###Chapter 8
The silence stretched. I’d sent him nothing. No reply. No message. His phone screen stayed pitch black like the dead of night.
Colin clutched his phone tightly. A creeping sense of unease began to spread like tangled vines, wrapping around his chest until it became hard to breathe.
The dinner party had ended hours ago. He’d just dropped Piper off at the Ward estate and turned to leave-but soft arms coiled around his neck from behind.
“Colin,” she whispered, her voice cracking just enough to sound fragile. Her painted face tilted up toward him, eyes glistening under heavy mascara. “Please… don’t leave me tonight.”
She buried her face into his chest, trembling-at least, pretending to.
“I know the marriage certificate was just for show,” she murmured. “But after tomorrow, everyon will think your new bride is Anne. I’ll be nothing but your sister-in-law. I won’t even be able to stand beside you in public. I… I hate this.”
She clutched her stomach like she was shielding something precious. “Please, stay. Just tonight. For me and the baby.”
Her tears sparkled. Her hands slid up his chest. And for a split second, he almost said yes.
But then…
A different face crashed into his memory without warning. My face. Not Piper’s.
Mine.
I must’ve looked so fragile to him earlier.
A porcelain doll with a spiderweb crack. Ready to shatter.
But in that second-He saw me.
Cooler. Stronger. Angrier.
My face, defiant even through the pain.
He heard it. The sound of my skull striking marble. Over and over. Like a bell he couldn’t unring. He saw the blood on my face-so red against how pale I’d gone. Saw the old wound, barely healed, tearing open again. He just wanted me to step back not to really hurt myself. But I did it. Breaking my own body. It got him wandered. He knew I would never let myself be harm unless I left with no choice.
Guilt crept into his bones. Regret slipped beneath his skin. And it scared him.
So he pulled her arms off his neck.
“I have to go,” he told her. “Annelise bled a lot tonight. She’s afraid of the dark, she hates pain. She won’t sleep well if I’m not there.”
Then he turned and left her standing in the cold. Didn’t even look back. He had no idea that by the time he gave that order-I was already gone. He sat in the back of his car, barking at the driver, panic setting in fast.
“Faster. I don’t care if you run red lights. Just GO.”
He called my number. His calls went straight to voicemail.
“The number you have dialed is not available.”
Again.
And again.
It drove him crazy. I know. Because my phone had never once been turned off-never in the last six years and definitely not for him. That was my promise.
He’d always be able to reach me.
Until now.
By the time he reached the house, he was practically tearing through the front door.
“Anne? Anneliese Ward!”
Silence.
“Don’t mess around, okay? I brought your dress. The wedding gown-it’s beautiful.”
He searched the entire house like a man possessed. Door after door. Room after room. From the bedroom to the closet, even the empty basement.
No me.
He sprinted into the backyard, calling my name into the blackness.
Only the wind answered.
Everything was still in its place-the throw pillows I hated, the vase he never moved, even my slippers by the staircase. But the air was empty. Hollow. Like I had never existed here at all.
That’s when it hit him.
I was gone.
Not gone like I’d left in a rage.
Gone like I wouldn’t come back.
The wedding dress slipped from his hand and crumpled to the floor.
9
