He Never Loved Me Until the Day I Finally Left Him novel Chapter 280

But his mind was already racing, putting the pieces together.

He thought back to the last time Helena had disappeared without a trace.

He remembered her newfound, icy resolve.

He remembered the sheer, reckless defiance in her eyes over the past few weeks.

For the first time in his life, Sebastian felt a genuine, suffocating sense of panic.

It was the terrifying realization that he had absolutely no control over her anymore.

On the surface, however, he maintained a terrifyingly composed facade.

But he knew better than anyone that it was forced.

The butler was already scrambling to carry out his orders.

The bodyguards had mobilized instantly, fanning out across the property.

Sebastian stood perfectly still and dialed Helena's number.

Unsurprisingly, it rang out completely unanswered.

His eyes narrowed slightly. Then, scanning the upper level, he spotted her phone discarded in a dark corner of the second floor.

Without hesitation, he took the stairs two at a time and walked over to retrieve it.

The device looked like it had been thrown or dropped hard.

It was impossible to guess exactly what had happened in those final moments.

The second he picked it up, the screen flashed the low battery icon and the phone died.

His jaw tight, Sebastian took it straight to a charger and plugged it in.

Once it booted up, he swiped up and entered her passcode.

Helena was a simple woman. So simple, in fact, that she had never bothered changing her passcode.

It was still their wedding anniversary.

In the past, Sebastian would have scoffed, thinking he had never actually cared about such trivial details.

But reality proved him wrong; some things were burned so deep into his memory that they were second nature.

Denying it didn't make it any less true.

The phone unlocked.

He immediately pulled up her call log.

When the name [Jules] appeared at the very top of the list, the temperature in the room plummeted.

Sebastian let out a cold scoff, entirely expecting the silence.

He immediately dialed his assistant, Carter Miles.

"Track Julian Campbell's location, right now. We're in Riverton. I refuse to believe the Campbell family can hide someone in my own city," Sebastian commanded, his voice laced with venom.

"Right away, sir," Carter replied, clearly sensing the impending bloodbath.

Sebastian hung up and stood dead in the center of the room, rigid as a statue.

A moment later, the head of his security detail walked up. "Mr. Hayes, the security system was breached. A specific twenty-minute loop was overwritten."

The bodyguard handed him a tablet showing the exact corrupted timestamps.

Sebastian glanced at the screen. The wiped timeframe started barely twenty minutes after Helena's call to Julian.

His theory was fully confirmed.

Julian was the one behind this.

Sebastian's hands curled into tight fists inside his pockets.

The bodyguard stood rigidly, too terrified to even breathe.

Right then, his phone buzzed. It was Carter calling back.