Chapter 77
Day 12:
There have been zero transactions?” I ask Peter.
“Zero, Sir.” He confirms, his lips thinned into a straight line.
“Has Lou called back yet?”
“No, Sir. Mrs. Whitlock and Luna both took a flight the day after she….” He pauses, looks away. “Left. And Lou found out that the flight she took went either to Chicago or Philadelphia. The authorities wouldn’t give us their CCTV footage, and your grandfather did ask the mayor to put some pressure. We still haven’t heard back from the airport authorities.”
I nod
At least she was safe.
At least she was safe.
“Call our contacts in both Chicago and Philadelphia, ask them to search for her. If they can find any reservations, any registrations under the name of Sophia Whitlock, I want to know.”
Peter nods, and then just stares at me.
Hake a breath. “What is it?”
“With all due respect, Sir. I… I don’t think she would go with Sophia Whitlock.”
Huh?
I raise my eyebrows in question
“I.. I think… I.. I believe,” he takes a deep breath as if scared for his life, “I think that she would go with the name Sophia Baker
now.”
Oh.
Reality dawns upon me, and I felt like I was being crushed by a thousand pounds. I nod without meeting his eye. “Ask them to search for Sophia Baker then.”
Day 17:
“She mentioned she has a house in London,” I tell Lou over the call we were on since the past twenty minutes. “She inherited it from her father, and I don’t know, I’m not sure, but if she’s nowhere, she might have gone there”
“London is huge, Mr. Whitlock. You cannot just pinpoint a place and expect me to find her. Besides, London is in the UK and I have no contacts there. I’m afraid my hands are tied here.”
I sigh, and then silently curse under my breath. Every where I turn was a dead end.
“Thank you for everything you’re doing, Lou. Please keep finding her. Don’t stop!”
She sounded like she wanted to say something but decided against it at the last moment. “Okay,’ she replied, and then the phone went dead.
1/3
I shut the laptop in front of me, staring out of the window at the dark streets filling with grey clouds overhead as if there was a storm coming. Everyone went home for the day, but not me.
Going home hurt. Being surrounded by the ghost of her smiles and touch hurt.”
My work had become my home. I had begun staying here.
Zach, who I had forgotten was here, clears his throat. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found, Gabriel
“I need to get her home, Zach. I need to… I… I lose my words, feeling lost and tired.
The sympathy that Zach tried to hide in his expressions reflected in his voice. “Sleep, buddy. You need the rest.”
Day on
I was going to London.
I had to be there to see through the expansion of the Whitlock company, but that wasn’t the reason I was going. If there was
a slight chance, the slightest one, that I find my wife there, I was going to take it.
I was set to take off next week.
I returned home that day exhausted from work, and I think even the housekeepers were surprised looking at me. stopped coming home. I came once a week, grabbed frozen food and clothes for the upcoming week and left.
Thad
I lived in my office. I slept on the couch and I showered in the bath my grandfather thankfully had gotten made a few years ago when he worked all day and needed to freshen up before important meetings.
I just couldn’t be home.
“Sir, a delivery came for you a few days ago.” One of the housekeepers said, and it seemed like she was sweating just by talking to me. I’m not that intolerable now, am I?
“Bring it to my room.
I had
по
intention of waiting for whatever came for me. I just wanted to dump fresh pair of clothes into a suitcase and le get away from here, but curiosity got the best of me when the lady returned with a box and handed it to me.
I stripped the packing to reveal a blue square box, and opened it to a ring
Sophia’s gift to me, one that had ordered all those months
ago.
I brought out the ring with quivering hands, as if I’d drop it and lose it forever if I loosen the grip just a little. It wasn’t the band of gold that attracted me, it was the engraving on the inner side of it.
SGW.
Sophia Gabriel Whitlock.
All the hope I had, all my strength, it all vanished in thin air the moment I read her initials. I felt the sting in my eyes, and my vision blurred. Countless deep breaths couldn’t drink away the pain 1 had been concealing in me since the past three weeks.
My freckles really was gone, and this ring was the only souvenir she left behind for me.
Present Day
I entered my apartment late that night, a little past midnight. My grandfather bought this penthouse many years ago, and I’d always been fascinated by the view.
We expanded to London almost six months ago, and I was expected back home almost immediately after things were settled here, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave.
I didn’t particularly like London, but it provided me the escape needed.
My wife was gone
I could wear the ring she got for me on my wedding finger all I like, but couldn’t find her.
From the very corner of my eyes, I could feel my phone buzzing If I had to guess, it would be Peter. The time back home was late in the evening, and he was calling the before he left for home like he had been doing for the past six months, telling me there were no new developments.
Lou came up with nothing new. The men that I had trailing Alice came up with nothing new.
Nothing
She disappeared, like smoke in air.
My phone buzzed and then stopped ringing just like that. After awhile it buzzed again, but I didn’t bother. Not tonight
I was tired today, mentally and physically, chasing after a ghost.
Whatever it was why Peter was constantly calling me, I will deal with it tomorrow.
[Author’s Note: Darmien’s story is going to be out by the end of this month yay! Daily updates from 1st April. It’s going to be called His Obsession, and it’s a MAFIA ROMANCE! It’s darker, hotter and WAY more intricately carved You can write to me at heermangtanii on Instagram, or my email ID heermangtang icloud.com Thank you!)
