Page 316 of The Heart You Kept

Nothing.

I check the tracker again, the dot flashes right here. I frown, this doesn’t make any sense.

She took it off….

Fuck.

My god, I should have told her it was a tracker and then she would have kept it on. But she never took it off anyway so…. Where is it?

I look in the bathroom and in her bedside drawers, I walk from room to room trying to locate it. My eyes scan every nook and cranny and still I can’t find the diamond bracelet. I walk back to the kitchen and get on my hands and knees and look around, did I miss anything down here?

Thump.

Thump.

Thump…goes my heart.

“Babe, where are you?” I whisper in a panic. “Are you okay?” I get up and take out my phone. I concentrate to try and read the screen, I dial the number.

“Thomas Stone.”

“Thomas.” I pause, what the fuck even is this conversation? “It’s Edward Prescott.”

“Oh, hey, Edward.”

“Please tell me Alora is with you.”

“No. Why?”

I close my eyes.

“We had a disagreement last night and she came home and now she’s missing.”

“Oh no, that’s my fault you had a fight.”

“What?”

“I texted her to see if she was okay after the story.”

“You fucking idiot,” I snap.

“She said she was fine. She texted me on her way home last night to say that you had fought but she was fine and she wanted to stay at home.”

“What else did she say?”

“That you and her were going to work it out today at lunch, she thought that maybe she was being naïve but her gut told her that the woman had set you up.”

“I thought that too.”

“Have you called her?”

“Her phone is here, her purse with all her cards is here.”

“Check her phone, see if anyone else called her.”

“Good thinking.” I grab her phone, put in the passcode, and scroll through her texts. “I last texted her yesterday morning and then only yours and hers,” I reply as I search. “Let me check the call register.” I scroll through and see her calls to me and my office yesterday that I didn’t answer and my gut twists in disgust, why didn’t I call her back? “It shows my missed calls to her last night but nothing else.”

“Oh my god,” he whispers. “You don’t think…that fucking weirdo ex of hers. I knew he was fucking off.”