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“Where is she?” I asked Jade, the receptionist.
“Sick,” Jade said. “She called early and said she wouldn’t be in.”
So her phone wasn’t broken, then. It worked well enough for her to call Jade, but not me.
Something was definitely wrong.
I walked back to my office, trying her cell again. No answer. It went straight to voicemail, as if her phone was off.
I had just sat at my desk, perplexed, when Jade rang my desk phone. “I have Emma Riley here, wanting to see you. Were you expecting her?”
I wasn’t expecting Samantha’s sister, but no way was I going to turn her away. “Send her in.”
Emma came in to my office. She was dressed to kill in a pencil skirt and sleeveless top that fit her perfectly. Her red hair was tied up on top of her head.
“Well,” she said without preamble, closing my office door behind her and sitting down, “you’ve done it, Aidan.”
“Done what?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. I’d met Emma once, when I set up the contract for her to find me an executive assistant. Now I could see that she resembled Samantha, though she had a more aggressive air about her. And even without knowing her, I could tell she was definitely pissed at me.
“Of course you don’t bother looking at the gossip sites, do you?” she said. “Even when they’re talking about you.”
She was being rude to a paying client, which meant something was really wrong. “Emma, tell me what you mean.”
“That little stunt at the benefit, showing up with a model. You thought she wouldn’t see that? I sent it to her myself.”
The penny dropped. I pinched the bridge of my nose. That was why Samantha was ignoring my calls. “I gave Angelica a ride because her car service didn’t show. We arrived at the benefit and went our separate ways. I don’t suppose the gossip sites mentioned that?”
“No. At least, not until today, when Angelica Barnes gave a statement that you two are only acquaintances and are definitely not dating.”
“Which I would have told Samantha myself if she’d answered any of my calls or texts. But fine. Once she sees the update, I’ll talk to her and explain.”
For the first time, Emma fidgeted. “You can’t exactly do that.”
“Why not?”
“She left.”
That made no sense. “Left where?”
“New York.”
For a second I was so stunned I could do nothing but stare at her. Then I got up and paced to one end of my office, then the other. “You’re telling me,” I said finally, “that Samantha—the calmest, most competent person I know—saw a single photo on a gossip site and, without talking to me, she packed a bag and left town?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.” Emma sighed. “Okay, I agree—it’s insane, stupid behavior. And it’s nothing like the way she usually acts. In fact, I’ve never known her to be insane or stupid in my life. That’s why this is extra worrying.”
I leaned on my desk and looked hard at her. “You know where she is, don’t you?”
“She told me, yes, so that I wouldn’t worry whether she was safe. But she told me not to tell you, and I promised.”
That should have pissed me off. Instead, my mind started ticking, thinking about where she would go. Because there was no way I was going to let Samantha walk out of my life because of one stupid photo. “Why did she do it?” I asked Emma. “She could have called me, even if it was just to yell at me and call me names. Samantha has the coolest head of any woman I’ve ever met. Why would she pull this stunt now?”
“I think it’s for a few days. She’ll come to her senses and come back. But she did it in the first place because her pieces are falling apart.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Emma looked thoughtful. “She told you about our adoption, right?”
