7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Hayden
Hayden checked his phone between every meeting. There was nothing from Caroline.
He told himself that was fine. A night apart had been the sensible choice. They’d both been angry, and staying in the house would’ve made the argument worse. He’d left before either of them could say anything else they couldn’t take back.
The excuse almost worked if he didn’t think about the last thing he’d said.
If you weren’t pregnant, I’d divorce you.
He knew he’d gone too far. He’d known it as soon as the words left his mouth, though anger had kept him from admitting it. Even later, standing beside their bed, he’d looked at Caroline under the covers and wanted to tell her he hadn’t meant it. Instead, he’d told her he couldn’t stay.
Now he sat behind his desk in Manhattan and waited for her to make the first move.
She knew he loved her. She had to know. He’d been furious and jealous, crowded by too many ugly questions, and he’d lashed out. None of that changed the six months they’d shared. It didn’t erase Vegas or the promises they’d made.
It didn’t erase the night before the argument, either. She’d fallen asleep against him after he’d held her, kissed her, and felt their daughter kick under his hand. Surely, she understood that was the truth, not a vicious sentence thrown across a kitchen.
His phone screen stayed dark on his desk.
During a discussion about construction costs, Hayden lost track of a question and had to ask one of his executives to repeat it.
At lunch, he opened his messages and read the last exchange with Caroline – a question from her about dinner, and his brief answer that he’d be home soon.
He hadn’t been home in any way that mattered.
The thought came too close to an admission, so he pushed it aside.
He would drive back to Southampton, he would find her in the library or curled on their bed, angry, stubborn, and waiting for him to say the right thing.
He’d apologize. He’d explain what Dasha had told him and how the whole day had worn him down.
Once Caroline understood that he’d been afraid of being made a fool of, she’d understand why he’d lost control.
Not forgive him immediately, perhaps. But listen.
He left the office with that picture fixed in his mind.
***
The Southampton house was quiet when he entered. A lamp had been left on in the front hall, and the rooms beyond it were dim.
“Caroline?”
No answer.
He set down his keys and loosened his tie. The staff had gone for the day. Caroline often hid in the library after they left, enjoying the peace she said she couldn’t get while people moved through the house.
He crossed the hall and pushed open the library door.
Her chair was empty. The desk by the middle window looked wrong.
Hayden stood in the doorway for several seconds before he understood why.
Her laptop was gone. So were its charger and the folder she kept within easy reach.
The book she’d been reading was back on the shelf instead of lying open next to her mug.
“Caroline?” he called again, louder.
He checked the kitchen, then the sitting room she sometimes used when her back hurt. He climbed the stairs quickly enough that his breath shortened by the time he reached their bedroom. The bed had been made.
He opened the bathroom door. Her toothbrush was gone, and the bottles she kept crowded along one side of a drawer had disappeared.
He crossed to the closet and found empty spaces between her dresses.
Most of the formal clothes remained, including the yellow dress he’d bought her in Vegas, but the soft things she wore every day were missing.
So were the flat shoes she used when the weight of the baby made her feet ache.
This wasn’t a walk. This wasn’t a trip into town to calm down.
“No,” he said.
He turned, and the top of the dresser came into his view.
His credit card lay beside her wedding band and engagement ring.
For one blank moment, he only stared. Then he picked up the wedding band.
The narrow circle rested in his palm, so light that it shouldn’t have been able to hollow out his chest.
She’d left everything he’d given her and taken only what was hers. While he’d waited for her to call, Caroline had packed her life into a suitcase.
Hayden grabbed his phone and called her.
It went to voicemail. He called again as he walked back through the bedroom, opening drawers as if he might find proof that he’d misunderstood.
More empty spaces, missing underwear, missing sleep clothes.
The small bag of prenatal vitamins was no longer on the bedside table.
Voicemail again. He typed: Where are you? Then, before the message showed as delivered, he added: Call me now. The order looked wrong. He sent another message: Please.
He called from the top of the stairs, from the front hall, and from the library with his hand pressed to the bare place where her laptop had been.
Each unanswered attempt took something from the future he’d imagined on the drive home.
There was no Caroline waiting in their bedroom, no angry conversation that ended with her letting him touch her, and no familiar surroundings strong enough to pull them back together.
When she finally answered, the sudden sound of the connection made him close his eyes.
“Caroline.” Relief rushed the word out of him. “Where are you? Why would you leave without telling me?”
There was a pause. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and flat.
“I’m not telling you where I am,” she said.
“What do you mean, you’re not telling me? You’re six months pregnant. I’ve been calling you.”
“You started calling after you found out I was gone.”
“Because I came home and found your rings on the dresser.” He looked down at the wedding band still trapped in his fist. “What was I supposed to think?”
“You already told me what you think of me.”
“Caroline, I was angry.”
“I know.”
Her control frightened him more than tears would have. Caroline cried when she was hurt. She argued when she thought he was wrong. This careful voice gave him nothing to reach for.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said any of it. I didn’t mean it. I love you, and I want you to come home so we can talk.”
“I’m done, Hayden.”
His fingers tightened around the ring. “No.”
“You don’t have to worry about divorcing a pregnant woman. I’ll divorce you.”
The room seemed to lose its depth. He could see the desk, the windows, and the dark garden beyond them, but none of it felt close enough to touch.
“Don’t say that.”
“You said it first,” she said.
“I said something cruel because I was upset. I didn’t mean that I wanted a divorce.”
“You said I got pregnant on purpose so you couldn’t leave me.” Her voice shook once, then steadied. “What explanation changes that?”
“Dasha told me she heard you with your mother. My father had spent the whole day telling me I’d been used, and then I came home and found you laughing with Paulie. I felt like everyone knew something I didn’t.”
“So, you decided they knew me better.”
He drew a breath and forced his voice lower. “I was afraid I’d been made a fool of. I let that fear get the better of me. There’s a difference between what I felt in that moment and what I believe.”
“You believed them enough to use our daughter against me.”
“I didn’t use her against you.”
“You told me she was the only reason you stayed.”
“That isn’t what I meant.” His voice rose despite his effort. “Will you please stop telling me what I meant and let me explain?”
The silence on the line warned him. He heard his own words again and knew, too late, that he’d done exactly what she accused him of doing.
“I listened to your explanation,” Caroline said. “You were scared. You were angry. You thought I made you look stupid. None of that changes what you said to me.”
“Then tell me where you are, and we’ll talk face-to-face.”
“No.”
Fear sharpened into anger before he could stop it. “You can’t disappear and refuse to tell your husband where you’ve gone.”
“I didn’t disappear. I left you.”
“You’re pregnant with our child. I have a right to know you’re safe.”
“I’m safe.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It had to be enough for me when you left last night.”
The words struck cleanly. Hayden opened his mouth, but the call ended before he found an answer. He called back immediately, but she didn’t pick up. His next call went straight to voicemail. So did the one after it.
He stood alone in the library, breathing hard, with her wedding band pressed into his palm. He had apologized. He’d told her he loved her. Somehow, he’d made everything worse.
Anita.
Caroline had added her friend’s number to his phone early in their marriage, after saying that every husband should know who to call when his wife needed to be told he was being an idiot. He’d laughed then. Now his hand shook as he found the contact.
Anita answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?”
“It’s Hayden.”
Her voice cooled. “I know. I have your number.”
“Is Caroline with you?”
“No.”
“Has she called you?”
“Yes.”
“When? What did she say? Do you know where she went?”
“Slow down,” Anita sighed.
He gripped the edge of the desk. “Please. I came home and she’s gone. She won’t tell me where she is.”
Anita was silent for a moment. “She called about her old room. She wanted to know if it was free.”
“So, she’s in Vegas?”
“No. The room’s rented. She isn’t here.”
All of Hayden’s hope vanished. “Did she tell you where she was going instead?”
“She said she’d work it out.”
“Anita, please.”
“What did you do?”
Hayden looked at the empty chair by the window. “I accused her of things that weren’t true. I said something I can’t take back.”
“That sounds like Caroline’s version too.”
“I need to find her,” he begged.
“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found by you.”
“I need to know she’s safe. If you know how to reach her mother, give me the number.”
Another pause followed. “You don’t have her mother’s number?” Anita sounded shocked.
Shame burned through the panic. He’d promised to move Caroline’s mother across the country. He’d listened to an accusation about the woman and let it help destroy his marriage. Yet he’d never once called her himself.
“No,” he said. “I should, but I don’t. Please give it to me.”
Anita let out a slow breath. “I’ll send it. Don’t make her regret answering you.”
“Thank you.”
The number arrived soon after the call ended. Hayden dialed it immediately. No one answered. He tried once more, then stopped himself. It was a number belonging to a woman he’d never met, and all he could offer her was a stranger’s demand for access to her daughter.
He opened a new message. His first attempt sounded like an order, so he erased it. The second sounded like something an assistant could’ve written. He erased that too.
At last, he typed: Hello. This is Hayden Lynch, Caroline’s husband. I’m trying to reach her. I know I have no right to ask for your help after what I said and did, but please call me back. I need to know she’s safe. Please.
He sent it.
Then Hayden sat at Caroline’s empty desk with her wedding band in one hand and his phone in the other. The house had every comfort he could buy and no one in it who wanted to speak to him.
There was no reply.