Chapter 9

As the helicopter carrying Charlotte ascended into the night, Everett felt a sudden, inexplicable pang of anxiety in the ballroom below. He dismissed it as indigestion from the rich food.

He was in his private suite now, the party a distant murmur. His assistant, Martin, stood by the door, looking nervous.

"What did she say?" Everett asked, loosening his tie.

Martin hesitated. "She said... she regrets saving your life. She regrets loving you."

The crystal glass in Everett' s hand shattered. Red wine, looking like blood, splattered across the white carpet.

"Good," he snarled, though his heart was pounding in his chest. "She's learned her lesson."

He ordered Martin to find her, to bring her back. He told himself it was because she needed to be properly controlled, that she was a loose end. But a gnawing emptiness was already beginning to chew at him.

He paced the suite, the image of her face in the ballroom-pale, splattered with wine, but with eyes full of a terrifying, cold hatred-burned into his mind.

He ended up in the bedroom he had once shared with her in this very hotel. It was their special place. Nothing of hers remained. It was sterile, empty. The emptiness echoed the hollow feeling in his chest. A cold dread, a feeling he hadn't experienced since before he met her, began to creep in.

Kaylynn entered, wearing a sheer negligee. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his. "Darling, the party's over. Let's have our own celebration."

He felt nothing. Less than nothing. He felt a wave of revulsion. He pushed her away, harder than he intended.

"I'm tired," he said, his voice rough.

Just then, Martin burst into the room, his face pale. "Sir... she's gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" Everett snapped.

"Charlotte Rosa. And her mother. They've vanished from the hospital. All the surveillance footage from the past hour has been wiped."

Everett felt the floor drop out from under him.

"She's just trying to get your attention, Everett," Kaylynn said, her voice laced with scorn. "A pathetic little game. You're Everett Spears. She can't hide from you for long."

Her words were meant to be reassuring, a stroking of his ego. And for a moment, they worked. He straightened up, his arrogance reasserting itself. Of course. It was just another one of Charlotte' s emotional dramas. She was trying to make him jealous, to make him miss her.

"Fine," he said, a cruel smile on his face. "Let her play her little game. We'll see who comes crawling back first."

For the next three days, he made a point of being seen with Kaylynn, their smiling faces splashed across every gossip site. He checked his phone constantly, waiting for the call, the text, the sign of surrender.

It never came.

On the third day, their wedding anniversary, the silence became deafening. In the three years they were together, Charlotte had never, not once, let an anniversary pass without a heartfelt, sometimes goofy, celebration.

The gnawing emptiness in his chest had become a gaping wound.

"Find her," he roared at Martin, his voice cracking. "I don't care what it takes. Find her and bring her back to me. Now."

But she was nowhere. It was as if she had been erased from the face of the earth.