Chapter 1818

The silent night deepened, and the villa grew colder. Scott walked to the bar, took out a bottle of red wine, uncorked it, and poured himself a glass. His fingertip swirled the wine gently before he took a sip. Then, he picked up his phone and opened the group chat. A bright red notification with 99+ unread messages made it impossible to ignore. He tapped into the group chat, scrolling up to the very beginning, to the video. Then, his finger slowly swiped downward, reading through each message one by one. He looked as if he were reading a document, his face devoid of any expression, cold and distant. There were hundreds of messages. He read them all at a slow pace, occasionally taking a sip from his glass. By the time he finished, he lowered his phone, drank the remaining wine, and gazed out at the dark night. Among those hundreds of messages, not a single one was from Jonas. This had never happened before. His throat moved as he swallowed, the cold liquid sliding down. The