"I almost choked her to death. Did I go too far?" Ace asked.
"Yes and no.1′
Ethan was an outsider and said impartially, "Considering your usual behavior, choking someone wasn't the worst thing I've seen you do, but… I think hurting Joanna was a little too much."
Ethan had never seen the usually sober and sensible Ace in such distraught in all their years of friendship, heartbroken to see the state Ace was in despite finding his actions maddening. Therefore, he toned down his words.
"She deserved it!" Ace's calmness evaporated instantly like a long- dormant volcano that erupted suddenly. His voice was cold. "It's only fair to repay a life with a life!"
Ethan took a step backward in shock and grimaced. He ridiculed, "Okay, okay. It's fair. So are we spending so much effort to find her for you to continue choking her to death?"
Ace hissed coldly, "We'll talk about that when we get her back!"
Ethan and Christopher exchanged a glance, smiling. They shrugged and shook their heads helplessly. They knew Ace's personality very well.
Ace was just an arrogant guy who hid his deep emotions behind a veil of coldness.
"Let's not waste time and find her."
Christopher analyzed calmly, "I've tracked Joanna's movement based on the available data. She was at Pierce Residence, West Hill Cemetry, Stellar Group headquarters, Moran Group headquarters… and finally, Moran Villa."
Ace furrowed his brows. "Are you saying she was last seen in Moran Villa before her disappearance?"
"From the data, yes. It has been 51 hours since then."
Christopher projected the data on the projector and showed it to Ace.
Ethan said, "51 hours. That's a little over two days. We still have the chance to track her down. Let's hurry. We'll find her for sure!"
Ethan looked around and suddenly snapped his fingers. He said, "I think she may be in the villa. She's a bright girl. Maybe she's confusing us by deliberately hiding here. She'll take the opportunity to escape the moment we look elsewhere!"
Christopher nodded. "It's possible. Why don't we get more people to surround the villa and start searching in detail?"
Ace looked at Joanna's trail of whereabouts on the projector and said coldly, 'Let's begin."
Ace thought there was no way Joanna could really disappear under his nose!
Moran Villa was huge and covered a wide area. The three men joined the search party before additional help arrived.
Ace was in charge of searching in the villa. Meanwhile, Christopher and Ethan searched outside the villa.
Ace strode upstairs and went to Joanna's bedroom. When he opened the door, a faint scent of gardenia surrounded his senses. It was a smell that belonged exclusively to Joanna.
Ace couldn't remember the last time he noticed this smell. It was said that someone deeply in love could smell the scent of their beloved.
Ace was unsure if he loved Joanna, but the faint scent of her body was like a calming fragrance that would immediately put him at ease.
Seeing the empty room, a hint of loneliness flashed in his eyes. "Joanna, where the hell are you!"
Truthfully, Ace knew all too well that Joanna couldn't possibly be living in Moran Villa.
Even so, he still had the faintest hope that a miracle might happen.It's a little funny.
In the past, he used to be decisive and never hesitated about anything.
Why had he become so indecisive and illogical? Ace walked into the bedroom.He sat on the edge of the bed and carefully ran his fingers across the duvet.It was as if he was caressing her hair, her face, and her soft, fair skin...
All he could think about was Joanna.
He thought of the times she smiled at him, when she was angry, when she yelled at him, when she was embarrassed, and finally, when she turned around and left without looking back.
There was an emptiness inside him.It was like an endless spiral that devastated his soul! "Damn it!"
Ace took a deep breath.He couldn't go on like this.His life shouldn't be affected so drastically just because a woman left him.He shouldn't be suffering like this.
Besides, that woman happened to be an evil and merciless person! Feeling somewhat remorseful, he stood up and prepared to leave the place that reminded him so much of Joanna.
However, the moment he turned around, a notebook with a vellum cover on the bookshelf caught his attention.
This notebook had a lock on it.It looked a little like a diary and seemed to contain many secrets.
Could this be Joanna's diary? Ace's interest was piqued.He immediately reached for the notebook and tried to unlock it.
Unfortunately, though he tried multiple times, he failed to enter the correct passcode.
Without luck, he decided to break the lock apart with force.
Snap! Ace paused briefly before flipping the diary open.
After all, a diary encapsulated an individual's privacy.
It was rude to peek at another person's diary.
However, he wasn't exactly the most reasonable person right now.
Having made up his mind, he proceeded to read the entire diary...
Anyway, he'd already made the first wrong move.
He might as well commit to the end! However, Ace was a little surprised.
It wasn't a diary, after all, but a novel script.
This novel was none other than the one about him and Joanna that he used to read.
He even recalled that the link to the novel was deleted just as he was getting to the thick of it.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't retrieve the link.
Consequently, he wasn't able to read the remaining chapters of the novel.
Although Ace had found out long ago that Joanna was the author, he never exposed her.He never expected to one day read the script of the novell! Without the slightest bit of hesitation, he began to read it.
Joanna's writing was neat and easy to read.He had no trouble recognizing it.He recalled reading about the first time they met.The second chapter was titled 'Falling"