“Kind of you to do that, Ethan. Still doesn’t change my stance on the subject.”
If my father wanted to meet, he would have to retract whatever bullshit announcement they made about my engagement with Thea Wright–someone I don’t recall proposing to. Thea and her family had gone around taking interviews and cooking up ridiculous stories about how romantic my proposal to her had been.
I laughed so hard the first time I saw the news in print, one week after I yelled at my mother when she dropped by my house. I did not expect them to go on and announce to the world that I was engaged to be married when I'd not made such a decision.
When I looked up at Ethan, who was still standing there but saying nothing, I realized he wanted to say something, but he was afraid.
“Spit it out, Ethan.” I snapped and he flinched.
“I know where she is,” he said. I looked up at him and my gaze was cold as ice this time.
“What did you just say?”
“I’m sorry sir, your father promised I would lose my job and he would make sure I did not get any job anywhere in the city. “
“Where the fuck is she?” I yelled.
His hands shakily fished out a piece of paper from his front pocket and handed it to me, which I snatched out of his hands at the speed of light.
“Get out!” I said to him, in the coldest voice, he looked unsure for a moment, and I knew he was trying to figure out if he was fired or not. I didn’t help him clarify but just gave him a pointed stare until he walked out.
My eyes immediately glanced down at the piece of paper in my hand. It took only ten seconds before I imprinted the address in my memory. Tucking the paper back into my pocket, I wasted no more time. I hurried out of the office, ignoring the whispers and the rush with which my staff cleared the way for me as I walked out.
I’d texted Roger to meet me out front and he was already waiting for me by the time I walked out of the building. I immediately gave him the address, offhand. He did not ask questions about where that was, or what we were going to find, just fired the engine when I told him we needed to be there as soon as possible.
All along, while I searched for Vanessa, she lived only one hour away from me. When I arrived at the old apartment, I glanced up at the tall building, wondering if she hoped for me to find her, or if she had hidden for so long because she did not want me to find her.
Either way, I already found her, and I would not leave until we had talked it out and she listened to my side of the story. I would forgive almost anything right now, though it wasn’t like she had offended me. I was just mad at her for leaving and needed her to come back to me. Everything else was, by the way.
When I walked into her building, and then up to the apartment number on the piece of paper, I was frustrated to find it locked. I knocked for over ten minutes but got no response. Feeling a sense of despair that this was yet another fool’s errand, I walked back down the stairs and my attention was drawn to the jovial doorman at the door.
“Please, do you know if Vanessa Hughes lives in this building?” I asked him when I approached him.
“Van?” He asked. It surprised me given how easily he answered, and I wondered how tight the security was in a place like this.
“Yes. Does she live here?” I asked, more concerned about the fact that he was giving me the info I needed than the state of security of the building.
“Yeah, but she’s at work now.” He answered,
“Where does she work?” I asked quickly, a little too quickly, and he must have realized how easily he had revealed that to me, so he drew back to glance at me properly.
“Who are you?” He asked, clearly not impressed by me.
“I need to find her. I know you have no reason to trust me, but it’s really important to me I find her.”
“How do I know you’re not just some stalker?”
Just when I was about to come up with something nice to say to him, I heard my name. I turned sharply towards the voice, and there she was.
She was looking at me in shock, and I could not take my eyes off her. She looked good, better than I’d seen her. And I could not stop the selfish feeling that she had been thriving in my absence.
I also noticed that she looked a little on the bigger side, and her belly had a slight bulge to it. Her hands immediately went to the curve, a move I could tell came from reflex. Then I realized what it was immediately.
She was pregnant.
Chapter 31
Vanessa.