Chapter 338
Chapter 338
For years, Nora had been hidden away from the world to lick her wounds in solitude .
Harrison owed her a debt he couldn't repay.
A call from Alexander added to his guilt and concern.
"Have you seen Nora? How is she?"
Roxanne and Vincent immediately tuned in to the conversation; their eyes were fixed on him without
blinking.
Whatever the person on the other end said prompted a noncommittal grunt from Harrison.
After hanging up, he turned to Roxanne. "Alexander said there's news about Nora. I need to step out
for a bit."
"Okay." Roxanne nodded, feeling her heart heavy with guilt.
If it weren't for her, Harrison would have never put Nora in harm's way.
Although Roxanne hadn't orchestrated the events that unfolded, she couldn't shake off the deep-seated
guilt she felt towards Nora.
"Should I come with you?" Roxanne offered, longing to see Nora herself.
After a moment's thought, Harrison declined, "Better not. It's not the right time."
Someone else would be more suited to go than him.
"When Nora's ready to see us, we'll go together," he decided against the visit. Nora was intentionally
avoiding them, so an early morning intrusion wouldn't be welcome.
"You're right." Roxanne agreed, understanding Nora's need for distance.
Harrison moved to the window and made another call.
On the other end was Samuel, who was driving toward the Dawson family estate. He had heard about
Nora's appearance there before Alexander did.
Samuel's phone flashed 'Devil Harrison'—an old nickname that had never been changed.
Once, Samuel had enjoyed joking around with Harrison, but their relationship had since grown cold.
Now, it was begrudging for Samuel to take Harrison's calls.
"I'm not interested in anything but work," Samuel snapped when he answered, still harboring
resentment toward Harrison for ruining Nora's life.
"I just wanted to let you know—Nora's back at the Dawson's," Harrison said.
"I don't need your reminder." With that, Samuel ended the call abruptly.
Harrison pocketed his phone; a deep sadness colored his features as he stared out the window. Before
he noticed it, the dawn had broken, bathing the world in a hopeful glow. Yet, the rift between him and
his brother Samuel seemed unbridgeable.
It was all his own doing. He had never considered his brother's feelings, and he deserved this
estrangement.
Roxanne approached him; seeing his troubled expression, she lost all desire to sleep. She patted his
shoulder gently. "Harrison, what's got you so down?"
"It's nothing," he said while taking her hand. "You didn't sleep much. Head upstairs and rest. It's the
weekend, Angela has the day off, and I asked Dad to take her back to the villa."
The Dawson family estate had not seen Nora for a long time.
She knew Harrison had been searching for her; in order to to keep him from finding her, and to avoid
having further entanglements with him and receiving his pity, she had hidden herself within Seraphim
Haven to oversee the Dawson family's interests from behind the scenes.
While the Dawsons had their hands in real estate, hotels, and traditional manufacturing, their Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
cornerstone was tech development, which often aligned with the downstream companies of the
Rodriguez Group. Despite his business connections, Harrison, with all his resources, couldn't pinpoint
her location; it was a testament to her determination to stay hidden.
Nora hadn't been home for years. She didn't want Harrison's pity, and her parents, ever indulgent, had
gone to great lengths to visit her covertly, which was like a dance of shadows and discretion.
But Nora had to come back now. Her sister Hazel's return had thrown the family into turmoil. Hazel
demanded control from their father and had brought a man home overnight, which shattered the image
of decorum she once upheld.
Nora instructed her bodyguards to head to Hazel's room. In the early morning, indecorous and raw
sounds spilled from within. Hazel had only just returned and was already causing chaos.
Nora gave her bodyguards a look. "Get that man out of here."
They burst into the room, interrupting the rendezvous. Hazel glared at them furiously. "Who let you in?"
Undaunted, the bodyguards wrapped the man in a sheet and carried him out. Once the room was clear,
Nora wheeled herself in.
Over the years, having undergone treatment for her legs, she could finally stand, but her strength was
limited, and she still relied on a wheelchair. The return to the Dawson estate was necessary, but it
meant exposing herself to the world she had so carefully hidden from.
Wheelchair-bound, Nora cast a disdainful glance at the shameless woman sprawled on the bed, who
retained the air of a queen, ice-cold and untouchable. "You've got one minute to get dressed," she
commanded.
"What's there to talk about?" Hazel didn't even consider Nora worthy of her concern.
Wrapping herself in the sheets, Hazel lit a cigarette and leaned back against the headboard before she
took a drag.
As she exhaled rings of smoke, her haughty expression carried traces of a world-weariness that hadn't
been there before. She was no longer the sensible big sister Nora once knew.
"You'd better dress yourself to be presentable before coming out to talk to me," Nora said, ready to
leave the room.
Hazel blew another ring of smoke.
Holding the cigarette, she watched Nora's retreating figure in the wheelchair and let out a scoff.
"Ha, presentable?" Her laugh was full of contempt and irony. "Have you forgotten the video of you
being screwed by several men that went viral in all the high circles of Seraphim Haven? Who is the one
lacking decency here?"
That incident was a demon that haunted Nora's soul, an indelible scar.
Four years on, every mention of it was like a knife twisting in her heart.
She gripped the armrests of her wheelchair so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and her body
shook uncontrollably with the effort to maintain composure...