Connecting the monitor to her phone, she scrolled through the footage.

Initially angry, she had believed she had finally caught the culprit.

But the next moment, a familiar figure appeared in the video footage.

Ariana froze, staring blankly at the man in the video. Tears welled up, streaming down her face and hitting the screen. She watched, unable to believe her eyes, trembling uncontrollably.

"It's him... It's really him!" Ariana murmured, quivering.

It wasn't a thief or an illusion. It was Theodore! He wasn't dead!

Ariana couldn't believe what she was seeing, rewinding the footage repeatedly while tears flowed down her face.

Her heart was a jumbled mess of emotions, filled with both the joy of having lost someone precious only to find it again and the confusion of unanswered questions that followed.

Theodore was alive! But why hadn't he reached out to her?

Had something happened that prevented him from locating her whereabouts? Why had he visited her apartment but not her?

She had already revealed herself on multiple occasions in public. It was impossible for him not to know where she was.

Ariana was unable to process the unexpected development, which sent her into a panic.

She knelt on the floor, staring intently at the blurry figure on her screen. Emotions were running high as tearful laughter and hysterical sobbing took turns to overwhelm her. She desperately wanted it to be real but feared it might just be a cruel illusion. She was eager to find him immediately but had no clue where to start. Her hope and despair left her paralyzed, gasping for breath.

After what felt like an eternity, Ariana finally managed to regain her composure. However, her hands still trembled slightly as she clutched her phone tightly.

She reassured herself that he would surely return, and when he did, she would confront him in person. However, a persistent doubt lingered in her mind. The timestamp on the surveillance footage indicated that the video was over two weeks old. This meant that he had not returned since that date.

Ariana was consumed by anxiety, wondering if something had happened to him during the weeks he was gone. The storm of emotions inside her was growing stronger with each passing moment, leaving her feeling helpless and unable to do anything but worry.

Throughout the long night, Ariana stayed awake on the sofa, tracing the outline of the man's silhouette on the screen softly.

As dawn broke, Ariana finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell into a slumber, still slumped against the couch.

Soon, she was awakened by the blaring sound of her phone. Blurry-eyed, she noticed that it was already noon.

It was a call from Tom. Ariana immediately answered and heard Tom's voice. "We're here. Where are you?"