Page 148 of Off The Ice

When I opened the door to the apartment, I saw just how right I’d been.

“Cassie?” I yelled into the darkness.

If she were home, the lights would be on. If she were home, there’d be a candle burning, or the smell of food, or the TV flickering.Something.Because she left signs of her behind wherever she was.

Then I flicked the light switch on and felt the breath leave my lungs in a sudden, fell swoop.

She was gone. Not just momentarily. But completely gone. There wasn’t a single trace of her to be found. Everything she owned was missing, and I felt it.

“Cassie?” I called out anyway, as if it were all somehow a joke. “Where are you, baby?”

And I ran up the stairs to the bedroom she hadn’t slept in for weeks. Empty. Just like the rest of the apartment.

Just like me.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Cassie

“You’ve got to tell me what’s going on, Cass,” Maggie said, sitting beside me on her couch. “You can’t just show up with everything you own and then take a vow of silence.”

“I just said something a few minutes ago.”

“You saying, ‘I like this episode’ doesn’t cut it for the current situation,” Maggie deadpanned.

It was eerily similar to the last time I’d showed up at her place after fleeing Liam’s. I was teary-eyed, emotional, and absolutely did not want to talk about the chaos existing inside of me at that moment.

“I can’t talk about it,” I said. “It’s too much.”

“What’s too much? Cassie,” she said, but then a pounding knock whipped both our heads in the direction of the door.

“Open the door, Maggie,” Liam’s panicked voice sounded from the other side.

I froze, wide-eyed and helpless. I wasn’t ready to see him yet. I didn’t know how to explain myself.

I’d run and hidden like a kid, and even knowing how wrong it was, I couldn’t bear to deal with the aftermath of my decision right now.

“Please don’t let him in,” I begged Maggie in a whisper. “Please.”

“What did he do to you?” Maggie’s eyes narrowed on me. “I’ll kill him.”

“No.” I shook my head quickly. “He didn’t do anything. It’s all my fault.”

“Maggie!” he called again, sounding desperate.

“Please,” I said again, and she nodded in quiet acceptance.

“Okay,” she said quietly, even though confusion flickered in her eyes. She didn’t know what was going on, but she respected my request anyway. “I’ll just tell him to leave then.”

Somehow, it sounded like it hurt her as much as it was hurting me.

She padded to the door and stepped out into the hallway, leaving the door cracked behind her.

“I can’t find Cassie, Mags,” he said breathlessly. “I can’t—I don’t know where—she was supposed to be at the game, but now I can’t get in touch with her.”

“Liam—”

“I need to see her, Mags.”

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