28 Nightmare Night

Charlotte, who found that Noah did not reject her presence, happily took Noah to tour the mansion. 

Meanwhile, Noah himself did not want Charlotte to realise his intentions and continued to respond to her nonsense. 

Noah glanced around to look for Shirley's presence, but he saw no one in this spacious courtyard of the Estelle family mansion. 

"Would you like to join me for tea in the garden, Lord Noah?" Charlotte happily invited Noah to join her for tea time. 

"Of course, Lady Estelle." Noah nodded his head, accepting Charlotte's offer. 

"Then you can wait me here, I will prepare our place." Charlotte darted off to set up their tea in the garden of her family's greenhouse. 

Seeing Charlotte leave, Noah took the opportunity to go for a walk around the mansion on his own. 

If his guess was correct, then Shirley would be punished just like him. And the most appropriate place to punish someone was a secluded area.

Given that Charlotte had previously said that Shirley was still in the mansion, then Noah guessed that Shirley was around this mansion. 

"But, where can I find her in such a large place," Noah muttered softly, he was sure that it would take a lot of time to go around the mansion. 

Even so, Noah intended to try it first, he quietly followed the maids who were seen passing around the mansion. 

As long as Noah followed the maids, he didn't find anything suspicious about them. So Noah abandoned his intention to continue following them. 

Since there wasn't much time and he shouldn't be wandering around alone like this in someone's yard, Noah chose to enter the maze-like garden. 

And in there Noah accidentally heard a man talking, after he listened to their conversation, he got information about Shirkey's whereabouts. 

"Abandoned warehouse?" Noah muttered, repeating the suspicious man's words. 

Noah remained hidden behind a wall of tall plants to listen to what they were talking about. 

"Tonight come with me to release Miss Shirley. Madam has already given the order."

"Alright, as long as it's paid well I'll do it."

Noah, who was listening, furrowed his brow in displeasure. Hearing that their conversation had become nonsense Noah left there to look for the warehouse that the two men were referring to. 

"Approximately where is the warehouse located?" Noah, who knew nothing about the layout of the mansion, had no idea where to look. 

Although Noah knew where Shirley was, he still had no idea how to find her. Finally, Noah decided to return to the place where Charlotte had left him. 

But, just then Noah saw a maid who seemed to be in a hurry while carrying food and he recognised the maid as Shirley's personal maid. Noah quickly chased after her.

"Stop right there!" said Noah in a voice that was not too loud, but enough for the maid to hear him. 

As Ivy stopped in place and her body began to tremble, she thought that she had been caught. 

However, when Ivy looked back she immediately breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the person who called her was Noah.

"Lord Noah! How did you get here?" Ivy was shocked to see Noah there, thinking that she could save Shirley if he was here. 

"It doesn't matter why I'm here, what matters now is whether you're looking for Shirley, right?" Noah asked quickly. 

Ivy nodded her head, "Yes, sir! Can you help me to save Miss Shirley?" Ivy's eyes were already glazed over at this point, hoping Noah would help her. 

"Take me there!" Noah nodded as he asked the maid to lead him to the place where Shirley was. 

With that, they quickly headed towards the direction where the abandoned warehouse was.

. . .

It had been three days since Shirley had been locked up in this warehouse without food or water. Shirley was currently limping in a corner of the warehouse, her body shaking violently at the moment. 

Not only was she weak from thirst and hunger, but also from the fear that was already at the threshold of what Shirley could endure. Two nights had passed and Shirley had to face her fear of the dark room alone. 

Shirley's body curled up helplessly with eyes that were no longer focused, Shirley's current state was truly alarming. 

In fact, Shirley did not react at all when the warehouse door began to open from the outside, she was still curled up in a corner while covering both ears with her hands. 

It was only when Shirley felt someone grab her shoulders and shake her gently that she looked up to see who it was.

"Shirley!" Noah was so shocked when he saw Shirley's terrible state that he couldn't even look at her with focus. 

At the sound of Noah's voice calling her name, Shirley's tense body turned calming, feeling like she had finally let go of all her anxiety. 

Then, Shirley's body fell unconscious in Noah's arms. 

. . .

With Ivy's help, Noah was able to bring Shirley back to her room without anyone else noticing. Noah immediately ordered the maid to call a doctor to check on Shirley's condition. 

"I didn't expect your situation to be this bad," Noah muttered as he cleaned Shirley's dust-covered face with a wet towel. 

"Why didn't you tell me the truth, when you could have just not helped me that night if you were in a bad situation like me." Noah let out a rough breath. 

In the corner of his heart, Noah felt guilty about what Shirley had gone through this time. Noah had never imagined that someone who looked as strong as Shirley would actually experience something as frightening as this. 

From Shirley's condition, which was this bad, Noah could tell that Shirley had been locked up in that warehouse for two or three days. 

But, Shirley's condition was more miserable than that, there seemed to be another factor that Noah didn't know about that made Shirley look scared like that.

Noah honestly couldn't forget the blank, desperate look Shirley had used when looking at him earlier. 

"What exactly happened?" Noah muttered softly. 

A few moments later Noah heard Shirley's room being opened quite loudly from outside and again Noah saw the figure of Joseph enter with a serious face. 

"What did you do to my sister?!" Joseph gave Noah a sharp look. 

Joseph stepped quickly towards Noah and immediately grabbed him by the collar, intending to throw a punch. 

Noah's face remained calm, not the slightest hint of fear on his face, he honestly expected the punch because it could be said that he was indirectly the one who made Shirley become like this.