madelein | ✔

one

He stood by the ceiling-to-floor window inside his office. The rays of sun flowing into the room and illuminating every corner of it. It revealed the furniture, decorations and wood-works in the space. It's been years already, he thought while fixing his coat, sighing. He knows she's somewhere out there, living her life to the fullest.

His dark brown eyes wander around the scenery shown before him. The cityscape, mostly skyscrapers and hotels, tower with the sunlight peeking in between the gaps from each building. He sighed. It was a beautiful scenery but his heart can't appreciate it fully.

He turned and walked behind the wooden table placed at one corner of the room. He flopped onto the black leather swivel chair, massaging one of his temples, the other hand playing with the wooden name plate with the name Duke Lawrence Zagaya written on it.

It was only a few hours into the morning already but he felt so tired already.

A knock on his office door echoed in the room. He was startled almost slipped down the chair. He was about to fall asleep massaging his forehead. Before he could even say "come in", the person just entered his office.

Duke was almost annoyed at the person who just abruptly set foot into his office until he realized it was his father. The visitor sat on the sofa in the middle of the room and smiled at his son. Duke stood up and sat in front of his father in a similar seat, acknowledging the smile, grinning back.

"You didn't join us for breakfast," Mr. Zagaya remarked, "Your mother freaked out. She thought you ran away!" Both men chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I was expecting a call earlier and didn't want to miss it," Duke answered looking at the telephone sitting atop his working table.

The said device haven't rung since he entered his office at half-past six in the morning. Up until now, Duke's heart was racing, his hands were sweating, expecting a call from a friend whom he asked a favor of. A certain favor. It has been three days and he haven't heard from this friend.

His father noticed that there is something bothering his son. He observed Duke's movements: staring somewhere else, wiping his hands against each other and tapping his feet in a fast rhythm. "You're anxious about something," he said, leaning his back on the sofa.

The younger was caught off-guard. He let out a chuckle. "Was that too obvious, dad?"

The two men continued their conversation. Time went by and Duke didn't notice it. He only focused on the conversation between his father and him. It drew his attention from the telephone and the possible call. Throughout the time spent, it was only the two of them without the phone ringing.

After his father left with some life advice, that Duke just chuckled at, he went back to work.

An hour in and the questions "Is she safe? Is she okay? Will I ever find her again?" distracted him. Duke sighed and shook his head. He was typing some documents and the "girl" suddenly grazed his thoughts again. This is literally driving him crazy. He thought that the amount of pressure and work his father gave him would make him lose his mind.

He was wrong.

Unconsciously, he opened the browser tab and typed the web address for Facebook. The page loaded fast and he entered his e-mail and password and hit enter. He opened multiple tabs and entered other addresses for several social networking sites that he has accounts on.

To each and every website that he went to, the cursor always leads to the certain search bar, keyboard clicking as he types "Madelein" hitting enter.

Meanwhile, at the lower floor of the company's building, Sian was making her coffee at the office cafeteria. Leaning her back against the dark marble counter, she waits for the water to boil in the electric boiler while scrolling through her phone.