The ache in my chest is hollow and heavy all at once. Long distance ishard. Especially on afternoons like this one, when I can’t get hold of him and I’m left wondering if he’s in a million meetings or lying in bed, grappling for reasons to keep going.
Colette’s name appears in the top corner of my screen,
Colette
Hey, honey. Are you okay?
Ophelia
Have I put on a particularly pitiful outfit, or something?
Colette
You don’t know?
Alex.A sickening feeling hits me. A hundred images flit through my brain. OhGod. A call from Colette has my phone vibrating on the desk, but I hit decline and gather my things.
I can’t lose anyone else.
Ophelia
Text it.
I stumble my way out of the library and into the foyer. The walls are closing in on me, the decaying portraits laughing at my panic.
Colette sends a link to a news article.
Former Model and Wife to Missing Aviation Tycoon Elise Corbeau Believed to Be in Critical Condition After Collapsing Outside Her Manhattan Home.
No.
No, no, no.
“Ophelia, there you are.” Vincenzo jogs in from the rain, phone pressed to his ear. He pulls it away again, hitting redial. “Come on, man. Pick up,” he whispers, a gentle hand wrapping round my arm as he pulls me toward the dark spiral staircase. I have to run to keep up with him, a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
“He’s not answering,” Vincenzo tells me. “I’ve been trying him for the last twenty minutes.”
I don’t have to imagine what Alex is going through. I know it. I relive it every night, every time I’m bored, every time I see burgers, Scrabble tiles, helicopters, anything that reminds me of them.
I have to go to New York. I have to be with him.
“Bella.” Vincenzo’s voice cuts through the fog, phone on loudspeaker so he can text and talk as he guides us up the steps.
“Did you hear about Elise?” Belladonna’s voice is strained on the line.
“Yeah. I’m gonna fly back.”
“Your exams, Vincenzo.”
“I’ll retake them, do an extra semester if I need to. This is bigger than exams.”
“Have you heard from Alex?”
“No.” Panic lines the word.
“I’ll come back with you. Call you back in a minute.”
I call Alex while Vincenzo calls his father. I focus on the steady rhythm of his combat boots on the stone floor, trying to not think about what this means.
