The days had passed blissfully; he had returned to the villa a changed man, a member of the upper echelon of society through his own efforts. He was no longer the broke student who had to sell himself to pay for his pocket money; he held a card that contained the first sum he received from the project. He planned on returning the money to Madeleine when he saw her. Once he cleared the debt he owed her, he would be able to hold his head high in front of her. However, when Sullivan opened the door, he was greeted with an empty villa, completely silent. In the past, Madeleine would always wait in the living room; he was nowhere to be seen. A stunned feeling developed inside him. For some reason, his heart felt a little empty. Recalling Madeleine’s strange behavior in recent days, he began to feel that she had come up with yet another method of tormenting him? Unsure what this meant, he pulled out his phone to text Madeleine, but before he could, he got a breaking news notification: Ms. Emerson, the daughter of the richest family in Abington, was recently reported missing. Not too long ago, a body was found floating in the sea. Following the police investigation, they confirmed that the body belonged to the missing Ms. Emerson. Her cause of death remained unknown. The news left Sullivan thunderstruck. He couldn’t believe his eyes and couldn’t stop himself from clicking on the news article to read more. The pictures had been censored, but he could still see the body that had been fished out of the sea. Though he scoured the photo to find something that could prove the body didn’t belong to Madeleine, the more he studied it, the more shocked he became; the body was wearing the exact outfit Madeleine had on when he last saw her. Was Madeleine really dead? Sullivan had to see for himself; if he didn’t see the body, he wouldn’t be able to believe she had died like that. He rushed for the door, repeatedly stumbling as he ran. He wanted to drive to the police station, but when he tried to start the engine, his hand shook so much that he couldn’t insert the key into the ignition. He had no choice but to get a cab instead. Soon, the cab pulled up outside the police station. Sullivan was still gripped with terror. He didn’t know what he would do if the body truly belonged to Madeleine. “We’ve arrived, sir. Aren’t you getting down?” the cab driver asked after some time had passed. He had looked in the rearview mirror and saw Sullivan’s changing expression. That, coupled with the location, made him think that Sullivan had committed murder and was here to turn himself in. He sighed to himself, wondering how a decent-looking young man ended up like this. Sullivan had no clue what was going on inside the driver’s mind. The driver’s voice snapped him out of his reverie, and he got out of the cab. After informing the police about why he had come, one of them led him to the morgue. Once there, he realized he wasn’t the first one there. Cynthia’s eyes were red and puffy; evidently, she had been crying for some time. Frank was a lot more composed, but his eyes were reddened as well. Both looked up when they heard someone approaching, but when they saw Sullivan, they both had mixed feelings. They had read Madeleine’s letter and knew she had merely gone abroad after faking her death. Nevertheless, they still wondered: would Madeleine resort to faking her death just to get away? Instantly, Sullivan’s heart sank the moment he saw them. Suddenly, he couldn’t get any closer; he was too afraid to look at the body.