One Night Stand, Eight Surprises: Pampered by My CEO Husband --- - Chapter 78: Chapter 78

Arielle stood on the jagged cliff edge, sea spray kissing her cheeks like tears from a restless ocean. The private island loomed below, its silhouette sharp against the horizon, shrouded in a blanket of gray mist. It looked beautiful from a distance.
But beauty, she’d learned, often hid the cruelest truths.
The helicopter behind her spun its blades in a slow lullaby, waiting. The team had already begun their descent down the cliffs, setting up lines to rappel toward the facility entrance carved into the island’s volcanic rock.
Étienne stood beside her, scanning the layout through a long-range lens. “This is it. Thermal scans place movement inside, but they’re minimal. Just one transport leaving at dawn.”
“Is he still here?” Arielle asked, her voice barely above the wind.
Étienne didn’t answer immediately. “We’ll find out.”
The descent was dangerous. Loose stone. Thin footholds. But Arielle moved with a silent fury, the picture of Damien burned behind her eyes—bound, bruised, and whispering her name.
They reached the facility’s outer edge just as the wind shifted, blowing smoke from the distant volcanic vents across the cliffs.
The door wasn’t locked.
That was the first warning.
Inside, the compound was cold.
Not just in temperature—but in feeling.
Lights flickered intermittently. Screens displayed static. Empty hallways stretched endlessly, echoing every step.
Rooms were vacant. Beds stripped. Surveillance systems disabled.
It was as though everyone had fled.
Except for the silence.
And the single tablet left blinking on a table in the central chamber.
Arielle picked it up.
One message was open.
“He was here. Until four hours ago. Tell the Firebird her wings came too late.”
Lucien’s voice.
The rage inside her ignited.
They searched every room. Medical bays. Holding cells. Admin offices.
Nothing.
Only abandoned needles.
An overturned glass of water.
And a single lock of Damien’s hair tied to a tag labeled “Subject X - Phase II.”
Étienne punched the wall. “They moved him. Again.”
Arielle whispered, “But where?”
Night fell.
The team reconvened in the helicopter, engines rumbling softly.
Arielle sat with the tablet on her lap, scrolling through the metadata in the message file.
A pinged location.
Encrypted.
But she recognized the format.
Damien had created it years ago for private corporate use.
She entered the decryption code only she knew.
Coordinates.
Iceland.
“Ice and fire,” Arielle murmured.
Étienne looked over. “What?”
“It’s a riddle he used to tell the kids. ‘Where the earth burns and freezes at once, the Phoenix hides his flame.’”
“He wanted you to follow the trail.”
“Then we don’t stop.”
The pilot was already preparing to lift off.
Étienne sat beside her. “You realize this may be a trap.”
She looked out the window, at the receding coastline. “It doesn’t matter. If he’s there—if even a piece of him is—I’m going.”
As the helicopter rose, the compound below faded into a speck of steel on a wild island. Arielle closed her eyes and whispered a silent promise to the man who once held her hand through storms.
“Hold on, Damien. I’m almost there.”