He Lost Me to His Best Friend novel Chapter 789

The next morning.

Yardley returned to the hotel.

He had vanished for the entire night, and only he knew the absolute terror of what had transpired behind those closed doors.

He walked in looking hollowed out, carrying the grim, lifeless energy of a man who had barely survived a waking nightmare.

Despite Veronica and Melanie's relentless prying, he refused to utter a single word about where he had been or what had happened.

—

The following day.

Julian took Scarlett out to the countryside of Country A to explore a five-hundred-year-old abandoned castle.

The castle's gothic architecture was incredibly unique. Scarlett had once studied its structural blueprints in an architectural journal and had always wanted to see it in person.

As it turned out, Julian had a local contact named Charles, who lived in a town not far from the ruins. Hearing they were interested, Charles eagerly offered to be their guide.

Thrilled by the opportunity, Scarlett and Julian happily agreed.

Charles drove them in his SUV for over three hours before they finally neared the region.

As they approached, Charles gave them a grim warning. The only road to the castle cut straight through an infamous narco-town.

The town had been entirely consumed by the drug trade. It was a lawless, chaotic slum, but bypassing it was impossible.

It would take about twenty minutes to drive through. Charles explicitly warned them to lock their doors, roll up their windows, and under no circumstances step out of the vehicle.

Watching the feral, hollow-eyed faces smear themselves against the reinforced glass, Scarlett felt a paralyzing chill shoot from her heels to the base of her skull.

"How... how did it get this bad? Does the government just ignore them?"

Her voice trembled as she instinctively shrank back, pressing herself closer to Julian.

Julian wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest and using his broad hand to shield her line of sight.

"The entire town fell to the cartels. Even the police and local officials are in on it or addicted themselves."

"It's a dead zone. The government wrote it off years ago. They just wall them in and let them rot."

Julian had heard the gruesome rumors about this territory, but seeing the sheer scale of the depravity firsthand was unsettling.