Jonathan's POV
With Imelda gone, the apartment was again — quiet.
But this time there was a difference.
This quiet was the type…like the…
Silence after a storm rampaged through.
The kind of silence that was deafening and almost suffocating.
No footsteps of Janet running around.
No clanks of the utensils from the kitchen when Veronica would be cooking.
No little soft voice calling out, "Daddy!"
The house wasn't quiet…
It was abandoned.
I didn't notice before, but Imelda was more than I thought.
Usually when she'd retaliate at me, I would worry.
But today, I didn't.
I even spoke up to her.
I was more focused on matters involving Veronica than I ever was.
This also made me focus on some things, I should have at the time.
Though over the past seven years, there are uncountable times when Veronica was humiliated, called a poor wife, a widow, forced to drink, and serve at Imelda's parties.
But there were things I should have noticed.
The kidnapping for one.
Back then I didn't question this feeling.
I clearly heard fear in the kidnapper's voice…yet I reacted.
I didn't stop to think…
How could it be possible to kidnap Imelda.
I didn't try to verify.
I just believed and drove off crazy.
I put blind faith in an unknown call.
And cost Veronica, our baby.
Suddenly a thought hit my mind like a lightening bolt.
I scanned my phone for that day's call.
Just as I thought.
The kidnapper called on Imelda's number.
That's why I thought she was kidnapped.
The kidnapper clearly said, he had my wife.
I assumed it was Imelda, but on going there…I found Veronica and Imelda.
At the hospital, the doctor said she looked like she was in a car accident and beaten.
But Imelda not only didn't have a scratch, the doctor said she' absolutely fine.
If nothing else, she should have been in shock.
And, she pinned it on Veronica.
I hit my fist on the table.
The reason I punished her and caused the loss of our baby.
I clenched my fists as I recalled his name.
Then Sanders.
First at the casino, when Imelda drugged me, then at the casino, again when she held a knife at my throat.
Her face…I can still see it…pale…lifeless.
I still chose silence even then.
I chose to stand there.
While they broke her right in front of me…
"Nicky…no wonder you disappeared like this."
Then I went over to the balcony, and stood watching the city skyline.
As I took a sip of the scotch in my glass, I began to reconstruct things in my mind.
The city lights were flickering like they always did…not bothered about what's going around.
Cars were passing down in the street.
All in all..life continued for everyone…but me.
My life stopped the moment she walked out of our home.
Then the letter came into my mind.
The letter…
She had been planning for seven days.
She could have spilled her heart…but she didn't bother.
As if everything didn't matter any more.
The bags…enough clothes to leave.
She deactivated her number, didn't tell the school where Janet would be enrolled.
The taxi…
If I were to make a logical breakdown…
I had pinched eye brows as I was thinking, then they eased up.
"No wonder…every step was done in advance. She didn't act emotionally…
She acted based on analysis.
The result of the analysis…
I failed her.
Then I walked back inside and slid into the sofa.
My eyes fell on my phone.
I again played the CCTV footage.
Now the footage was the only place I could see them.
Though I had watched the video countless times since…
But today some facts caught my eye.
Though they were the same, this time I noticed some things.
Exact five hundred…no extra money back.
She wasn't hesitant.
She wasn't confused.
Rather she was calm.
A small laugh slipped from my mouth.
She wasn't running away from me or anyone or anything.
She was only following a plan.
I recalled her image from the CCTV footage.
Not once did she look back.
No sign of hesitation was seen on her face.
No fear, or any confusion.
Just a certain look.
It wasn't an escape, more of an execution.
"But…she didn't have any contacts, especially ones that could help her in this way."
She just got a new job.
"She had just worked a month, and took ten days' advance."
"Yet she was able to plan everything so perfectly."
Exact timing.
A clean exit.
Left without any trace.
Now I was hundred percent sure someone was helping her.
Friends? No.
"They definitely couldn't have helped her."
Job? Though too new.
"Not possible, as she barely worked there a few weeks to know someone so good."
Family?
"I was her only family. She was an orphan I met in college. She herself told me she grew up at the orphanage and left when she turned eighteen."
"And since then she's been staying at the college hostel until we go married and moved here to the apartment."
"Then who?"
I kept the glass on the table and went to our bedroom.
I stood at the door, and looked around.
I began to go through Veronica's stuff.
The files, folders, receipts she had left behind.
That's when a folder fell from the top of the closet.
Label: Staf Studio
I don't know why but the name felt out of place.
Like it didn't belong here.
Yet it felt like it was where it was meant to be..
Or for whom it was meant to be.
My fingers tightened around the file.
For some odd reason…
It all felt deliberate.
"What's this?"
I said as I picked it up.
There were receipts of the jewelry she sold.
A phone number, which was also deactivated.
Probably the one she used to contact the person who helped her.
Then my eyes fell on a note:
"Don't worry everything is set."
I don't know why but the name kind if struck the bell for me.
I picked my phone and typed the name in the search bar.
At first it was an intuition, as I felt I heard Imelda take a familiar name.
I leaned back as the Staf Studio I got on the internet had another name in the CEO place, and not the person whom I thought.
Then I noticed there was something written on the other side of the note.
I flipped it and looked with wide eyes.
"Be careful of Imelda. She has eyes in her back."
My breath hitched.
I thought I was the only one who knew.
Now I just found out…
There's someone else…
Who knew…
And warned Veronica about it..
Now I was sure Veronica wasn't alone…
Now I was sure this person has something or some relation with Imelda.
Maybe a person from her past.
But since the time I've been with her, she never mentioned anyone named Staf, then why?
Somehow things weren't aligning.
I had seen the person with Veronica, and there was something odd when Imelda saw him with Veronica that made me think of him. But now that the name is different, I was back on square one.
"Why do I feel all of this is connected to Imelda…?"
I agree before when I felt Imelda was some how responsible for Veronica's disappearance.
I was broken.
At the time I felt, if I had taken a stand, maybe she wouldn't have left.
Now…I was desperate.
More like obsessed and more determined than before.
Now I was certain someone was helping her.
"If so….I don't care who he or she is…but I will find you both and bring you back to your rightful place.
I began to track down the name.
And fell on a clue.
Staf Studios first belonged to a Daniel Staf, later he transferred the studio on his fiancé's name and opened another studio— D. S. Studio….
The place where Veronica got a job as commercial painter.
Now I knew I had to dig into whoever and whatever he was.
I was staring at a wiki page of Daniel Staf, CEO of D. S. Studio, and former CEO of Staf Studio.
His photo was staring back at me.
Faint.
Almost of no significance to me.
But there was something about him…
That made me feel wrong.
Something about his look was…
Familiar.
Dangerously familiar.
Not that I knew him…
But there was something about his look that bothered me.
Like I knew him and he knew me.
Like he was watching me all alone from the shadows.
And this was long before I noticed.
At the time I didn't know, as Veronica was the only one in my mind.
But I would soon be knowing who he was and why his look bothered me so much.
My voice dropped into a whisper.
"…who are you?"
And what mattered more…
"…why are you being so helpful towards my wife, and even helped her disappear?"