Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 865

He still couldn’t find her. The face he thought about every day and night was nowhere to be seen. Where could she be?

James grabbed another stranger, shoving the photo forward. His voice came out rough, almost unrecognizable. “Have you seen her?”

The person glanced at the photo, then at James, and pointed to a quiet corner of the beach. “Oh, that pretty lady? She was just over there selling lobsters with a bunch of kids.”

A lobster stall. James sprinted over, but the spot was already empty. Only some messy footprints in the sand remained. His heart dropped.

He grabbed someone else nearby. “The people selling lobsters, do you know which island they’re from?”

No one seemed to know. There were too many islands around here. Nobody could say where they’d come from.

His small spark of hope was snuffed out just as quickly as it had appeared. The cold sea breeze hit him. James just stood there, unmoving, like a statue left to weather in the wind. After a while, he slowly and carefully wiped the photo clean, tucking it back into his shirt, right over his heart.

He was sure of it. She had to be on one of these islands.

He turned away, his tall, lonely figure swallowed by the darkness as he headed off to check another island. He wasn’t giving up.

…

On the other side of the bay, Emmy was already speeding away from Moonshadow Bay with the kids on the yacht. She hadn’t managed to sell the lobsters, and they’d almost been found out. The fear lingered in her chest.

Dean was wanted all over the world now, and just being connected to him made Emmy’s face dangerous, too.

As she was thinking about it, a thunderous roar filled the air above them. A helicopter circled the yacht, its blinding spotlight turning the dark water as bright as daylight.

Dean’s voice, cold and angry, blasted through a loudspeaker. “Emmy, stop the boat!”

The kids screamed and huddled together in fear. Emmy frowned but cut the engine. There was nothing else she could do.

A rope dropped down from the helicopter, and Dean slid down, landing on the deck. He marched straight to Emmy and pulled her into a fierce hug.

“Who said you could leave the island?” His words were hot against her ear, full of anger and worry. “Did you really think I wouldn’t care?”

Her voice was flat, distant.

Dean finally noticed the basket of lobsters, all alive and kicking. There were more than a dozen, big ones, too.

“You caught all these?”

“I caught five. The kids caught the rest.”

“Okay,” Dean said, nodding. “I’ll get someone to sell them. The money’s yours. Buy whatever you want.”

Emmy just said “okay,” her voice barely above a whisper, and turned back to the kids. She knelt down, her voice gentle as she tried to calm them.

“Don’t worry. Once we get the money, we’ll buy that soccer ball.”

The children sniffled, but when they saw her kind smile, the tears slowly stopped.