Chapter 66: Chapter 66

(Dmitri’s Thoughts)

I keep on driving going nowhere until Greta gives me the exact location of Avery. It took her almost an hour but fortunately, she was able to give the specific name of the hotel.

“Diamond Rough Hotel at Eastern Boulevard, unit unknown,” Greta informs us.

I immediately relay her location to Nik and Kendra, and luckily they are close to that hotel. A ray of hope is still at hand.

I look for a U-turn slot and drive the car at its top speed to the hotel.

While on my way, I call the CEO of that hotel who happens to be my friend.

“Call Leo,” I command Greta.

“Calling Leo…” she states.

The call finally connects after some trials, “Sullivan, the man of the hour, I am thrilled seeing your name on my phone screen. What do you need?”

“Leo, I’ll cut the chase, I need a unit number of one of your guests,” I told him without beating around the bush.

“Wow, you are cold, man. I am fine by the way. You’re looking for your girl right? I am watching her live stream, too, let me call you back,” Leo says.

“Thank you, I owe you,” I respond to him.

“This comes with a price, okay?” Leo laughs.

“Name it,” I firmly answer and hung up.

After a minute, I receive a message from Leo, “I want your yacht, for a month, Rm, 1707, (smiley).”

“Greta sends this message to Kendra and Nikolai,” and that’s what she says.

Then I drive faster and faster until I reach the hotel. I throw the key to the valet boy and run towards the elevator.

I wait for it patiently. Once I am inside, my sweat drips nonstop. I tap my feet out of boredom, even though I’ve been here less than a minute.

“I can’t wait to see her, please, let me make it in time,” I pray above.

The elevator finally dings.

I get out of it and run to 1707. Even though I don’t exactly know where it is, I go on every turn, left, right, and reach every end of the hallway, in order to find it.

Until I finally see two familiar images just outside a door unit. So I rush to them and call on to them, “Kendra, Nik!”

They look at me, but their appearance doesn’t look like they are the bearer of good news. It is written all over their faces, “No good news.”

My overspeeding walk turns into a dragging walk. I want to delay hearing the bad news as if I almost bring myself to a stop.

But then they see me, and K meets me halfway. A slap lands on my face, and surely it will leave a mark.

K is so angry at me, and I can’t blame her for that, “You! It is all your fault! My bestfriend, she, A, Ava-” she sobs and cries to Nik who is just right behind her.

So I gently push them aside to see what’s inside the already opened door.

I peek hoping I would see her there, but what appears before me is an empty room, “No woman, no Avery, no person I love.”

The hotel room is dead empty, I walk out and ask them again, “Where is she? Please, if you know, tell me? I, I have things I need to tell her,” I plead them, but no one knows where she is.

I take my phone out and dial it nonstop. Please, answer your phone. But despite my effort, her number is now out of reach.

I go to her apartment to make sure, also hoping she’ll be there. But when I arrive, it isn’t her, but his ex-boyfriend, Seid, locking the door.

I am about to call him, but when he sees me, he charged at me like a mad bull, and the next thing I know, I am on the floor.

Seid punched me on my left cheek. His punch connected to my jaw, I feel my head spins, and then I fall on the floor.

But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on top of me, cursing me, saying what he wants, “You fool! You asshole! You dumbass!” then he pounds me again, “I didn’t let her go just so you could hurt her. Now, she’s gone! Gone, Sullivan!”

His screams and incessant yell almost burst my ears, but yes, those are true.

When he calms down, I push him off me, And I get up and sit down on the floor, we are now eye to eye.

“I didn’t know she would do that!” I scowl at him.

“I trusted you. Did you know the last thing I told her, huh? That she will be safer with you, instead of me, That you have the capability to protect her than me and look where it brought her. I ate my pride and let her go, you asshole!”

His words stop me from breathing. Yeah, I am an asshole. You are right!

“D-did she say goodbye to you?” suddenly I blurt out a question in the midst of his amok.

“And what if she did, huh?” Seid snarls at me.

“At least she told you she’s leaving,” a pain in my heart feels like thousand of needles puncturing my heart.

“But she just disappeared in front of me, Cohen! And she took the blame for us! How do you think should I supposed to live with that, huh?” I grab his collar and push him away from me.

I continue sitting in the hallway outside Avery’s apartment, hoping she would show up any moment. That all of this is just a prank.

***

(Avery’s Thought)

“I seduce Dmitri Sullivan in order to give me some advantage in getting the exclusive pitch for all his hotels. And I plan to use him even more, with this I am sorry. Either way, we all have our demons, so please don’t take your rage out of him, or his company. I am the one to blame anyway.”

I click the end button of my live stream and bury myself on the table for a while. I can’t believe I did this. But this is all to save him and his company. I can always restart elsewhere. Besides, I plan to go to Europe anyway, I guess it is time.

I call one person whom I can truly trust aside from K.

“Hello, Seid, can you fetch me here please?” I ask my ex-boyfriend who is clearly still in love with me. I am cruel, aren’t I?

“What the hell, Ava? You know it isn’t true, he’s the one who used you! You reached your position because you worked hard. Goddamn Ava, did you leave me just because of that guy?” he scolds me on the phone.

“Seid, please?” I beg him.

Eventually, he fetches me and brings me to the airport.

“Are you really leaving? And without telling where you will go? Not even to Kendra? She’s going to kill us both you know that right?” he warns me.

“Thank you for doing this, I just need time,” I hug him and kiss him on the cheeks.

And I check-in immediately and board my flight. I never look back, not to Seid, not to the States.

I will start my life anew.

When the plane lands, we are not waiting for our luggage from the surveyor belt. A familiar man walks towards me.

I know those strides, I know his stance, his black hair, and his masculine face. I don't know why and how, but he found me, halfway across the world.

He extends his hand, "Hi, I am Jeff Tales, it is nice to finally introduce myself to you."

I reach for his hand and greet him back, "Hi, I am Avery Anderson, I am more than pleased to see a familiar face like yours."

He never lets go of my hand from then on.