I stood from my chair and grabbed my phone and my car keys. "Hold down the fort for a while, okay? I'll be back. I have something I have to do."
Jack stepped aside as I brushed past him on my way out and called after me as I left, "Okay, I got things here. You take care of what you need to do."
I jumped into my car and floored it the five miles back to the house faster than I'd ever gotten the Porsche to go. Slamming my foot on the brake, I barely stopped the car before jumping out and running up to the front door. I wasn't sure what I would say to Mr. DeVille to change his mind, but I had to do something.
But first I needed to speak to Maddie.
It wasn't just that she wasn't going to be my cook anymore. I had a feeling if I didn't stop her from leaving, I'd never see her again.
"Maddie! Are you here?" I yelled as I tore down the hallway toward the kitchen only to find it empty.
I hurried to her room and found it empty. Checking the dressers and closet, I found them empty too. Everything about her was missing from her room. Had DeVille already taken her away?
My mind whirled with uncertainty. What had been so bad that she had to be removed from here and why so quickly? Why had the owner of DeVille Staffing refused to tell me anything about what had happened?
Nothing Maddie could do warranted this kind of reaction. I refused to believe she could ever be guilty of any kind of wrongdoing. And if that wasn't the reason why she had to leave, then why wouldn't he tell me the truth about why she was being taken away from me?
After I'd checked every room and every inch of the property, I walked back to the house and found my way to my office. I opened the door and looked around, remembering how she had sat in the chair a few feet away and how she'd enchanted me from the moment we met.
Now that she was gone, everything felt empty. What once was a house I thought of as a place to sleep and do some work in now seemed lonely. Without Maddie, it was merely a house.
Nothing more.
Gone was the sweetness I'd grown to love in the short time she was there with me. Before she came along, I never realized how much I wanted to have someone in my life who made me smile and look forward to the next time I'd see them.
Now that I'd lost her, I knew all that had been taken away with her too.
There had to be some way to fix this. Some way to make DeVille understand that Maddie couldn't be replaced by some other person in less than twenty-four hours. That inconvenience wasn't what I'd suffer because he'd forced her to leave.
I quickly found his number and called him, prepared to drive to his office if I had to and demand he give me Maddie's number so I could find her and tell her I wanted her back with me forever.
"Mr. Pierce, I'm surprised to hear from you. I did say we would have someone to your house by tomorrow," he said with a happiness in his voice that bothered me.
"I don't want another cook or anything else but Maddie's number. Just give me that and I won't bother you again."
"I'm afraid I can't divulge an employee's personal information like that. I'm sorry."
"Why are you doing this? Why did she have to leave immediately? Whatever she did, tell me. If it's a matter of money, I have more than enough. I can pay for whatever she did. Just tell me."
He said nothing for a long moment, and then just as I worried he'd ended the call, he asked, "Why would you bother to do anything like that for someone who's only worked for you for a week?"
I knew my answer would sound crazy, but I didn't care anymore. I had to get Maddie back. "I just need her to come back to the house. Not as a cook or one of my staff, but just her back here with me."
"Why? You didn't even eat the single meal she cooked for you," he said in a tone of disbelief.
"What? How do you know that?"
He said nothing in response to my question. What was happening here?
I didn't want to tell him everything we'd done together. He didn't need to know about our personal lives. But I needed to convince him to at least tell me where I could find her so I could let her know I wanted her to come live with me.
"I never needed a cook. I didn't know I needed someone to love, but that's what I found in her. I know it sounds insane to say I'm in love with a woman I just met a week ago, but that's the truth. I love her and now that she's gone, nothing's the same. Everything feels empty now. The house. My office. Everything. I just want to find her and bring her home."
"Hmmm. It sounds like you truly love her, Mr. Pierce. But does she feel the same way about you?"
I wanted to believe Maddie loved me like I loved her. I knew she wasn't the closed-off person I was, so maybe everything in her life didn't feel empty now. But I had to think that what we'd been together meant something to her.
"Ask her. If she says she doesn't, then I won't bother you about this ever again. But if she says she loves me too, then you won't stop her from coming back to me. Deal?"
"Now we're making deals, Mr. Pierce? Okay, it sounds fair to me. I'll ask her and if she loves you like you love her, then she's yours. If not, you must forget her. No trying to find her. No calling me to badger me for a way to contact her. Those are my terms. Do you agree to them?"
I swallowed hard to get rid of the lump in my throat and answered him as all the air felt like it was being sucked out of the room. "I agree. Ask her."
"Good luck, Mr. Pierce. I hope you find the happiness you so want."
His words sounded so final. When I went to ask him what that meant, he ended the call. Was she sitting there listening to the entire conversation and told him she didn't love me?