Page 54 of His Secret Virgin
Whatever it was, Emma had to talk to me about it. “Tell her to call me, Mrs. Kramer.”
“Miss Hancock, Mr. Taylor wants you to call him.” She held out her phone. “Or you can just talk to her now, sir.”
Shaking my head, I said, “Tell her to call me. Tell her to do it right now.”
“He wants you to call him right now, Miss Hancock,” she said. Then she frowned and hung up the phone. “Um— She said no and hung up.”
No?
Resisting the urge to storm off the way I wanted to, I shrugged my shoulders and walked away at a reasonable pace, trying not to show any a telling reaction. I kept walking out until I got to my car, which I quickly pointed towards the cabin, all the while trying to get Emma to answer her damn phone.
When I finally arrived at the cabin, I found it empty. She wasn’t there, and now I was really worried.
I took out my phone and texted her, asking her to call me and letting her know that I was sick with worry. I prayed she’d at the very least text me back. But she never did.
I knew one thing: Emma had only one friend in this world that she’d turn to if something was wrong. Only one person she trusted:Valerie.
The thing was, I didn’t even know the girl’s last name. I knew she was a student at Columbia in New York, but nothing more than that.
Going to the cabin’s bedroom, I found my laptop on the dresser. Emma had been using it to play games and mess around on social media that weekend. I hoped I could open her apps to see if she’d left any clues as to why she would run off that way.
As far as I knew, things were going exceptionally well. Emma and I were as happy as a couple of clams. She never complained about work—not to me at least. And her parents hadn’t bugged her about being gone every weekend.
In my opinion, she had nothing to run away from.
But then again, I didn’t know if she had any outside influences that might have gotten into her head.
Popping open the computer, I saw that she’d closed all the apps. Emma was the only one who used the device, so I thought she might’ve saved the passwords on some of her social media accounts.
One by one, I went through her accounts, and nothing jumped out at me. She’d liked some posts and made a few of her own, but nothing pointed to the reason she’d decided to leave.
I made sure to check the dates and times of the posts, to see if she’d posted anything recently. She hadn’t.
I did find out Valerie’s last name, and I could send her an instant message. I did—immediately.
Valerie, this is Emma’s boyfriend. I need to talk to her ASAP. Please have her call me.
Now all I could do was wait. And wait. And wait.
I fell asleep on the bed as I waited for her to respond or for Emma to call. And the dreams I had were terrible. I’d never had a dramatic imagination, but with Emma’s unexpected departure, my brain went crazy.
In my dreams, Emma had been kidnapped by someone, and I couldn’t get to her. That morphed into Emma secretly hating me, and she ran away from me to put an end to our relationship. When I woke, I was panting; the dream had spiraled into me chasing her, running after her crying her name.
Checking the instant message box on the computer, I found no reply. In desperation, I typed another.
Valerie, please, please, I am begging you to convince Emma to call me. I’ve got to know why she left. Was it because of me?
Staring at the screen, I blinked with disbelief as one word appeared.No.
I had no idea what that meant, so I typed,No to what?
She sent back,It’s not because of you, exactly.
Then what is it?I sent back.
I got nothing after that. Not a single word came back to me.
What could it mean:Not because of me, exactly? Was the girl was playing games with me? And I felt like Emma had to be with her friend, or how else would Valerie know what was going on?
