The Captain I Married by Chance novel Chapter 406

"But looking at the reality, it's the exact opposite," Nora countered, swiping through the dossier Valerie had sent her. "Even the most successful of the twelve spent at least three agonizing years clawing their way up from the bottom. We're talking absolute obscurity—playing extras, playing literal corpses, barely scraping by. Several of them were on the verge of quitting the industry entirely. If one of them hadn't accidentally landed a breakout role and gained a cult following, their new agencies would have likely terminated their contracts and sent them packing."

While Valerie's insider scoop was incredibly detailed and came from her sharp journalistic instincts, Nora had hesitated to share it during the official briefing. The police department relied on hard, empirical evidence and rational deduction, not industry gossip heavily laced with subjective opinions. She didn't want to muddy the task force's judgment with unverified rumors. Instead, she planned to filter through Valerie's notes, extract the verifiable facts, and upload a clean summary to the group chat later.

"The rest of the names on this list eventually built decent careers too," Nora continued. "Probably because they were cheap to hire and objectively good-looking, so the casting calls slowly trickled in. But out of all of them, the undeniable golden goose is Michael."

He had genuinely exploded into international stardom and still maintained a terrifyingly high status in the entertainment hierarchy.

"And Michael is also the only target who received a second, escalated threat letter," Nathan pointed out.

Nora mentally replayed the contents of that letter. Honestly, the text itself wasn't particularly unique; the stalker could have easily picked their targets at random. Yet, an unshakable instinct kept telling her that there was something deeply off about Michael and his entire management team. Since she had zero experience dealing with Hollywood elites, she couldn't tell if her gut feeling was right or if she was just being paranoid.

"I wish I could just ask Valerie about all this," Nora sighed. Even though Valerie was exclusively a hardcore fan of Michael, she was practically a walking encyclopedia for industry drama. But she was still a civilian, meaning a lot of her knowledge was likely built on hearsay. Chasing ghost leads based on tabloid rumors could waste the department's time.

Furthermore, Chief Adams had explicitly ordered a total blackout on this case. Nora and the rest of the task force were sworn to absolute secrecy.

"Keep it strictly classified for now," Nathan advised, turning the steering wheel sharply.

Nora couldn't help but marvel at how impossibly grounded Nathan was. While everyone else was scrambling in the dark, he stood completely unbothered, like a lighthouse cutting through a storm—always steady, always brilliant.

"Yeah," Nora nodded, the suffocating weight on her chest finally lifting.

When they pulled into the sprawling Peyton estate, they were surprised to learn that Harold was nowhere to be found.

Nathan frowned, clearly not expecting this. "Where did he go? Who is he with?"