Chapter 5
Silence reigned.
A suffocating, ten–second hush, broken only by Siena’s hysterical shrieks. “My dress! My engagement party! That lunatic Amelia! What did she do?! Jay! Jay!”
Her wailing pierced the air.
The room erupted.
“Oh, my God! Amelia… she… she vanished?”
“Did I just imagine that?”
“Some kind of magic trick? A Purchase completed Taybe Mr. Hurlow arranged a surprise?”
“No way… Did you see Mr. Hurlow’s face? He looked like he’d seen a ghost…”
Camera flashes exploded in every direction, reporters surging past security, desperate to get closer.
Panic and confusion swept through the ballroom, voices rising in frantic speculation.
Jared was still frozen in place.
His hand remained suspended in the air, fingers curled as if still trying to grasp something that was no longer there.
All the color had drained from his handsome face. His lips trembled, and the eyes that always seemed to control everything now looked hollow,
Chapter 5
filled only with shock and terror.
“Amelia?”
He murmured her name again, softer this time. So faint, it was barely audible—a plea, helpless.
No answer.
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Only Siena flung herself onto him, clutching his arm as she sobbed, “Jay! Amelia ruined everything! She must’ve used some kind of black magic! Call the police! Hurry, call the cops and arrest her!”
“Black magic?”
Jared flinched violently.
He slowly lowered his head, staring at the hand that had just been locked so tightly around my wrist.
His palm was empty.
It was as if that desperate, furious grip had been nothing but a hallucination.
But the spilled champagne on the floor, the stains on Siena’s gown, the chaos and wreckage everywhere-
They all reminded him. It wasn’t a dream.
“Call the police…”
Jared’s voice was hoarse. He lifted his gaze, letting it drift over the panicked crowd, over Siena’s tear–streaked face, finally settling on the empty space where I had disappeared.
His eyes were vacant. “Call the police for what?
Chapter 5
“Arrest who?
“She…” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “She’s gone.”
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“Gone?!” Siena shrieked, nearly unhinged. “How can a living, breathing person just vanish into thin air?! She must’ve pulled some kind of trick!
Jay, you can’t let her get away with this! She ruined my engagement party! She ruined my dress! She-”
“Enough!” Jared suddenly snapped, his voice low but carrying a chilling edge.
Siena recoiled, her sobs cut off, staring at him in terror.
He didn’t look at her again, didn’t even acknowledge the uproar all around them.
It was as if all the strength had drained from his body. He staggered back a step, bumping into a vase behind him.
The crash of breaking clay sounded especially jarring.
He didn’t even seem to notice.
His eyes were locked on the spot where I had vanished, lips moving in a whisper, “She said she was going home… home… Did she really… go home?”
The word “home” sounded unbearably heavy on his tongue.
Ten years ago, on a stormy night, a boy with dead eyes huddled in a ruined corner.
It was Amelia who appeared then, like a sudden ray of warmth. “Come with me. I’ll help you.”
“Where had she come from?
Chapter 5
“Who is she, really?”
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He’d never questioned it—just clung greedily to the hope and comfort she offered.
She stayed, became his wife.
He’d always assumed her world revolved around him.
But just now, right before his eyes, she’d vanished in a way that defied all logic.
Leaving behind only that cold “congratulations” and her devastating “wedding gift.”
That “home” she spoke of–where was it, really?
A wave of fear and chill, unlike anything he’d ever known, crashed over him, swallowing him whole.
