Peeking Magma

Chapter-9

Adrian:

Leaving New York is traumatic. What if I could have found Faith in those days if I stayed back? Although by now I'm positive that she left the city, I'm just praying that she didn't leave the country altogether. But What if she came in for a visit? Visit whom? I don't know. But what if? These What-if's are all that keep me company when I'm not at work.

Work is one place I don't think of What-if's and What-not's, because I can't afford to screw it up. I do enjoy working immensely yes, but that is not the only reason that makes me work at break-neck speed. I can't screw up White Myth. The company she merged with mine. I can't afford to fail her even more than I already have. She left it to me and I cannot just let all of her effort go down the drain. I WILL always make it profitable and the most promising one out here. Meaning I can't dent the both of our companies, because I don't want to tarnish her reputation, that is more than I already have.

Which frustratingly means I have to fly out to LA today. There's a potential investor there, whose partnership would be highly profitable for the branch of Hotels and Luxury Resorts we plan on opening there.

Ethan is waiting in the driveway for me. Reaching the car, he opens the door for me and later gets into his seat to start for the airport.

"Shall we get going Sir?" he asks

I catch his eyes in the mirror and give him a nod motioning for him to start.

Opening my laptop I begin answering the mails that require my attention. There's nothing new, just the regular humdrum which needs my answer. I scourge my mails for that one name which appears daily for the last 2 years, 7 months and 12 days. Yes I'm down to counting days now. Yoshida Luke, private investigator I hired to find her. He's the second one I hired after wasting my time over some blundering oaf for a year initially. Luke gives me a day to day updates of the results of the previous day's attempts of finding her.

I open it and view the contents of the mail. Like always NO hits. A complete zero. Screw this, I should fire Luke as well. Problem is Luke really is the best guy there is to find a person. He's the one who's shown me the footages of her walking alone at night and checking into the Hotel, and that's where the trail went cold. Nothing from the moment she entered the damn hotel. No footage of her leaving it. How did she manage that? Frustration and sadness drown me, making me shut the laptop and throw my head back into the seat.

Where are you?

I hear the car coming to a gradual stop and shake myself from my stupor. Letting on a look of composed indifference slip into its regular place, I get out of the car and head into the airport towards the departures. Checking in I start walking towards the terminal.

"Live Well"

I hear her words resonate in my head.

Like hell I will LIVE WELL. I won't live well. I don't want to live well without you.

How do you call it living well when you're not beside me?

Flying coach is better either way. I can't tolerate the stillness of my jet or the business class anymore, and there's this glimmer of hope that maybe I would find you if I travelled in coach. I know how much you hate travelling in business class or the private jet. You were always a person who loved talking to people.

My beautiful sunny girl.

Remembering the way she talked brings a smile to my face as I buckle myself in. As soon as I close my eyes I see her emerald green smiling eyes, the very eyes that haunt me at nights. I still remember the look in her eyes that day when she came out of the kitchen trying to tell me she just made dinner. They were a bright sparkling green, playfully shining with mischief and excitement before I said the very words which ruined me. The same eyes that looked murky and lifeless on the day she signed those papers.