Her eyes bore holes into the ceiling as she stared, keeping her gaze glued there. She needed someone to talk to, she needed someone to tell what she planned on doing, but there was a part of her that said Marcus wasn’t that person.Elena agreed with that part, she spent years of her life without Marcus, and it was agonizing, and although she wanted Alex back, she doesn’t want Marcus to leave her again.Sighing, Elena made her way slowly and quietly out of bed, taking her phone with her. She got to the balcony, and called the only person she could think of calling.“Hello.” Halsey’s voice was gruff as she answered. “Elena? Is something wrong? Are you okay?”Elena sniffled, rubbing her eyes. “I’m okay, I just…. I really needed someone to talk to.” She responded, and Elena could hear shuffling sounds.“Okay? Is this about Alex?” Halsey asked, already figuring out that the only reason her best friend might be calling her was because of the dilemma that was Alex disappearing.“Yes.” Elena

“Oh my god.” Elena’s knees gave out as she slumped on the couch. “Oh my god, are you—you’re saying that Alex is among the casualties?” She asked.“No, but I’m saying that there’s a possibility he might be one of them. I asked one of my connections on that ground to ID the bodies, I’ll let you know if Alex’s body is one of them.” He finished.A violent chill tore through her body despite the warmth of the room as her fingers flew to her mouth, but it did nothing to stop the sharp, uneven breaths escaping her. They came too fast, too shallow, each one scraping her lungs raw.No. Alex’s body couldn’t possibly be there. Her mind rejected the idea with a force so intense that it felt as though the private investigator had told her that Alex had, indeed, died.Her stomach lurched so violently she doubled over, one hand clutching her abdomen while the other dug into the couch cushion hard enough to whiten her knuckles.Every beat of her heart struck like a fist against her ribs, faster, loud

What if she had been too late? What if she eventually got there, and Alex was actually dead?The thudding of her heart in her chest, made it incredibly hard for her to hear anything else other than the thoughts raging wild in her mind.Beads of sweat clustered on her forehead, and her breath came in ragged gasps, causing her to clench her chest even as it tightened, and her ribs felt too small to accommodate her beating heart.What would she do if he was actually dead? Why—of all the things he could have chosen to do, of all the ways he could have sought her attention—did he choose this very dangerous way?What if something happened to him? How would she be able to live with herself? She had asked him to die, but that wasn’t something she actually wanted to happen, she had only said that so he could leave her alone.“Oh God…. Oh my…. No.” She muttered, the phone still pressed against her ear as her breathing paced, her vision swarmed with tears that she fought to hold back, but failed

Elena’s eyes stung with every tear that she tried to blink back, but even with the effort, the tears came anyway as Alex’s absence and the empty room weighed on her chest.She stayed in his room, eyes fixed on the closed door, willing it to open, anything to make her stop feeling like this, anything to let her know that Alex hadn’t actually gone.In her mind, she saw him walking in, sheepish, ready to apologize for the overturned table, for the raised voice, for daring to leave. She would scold him, of course. She would even make him beg a little, but then she would let him stay.She kept her eyes glued to the door, but it never opened. The door remained shut, and the hallway beyond it remained silent. But then, her phone rang, the sound pulling her out of the thought she was lost in.She picked up the phone, and Halsey’s name lit the screen. Elena answered immediately, her voice raw as she spoke. “Halsey.”“You hung up on me,” Halsey pointed out, and Elena ran her fingers through her

Elena’s grip on the phone tightened until her knuckles ached, and her jaw clenched so hard that it hurt. Her heart pounded, fear and something even heavier settling deep within her.The private investigator’s voice crackled through the speaker, calm and measured in a way that only made her pulse race harder. “Ma’am, tracking someone through Doctors Without Borders isn’t straightforward.” He paused.Elena could feel the alarms going off in her head as she listened to him, she wished he wouldn’t have to talk to her about all of this, she wanted nothing more than for him to get to work on what she had asked.“I’ve tried, but deployments are classified for security reasons. It’ll take time to—”“I don’t care how long it takes, all I know and care about is that you’re going to find him for me.” Elena cut in, her voice low and sharp. “Find him. Listen, I don’t care what it costs. If you need money, name the amount you want and I’ll wire it today.”She felt a huge lump lodged at the back of

The silence in the empty room haunted her, causing unwanted memories to flood her. She recalled the last dinner they had together with Marcus there.That was the night she ordered him out of the house and told him he could only come back if he was ready to apologize to Marcus on his knees. She remembered he had said something… something about him leaving.He had said something about going somewhere he might die, she remembered he told her that there was a chance that he might never come home again, but she’d been too self-absorbed to care.She had ignored him because of Marcus. She’d called him mad, and told him to stop throwing tantrums and saying things that he doesn’t mean just because he was jealous of Marcus.But he’d gotten angry and overturned the table, and that was when she also lost it. That was when she sent him out of the house and told him that she never wanted to see him ever again.She had said so many cruel words to him before throwing him out like he was nothing but a