Chapter 11

LUCAS’S POV

“What exactly did you mean when you said you think you know who Charlotte has been seeing?” I demanded as I followed Sophie away from the crowded hallway, refusing to let her escape after dropping that statement in front of me. “You don't get to say something like that and then suddenly decide you're worried about betraying her, especially when you've spent the entire morning making it obvious that you know something I don't.”

Sophie finally stopped near the quieter corridor beside the library and turned toward me, folding her arms as though she were carefully deciding how much she wanted to reveal. “I don't actually know for certain, Lucas, and that's exactly why I hesitated,” she explained, keeping her voice low as students passed farther down the hallway. “I've noticed a few things that don't make sense, and when I put them together, I started wondering whether Charlotte might be involved with someone powerful.”

“Someone powerful?” I repeated with a disbelieving laugh as I shook my head. “Charlotte barely has enough money to take care of herself, and you expect me to believe she's suddenly involved with some powerful man? After everything that happened between us, you honestly think she would do something like that?”

Sophie watched me carefully before answering, her expression becoming more serious. “What if the reason she suddenly has expensive clothes and a luxury car isn't because she simply got lucky?” she asked as she leaned against the wall. “What if the person helping her is someone you've already seen around her, someone who has always seemed unusually interested in her?”

I stared at her, waiting for her to finish whatever game she was playing.

“Professor Zade Stone,” Sophie finally revealed as she lowered her voice, watching my face closely. “I think Charlotte might be involved with him, and before you laugh at me, think about everything that has happened since she disappeared from her apartment.”

For several seconds, I simply stared at her before laughing outright. “You've lost your mind,” I said as I shook my head, completely dismissing the idea. “Charlotte would never get involved with a professor, especially not someone who teaches her. She isn't that kind of person, and she certainly wouldn't do something like that after everything we've been through.”

“Then explain the clothes, the car and the fact that she disappeared immediately after those men attacked her apartment,” Sophie argued as she watched my amusement begin to fade. “Explain why she came back looking completely different and refused to tell anyone where she'd been. You can't tell me those things don't mean anything.”

I wanted to dismiss her, but the details were already connecting in my mind. Charlotte had always been careful with money because of her mother's debts, yet she had appeared at university wearing clothes I couldn't imagine her affording. Then there was the expensive car, the sudden disappearance and the way she had refused to explain where she spent the night.

Sophie noticed my silence and continued, “You've also seen the way Professor Stone watches her, Lucas,” she said as she lowered her voice. “He always seems to notice when she's upset, when she leaves class and when something happens around her. Maybe you thought he was simply being attentive because he's her professor, but what if there's something else between them?”

“You could be wrong,” I finally said, although the certainty in my voice was gone.

“I could,” Sophie admitted as she nodded. “I'm not saying I know for certain. I'm saying something has changed in Charlotte's life, and Professor Stone is the most obvious explanation. If I'm wrong, you've lost nothing by finding out the truth.”

I looked down the corridor, my mind working through everything she had said. I didn't like the idea, but I liked even less the possibility that Sophie was right. “Where does she live now?” I asked, my voice quieter as the first real suspicion settled inside me.

“I don't know,” Sophie replied as she watched my expression. “But if you're serious about finding out, you should follow her. Don't confront her until you know exactly what's going on.”

I spent the rest of the day watching Charlotte from a distance, and during Zade's lecture, I noticed something that made Sophie's theory even harder to dismiss. Charlotte barely looked at him, and whenever Zade moved toward her side of the classroom, she became unusually focused on her notes. It wasn't just Charlotte, either. Zade seemed equally deliberate about keeping his distance from her, as though both of them were making an effort to appear completely ordinary.

“If they're hiding something, they're doing a damn good job,” I muttered to myself as I watched them from several rows behind, my suspicion growing instead of disappearing.

When the lecture ended, Charlotte packed her things quickly and left through the side entrance instead of joining the crowd heading toward the main gate. I waited several minutes before following her, keeping enough distance between us that she wouldn't notice me. She never looked back, and I quietly followed her car through the city, expecting her to head toward her old apartment or perhaps meet Sophie somewhere.

Instead, she drove toward one of the wealthiest parts of the city, where the roads became quieter and the properties grew larger. I slowed down as she turned onto a private road surrounded by enormous estates, wondering whether I had somehow followed the wrong person. Then I saw her vehicle stop outside a massive property surrounded by high walls, cameras and armed security.

Charlotte stepped out without hesitation and walked toward the gates as though she had done it before. One of the guards immediately recognized her, opened the gate and allowed her inside without asking a single question. I stared through my windshield, unable to process what I was seeing.

“She knows them,” I whispered as I watched the gates close behind her, the realization making my chest tighten. “She's been here before.”

I remained parked farther away instead of confronting her because something told me that doing so would only give her an opportunity to hide whatever was happening. I studied the estate from where I was sitting, noticing the number of security cameras, the guards stationed around the perimeter and the sheer size of the property. This wasn't an ordinary professor's home, and suddenly Sophie's suspicion didn't seem nearly as ridiculous as it had that morning.

I remembered Zade's expensive suits, his confidence and the unusual respect people around the university showed him. I had always assumed he was simply another wealthy professor, but looking at the estate made me question exactly who he was and how much power he actually possessed.

“Who the hell are you, Zade Stone?” I muttered as I stared at the gates, reaching for my phone.

I searched his name online, expecting to find information about his career, family and finances, but the results were surprisingly limited. There were university references, a few mentions of his work and scattered photographs, but almost nothing about his private life. The lack of information made me more suspicious instead of reassuring me.

I searched again using different combinations of his name and university position, but the result was almost the same. A man with an estate like that should have had a much larger public footprint, yet Zade seemed to have deliberately kept his personal life away from the internet. I stared at the gates again, wondering why someone like him would choose Charlotte.

My jealousy burned despite knowing I had no right to feel it. I was the one who had cheated on Charlotte with Sophie, yet watching her walk confidently into another man's estate made me realize she had moved on in a way I hadn't expected. She hadn't come back begging for another chance. She hadn't struggled without me. She had apparently found someone capable of giving her a completely different life.

I gripped the steering wheel as anger replaced the disbelief. “So this is where you've been,” I muttered, staring at the estate. “You've been living with him.”

I knew confronting Charlotte immediately would be foolish, so I pulled out my phone and called someone I trusted to investigate people who preferred keeping their lives private. I needed information before I made a move, because if Zade Stone was powerful enough to maintain an estate like this while keeping his personal life hidden, I needed to understand exactly what I was dealing with.

“I need everything you can find on Professor Zade Stone,” I said as I kept my eyes fixed on the estate gates, watching another security guard move along the perimeter. “I want his background, his business connections, his family, his money and anything else that could explain why Charlotte is walking into his private estate like she belongs there.”

There was a brief silence on the other end before the person asked, “What exactly are you looking for?”

I tightened my grip around the phone as I watched the gates where Charlotte had disappeared, my anger settling into something colder and more determined.

“Everything,” I replied, my voice hardening as I stared at the estate. “Because if Charlotte is really involved with Zade Stone, I need to know exactly what kind of man I'm dealing with before I decide how I'm getting her back.”