There’s no answer. She’s not here.
Where would she be then?
I glance around and my eyes fall on her phone. If she left her phone that means she’s close by.
I step back out into the night and look up. The hotel resort stands bright at night.
She’s in the garden. Our spot.
Certainty crests in my chest.
I hurry back to the car. Is she there because she misses me? Wants to connect to what we shared?
A lump forms in my throat. That means she feels something. She may be angry, but she doesn’t hate me. At the very least.
I can work with that.
I tear into the hotel parking lot and hop out of the car. Guests mill around leisurely. I hurry past them earning some scathing looks, but they roll off my back.
I’m here for her, no one else matters.
My heart thuds in my chest as I hurry to the inner garden. With every step, I know I’m right. She’s here.
It just seems natural to come back here after everything we’ve been through in the past weeks.
I race to a stop at the entrance. My chest heaves, my eyes taking everything in. It takes a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dim light, but once they do, my shoulders fall.
No one’s here.
The fountain bubbles, the crickets chirp, and the breeze sings through the trees. Everything is as it was that first night aside from Maddie.
I guess I don’t know her as well as I thought.
I drop into a bench and bury my face in my hands. Look at me, acting like a lovesick fool. There’s noour spot. It’s a stupid garden and I’m—
I squint. Right next to the fountain, the grass is disturbed. I’m off the bench in a second and crouched close to the spot.
The lawn looks distressed as if feet dragged on it.
I blink against the thoughts forming in my head, but they persist.
“Maddie,” I breathe her name.
She was here and something must have happened.
I stand and look around. There are no clues apart from a torn-up lawn. I’m being foolish playing detective, looking around for clues.
But she’s never been truly safe here. The security team watched her, but what if for some reason they missed her and someone got to her first?
Anger surges in my chest. I hurry out of the enclosure and look left and right on the main path.
Which way would they have gone? Then my gaze snags on a blue piece of cloth hanging onto a thorny shrub. It’s in the opposite direction from where I came.
I hurry to it and squat, picking up the cloth. It’s jagged as if ripped off from a larger piece. I rub it between my fingers. Soft and flimsy like the ones Maddie favors.
They have her.
I resist the urge to break down. She needs me.
