I’ve already made more money than I could spend in a lifetime, and I have enough staff to take over my responsibilities. Frankly, it’s time. My obsessive behavior has created a controlling monster and I’m ready to let it go.

Spinning my chair around, I get back on my computer to send some emails. I create a memo and send it to all my project managers, letting them know I’ll be out of the office for an extended amount of time and informing them of who they need to report to. It only takes me about an hour to get all my ducks in a row, and then suddenly my to-do list for the day contains one task: Rebecca.

I grab my suit coat and leave my office. On the way out, I hear Cindy behind me asking questions about the email she just received from me, letting her know she’s being relocated to another manager. I don’t take the time to explain everything to her, because it’s in the email, so I just redirect her to my second in command. The doors to the elevator close as she’s still speaking, but the only thing I hear is the beat of my heart. For the first time in my life, I feel alive.

When I step outside and Hank is waiting on me, I’m bouncing with excitement. As I climb in the back seat, I get the urge to check Rebecca’s GPS on her phone. I don’t know why the feeling has come over me, but when I see that it hasn’t moved I relax a little.

I have Hank stop on the way home so I can buy Tink flowers. Then we make another stop at the drugstore and I buy her boxes of the hair dye she uses.

I can feel the smile on my face as I enter the building and head up to the penthouse. I’m going to find her and tell her I love her the second I see her. And before I lose the nerve. I can do this. I can give my heart to her. I can make up for every hour I was away from her, and never leave her side again. I can tell her how perfect she is, and how scared I am of these feelings. I will tell her everything about my past. Everything.

I burst through the elevator and feel elated. “Rebecca!” I shout and go to the master bedroom.

“Tink! Where are you?” I sing and start to walk around the house. I walk through every room, even the gym, and my panic starts to rise.

“Rebecca!” I shout again, but this time it’s angry.

I walk back to the master bedroom again and go to the closet, looking around for her things. Her clothes are gone. I go to the bed, and when I spot her cellphone and bracelet on the nightstand, my heart starts to beat out of my chest with panic. I pick up her phone and look through the call log, seeing she called her brother an hour ago. I hold the phone in a death grip and all my anger comes to the surface.

“Motherfucker!” I scream and throw the phone across the room, watching it shatter into a thousand pieces as it hits the wall.

I pull out my own phone and hit Hank’s number. I don’t wait on his greeting before I start barking orders into the phone.

“She left about an hour ago. The last call was to her brother. The phone is useless now, so don’t ask about it. She may have been taken, but it doesn’t look like there was a struggle. I don’t know but I want her home and I mean by tonight. You got that?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Hank confirms and ends the call.

I pick up her bracelet off the nightstand and squeeze it in my hands. I want to smash it into pieces as well, but I can’t. I love it because it reminds me of my Tink. I sit on the edge of the bed and hold it in my hands as if it were my fragile fairy. I close my eyes and hang my head, because I know what this means. If she were coming back I wouldn’t hurt like this, because in this moment I feel it in my soul.

She’s left me.

BECS

Three months later

“Spread your fucking legs. I want in there,” Nico says before I hear the headboard start to hit wall.

I’ve been here for maybe thirty-six hours but it feels like an eternity. I’m actually thankful for the loud banging and moans coming from the next room, it keeps the sleep at bay. It reminds me of being back in the foster system, only this time when I fall asleep there’s no one to protect me. The irony of it all is the one person who used to be my shield is the reason I’m trapped in this room. Sam. I’m not sure where he is, and I haven’t seen him for days.

“Clean yourself up. You’re working the VIP room tonight.” The woman huffs at Nico’s words, and I hear them moving around in the next room.

When I hear Nico’s door open I hold my breath, hoping he won’t come in here. That hope dies moments later when the door to my room swings open, with Nico filling the doorway, shirtless and with his jeans still undone. His jet black hair is tousled, as if the woman had been running her hands through it. The idea makes me cringe.

“Finally quit all that vomiting shit?” he says, strolling into the room. I can’t help but push myself further into the corner as he takes up more space. The bed is pressed up against the wall and I’m only cornering myself more, but there’s nowhere else to go. The only thing in the room is the full-size bed, a sheet, and some little pillows that have seen better days. The only window in the room has been sealed over with bricks, which looks to be a freshly finished job. I’m not sure where I’m at or if it’s day or night. All I know is how I got here, and that’s only in pieces.

Things had been going okay for Sam and me. I found a little studio apartment in a decent area of town. They wanted me to fill out all this paperwork, but I talked the manager out of it by paying six months’ rent up front. I used the money I had from working for Bray all those months. It took a big chunk out of it, but I picked up a job doing paperwork for a construction company shortly after. The lady in the office just paid me in cash under the table, and I did odds and ends around the office for her.