Chapter 86 Where is Heaven II
Maverick stumbled out of the house and got into his car. He drove straight to the Kalabora mansion.
Maybe she ran home because she was hiding. She just needed space from him, from everything he had done. He would talk to her. He would tell her everything. He would beg if he had to.
His head throbbed violently, a crushing pressure squeezing his skull as he sped through the roads.
When he arrived, Damien Kalabora saw him first.
They were seated in the garden. Meredith sat with her back to the gate, pruning flowers like nothing in the world was wrong.
Damien stiffened. “Meredith,” he whispered urgently. “It’s Maverick.”
She turned slowly. They were not a bit surprised.
Maverick was already walking toward them, face cold, eyes burning.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
He didn’t bother with greeting or courtesy.
Meredith blinked, acting oblivious. “Who?”
His jaw tightened.
“Heaven,” he said, each word clipped. “Where. Is. She?.”
“She should be at the Richard Estate,” Meredith replied smoothly, forcing her face into calmness. “We haven’t seen her since the last time she visited us.”
Something snapped in his chest.
Maverick stepped closer to Damien, invading his space, his voice dropping dangerously low.
“So you’re telling me Heaven didn’t come back here?”
Damien swallowed hard, hands trembling, his mouth opened and closed like he was unsure of the answer to give. Before he could answer, Meredith spoke quickly, sharply cutting him off.
“Is our daughter missing?” she asked, lifting her chin. “Because we haven’t seen her. We should be the ones asking you or the Richard’s where Heaven is.”
Her courage was thin, forced but she held it, trying not to break character. Maverick stared at them. Long. Hard.
His eyes searched their faces like a predator looking for weakness.
Then without another word he brushed past them and stormed into the house.
“Hey…!” Damien started.
Maverick ignored him.
He searched the living room. The hallways. The guest rooms. Upstairs. Downstairs.
Nothing.
No Heaven.
No trace.
The silence screamed.
He walked back out slowly, his steps heavier now, his chest tight like it was being crushed from the inside.
He didn’t look at them again.
He got into his car and drove off.
Damien exhaled shakily. “Thank God…”
Meredith immediately pulled out her phone.
“He just left,” she whispered into it. “We did exactly as you said. Please delete the photos.”
At the other end of the call was Killian behind the hacking computer in a dark room smirking slightly as he watched the sex videos on his screen. At least this one wasn’t AI, it was real. He chuckled.
Damien frowned. “Meredith… what if she’s truly missing?”
Meredith shot him a sharp look. “She’s an adult. She’ll take care of herself.”
“Why would she leave in the first place..”
“She got tired of being a widow,” Meredith snapped. “That’s all.”
She didn’t tell him the full truth. She didn't tell him Heaven said she was pregnant. Because if she did Damien would have let her in.
All they both knew was about the cold threat that could destroy their favorite daughter. Someone had called them saying they shouldn’t take her back.
If they did , the videos of Summer would go public.
Summer was about to debut, her future shouldn’t be destroyed before she even starts.
Meredith had made her choice.
Maverick’s hands shook as he drove. Did she run away with that boy? The thought tore at him.
“No,” he muttered. “She wouldn’t.”
But where else could she be?
His chest tightened painfully.
He turned the wheel sharply and headed toward the Avalon estate, the house he had bought for her.
Maybe she went there.
His hope flared weakly.
When he arrived he checked every room.
Nothing.
The house was empty. Cold. Her shredded cloth from the last time still laid where he left it.
Maverick stood beside it, breathing hard, panic finally breaking through the cracks of his control.
She was gone.
And for the first time, Maverick truly understood, he might have lost her
Her phone dinged.Maverick snatched it up without thinking. It was a flight reservation, with her name Heaven Kalabora. The destination was unknown.
His breath caught.Then he saw the sender’s number.His vision blurred for a second.Time fractured after that.
Maverick was back at the Richard Estate before his mind fully caught up with his body.
He stormed down the halls like a raging beast and slammed open the doors to his father’s study.
General Richard had just returned. Eleanor was beside him, mid-sentence, catching him up on household matters.
“Maverick…” Eleanor started.
“WHERE IS HEAVEN?!” Maverick roared.
The room went dead silent.
“I already told you,” Eleanor said stiffly, composure locked in place, “she left.”
General Richard’s eyes narrowed. He turned slowly to his wife.
“Left how?”
Eleanor lifted a shoulder, careless. “She said she wanted to go. I allowed it.”
Maverick stepped forward, fury rolling off him in suffocating waves. His eyes burned as they locked onto his father.
“You think sending her away will stop me?” he snarled.
“I will burn this entire house to the ground if I don’t see her. Tell me where you kept her.”
He looked feral like a man who had lost something he considered his, who had lost his favorite toy.
“Maverick,” Eleanor said slowly, her voice calm, practiced, still feigning innocence and ignorance.
“Is there something happening that I don’t know? Why are you tearing this house apart over your brother’s widow?”
Maverick’s jaw clenched so hard it hurt.
“Eleanor,” General Richard said sharply. “Leave us.”
She hesitated, fingers curling at her sides then obeyed.
The door closed behind her with a soft click that sounded far too loud.
Maverick’s voice dropped, rough, stripped bare, almost pleading.
“Father… please. Tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know,” General Richard replied evenly.“And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Something snapped.
Maverick slammed his fist into the wall. The sound echoed violently.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?!” he shouted.“There’s a flight ticket you sent to her!”
His chest heaved as he struggled to breathe.
“I did,” General Richard admitted without flinching.“I sent her a ticket scheduled for tomorrow.”
He paused, watching his son unravel.
“But,” he continued calmly, “I’m hearing now that she left earlier.
Maybe she couldn’t wait any longer.”
Maverick’s hands shook.
General Richard thought about the conversation he had with her that day. The way Heaven had sat there, bruised, hollow-eyed, saying nothing. The pain the little girl bottled inside.
General Richard watched his son too closely.
He wasn’t shocked by the rage.
He wasn’t surprised by the desperation. He had seen it before.At the resort.
The shattered glass.
His son holding Heaven in his arms like she was something fragile… something precious.
It hadn’t taken much to fully understand.
“You’re in love with her,” General Richard said quietly.
It wasn’t a question.
Maverick didn’t deny it.
Regret burned his chest hot and mercilessly. He hadn’t believed her.He hadn’t protected her.He had broken her.
General Richard exhaled slowly, rubbing his temple.
“I warned her,” he said at last.
“The day we returned from the resort. I told her the implications of what you both were doing.I offered her a way out.”
His voice hardened.
“She chose to leave. Her eyes were full of pain. Her body was bruised.”
He looked straight at his son.
“Maverick, your love was toxic to her. You were destroying that girl.”
“Stick to your wife and responsibility. You are the only son left, you carry this family now.”
“We owe the Edwards. You don’t get to destroy everything.”
“I don’t care,” Maverick snapped.
“I will find her.”
“And if she doesn’t want to be found?” General Richard asked.
“She clearly chose to leave, Maverick.”
“What did you do to make her want to run sooner than planned? Think.”
Maverick closed his eyes.
The flashback hit him…
Her begging him to stop.Her tears.And him… still going ahead.His breath broke.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life searching for her,” he said hoarsely.
“And I will fix everything I broke.”