ISOLATED

c h a p t e r 1 4

Chapter 14

Mattias hasn't been seen in a while, and it's starting to worry Gael. The man isn't answering his phone and Gael's growing more distracted at work. The annoyance because of the lack of communication with Genesis is washed away by his worry for his best friend disappearing.

In the back of his mind, Gael knows Matt is fine, but he wishes he could've just gotten a message. It wouldn't have been an issue if it was a matter of days, but it's been an entire week and a half since he last saw Mattias that Monday morning.

He didn't notice it last week because of his work and the event, but he does notice it now because the past 3 days have been more relaxed in Gael's career and he started to notice things like Genesis distancing herself from him and Mattias being M.I.A.

Genesis got a lot of praise after the event, she showed up a couple of times at the office, mingled with her co-workers, and helped where she could, then left. It was like the only times she acknowledged him was whenever someone needed a reminder that he was married. She was acting exactly the way he wanted her – but he hated it. 

"Have you talked to Mattias today?" It's the first thing he's asked Genesis that's not related to dinners, events, galas, or parties. Ginny looks up at him and she shakes her head. "No, I haven't seen him around the house at all," she answers, the worry in his eyes is alerting her that it's getting serious.

He shouldn't feel as relieved by just hearing her voice as much as he does.

Gael came home for lunch, which Genesis was already cooking. Since he never came home for lunch, she kindly shared her part with him without asking, she just did.

"I'm sure he's fine, Gael," she assures him the empty promise. She can't tell anyone that Matt is fine without actually having confirmation that he is indeed fine. "Listen, you still have to work this afternoon, I have to pick up your suits from the cleaners, this afternoon we'll see if we can find him," she answers quietly. Gael's already surprised that she offered this, so he'll take it with both hands.

Gael heads back to work, leaving Genesis by herself at the house. Seeing Gael so anxious about his best friend missing definitely allowed her own alarm bells to ring. Mattias was a great guy who was going through something horrible and after hearing the stories, she wouldn't be surprised if Audrey murdered him and he's now rotting in some sort of ditch.

Genesis quickly goes around the house to pick up things so the cleaners won't spend too much time picking up after everyone and have enough time to actually clean this huge mansion. She finally allowed herself to take authority over Gael's staff, which is now her staff as well. She had the cleaners come over a couple extra times for the bathrooms. Especially now that there are 2 more people than usual living in the house.

It's days like these when he's glad that he has Marcus around. He's hoping that tonight will pull Mattias back to them, and he wouldn't have been as worried if he didn't know Mattias would need his jet to fly back. Mattias is still in the US and Gael isn't there to keep him out of trouble.

After Audrey left, nobody's seen her anymore. Gael gave Genesis strict instructions to tell him if the woman ever approached her again. But she never did.

"Sam, reschedule my meeting this afternoon to next week," Gael orders and he walks up to his office. He sits behind his desk and he grabs his phone, he scrolls down to Mattias's number and rings it. But no answer. The phone doesn't even ring, the second the call goes through, it disconnects.

Genesis gets in the car and she drives to the supermarket. Despite Gael telling her he could easily get someone to do it for them, she told him she'd only do that when their house was filled with people. Which it isn't.