she’d heard.

Cecilia’s eyes widened the moment she saw Rachel’s face. For several seconds, both women stood in stunned silence before Cecilia took a hesitant step forward, then another, slowly closing the distance between them.

When they were finally face to face, Cecilia’s lips trembled as she spoke. “It’s you. It’s really you, Rachel!”

Later, the two of them went to a cafe near the hospital. It took Cecilia a while to calm herself. Her eyes were filled with tears, and her voice choked when she finally spoke. “Where on earth have you been all these years? I thought you were dead!”

As she spoke, Cecilia couldn’t hold it in anymore and began to cry.

Rachel pulled out a tissue and handed it over gently.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t get the chance to tell you before I left. But it wasn’t just you. I didn’t tell anyone. Honestly, I only came back because of an accident. I had planned to never return, to just let the world think I was dead.”

Cecilia took a deep breath and accepted the tissue from Rachel. “You have no idea how much I worried about you all these years, not knowing if you were dead or alive. But I always believed you must’ve had your reasons.”

Rachel reached out and took her hand. “Thank you for understanding. By the way, how have you been these past few years? William didn’t give you a hard time because of me, did he?”

Cecilia sighed. “After you left, Mr. Lewis was in a terrible mood. He came looking for you a couple of times, but I really didn’t know anything. Then he reclaimed the apartment. Samantha’s mother moved in.”

Rachel’s heart sank. “But we signed a lease. The term wasn’t over. He had no right to kick you out!”

“Samantha admitted there was a lease, but she said the contract was with you, not Mr. Lewis. She accused us of fraud and threatened to sue if we didn’t vacate.

“You know how it is. I’m just a regular person. How could I fight them? I know now that you gave me that apartment to help me, and I didn’t even realize it at the time.”

Cecelia felt even more guilty now.

Rachel reached out and comforted her. “It’s okay. It’s all in the past. I really thought that’d give you a few years of peace. I didn’t expect they’d be so ruthless. Do you have a place to stay now?”

Cecilia shook her head. “Now’s not the time to worry about me. I just want to warn you. If you plan on staying in Yurelia City, you can’t walk around so openly.”

Rachel frowned in confusion. Xavier had said the same thing earlier. “What do you mean?”

Cecilia took a deep breath and told Rachel everything that happened after she vanished.

As Rachel listened, it felt like something had slammed into her chest.

She thought she already saw William clearly for who he was. She had accepted his betrayal and the fact that he had moved on.

Chapter 345

Even after she had vanished without a trace, he had still dragged her name through the mud. Fortunately, Rachel wasn’t actually dead. Otherwise, she’d probably roll over in her grave.