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"Good morning. You must be Mr. Lay," Anna said with a warm smile.

Lucian nodded politely. "Yes, Lucian Lay," he replied, extending a hand. "You must be Anna, Anna Raynotte."

"That’s right," she said, shaking his hand. "And you’re Amelia’s husband, David, correct?" She then glanced at the person sitting beside him, offering a polite nod.

"Yeah, that’s me. Nice to meet you, Anna," David said with a friendly grin. He gestured to the empty seat across from him. "Please, have a seat."

Anna nodded in thanks and sat down.

Lucian leaned forward slightly, his expression more serious now. "We really appreciate you helping us find Amelia," he began. "She’s been missing for a week now, and... we're running out of leads."

David's smile faded. He glanced at Lucian, then back at Anna.

"We’ve filed the reports, talked to the police, even checked with some of her friends. But it feels like she just vanished."

"I read through the police report you sent me last night. I’ll need to ask a few questions to get a clearer picture, but first—" she paused, meeting Lucian's gaze, "you mentioned on the call that this might be related to the book called The Silent Shadow written by Julian Marlowe. How exactly?"

"Well, all we know is that she started reading this book, and then either she arranged a meeting with Julian or maybe he arranged one with her. But the night before they were supposed to meet, Amelia vanished."

Mr. Lay exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair.

"We were planning to speak with Julian ourselves, but… you know what happened. He committed suicide the very next day."

David nodded solemnly, his gaze fixed on the table.