Chapter 15 Disappearing Acts.
Chloe’s POV
The boardroom was so quiet I could hear my own pulse hammering in my ears. Twelve pairs of eyes stared at the three objects I had just stood up from the mahogany, like weapons, with the black USB, the glossy Voss folder and Liam’s new partnership contract placed on the conference table.
My lips parted. I was ready to speak the words that would finally break the Astor cage wide open. My phone vibrated against the polished wood, loud like a gunshot from the hospital.
I snatched it up and stepped to the corner window, the city sprawling thirty-eight floors below. Liam was right behind me, close enough that his chest brushed my back.
“Miss Carter?” The nurse’s voice cracked. “It’s about your sister. Mia was with your mother last night. She stepped outside for fresh air around nine o’clock and… she never came back. She left her phone in the room. Security footage shows her walking out the main entrance alone. We’ve called the police.”
The floor tilted. My knees buckled. Liam’s arm locked around my waist before I hit the carpet. “Mia is missing,” I whispered, the words tasting like ash.
Liam spun around to the members seated at the table. “Meeting adjourned. I have an emergency meeting; everyone, you can go back to your offices.
You’ll receive an email with the new date.” His voice cut through the room like a blade. Margaret opened her mouth to object; one lethal look from her grandson and he reached out with Chleo and then she snapped it shut.
Alexander Voss rose from his guest chair, concern softening his sharp features. “Chloe, my security team is the best in the country. My jet is fueled. Say the word.”
I couldn’t answer because my throat was full of glass. Liam’s hand tightened on my elbow and steered me out of the room, past Voss, past Margaret and past everything.
We hit the private elevator running. The second the doors sealed, I shattered. Sobs tore out of me so hard my ribs screamed. Liam pulled me into his chest, one hand cradling my head and the other stroking my back in slow and equally drawing firm circles on my back.
“Shh, baby, I’ve got you. We’ll find her.” His lips brushed my temple, my cheek and the corner of my mouth. “I swear on my life, Chloe. We will surely find her.”
Marcus was already waiting in the underground garage, SUV idling. Liam practically lifted me into the back seat and climbed in after me. The second the door slammed, the car shot forward.
I was shaking so violently that my teeth chattered. Liam dragged me across the leather until I was half in his lap, my face buried in his neck. His hand slid under my blouse, palm flat against my spine, grounding me.
“I’ll take your partnership contract,” I choked out against his throat. “The fifteen percent, the veto power, and everything. Just so I can use the money to find my sister. Please, Liam.”
He immediately cupped my face, tilted it up and kissed my forehead slowly and deliberately. “Done,” he murmured. “It’s already yours.”
Relief crashed over me so hard my eyes burned. I didn’t see the quick flash of triumph in his blue eyes, didn’t see his thumb fly across his phone screen: She has agreed to sign the contract and killed the Voss window. – L.
We rushed to the hospital first to hear from them and then plan what to do next.
Liam’s phone had buzzed a couple of times with coordinates and a single line: She’s safe. We rushed to the car, heading to the coordinates point.
I only felt his arms tighten around me, possessive and warm and for one desperate moment, I let myself believe he was my savior.
Two hours later, we were racing up the private driveway of an exclusive wellness spa in the Hudson Valley.
The front doors opened before we reached them. Mia stood in the lobby in soft white pajamas, with her hair damp from a shower, while sipping cucumber water like she was on vacation.
Relief punched the air from my lungs. I ran to her, nearly knocking the glass from her hand, crushing her in a hug. “Oh my God, Mia.”
She hugged me back, confused but smiling. “Chloe? What are you doing here? You told me to come.” I pulled back. “I told you what?”
I held out her phone from my handbag. We collected the phone from the hospital where we're coming from and handed it over to her to show me the text.
A text from my number, time-stamped 9:12 p.m. last night, Go clear your head, sweetie. Liam arranged everything and a car will come to pick you up soon. I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you. – Chleo.
My blood turned to ice. I had been asleep at the penthouse at 9:12 p.m. last night.
Liam stepped up behind me, hand settling on my lower back. “Thank God she’s safe,” he said, voice thick with relief. He pulled Mia into a quick hug and then turned to the spa manager. “Thank you for taking such good care of her.”
On the drive back to the city, Mia fell asleep against my shoulder in the back seat. I stared out the window, the knot in my stomach tightening with every mile.
Liam’s phone was on speaker, with Marcus on the line. “Clean the trail,” Liam said quietly. “Not a single loose end.” I was too exhausted to process it.
We went and dropped Mia off at the hospital first before going home.
Back at the penthouse, the city glittered beyond the windows like nothing had happened. Liam poured two glasses of red, handed me one and guided me to the couch.
I sank down, still in my power suit, shoes kicked off somewhere between the door and here. He sat beside me, thigh pressed to mine and took my hand.
“Voss’s jet took off an hour ago,” he said gently. “His offer expired at sunset.”
I nodded numbly. It didn’t matter anymore. Mia was safe and my mom was too!
He reached for a folder on the coffee table and slid it toward me. I accepted the partnership agreement I accepted in the car this morning. Except the pages looked… different. Thicker.
I flipped it open. My breath stopped and every escape clause was gone. The shares vested only after a legal marriage ceremony. A new addendum locked medical funding behind my “continued good-faith participation in the engagement.”
And at the very back, the original fake-engagement contract, still bearing my trembling signature from months ago, stamped VALID AND BINDING.
I looked up at him slowly. “What is this?”
Liam’s mask was gone. The man looking back at me was cold, controlled and victorious.
“You chose me today, Chloe,” he said, voice silk over steel. “That choice is permanent and equally remember what is in the first contract that you signed about me always being in control and being able to punish you how I feel about that No. 14 rule.”
My wine glass slipped from my fingers and shattered on the marble. Red bled across the floor like blood.
“You used my sister.” My voice cracked. “I protected her.” He leaned in, fingers curling around my throat, thumb stroking my pulse. “I protected us. You needed to see that there is no better offer. Voss is gone. The board meeting is postponed indefinitely and you have no leverage left.”
His mouth brushed mine, soft and claiming. “You’re still my fiancée. You still belong to me and tomorrow we have that magazine engagement shoot. The world will see the perfect couple… because that’s exactly what we are now.”
I couldn’t move or even breathe. His hand slid from my throat down to the top button of my blouse, popping it open with deliberate slowness. “You played the game so well, baby,” he whispered against my lips. “But I always win.”
He kissed me then, deep and filthy and triumphant and my traitorous body arched into him even as my mind screamed.
Hours later, I stood in the living room alone, barefoot on the cold floor, the original contract clenched in my fist. Liam had disappeared into the bedroom twenty minutes ago, shirt unbuttoned, belt dangling, while expecting me to follow like I always did.
My phone lit up on the counter. "Unknown number." One new message.
I opened it with shaking fingers.
A photo of Mia asleep on crisp white sheets, mouth slightly open, time-stamped 9:47 p.m. today, one full hour before Liam and I had “found” her at the spa.
Below it, a single line in an elegant font I recognized from years of society pages: "She can be a good asset. One call from me and she disappears for good. Be a good fiancée, Chloe. See you some other time, my dear soon-to-be daughter-in-law. – M
Margaret. The glass doors to the bedroom reflected Liam watching me from the shadows, shirt hanging open, eyes dark and possessive.
“Coming to bed, baby?” he asked softly.
I looked from the phone to the man who owned every piece of me on paper and then to the message from the woman who apparently still held the knife. Ooh! ... Two monsters in one cage and I had no idea which one was about to strike first.