Page 112 of A Love Most Fatal

I can’t do this.

-V

Mary was concerned, seeking out Vanessa all over the house before discreetly calling a family huddle in the kitchen. They all got to looking through rooms, and when they found the note, Mary brought me into the room, too, which made me feel important and part of the family for a little longer.

“What is this?” Willa asked, studying the laptop screen.

“It’s bullshit is what it is,” Mary said. “I just checked her room and Vanessa didn’t bring her phone, her gun, not even a knife except for the one she was wearing.”

We all chewed on this information.

“Why would she run without him?” Sean asked, nodding to me. Again, I was touched, but obviously they didn’t know that Vanessa had brutally rejected me, twice, in the last seven days. The last time just an hour prior.

“She didn’t want me.”

“Bullshit,” Mary said again.

“Say we humor the note. She left. She didn’t take a car. Where would she go on foot, with no weapons?” Willa asks, bringing us back to the problem at hand.

The Russian chose that moment to make his appearance, asking for himself where his fiancé-to-be was hiding.

“Good question,” Claire said. “The masses are getting restless.”

Willa relayed the information to Maxim, who looked increasingly worried with every interjection from Mary until she had him convinced that Vanessa was buried somewhere. And now that he was convinced, I was growing sure of this too. My mind raced over possible fates, horror after horror, Vanessa’s bones broken, face bloodied, dirt piling up on top of her bare skin, alone and afraid and?—

“Don’t be dramatic,” Willa said, but she sounded nervous too. Willa stared at the message a moment longer then stood tall, taking charge in her sister’s absence. “Mom, make the announcement that the Orlov and Morelli families have set aside any sour blood and are looking forward to a long and fulfilling partnership. Ask them to welcome the Orlovs with open arms. Apologize for Vanessa who’s suffering a bout of food poisoning but sends her very best.”

Claire nodded and quickly left the room.

“I want to help look for her,” Maxim said, as if he wasn’t already chivalrous enough. “My resources are at your disposal.”

Willa pressed her lips together and nodded.

“We appreciate that. Help my mother with the announcement. We search as soon as toasts are made.”

Sean put a reassuring arm around his wife’s waist, though his face showed the same concern as the rest of us. Well, I wasn’t sure what my face showed exactly, probably the green pallor ofsomeone who was about to vomit all the hors d’oeuvres he’d slammed in the last 45 minutes.

I could do nothing to help them. I slipped around the house, searching behind every door for her, but I knew she was not there. I chewed on my thumb nail until it started to bleed, I paced until I was so full of restless energy that I wanted to scream.

The party went as well as Willa hoped it would. People clapped cordially at Claire’s announcement, though they obviously wanted something more salacious to go home and gossip about.

As soon as the Morelli children’s presences were made known, the search began.

It was three hours before Sean received a call from his brother letting him know that he had Vanessa, she was safe and sleeping. Apparently, she’d caught him before coming into the party, begged him to take her somewhere, anywhere else, because she couldn’t go through with marrying a stranger.

Sean put him on speaker and Mary asked about two dozen questions and demanded he put her sister on the phone.

“She was pretty torn up,” Cillian said. “She’s sleeping now. I’ll have her call you in the morning.”

The call ended shortly after, as did the search, everyone somewhere between relieved and disconcerted.

Mary was pissed, visibly fuming as she stormed out of the house.

“She was scared,” Willa explained. “Mary hates being scared.”

I nodded, but something didn’t sit right with me.

This was the least Vanessa-thing she could have done, running away from her obligations without so much as a word to her sisters.

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