Contract Marriage with My Secret Partner in Crime
Chapter 123: Dead End

Chapter 123: Dead End

[117 Days Left to Live]

The first thing that broke the silence in the dimly lit office was the crack of knuckles against wooden furniture.

"Damn it!" Reynold said under his breath, slamming his fist against his desk a second time. The force made the files stacked neatly at the corner tremble, a few papers slipping from the pile and falling to the floor.

He pressed his knuckles into the hard surface of the desk and lowered his head, letting a shaky breath escape him. His jaw tightened, the muscles at his temples tremoring. His normally composed face was a mess of emotions, a mixture of pure frustration, disbelief, and a creeping madness that seemed to gnaw at him from the inside.

"It’s a dead end again... again!" Reynold said quietly, nearly to himself. "How many more trails are going to disappear the moment I get close?"

Detective Jeric, sitting across from him, remained silent at first. His piercing green eyes followed the movement of a piece of paper gliding across the floor, then turned back toward Reynold.

"Rey... it’s not you. It’s them."

Reynold pressed his knuckles harder against the wooden surface. "The Diamond Family... Barmon... Ted Frin... Sophia... Cassius... They’re all slipping away just when I’m close. There’s something... something I’m not seeing."

Jeric sighed quietly. "Whoever’s cleaning this up is good. Really good. They’re a step ahead of us. Always."

For a moment, silence fell again, thick enough to cut. Then Reynold straightened, a spark of madness creeping into his normally composed voice. "It’s not just the Diamond Family. It’s something more. Something we’re not meant to find."

Jeric nodded quietly. "Rey... we’ve gotten this far. We shouldn’t let this break us."

Reynold pressed his lips into a thin, tight line. His knuckles were white against the dark wood. "We’re running in circles, Jeric. The moment we find a lead, it disappears. The moment we connect a face, it slips through our grip."

Jeric remained calm, a calm that seemed strange against Reynold’s growing nervous energy. "Maybe we need a new approach."

Reynold turned, eyebrows furrowing in disbelief. "A new approach?"

Jeric nodded once more. "Instead of chasing them... we let them come to us."

For a moment, silence fell between them. The office seemed to grow heavier, the pressure mounting. Reynold pressed his knuckles into the desk once more and whispered under his breath, "Let them come... That’s a dangerous game."

Jeric remained unfazed. "It might be the only way we have left."

Jeric remained silent for a moment, letting his words hang in the air between them. His piercing eyes remained fixed on Reynold, unfazed by his disbelief, unfazed by the nervous tremor creeping into his knuckles.

Reynold pressed his lips together and nodded quietly. "So we let them come... we become bait."

Jeric sighed and crossed his arms. "It’s a risky move, Rey. But we’re already in a corner. If we stay passive, we’ll keep hitting the wall. If we draw them in, we might find the thread we’re missing."

For a moment, there was a spark in Reynold’s eyes — not hope exactly, but a spark of resolve. "Alright." His knuckles tightened once more against the wooden desk. "We do it."

Jeric nodded and pressed his hands against his knees. "I’ll start putting together a plan immediately. We need something that will grab their attention... something we know they care about."

"It must be something we control." Reynold paused, thinking carefully. "Something we can use to force their hand."

Jeric remained silent for a moment, then nodded once. "Got it, Rey."

---

Meanwhile...

Across town, in the sprawling Diamond Family estate, Larman pressed his phone tighter against his ear. His knuckles were nearly as white as Reynold’s had been moments before.

"Cassius... Why did you change your mind?" Larman asked quietly, disbelief creeping into his voice. "I thought you were trying to bait Reynold into this. To make him involved."

Cassius remained silent on the other side for a moment. There was a brief crackling on the phone, a shaky, static-like interference — a fitting soundtrack to the doubts Larman was wrestling with.

"It’s not that simple." Cassius sighed quietly. "I realized... I’d be putting him in danger. A danger I can’t control."

Larman pressed his lips together, eyebrows furrowing. "Sentimental. That’s what you’re becoming."

Cassius remained silent again, letting Larman’s accusation hang in the air.

Larman sighed. "How I wish Soren were here... only him... only him could solve all of this."

For a moment, all Larman heard was his own shaky breath. His grip tightened on the phone, knuckles growing white, the silence gnawing at him.

"It’s true." Cassius said quietly after a few seconds. "Soren was... different."

Larman nodded, although Cassius couldn’t see him. "He was more than different. He was... the key."

Cassius fell into silence once more. The phone remained pressed against his ear, the silence growing heavy, rich with memories and doubts.

Then Cassius whispered, "I wish it were different... Too bad. He’s long gone."

For a moment, Larman closed his eyes. His lashes trembled against his skin. "I know."

Then the phone clicked, and the call fell into silence.

The phone remained pressed against Larman’s ear for a moment longer. His knuckles were white against the black casing, as if he were trying to hold on to whatever remained on the other side. Then he pressed the "end call" button and placed it face-down on his large wooden desk.

Silence settled around him, oppressive now. His office was dimly lit by a single small lamp, a pool of yellowish light that fell across a stack of documents. The documents were filled with names, transactions, timelines — all pointing back toward something nobody was supposed to know.

Larman pressed his knuckles into the stack of papers, feeling their texture beneath his skin. His mind was spinning. Soren... gone. The key to a puzzle none of them seemed able to solve without him.

He sighed quietly and whispered into the dimly lit room, "Where are you when we need you the most, Soren?"

---

Back to Reynold’s office...

Reynold stood up from his seat and walked over to the window. His silhouette fell against the cityscape, a sprawling view of buildings and rooftop water tanks. A labyrinth of stories, secrets, and hidden motives.

Jeric remained sitting at the desk, his hands resting quietly on a stack of files. The silence between them seemed heavy, filled with a mixture of resolve and nervous anticipation.

"It’s a dangerous path we’re choosing." Jeric said quietly, breaking the silence first. "If we bait them... if we become bait... we need to be careful. There’s a fine line between a trap and a death sentence."

Reynold nodded without turning back. His breath misted the glass briefly. "I know."

Jeric pressed his knuckles against his forehead and sighed. "Rey... sometimes I wonder if we’re in over our heads."

For a moment, Reynold remained silent. Then, without turning, in a voice firm and full of a strange resolve, he answered, "Jeric... we crossed that point a long time ago."

Jeric pressed his lips together and nodded quietly. There was a strange peace in that, a strange calm in having crossed a boundary from which there was no turning back.

---

Meanwhile...

In the dimly lit study of the Varen Enterprises building, Cassius remained sitting at his heavy wooden desk, phone now resting quietly beside him. His knuckles were resting against his forehead, his eyebrows knotted in deep thought.

The silence seemed oppressive here as well, a heavy blanket made of regret, doubts, and memories. The room was filled with furniture made from rich, dark wood, a reflection of the power the family held, yet none of it seemed to bring him peace in this moment.

He pressed his knuckles against his forehead a little harder and whispered under his breath, "Soren... you were the only one who understood... the only one who seemed to know... what all this meant."

For a moment, a rush of memories filled his mind — Soren smiling mischievously across a table, Soren’s piercing gaze when making a tough decision, the feeling that when Soren was there, things made a strange kind of sense.

Cassius pressed his lips together. "Now you’re gone... and we’re all... stranded."

---

As the clock struck midnight, the silence seemed to deepen, filling the spaces in houses and hearts alike. The city remained oblivious. Its people were asleep, its businesses closed, not realizing the wheels were already in motion for something dramatic.

The phone on Larman’s desk remained face-down, a black mirror reflecting nothing.

Reynold remained at his window, staring into the sprawling cityscape, the future a labyrinth of choices.

And in the study of the Varen Enterprises building, Cassius remained sitting in the dim glow of his small lamp, battling doubts and memories that seemed to weigh more than the furniture around him.

The stage was set. Whatever came next would ripple through their lives in ways none of them could yet imagine.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.