Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN HE COULDN'T FIND
Adrian looked at Celeste as if he were seeing her for the first time.
“Get out.”
She blinked. “Adrian, I understand you're upset, but—”
“Now.”
Celeste's expression hardened. “You can't possibly blame me for your wife walking out. You told me yourself that you didn't love her.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
He remembered saying those words. He remembered the question Celeste had asked. And he remembered allowing her arms to circle his shoulders.
What he had not expected was to find Mia's wedding ring sitting on his desk.
“Did you touch her?” he asked.
Celeste looked offended. “What?”
“Did you touch my wife?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange anything behind my back?”
“Adrian, listen to yourself.”
He stepped toward her.
“I am asking one question.”
Celeste stared at him for several seconds before shaking her head.
“No. I didn't arrange anything. But perhaps this is what you wanted. Perhaps she finally understood that you were never going to give her what she wanted.”
The slap never came.
Adrian didn't need violence to make the room frightening.
“Leave.”
Celeste walked out.
When the door closed, he picked up Mia's wedding ring.
Six years earlier, he had slipped it onto her finger in a private ceremony attended by only twelve people. He had promised to protect her, provide for her, and never let anyone hurt her again.
He had never promised to love her.
At least, not aloud.
His phone rang.
“Mr. Vale,” his head of security, Marcus, said. “We found the rideshare company.”
“Location.”
“The vehicle was rented through an independent medical transportation service. The booking came from a prepaid account.”
“Find the passenger.”
“We're trying. The driver says he dropped her near a residential building in Lincoln Park.”
“Send men.”
“Already on it.”
Adrian grabbed his coat.
“I'll go myself.”
Marcus hesitated. “Sir, there's something else.”
“What?”
“The driver said Mrs. Vale asked him to take a different route twice. She was afraid someone might be following her.”
Adrian stopped.
“Following her?”
“Yes.”
The words changed everything.
Mia hadn't simply wanted to leave.
She had been afraid.
He drove through Chicago with one hand gripping the steering wheel and the other holding his phone. Every red light felt like a personal insult.
When he reached the building, a narrow brick apartment complex between a bakery and a closed laundromat, he found Marcus waiting outside.
“No sign of her,” Marcus reported.
Adrian entered.
The landlord recognized Mia's photograph immediately.
“She came here earlier,” the woman said. “A young lady in a wheelchair. Very polite.”
“Which apartment?”
“Third floor.”
Adrian stared at her.
“She rented a place?”
“Not exactly. Someone had already paid for it.”
“Who?”
The landlord shook her head. “A woman. She called herself Mrs. Harper.”
Adrian's stomach tightened.
Harper.
Mia's maiden name.
He hurried upstairs.
The apartment door was unlocked.
Inside, there was a small living room, a narrow kitchen, and a bedroom with pale curtains. A folded blanket lay on the couch. Two bottles of water sat on the counter.
And on the kitchen table was a paper bag from a pharmacy.
Adrian opened it.
Prenatal vitamins.
A bottle of folic acid.
A printed list of pregnancy precautions.
His fingers trembled.
Mia had planned this.
She had planned a future without him.
Then he noticed something beneath the pharmacy receipt.
A photograph.
It showed Mia standing beside a younger man outside a hospital.
Adrian recognized the man immediately.
Daniel Harper.
Mia's younger brother.
The same brother Adrian had been told was dead.
“Marcus.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Find Daniel Harper.”
Marcus frowned. “I thought he died six years ago.”
“So did I.”
Adrian turned the photograph over.
On the back, written in Mia's handwriting, were five words.
If he comes, don't trust him.
Before Adrian could ask what she meant, his phone rang.
An unknown number.
He answered.
“Where is my wife?”
A woman's voice came through, quiet and strained.
“You need to stop looking for her.”
“Who is this?”
“Someone who knows what happened the night you were shot.”
Adrian went still.
The woman continued.
“And if you really want to know why Mia left, ask your mother what she did with the second hospital report.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, Adrian couldn't move.
Then Marcus spoke.
“Sir?”
Adrian slowly lowered the phone.
“Get me every medical record from the night of the shooting.”
“Why?”
May you like
He looked at Mia's photograph.
“Because I think my wife has been protecting me from something much worse than the truth about our marriage.”
