Chapter 127 Are you there?
Aria’s POV
The lecture hall was half-empty.
Professor Eddie droned on about composition theory and the rule of thirds, but I wasn’t listening. My eyes kept drifting to the empty seat three rows ahead where Melissa usually sat.
She hadn’t been to class in two days.Two days.
That wasn’t like her. Melissa was obsessive about attendance. About her grades. About doing everything perfectly. And school just started.She’d never just skip class without saying something.
I pulled out my phone under the desk and texted her again.
Mel, where are you? I’m getting worried.
The message sat there. Undelivered.Just like the fifteen other messages I’d sent since yesterday.
My stomach twisted.
Something was wrong.
Professor Eddie finally dismissed us. I grabbed my bag and headed straight out, ignoring the other students trying to make small talk.
I needed to find Kane.He’d know what was going on. He always knew.
I tried calling him as I walked across campus. Straight to voicemail.
Again.
I’d been trying to reach him since this morning. Nothing.
That wasn’t like him either. Kane always answered my calls. Always.
Unless he was dealing with something he couldn’t talk about.
I tried Gavin’s number next. I had it saved from when he’d helped set up the transition plan for my family’s company.
The phone rang once. Twice. Three times.
Then voicemail.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
People around me glanced over. I didn’t care.Something was very, very wrong.
I changed direction. Headed for the parking garage where Kane had arranged for a car to be available for me whenever I needed it.
“So you can always come back to me on time,” he’d said when he’d handed me the keys last week.
I’d rolled my eyes. Kissed him. And taken the keys.
Now I was grateful for it.
I drove toward the penthouse. Traffic was terrible. Every red light felt like it lasted forever. My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles went white.
Where was Melissa?
Why wasn’t anyone answering?
My mind kept circling back to the news from two days ago. My family. My father, my mother, even my aunt and uncle were all arrested in connection with Christian Ashford’s trafficking ring.
The investigators had found money trails. Payments from Christian to my father. Evidence that my family had been partially involved.
It had been all over the news. Splashed across every media outlet.
My family was ruined.
The company was in shambles.
And I was supposed to take over.
Me. I am twenty-three years old. An art student who’d never wanted anything to do with the family business.
But Gavin had sent help. Business managers. Lawyers. People who actually knew what they were doing.
And Kane had promised he’d handle everything. That I wouldn’t have to do any of it alone.
“You focus on school,” he’d said, his hand cupping my face. “I’ll handle the rest.”
I’d believed him.
But now he wasn’t answering his phone.
And neither was anyone else.I finally reached the penthouse building. The doorman recognized me, let me in without question.
The elevator ride up felt like it took forever.
When the doors opened, the penthouse was dark.
“Hello?” I called out. “Melissa? Gavin?”
Nothing.
I walked through the living room. Everything looked… normal. Nothing out of place. No signs of struggle or anything wrong.
But it felt wrong.
“Melissa?” I called again, louder this time.
I checked her room. Empty. Gavin’s office. Empty.
The kitchen. Empty.Diana’s private suite. Also empty.
Where the fuck was everyone?
I pulled out my phone and tried Melissa’s number again.
“The number you have dialed is not available. Please try again later.”
The automated message made my chest tight.
I tried Diana’s number. Same message.
Kane’s phone just rang and rang before going to voicemail.
Gavin’s did the same.
“Come on,” I muttered, pacing through the penthouse. “Come on, somebody answer.”
Nothing.
I checked Melissa’s room again. Looking for… I didn’t even know what. Some clue about where she’d gone.
Her camera bag was still there. Her laptop. Her school bag.
She wouldn’t have gone anywhere without those. Not for two days.
My hands were shaking now.
I went back to the living room. Sat on the couch. I tried to think.
Melissa had been upset about something. She sent me a message but I don’t know why I didn’t pay much attention to it at that time. I just thought we will address it later like we always do.
“Everything okay?” I’d asked.
“Yeah, just… stuff with Gavin. I’ll tell you later.”
But later never came.
And now she was gone.
I tried Kane’s number one more time.
Voicemail.
“Kane, it’s me. Again. I need you to call me back. Please. I can’t find Melissa and I’m freaking out and nobody is answering their phones and I don’t know what to do. Just… Please call me.”
I hung up.
Stared at my phone.
Willing it to ring.
It didn’t.
I stood up. Paced. Sat down again.
My mind was racing through possibilities.
Maybe Melissa had gone somewhere with Gavin. Some emergency with his business.
But then why wouldn’t she have told me?
Why would her phone be completely off?
Why would Diana’s phone be off too?
Unless…
Unless something had happened to all of them.
My breathing started coming faster.
No. No, I was being paranoid.
There had to be a reasonable explanation.
Maybe they’d all gone somewhere together. Some family thing. And their phones had died or they were out of range or…
But that didn’t make sense either.
Gavin would have told Kane. Kane would have told me.
Unless Gavin was in trouble.
The thought made my blood run cold.
Gavin Cross. Billionaire. Hockey team owner. Melissa’s… whatever he was to her.
And also, from what I’d pieced together from things Kane had said, someone with a very complicated and dangerous past.
What if that past had caught up with him?
What if someone had gone after him?
What if Melissa had gotten caught in the crossfire?
“Stop it,” I said out loud to myself. “Stop spiraling.”
But I couldn’t stop.
Because the more I thought about it, the more wrong everything felt.
I tried calling Marcus. Gavin’s head of security. The man who seemed to know everything that happened in Gavin’s world.
The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang.
Then: “Miss Martinez.”
Relief flooded through me. “Marcus! Thank God. I’ve been trying to reach everyone and nobody’s answering and I can’t find Melissa and…”
“Miss Martinez.” His voice was calm but firm. “I can’t talk right now.”
“But…”
“I’ll have someone contact you when appropriate. For now, please go home and wait.”
“Wait for what? Marcus, what’s going on? Where’s Melissa?”
“I can’t discuss that right now.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
Silence.
“Marcus, please. She’s my best friend. I need to know she’s okay.”
“I understand. But I have my orders.”
“Orders from who? Gavin?”
More silence.
“Marcus…”
“Go home, Miss Martinez. Someone will contact you.”
The line went dead.
I stared at my phone in disbelief.
He’d hung up on me.
Marcus, who was always polite, always professional, had just shut me down completely.
Which meant something was definitely wrong.
Something big enough that even he couldn’t talk about it.
I tried Kane’s number one more time.
Voicemail.
“Fuck!” I threw my phone onto the couch.
It bounced once and fell onto the floor.
I collapsed onto the couch. Put my head in my hands.
Where was Melissa?
Where was everyone?
Why was nobody telling me anything?
I felt tears starting to burn behind my eyes. Frustration and fear mixing together until I couldn’t tell which was which.
I’d lost my family. They were in jail facing criminal charges that would probably put them away for years.
I’d lost Christian. Thank God for that, but still.
My entire life had been turned upside down in a matter of weeks.
And the one constant through all of it…the one person who’d always been there for me, who’d understood, who’d made me laugh even when everything was falling apart…
Melissa was gone.
And nobody would tell me where.
I slid off the couch onto my knees on the floor.
Pressed my forehead against the cool leather.
“Where are you, Mel?” I whispered. “Where are you?”
The penthouse was silent.
Empty.
“What can I do?” I asked the empty room. “Please. Just tell me what I can do.”
No answer came.
I stayed there on the floor. Trying to think. Trying to plan.
Trying not to fall apart.
Because Melissa needed me to stay strong.
Wherever she was.
Whatever had happened.
She needed me not to give up.
I pulled out my phone from where it had fallen.
Opened my messages.
Typed out one more text to Melissa.
I don’t know where you are. I don’t know what’s happening. But I’m not giving up. I’m going to find you. I promise.
The message sat there.
Undelivered.
But I sent it anyway.
Because maybe, somehow, she’d get it.
And she’d know she wasn’t alone.
That someone was looking for her.
That I wasn’t going to stop until I found her.
I stood up.
Wiped my eyes.
And started thinking.
If nobody would tell me what was going on, I’d figure it out myself.
I’d start with the last person I knew Melissa had been with.
Gavin.
And if I had to tear this entire city apart to find answers, that’s exactly what I’d do.
Because Melissa Hayes was my best friend.
My sister in everything but blood.
And nobody disappeared on my watch.