6. Chapter Six #2
One department head caught him outside his office with a folder in hand. “Mr. Cohan, we still need your decision on the revised plan.”
“Send it to the production executive,” he said.
“They said you’d want final approval.”
Normally, he would’ve taken the folder. He would’ve read every page, called three people, and found another reason that leaving had to wait.
“Not tonight,” Alexander said. “They have authority to decide.”
The man hesitated. “And if Ms. Stone objects?”
“Handle it without me.”
The answer felt wrong because Alexander had trained everyone to believe it was wrong. He walked away anyway. Then he left. He called Nicole again from the car. No answer.
He told himself she was busy settling Prim and Rose. She was angry and needed time to calm down. When he got home, he would take her somewhere private, play with the girls, and explain the kiss from beginning to end.
Nicole knew him. She knew he would never cheat. The problem looked terrible, but it was still a misunderstanding. He could fix a misunderstanding.
The gates opened for his car at the Bel Air property. Alexander looked toward the house and felt his first real touch of fear. No lights showed through the walls of glass.
He entered through the front door and stopped. He heard no voices, no small feet running to him, no cartoon playing anywhere in the house. The staff should still have been present, but he couldn’t see anyone.
“Nicole?”
No answer.
He moved farther inside. “Prim? Rose?”
Nothing.
He checked the kitchen and living room. Empty.
“Nicole!”
He heard the echo of his own voice in the open hall. He pulled out his phone and checked for a message. Nothing. He called her again while climbing the stairs. Voicemail.
“I’m home. Where are you? Please, Nicole.” He ended the call and shouted for the girls again.
Alexander took the stairs two at a time and headed into the family wing.
The twins’ bedroom looked almost normal at first. Their separate beds were made.
The chair still stood against the wall instead of between them.
Then he noticed the gaps. The stuffed animals they slept with were gone.
So were the blankets they carried when they were tired.
Their everyday shoes were missing from the low shelf, and the hooks that usually held their jackets were empty.
Several favorite books had been taken. In the playroom, toys remained everywhere, but the things Prim and Rose reached for most were gone.
They weren’t downstairs, and they weren’t out in the garden. Nicole had packed them.
Alexander opened the girls’ closet. Enough clothes remained to fill it, but the everyday things were gone. Soft shirts, leggings, pajamas. The practical clothes Nicole reached for without having to think. She hadn’t packed for a sleepover. She’d packed to keep their lives running somewhere else.
He turned toward the beds and looked at the chair against the wall again. Prim had reminded him that Mommy promised he would sing next time. Rose had asked for the bear voice. Next time was supposed to have happened already. The chair had never moved.
“No,” he whispered.
Alexander ran to his and Nicole’s bedroom.
The bed was made. One section of Nicole’s closet had been cleared, leaving bare hangers and open space between her clothes.
The large suitcase she used for longer trips was gone.
In the bathroom, the products she used every day had disappeared from her side of the counter.
Her toothbrush wasn’t in its holder. He opened drawers.
Clothes were missing, underwear, sleepwear.
The old shirt of his she liked to wear around the house.
“No. No, no, no.”
This wasn’t Nicole going out until she felt calmer. She’d taken what she and the girls needed to live somewhere else.
Alexander pulled out his phone and called her again. Voicemail.
“Nicole, where are you? Please answer me. I need to know you and the girls are safe.”
He ended the call and sent a message.
“Where are you?”
Another.
“Please answer. Tell me Prim and Rose are safe.”
He called again. Nothing. His control broke.
“Please don’t leave me.”
“I can explain everything.”
“Angela kissed me. I pulled away. I swear there has never been anything between us.”
“Please come home.”
He paced between the bed and the open closet, calling after every message as if the next attempt might force her to answer. He left another voicemail.
“I love you. I love Prim and Rose. Please don’t make any decisions before we talk. I know how this looked, but nothing happened. I would never do that to you.”
Nothing happened. The phrase sounded right to him.
Angela had kissed him, and he’d rejected her.
There had been no affair, no secret desire, no betrayal he had chosen.
So why had Nicole looked at him as if something had ended?
He pushed the question away. She was shocked, humiliated, and angry.
Once she knew the facts, the rest would make sense.
“Nicole, please. Don’t do this. We need to talk.”
“Tell me where you are and I’ll come to you.”
The messages showed as delivered. She didn’t reply.
Alexander sat on the edge of the bed. Then his legs stopped holding him, and he slid to the floor with his back against the mattress. He stared at the phone. He kept staring. He called once more, heard her recorded voice, and ended the call before the tone.
The bed he was resting against was theirs. Nicole had climbed over him and kissed him awake. She’d wanted him, laughed with him, and trusted him when he promised to come home. Now her side of the closet was partly empty.
His phone vibrated in his hand. A message from Nicole filled the screen.
“I’m at my parents’ house. I can’t talk to you tonight. I’m exhausted, and I need to be with the girls. Come over tomorrow, and we’ll talk.”
Alexander read it twice. At her parents’ house. Prim and Rose were safe. Nicole was safe. She hadn’t vanished, and she hadn’t refused to see him. She’d told him to come tomorrow. Relief weakened the panic enough for him to breathe.
Tomorrow, he’d explain that Angela had surprised him. He’d tell Nicole where his phone had been, why Vicky hadn’t answered, and how quickly he’d pulled away. He’d make her understand that he’d never wanted Angela and never betrayed their marriage.
Nicole knew him. Once she heard the complete truth, she would understand. Then she and the girls would come home.