Chapter 42: The Missing Piece
The hours ticked away, and the night settled over the city like a heavy, leaden shroud. Inside the penthouse, the atmosphere was thick with tension. The security team stared relentlessly at their monitors, typing in codes and radioing back and forth with units on the street, but there was still no concrete lead on Clara's location.
To bring a bit of order to the chaos, Secretary Kim decided to drive the drunken twins home. It was a sight to behold: while Pascale struggled to trail behind, Lukas could barely keep his balance. Right outside the apartment door, he stopped dead in his tracks, raised a theatrical index finger, and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Bananas are the future! Mark my words, Kimmy!" Secretary Kim let out a quiet sigh, timed his move perfectly, and hoisted Lukas over his shoulder in one swift, fluid motion. While Lukas hung over the secretary's fine suit like a wet sack of flour, muttering quietly under his breath, Secretary Kim marched determinedly toward the elevator.
Once quiet finally returned, Min-ho retreated to his study. His nerves were shot. The agonizing wait was eating him alive from the inside out. He poured himself a large glass of cognac, feeling the burn in his throat, but the inner restlessness refused to fade. Searching for a distraction, his gaze swept across the bookshelves until it snagged on a familiar spine. He pulled out a novel by his favorite author, Ariadne, and mindlessly began flipping through the pages.
A bittersweet smile crept onto his lips as he thought back to the time he had read this book for the very first time. The story had deeply touched his soul back then. And how difficult had it been afterward to establish any kind of contact with this anonymous author! She avoided the public eye like the plague, remaining an absolute mystery to the entire media landscape. The fact that, while searching for Ariadne, he had accidentally crossed paths with Ji-soo—her supposed assistant—made him chuckle softly. What a strange twist of fate life could be.
But suddenly, his smile froze. A cold shiver ran down his spine as his eyes locked onto one specific sentence:
"When the two of them, completely drunk, came up with the crazy idea to swap clothes, it was instantly clear which of them looked better in the grey suit."
Min-ho stared at the printed letters. The words began to dance before his eyes. Grey suit. Swapping clothes while drunk.
A flashback hit him like a bolt of lightning. He vividly remembered the evening Ji-soo and Lukas had first showed up together at his place. Lukas had had way too much to drink and started gushing about his best friend with zero boundaries. He had slurred, "She just writes the best stories because she always writes about real life! And she always has the best ideas... like back then, when we swapped clothes in the suff. She looked so much better in my suit than I did in her dress!" Ji-soo had only laughed nervously back then, covering Lukas's mouth and waving it off, saying he just talked nonsense when he was drunk.
But this... this couldn't be a coincidence.
As if on autopilot, Min-ho set his glass down and walked over to Ji-soo's room. He didn't turn on the light; the pale moonlight filtering through the window was enough. The first thing that caught his eye was the old, slightly worn-out plush toy sitting on her bed. Lukas had talked about that on that exact same evening, too. Min-ho's heart began to hammer violently against his ribs. With trembling hands, he opened her desk drawers—nothing. He even checked the trash can—completely empty.
Finally, his eyes locked onto her laptop, which sat closed on the desk. He flipped it open. The screen lit up instantly; the laptop wasn't even in sleep mode. A document was open on the display.
Min-ho held his breath. It was a nearly finished manuscript. Digital notes about character developments, deadlines, and revisions lined the margins. And stretching across the top was the working title of the new Ariadne novel.
The scales fell from his eyes. The puzzle pieces snapped together all at once, forming a perfect, almost painful picture.
Ji-soo wasn't the assistant. Ji-soo was Ariadne. The woman whose words had accompanied him for years, and the woman he loved with all his heart, were the exact same person.
For a moment, he just stood there in sheer disbelief, his mind racing. Why this game of hide-and-seek? Why hadn't she trusted him? But as quickly as the questions came, he brushed them aside. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. It didn't matter why she had done it. He would ask her when she was safely back in his arms. It didn't matter right now.
The only thing that counted in this universe was saving her. He knew a little bit more now about who she truly was—and he would move heaven and earth to get her out of there.