Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 820 - 822

Chapter 820: Chapter 822

She studied him for another moment before nodding. "Come on."

She turned and started walking, and Jude followed, moving through the streets of Leonork as though he had never been gone. But as they walked, Lisa couldn’t shake the feeling that something unseen was walking with them, lingering just beyond her perception.

Roy was waiting.

When they arrived, the tension in the air was palpable before they even stepped inside. The moment Lisa opened the door, the weight of Roy’s presence filled the space. He was standing near the window, his posture rigid, his hands curled into fists at his sides.

He did not turn immediately, but when he did, his eyes locked onto Jude with a sharpness that could have cut through steel.

"You," Roy said, his voice low and controlled, but the fury beneath it was unmistakable.

Jude met his gaze without flinching.

"You came back," Roy continued, his tone laced with something between anger and disbelief.

Jude nodded.

The silence stretched between them, heavy with everything that had been left unspoken. Then, without warning, Roy moved.

He crossed the room in an instant, his fist swinging, and for a brief second, Lisa thought Jude would let it hit him. But at the last possible moment, he stepped to the side, letting the punch pass harmlessly by.

Roy spun, his expression dark.

"You think you can just walk back in here like nothing happened?" he demanded. "Like you didn’t leave us without a word? Like you didn’t, "

His voice caught, but he forced himself to continue.

"We thought you were dead."

Jude did not argue, did not try to justify his absence. Instead, he simply met Roy’s gaze and said the only thing that mattered.

"I came back."

Roy’s jaw tightened. "That’s not good enough."

"I know," Jude said.

Another silence stretched between them, but this time, it was different. It was no longer just anger and betrayal. There was something else now, something unspoken, something raw.

"You should have told us," Roy finally said.

"I couldn’t," Jude admitted.

Roy exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. "What the hell happened to you?"

Jude hesitated, then finally said, "Something I can’t explain. But I need to be here now."

Roy studied him for a long moment before shaking his head. "You don’t get to decide that after disappearing."

Jude didn’t respond. There was nothing he could say to change the past.

Lisa , who had been silent through most of the exchange, finally stepped forward.

"He’s here now," she said. "That has to count for something."

Roy’s expression hardened, but after a moment, he looked away. "You’d better not disappear again."

"I won’t," Jude said, and this time, the weight behind his words felt like a promise.

Roy let out a slow breath, his anger still simmering beneath the surface, but the storm in his eyes had dimmed. He looked at Jude once more, searching for something, perhaps a trace of the man he had once known.

"You’d better not," he repeated.

Jude nodded.

The room fell into silence again, but it was different this time. Less tense. More settled.

And then, just as the moment seemed to steady, the shadows in the corner of the room flickered.

Jude felt it before he saw it. A shift in the air, a presence that did not belong.

Roy and Lisa did not notice it immediately, but Jude did. His gaze snapped toward the darkened space near the far wall, and for the briefest moment, he saw something move.

Something that should not have been there.

His expression sharpened, his stance shifting slightly, and Roy immediately caught on.

"What?" he asked, his voice low.

Jude did not answer right away. He took a single step forward, his gaze locked onto the shadows.

Then, as if sensing that it had been seen, the presence vanished.

But it had been there.

And Jude knew this was only the beginning.

Roy didn’t move for a moment, his eyes still locked on Jude, as if trying to decide whether to keep throwing punches or demand an explanation he knew he wouldn’t get. Lisa stood between them, arms crossed, her expression unreadable. The tension in the room was thick, pressing against them, but there were more pressing matters now. Jude had noticed something, something neither Roy nor Lisa had seen. His gaze flickered toward the spot where the presence had been, his body tense but controlled. It was gone now, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t return.

Roy finally exhaled sharply, rubbing his temples as though trying to fight off a growing headache. "You’re not just here because you decided to come back, are you?"

Jude shook his head. "No."

Lisa glanced between them before stepping closer to Jude. "What was it?"

He hesitated for a second before answering. "Something watching us."

Roy’s jaw tightened. "Watching you, or watching all of us?"

Jude didn’t answer immediately, and that was enough to confirm Roy’s suspicions. He had spent years reading people, understanding the smallest shifts in body language, and Jude’s silence told him more than words could.

Lisa turned toward Roy. "We should check the security feeds."

Roy nodded, already moving toward the panel on the far side of the room. His private systems were more advanced than anything standard security could provide. He had learned long ago not to trust anyone else with his safety. Within moments, multiple screens lit up, displaying different angles of the building. Lisa leaned in, scanning the footage with sharp eyes, while Jude stood slightly behind them, his gaze flicking over the screens.

For several minutes, there was nothing. The usual flow of people, the stillness of locked-down areas, the dim lighting of the hallways outside. But then, in the corner of one feed, a flicker of movement. It wasn’t clear, it barely lasted a second, but it was enough.

"There," Jude said, pointing.

Roy rewound the footage, slowing it down. The image sharpened, but what they saw wasn’t normal. The figure wasn’t distinct. It wasn’t a person in the traditional sense. It was a distortion, something that looked like it belonged to the shadows rather than reality itself. The shape flickered, twisted, and then disappeared.