Chrysander woke with a monster catch in his neck and shifted in the too-small chair to alleviate his discomfort. He’d wanted to spend the night with Marley tucked into his arms, but she’d resisted his touch at every turn, becoming so distraught that he’d had no choice but to retreat.He’d taken the doctor’s advice and phoned a therapist as soon as he’d returned to the apartment with Marley. The therapist was due to arrive this morning to speak with her. Chrysander just hoped she would be able to.
His gaze moved to the bed, and when he saw it empty, he shot to his feet. He started to bolt from the room, but a glimmer of something on the nightstand caught his eye. When he saw her engagement ring lying there, dread tightened his chest. He ran from the room in search of her. As he went from room to room, his panic grew. She wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Even as he hurled himself into the elevator, he dug out his cellular phone. As soon as the doors opened in the lobby, he ran out and nearly collided with Stavros.
He grasped the man’s shirt in his hands and pulled him up close. “Where is she?”
Stavros blinked in surprise. “We haven’t seen her, sir. No one has. She was with you.”
Chrysander pushed him away with a violent curse. “She’s gone. Call your men in. I want her found immediately.”
He strode to the entrance to question the doorman, but he seemed as baffled as the security man. He turned around to see several of his detail gather in the lobby as they were questioned by an angry Stavros.
Theos! Where could she have gone? She was in no state to be wandering around New York, and the people who had abducted her were still at large.
Worry settled hard into his chest. He turned to go out the door in search of her himself when he saw Theron walk in.
“Chrysander,” he said in greeting. “I was on my way up to see you. How is Marley?”
“She’s gone,” he said grimly.
Theron raised one brow. “Gone? But how?”
“I don’t know,” he said in frustration. “She’s disappeared. I have to find her.”
Theron put a firm hand on Chrysander’s shoulder. “We’ll find her, Chrysander.”
“There is something about this situation,” Chrysander said in a hollow voice. “Something that doesn’t add up. I saw no guilt in her face when she remembered everything. All I saw was complete devastation, as if she were the one who was betrayed. She was so distraught that she had to be sedated, and she becomes extremely upset when I get close to her. She isn’t herself right now. I fear where she may have gone. Her frame of mind is not good.”
“I will help you, Chrysander,” Theron said quietly. “Do not worry. We will find her.”
Marley shivered as she eased down onto the cold stone bench and clutched her arms around her trembling body. She glanced down at her feet but couldn’t summon any rebuke for having gone out in the chill without shoes or a coat. The only thought she’d had was to get away as quickly as possible. She couldn’t face Chrysander now.Now she knew why she’d been drawn to this place. Her thinking spot, indeed. Just hours before that last night, she’d sat here, afraid of how Chrysander would react to her pregnancy. She’d been right to be afraid. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t love her. And he’d left her to her fate with the kidnappers.
She refused to allow the memories to roll back in her mind. They simply hurt too much. At least now she realized why she’d chosen to forget. All those weeks of living in fear as her kidnappers waited for their demands to be met had paled next to the betrayal Chrysander had handed her when he’d refused.
How could anyone be so cold? Wouldn’t he have been willing to pay such a meager amount of money to free anyone? Even a complete stranger? She’d never imagined him to be so heartless. But he’d cast her aside with little regard for her. She’d been his mistress, someone to slake his lust and nothing more. The fool was her for falling in love with him, not once, but twice.
A small moan escaped her lips, and she closed her eyes as the ache built within her once more. Never had she felt so hurt, so utterly lost.
Her hands closed around the bulge of her stomach, and the tears that she’d thought locked under the ice began to well to the surface.
How could he be capable of such a despicable deception? He had to know she’d remember eventually, and yet he’d spent weeks wooing her, making her love him all over again. Pretending affection for her. And passion. The question was, why?
Was it all an elaborate ruse to punish her? To make her suffer more than she already had? She’d never imagine Chrysander to be so cruel, but it just proved how little she’d known about the man she’d given herself to.