Beyond The Gaze: A Love Unseen

Chapter 54

Ares Simon's POV:

I clenched my fists tightly, trying to suppress the tremors pulsating through my body.

With a slightly shaking hand, I retrieved a cigarette from my pocket, lighting it up and taking a deep puff, so deep that scorched my throat. I welcomed the burning sensation, but it did nothing to ease the intense emotions overwhelming me.

Anguish, a pain so deep and profound it felt like drowning, and a kind of rage I had never experienced before; an intense fury that ran deep into every. single. pore! My blood pulsed through my veins at a pace that seemed as though it could pour out like molten lava from my pores.

My chest heaved in the slowest menacing rhythm, nostrils flaring, and my jaws clenched dangerously tight, the veins on my temples almost reaching the breaking point under the pressure.

She was nine...

F*cking Nine years old...

Just a little kid...

Those wide, alarmed, and terrified amber eyes, her small frame with knees curled against her chest while holding the knife, flashed back in front of me. Blood dripping from her hands, and my breathing shallowed again.

I took a drag from my cigarette, exhaling smoke into the air, and rubbed my hands on my face, forcing myself to think straight.

I wanted to—no—I needed to know everything about her...

When my initial shock subsided, I picked up the file once again, inhaling a bracing breath, and read through the pages. The more I read, the more my eyebrows furrowed, stopping at the final summary of the case.

"What the heck is this?" I demanded, my voice deadly calm, a stark contrast to the turmoil inside.

Ronald shifted on his foot under my intense glare. "T-this is all he has gathered. This case file was found in the department's past record files. It's been twenty years, sir. It would be impossible to retrieve full records unless the case had been digitally recorded later, but that has already been erased." My gaze hardened at his stuttering response, frustration bubbling beneath the surface. "But the investigator is still searching. In his recent email, he mentioned that the initial detective of the case was changed in the middle, and the case was transferred."

My sharp glare bore into him. "I didn't pay you to bring me back an update; I paid for results," I drawled, my hand clenching the file in an aggressive hold. The other rested on my knee, the cigarette smoldering between my index and middle fingers.

"Find this person," I commanded, my voice cutting through the air like frost. "Find George Harper for me, and locate Dara Parker, Jim Colson, and Freda Thompson." My tone carried a chilling determination. "I don't care if they are in jail, out of the country, or even six feet under the ground. Bring me their corpse if they are dead. Do. You. Understand?" I snarled, pinning him with a fierce glare.

Ronald's eyes widened fleetingly as he stepped back, nodding his head and stuttering a response. "U-understood, sir!" The tension in the corridors lingered, a few staff personnel eyed us but I was too far enraged to give a damn about them.

I dismissed Ronald with a curt wave and massaged my temples, attempting to clear the blurring vision caused by overwhelming rage.

Shifting my focus, I turned my gaze back to the file in my hand, and with a heavy exhale of breath, I braced myself to continue reading. A stack of papers revealed a detailed report from a child psychologist, Dr. Jeremy Smith, outlining Elysia's condition and behavior.

Elysia remained in shock after the harrowing incident. In her unconscious state, she screamed for Nova several times, her cries echoing the trauma she endured. However, in her conscious moments, she was completely unresponsive, not uttering a single word. Dr. Smith, after thorough study of the case and her condition, assumed that Nova was the horse beside whom Elysia was found.