Chapter 11
Only after she was certain he wasn't coming back did she slowly release the breath she'd been holding.
It left her in a long, weary exhale as she closed her eyes, the tension that had kept every muscle in her body rigid finally beginning to ease.
She lifted a trembling hand to her chest, trying to calm the frantic rhythm of her heartbeat, but the ache lingering there refused to fade.
She hadn't wanted this.
The last thing she had ever wanted was for things to become so complicated between Xavier and her. Yet the more she tried to protect everyone, the more everything seemed to unravel beyond her control.
After another quiet moment, Elise opened her eyes and forced herself to compose the expression on her face. She smoothed the wrinkles from her dress, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and drew one final steadying breath before making her way back toward the party.
With every step she climbed up the gangway, the sounds of the celebration grew louder. Laughter drifted through the warm night air, glasses clinked together, and conversations flowed effortlessly among the guests, completely unaware of the confrontation that had taken place only moments earlier.
She had barely stepped onto the deck when Benjamin noticed her.
The secretary immediately excused himself from the group he had been speaking with and walked over, stopping a respectful distance away before folding his hands neatly behind his back.
"Miss Foster," he said with his usual professionalism, inclining his head slightly. "Would you like to head home?"
Elise looked at him in surprise.
Benjamin offered a courteous smile before continuing, "Mr. Chen has already left the party. Before he departed, he instructed me to drive you back to the Chen Manor."
Elise stood motionless, her fingers tightening around the small clutch in her hands as Benjamin's words slowly registered in her mind.
For a moment, she simply looked at him, unable to hide the surprise that flickered across her face.
She hadn't expected Xavier to leave without her.
Even after everything that had happened between them, some stubborn part of her had believed he would still be somewhere on the yacht, waiting for her to come back once they had both calmed down.
He always had before.
No matter how badly they argued or how furious he became, Xavier had never once walked away and left her behind.
He would lose his temper. He would refuse to speak to her.
Sometimes he would bury himself in work for hours, forcing her to be the one who sought him out first. But he had always made sure she was with him when they left. Always.
Tonight...
He hadn't waited.
The realization settled over her with a weight that made her chest feel unbearably tight.
She could still picture the look in his eyes before he turned away from her—the disappointment, the anger, the hurt he had tried so hard to bury beneath that cold expression.
At the time, she had thought he simply needed space.
Now she understood.
He hadn't just been angry.
He'd reached the point where he couldn't bear to stay another second.
The thought hollowed something inside her.
She lowered her gaze, blinking away the sting gathering behind her eyes before drawing in a quiet breath that did little to steady the ache spreading through her chest.
"All right," she said at last, forcing a small nod. Her voice came out softer than she intended. "I'd like to go home."
Benjamin inclined his head without another question and quietly led the way. Together they left the dazzling lights of the yacht behind, the laughter of the guests gradually fading into the distance until it became nothing more than a faint echo swallowed by the night.
Neither of them spoke after climbing into the car.
The silence inside the cabin was gentle rather than uncomfortable, leaving only the muted hum of the engine and the occasional rush of another vehicle passing by.
Elise turned her head toward the window, watching the city glide past in blurred streaks of gold and white.
Towering buildings sparkled beneath the night sky, restaurants overflowed with people still enjoying their evening, and traffic continued to flow as though the world had remained perfectly unchanged.
It was beautiful.
Peaceful.
Yet none of it reached her.
By the time Elise stepped through the front doors of the Chen Manor, the exhaustion from the evening had settled deep into her bones.
The mansion was as grand and immaculate as ever, its crystal chandeliers casting a warm glow over the marble floors, yet tonight it felt strangely empty.
She slipped off her heels near the entrance and wandered farther inside, her eyes instinctively searching the familiar rooms without consciously realizing she was doing it.
The living room was deserted. The study stood open, its lights turned off.
Even the terrace beyond the glass doors sat quiet beneath the moonlight.
Xavier wasn't there.
Elise lingered in the foyer for another moment, listening for any sign that he had already come home.
Usually, she would hear something—the quiet murmur of his voice as he finished a business call, the soft tapping of his laptop keys from the study, or even the distant footsteps of the staff informing him that his coffee was ready.
Tonight, the house was completely silent.
A strange uneasiness stirred in her chest, but she quickly pushed it aside. He was probably still at the office. After everything that had happened on the yacht, it wouldn't have been unlike Xavier to bury himself in work. Whenever something weighed on his mind, work had always been his refuge.
Trying not to overthink it, she headed upstairs, changed into her pajamas, washed away the last traces of her makeup, and slipped beneath the covers.
She picked up the novel she'd been reading, hoping to distract herself, but after reading the same page twice without absorbing a single word, she quietly closed it again.
Her eyes wandered to the clock on the bedside table, then to the phone lying beside it.
He always came home.
That thought had become such a certainty over the past months that she never questioned it.
Even when business kept him late into the night, he always returned.
If an emergency forced him out of the country, he called her first. It had become such an ordinary part of their routine that she had never realized how much comfort she found in it.
Another half hour passed.
Without realizing it, she reached for her phone again, only to set it back down a moment later. The empty side of the bed remained perfectly untouched, the silence in the bedroom somehow feeling louder with every passing minute.
By the time midnight came and went, the uneasy feeling she'd been trying to ignore had settled heavily in the pit of her stomach.
Unable to wait any longer, she picked up her phone and called Benjamin.
The call connected almost immediately.
"Miss Foster."
"Benjamin..." Relief slipped into her voice before she could hide it. "Xavier hasn't come home yet. Is he still at the office?"
Silence answered her.
It lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough for something inside Elise to slowly sink.
"Ms. Foster..." Benjamin began carefully. "Didn't he tell you?"
A faint crease appeared between her brows.
"Tell me what?"
"He left for an overseas business trip immediately after the party. His private jet departed shortly afterward. From what I've been told, he'll be away for several days."
The room seemed to fall unnaturally still.
Elise sat frozen on the edge of the bed, the phone pressed tightly against her ear as Benjamin's words repeated themselves inside her mind.
He left.
Without telling her.
Her fingers tightened around the phone until her knuckles turned pale.
Xavier had never done that before.
No matter how urgent the business was or how suddenly he needed to leave the country, he had always come home first—or at the very least called her. She had never realized that she'd come to expect it.
Tonight, he hadn't done either.
The memory of him walking away from her on the yacht flashed through her mind, followed by the look in his eyes just before he disappeared into the crowd.
Swallowing against the tightness in her throat, Elise lowered her gaze to the wrinkled bedsheets gathered beneath her trembling fingers.
"...Do you know when he'll be back?" she asked quietly after a long silence. "Did he leave you an itinerary... or tell you how many days he'll be gone?"
Benjamin hesitated for a moment before answering, his voice as respectful as ever.
"I'm not sure, Miss Foster. Mr. Chen didn't tell me how long the trip would last. I'll be flying out to join him in about an hour, so once I arrive and know more about his schedule, I'll let you know."
"I understand."
Elise managed a faint reply before ending the call.
The bedroom fell silent once again.
She lowered the phone into her lap and stared blankly at the dark screen, hoping it would light up again almost immediately with Xavier's name flashing across it.
It never did.
The silence stretched late into the night, broken only by the ticking of the clock on the bedside table.
Every few minutes, her eyes drifted back to her phone, convincing herself she had simply missed a vibration or forgotten to turn the volume on.
More than once, she picked it up to check, only to find the screen just as empty as before.
No messages.
No missed calls.
Nothing.
She told herself Xavier was busy.
He had flown overseas for work without any preparation. Meetings were probably lined up the moment his plane landed, leaving him with barely enough time to catch his breath.
He would call when he had a moment.
He always did.
That thought became the only thing she held on to.
But one day quietly slipped into the next.
The first morning passed without a word from him.
Then the second.