Reborn Heiress: Taking Back What Is Rightfully Hers!
Chapter 504: Tracing Her Steps

Chapter 504: Tracing Her Steps

A bad feeling swept over Eric, prompting him to head straight into the bathroom. He reached for Ella’s toothbrush and touched it—completely dry.

Ella hadn’t brushed her teeth!

Eric’s face darkened instantly. Barefoot, he sprinted out of the room and burst into Dorian’s bedroom. Mrs. Harris was helping Dorian get dressed. Seeing Eric’s panicked expression, she didn’t have time to ask before he rushed off again.

"Why is Daddy running so fast? He didn’t even say hi to me!" Dorian pouted, clearly displeased.

Mrs. Harris chuckled. "Your daddy might have something urgent to take care of, so he couldn’t stop to talk."

Dorian frowned. "Daddy’s been so busy lately, and Mommy doesn’t talk much anymore. My brother isn’t here either—it’s so boring!"

From the side, Mrs. Moore chimed in with a smile, "Don’t worry, little one. The chef will make something delicious for you later. Then it won’t be boring anymore!"

Hearing this, Dorian’s frustration melted into a grin. "Yay! I’m so hungry. I’m going to eat breakfast!"

"You still need to brush your teeth, young master..."

Meanwhile...

Eric searched the villa from top to bottom, but there was no sign of Ella. Gasping for air, he ran out to the garden, calling her name over and over, but there was no response.

Sweat trickled down his forehead as Lucas rushed out to meet him. "Eric, what’s wrong? What happened to Ella?"

"She... I can’t find her! She’s... she might have left!" Eric’s breathing was ragged, his heart pounding wildly. A wave of fear and uncertainty made his legs go weak.

Ella must have received some sort of message to make her leave, Eric thought as he dashed back to their room. Pulling open a drawer, his worst fear was confirmed—the box containing the silver bracelet was empty.

She’d taken the bracelet.

Her phone was still there, but her wallet was gone.

"Ella... Ella!" Eric’s panic deepened. From the moment he woke up, he’d felt something was off. In this tense period, he usually slept poorly, but last night he’d fallen asleep early and slept soundly until morning.

Could she have spiked his milk with a sleeping aid?

His head throbbed as he leaned weakly against the dressing table. Staring at his reflection in the mirror—a man with bloodshot eyes—he slammed his fist onto the table in frustration.

"Ella... why didn’t you tell me? That person must have threatened you with Elias. Otherwise, you’d never leave me! Why didn’t you talk to me first?" A crushing pain gripped Eric’s heart.

Lucas barged in. "I checked—she’s not in the back garden or the front. Her car is gone. She’s really left."

Snapping out of his daze, Eric quickly called John and others to investigate whether Ella had taken a flight or set out to sea. Meanwhile, he and Lucas headed to the surveillance room.

The footage revealed that shortly after midnight, Ella had indeed driven off.

Lucas’s face twisted in anguish. "Ella, how could you be so reckless? The enemy has set a trap, and you walked right into it. They’re a team, and you’re going in alone..."

They hadn’t been able to save his grandson, and now his daughter was throwing herself into the fire.

Eric slumped into a chair, watching the clip of Ella driving away on repeat. His face was shrouded in shadow, his eyes betraying a sliver of despair as his trembling hands clutched the table.

Why did she leave him like this?

Why couldn’t she confide in him so they could find a solution together?

"Eric," Lucas said softly, "my people have combed through Country W, but there’s no useful information. Even if Mason is behind this, Elias might not be in Country W. He could be elsewhere. Ella must’ve received some kind of instruction and is worried about Elias’s safety. You can’t lose your head now—we need to shift our focus to other places."

Eric’s unfocused eyes shifted slightly, and he nodded bitterly after snapping back to reality. "Yes, I know. I’ll have someone look into it carefully."

His heart ached, as if it had been hollowed out. Like a soulless zombie, he numbly returned to the dining room.

"Daddy, where’s Mommy? Why isn’t she here?" Little Dorian ran over, wrapping his arms around Eric’s leg. His big eyes were filled with fear.

Though young, Dorian could vaguely sense that something was wrong. After all, Elias had suddenly "stopped coming home," and now Mommy was gone too. Daddy hardly played with him anymore.

He was scared of being abandoned.

Eric’s nose stung as he crouched down and gently embraced his youngest son. "Dorian, Mommy went to pick up your brother. She’ll be back soon. But you have to be good, okay? The better you behave, the sooner Mommy and your brother will come back. Understand?"

Dorian instantly lit up. "Yay! Brother’s coming back! I miss him so much! I’m going to play with him. Daddy, you’ll buy us new toys, right?"

Eric nodded and kissed Dorian’s forehead softly. "I will. Not only toys, but also all the food you both love."

Dorian’s excitement swept away all his earlier worries about Mommy’s disappearance. With a big smile, he happily went to eat breakfast.

Half an hour later, John reported a lead: Ella had boarded a speedboat at Beiling Pier. They also tracked down the owner of the boat.

The man admitted that someone had hired him to take Ella to Ice Ocean Island. After dropping her off, he had left and claimed to know nothing more about what happened afterward.

Eric immediately set off with John and the others, boarding a speedboat to head for Ice Ocean Island.

Ice Ocean Island was a small, privately-owned island purchased by a retiree from Country Y. It was about a three-hour trip from S City.

Three hours later, Eric and his team arrived at the island’s dock.

"That lady got off the boat here," the boat owner explained. "I was in a hurry to get home, so I left right after dropping off Ms. Davis."

Eric surveyed the dock carefully but found nothing out of the ordinary. Ella hadn’t left any clear signs or clues.

Still, he refused to give up. Like a man searching for a lost part of his soul, he wandered the dock, scanning every inch for something—anything. Finally, he noticed three small heart-shaped carvings on a large rock nearby. The simple design could easily be mistaken for random doodles at first glance.

But Eric froze in place, his entire body trembling.

He and Ella had often played around with secret codes while scrolling through Twitter during idle moments. These three hearts were their private signal, meaning: Wait for me to come back.

Eric’s eyes instantly reddened. That silly woman—how could she do this to him?

No matter how strong she was, she was still just one person. How could she hope to stand against an entire team by herself?

Based on Elias’s kidnapping, both Eric and Lucas believed this was a coordinated attack, likely orchestrated by two or even three groups working together.