Chapter 64

Chapter 64
CHAPTER 63
HADES

The rain in the city felt heavy, relentless, and cold, pounding against the floor-to-ceiling glass of my penthouse office. But the storm outside was nothing compared to the quiet, suffocating fury consuming the room.

I stood behind my mahogany desk, staring at the empty leather chair across from me. Three days. It had been seventy-two hours since I walked into our home and found only silence. No trace of her perfume in the air. No quiet footfalls on the hardwood floors. Just an immaculate room, an open closet missing a fraction of her clothes, and a single silver ring sitting cold on the bedside table.

My head of security, Marcus, stood at rigid attention near the double doors, holding a thick black folder. Beside him, two senior investigators kept their eyes firmly glued to the floor.

"Did you sweep the town where her grandfather's ancestral house is?" I demanded, my hands resting heavy on the dark wood of my desk as I pinned Marcus with a sharp, piercing stare. "That was the first place she would run to."

Marcus shifted slightly, swallowing hard before answering. "We sent a team there yesterday, sir. Our contacts confirmed she was actually seen in the area initially... but she vanished again just a few days after. By the time my men arrived at the property, the house was completely locked, the utilities were shut off, and there was no trace of where she headed next. She knew we'd look there first."

"Tell me again," I said, my voice dead, low, and laced with venom. "Because I know I didn't hear you correctly the first time."

Marcus's jaw tightened. "Sir... the financial accounts, the offshore trusts, the digital footprints—they're gone. Whoever executed this had elite-level clearance. Her birth certificate, tax records, vehicle registrations... erased. It's like Maddie Grant never existed."

CRACK.

My fist collided with the mahogany desktop, the sound echoing like a gunshot through the expansive office. Marcus didn't flinch, but the two investigators visibly recoiled.

"She existed!" I snarled, stepping around the desk, my eyes dark with a dangerous, unstable fire. "She is my wife! You don't just disappear into thin air from a city locked down by my security network!"

"We've checked every airport, every private terminal, every train station within a three-hundred-mile radius, Mr. Grant," Marcus offered cautiously, his voice strained. "There are no manifests under her name or any known aliases. If she left, she moved on foot or by private transport before we even realized she was gone."

I walked over to the glass wall, looking down at the sea of city lights below. The thought of her out there alone—without my protection, without my resources, running from me as if I were the villain in her story—made my blood run hot. She thought she was clever. She thought shedding her name like an old coat would set her free.

She was wrong. I loved her—more than life itself, more than this entire empire I built. Everything I did, every security detail, every watchman, was to protect her from the dangerous wolves waiting at our doors. How could she not see that? How could she walk away from a love that was meant to keep her safe?

"Expand the perimeter," I ordered, turning back to face them, my tone dropping into a deadly, calm quiet. "I don't care if you have to cross-reference every small town, every rural county, every backwoods village in this country. Put men on the ground in every district. Check daycare registers, local bakeries, small-town utility applications—anything that requires a human footprint."

"Mr. Grant, searching every small town could take months—"

"Then take months!" I cut him off, stepping dangerously close to Marcus until we were eye-to-eye. "Tear this country apart piece by piece. Search every train stop. Question every landlord. She thinks she buried Maddie Grant, Marcus... but I will dig up every inch of earth until I find where she's hiding."

As Marcus and the investigators scrambled out of the office, I pulled my encrypted phone from my pocket. My thumb hovered over a contact before pressing call.

Lizzie answered on the third ring.

"Hades?" her voice came through, sounding smooth, composed, and full of genuine concern. "Is everything alright? Did you find anything?"

"Not yet," I said, letting out a heavy, frustrated breath as I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I'm having Marcus widen the search. We're locking down outer districts starting tomorrow."

"Oh, Hades..." Lizzie sighed softly, sounding deeply sympathetic. "I know how hard this is for you. I've been checking my messages constantly too, hoping she'd reach out, but there's still nothing. She completely cut me off."

"I know," I muttered, trusting her completely. Lizzie had always been Maddie's closest confidante, and if anyone understood how unpredictable Maddie could be when she was overwhelmed, it was her. "My team is sweeping three specific rural areas tomorrow morning to see if she tried to go off the grid."

"Rural areas?" Lizzie asked curiously. "Like where?"

"Two coastal towns up north," I replied, pacing slowly. "And Oakridge. It's an isolated inland district."

"Oakridge?" Lizzie echoed, letting out a soft, thoughtful laugh. "Hades, be realistic. Isn't Oakridge just endless farmland and quiet backroads? You know Maddie—she’s a city girl through and through. She hates the countryside, bad cell service, and quiet places. She’d go crazy there in two days."

I paused, considering her words. Lizzie knew Maddie’s habits and tastes almost as well as I did.

"Where do you think she'd go then?" I asked, relying on her insight.

"How about Inverdoon?" Lizzie suggested smoothly. "It’s near the northern port, full of short-term rentals, and packed with seasonal tourists. Someone can pay cash, rent a place without showing ID, and fade right into the crowd. If she was truly trying to hide, a bustling coastal hub like Inverdoon makes way more sense than a tiny farm town where strangers stick out instantly."

I nodded slowly to myself, her reasoning making complete sense. A crowded port town was the perfect place for someone to blend in without drawing attention.

"Inverdoon..." I repeated, letting the thought settle. "You make a good point, Lizzie. Oakridge might really just be a dead end."

"I just don't want you wasting precious time and resources on places she'd never step foot in," Lizzie said warmly, before shifting her tone to sound mildly stressed. "Besides, with everything happening right now... you need your focus everywhere. Have you been following Wyatt's court updates?"

My jaw tightened at the mention of his name. "Wyatt?"

"Yes," Lizzie said, her voice dropping into a serious, businesslike tone. "The appeal hearings are ongoing right now. His defense team is formally appealing to lower down his twenty-year sentence. They’re claiming procedural errors during his trial and pushing hard for a reduced penalty."

A dark, dangerous coldness washed over me. "Wyatt belongs behind bars for the rest of his life for what he did. His lawyers can appeal all they want, but my legal team will ensure that twenty-year sentence doesn't drop by a single day."

"Good," Lizzie murmured, before adding casually, "And what about Olivia? Is she still bothering you or causing trouble?"

I let out a harsh, contemptuous sound from the back of my throat. "Olivia? No. She doesn't dare come near me anymore. Her family is terrified that if she pulls another desperate stunt, I'll destroy their entire business network and drag their whole name down into the mud with her. They've silenced her themselves just to protect their own skin."

"That's a relief," Lizzie sighed softly. "I know how relentless she was before. I just thought I'd check since... well, with Maddie gone, I was worried Olivia might try to take advantage of the situation."

"She knows better," I said coldly. "I'll handle Wyatt's legal team, and I'll find my wife. Focus on sending my teams to Inverdoon first thing tomorrow."

"Of course, Hades. Keep me updated, okay? I just want her back safe, too."

"I will," I said softly, ending the call.

I pulled the small, stolen photograph of her from my inner coat pocket—her soft smile, her bright eyes before the shadows of our world took them away. My thumb traced the edge of the paper.

"You can change your name, Maddie," I whispered into the empty room. "You can burn your past. But you belong to me. And I will bring you home."