Underestimated Too(76)

Drew didn’t respond. He kept right on narrating his story as if she’d never said a word. “Derik pretty much ran my company for the next few months. I would sign my name, give him my okay, and did a lot of blaming. She was in his hands. He let her run. Everything I thought of came up with a dead end. I was sure it was her in the library camera, wearing the wig and the tattooed arm. What I wasn’t sure of, was which one of the librarians or people helped her. The cab that the camera showed her getting into was unidentified. I had nothing.

I even went to Rebecca in California a few months later, begging her to tell me something, anything. She answered the door holding a very pregnant belly, promising that she didn’t know where Morgan was.

Her father was no help. He wanted more money to help me find her, like he could do that. The social worker that I’d worked with—to get Justin—all but told me to go to hell. A few of her cousins told me they heard she’d moved to Florida. I didn’t believe that either. Where the fuck was she? And Callaway, shit, I was coming up with everything possible to hold him off,” Drew explained, running his hands through his hair as though he was frustrated all over again. “Callaway yelled in the phone, ‘Where is my granddaughter?’ when I explained to him for the third time in five months that we would not be attending the Christmas festivities. Morgan didn’t want to fly home. She wanted me to come to her in France. She wanted to spend Christmas in France, I explained. At least I could use the excuse of going to her. I could avoid the festivities as well.

‘Nonsense. She should be with her family during the holidays. I want to talk to her,’ Callaway persisted.

‘Okay, I’ll call you when I get there. Morgan thinks I am her only family, remember?’

‘Yeah, well I still think she should be home for Christmas.’

‘I will tell her how upset you are that she’s not here.’

‘No, no, don’t do that. Just go there and give her the best Christmas she’s ever had.’

‘I will, sir,’ I lied to him for the thousandth time.

The English literature bullshit was fairly easy to get away with. Randal knew how much she liked history and the English behind it.

Morgan literally vanished in thin air. She was nowhere to be found. I knew she had to be hiding out someplace where she didn’t need any identification. She didn’t even have a credit card. How the hell was she eating?

That mystery was solved during the meeting with the accountant for the next quarter. I would have figured it out sooner had I not opted out of attending the last time. I sat alone after the realization of the donated money news and searched every record for the past two years. Shaking my head, I laughed. I laughed a full blown throw your head back laugh. I underestimated her too. Morgan wasn’t such a dumb hillbilly after all.”

Drew looked back at me with a proud smile. I beamed with pride.

“Seventeen thousand dollars to Lisa Fitzgerald’s soup and shelter. Searching for Lisa Fitzgerald and the shelter, I found out—to no surprise—that she and the organization never existed. Thousands of dollars was unaccounted for, all donated to various societies or nonexistent people. She did have money. She had a shit ton of my money, thousands.”

“My money,” I corrected, getting another smile.

Drew continued, “What the fuck was I supposed to do now? Callaway wasn’t doing so well, but he knew what the hell was going on. I couldn’t hide the fact that Morgan was missing forever. He wanted to see her. He wouldn’t stop until he did.

‘Yes!’ I yelled to the empty office. I’d go to her. I’d leave Vegas and go to my wife. I didn’t really need to live there to work. I could do that anywhere or just jump on a plane and head back when I needed to. It may not have been the perfect solution, but it would hold Callaway off a bit. It wasn’t like he could travel to France to find us or anything.

I settled in New York never giving up on finding Morgan. She had to be somewhere, I just couldn’t figure out where. Derik held down business in Vegas and I traveled…a lot, avoiding Callaway as much as I could.”

“And you just picked up, went on living without her?” Deidra asked.

Drew snorted, shaking his head. “Living without Morgan was a bit more challenging than I’d ever considered. Actually, I never considered it at all. Never did I think she would just be gone. I’m not sure what it was I was missing about her though, I mean it wasn’t like we were an authentic couple or anything. We’d never had that kind of relationship. Morgan was there to do what I needed Morgan to do and that was it. I didn’t understand why I was having such a hard time with it? It wasn’t like I’d ever loved her or anything. Love her—humph. I’d probably send her to the hospital for a few days if I found her; that’s what I tried to tell myself anyway,” Drew stated, trying to keep me comfortable while he described life without me. “It was over a year and a half since I’d seen my wife or heard from Skyler.”