Alone in Marriage

Chapter Seven

A week had passed since Arnold went back to his cold careless self. After had seen what they could have when he was willing to acknowledge her, she felt more lonely and been alone all time just made it worst. She didn't dare to meet any of her friends, because they would bombarded her with questions that she didn't want to answer when she didn't have any strength to hide her doomed feeling right now.

She had cried day and night, but she did realize, it was useless. Because if crying would solve her problem then it would have been solved long ago. Taking a look around her room, she kept repeating their interaction in it which brought tears back to her eyes. She wiped them away desperately, but it was useless. Her eyes were like broken dams, there was nothing she could do to stop the leakage. Then she had decided, desperate situation needs a desperate solution.

She grabbed her bag and took a long last look at her room. She then exhaled deeply and yanked open the door. She took her time, embracing every memory, every effort she put in to make it a home while descending the stair. It was a beautiful house, but she had failed to create a beautiful home in it. When she finally out of it, in the dim light of sunset she took a glance behind toward it and whispered, "Good bye!"

Leaving everything behind, she headed toward the only direction she knew, home.

************

Arnold pulled off his Ferrari and turned off the engine. He had a bad day at office, his secretary misplaced a document, one of the employee shredded a very important paper, a lot of thing went wrong. He had taken care of all of them, and no damage had been done, but for entire day he kept having this feeling like something very important had disappeared. He just couldn't wait to go home and had a break. Every time he was home, there was a warm feeling that made him relaxed. But, when he entered the house, the warm feeling was gone, instead what he felt was a deep emptiness, like the source of light had gone. But the lights were on and Erica's car was in the garage. He hated to admit it, but her existence in the house always offered him a sense of peacefulness that nowhere else could provide. His heart went million miles, he just couldn't settled down, like something bad had happened.

What if she had an accident when she went out by foot, no, the police would have contacted him immediately. Maybe someone had kidnapped her. But most of the criminals knew him, they won't dare touch his wife, but there was always some that unwilling to bent to the rules. Worse situations kept popping one by one in his head. He ran up the stair, went straight to open her door. The room was empty, the bed was unoccupied, nobody was in the bathroom. Her suitcase and clothes were still there. But her blue bag that she always brought along wherever she went wasn't there.

"What is happening? She isn't a fool to wander around in this hour. But, where could she be?" he took out his phone from his trouser pocket, and dialed Erica's number, but her number was unreachable. Running a frustrated hand through his hair, he was getting anxious every passing minute. He then called everyone he could think of that probably knew where was she. He called his parents, her parents, Jordan, Jessica, Angel, Bella, Amanda, Sophie, Maria, even his grandma, but none of them knew her whereabouts. Each of them had reassured him, she was a responsible young lady and won't intentionally hurt herself, no news was good news. But he just couldn't bear not knowing her well being. His mind went frantic with every bad thing that could happen to her.

He ran to the front door. Yanking it opened, he ignored the stair and jumped straight to ground from above. He decided to check at the closest park in their neighborhood. It was hard to ran in his dress shoes, but he didn't have the luxury of time to change them. Along the way, he prayed she was there. But of course he was disappointed, there was nobody there. With weak steps, he made his way home. He raised his head, and when he saw one of his neighbor's house, an idea popped in his head. He dashed home and immediately took out the phone book from the drawer under the telephone. He flipped the pages till he found what he was looking for. He then dialed the number.

Once the other line answered, he immediately said, "Good evening, Mrs. Donalds. I have a favor to ask. Did you see my wife today?"

"Actually, I did. I saw her walked down the road a couple hours ago. I asked here where was she going and she said she just gonna visit her favorite place."

"Her favorite place? Did she tell you where?"

"I am afraid no, she didn't. Is there something wrong? We are willing to help if you need it."

"No, but thank you for your offer. Your information already more than enough!"

"Both of you are a sweet young couple. I wish for a long years ahead of your marriage!"

"Amen, thank you for that. I think I should hang up now. Sorry for disturbing you this late at night."

"It's okay, Mr. Binder. Me and Tom haven't slept yet."

"Then I should let you rest. Thank you."

"You are welcome!"

With that, he hung up. Her favorite place? Where could that be? he thought. He grabbed his helmet and ran to his motorbike. He just couldn't help it to ride in full speed toward the only place he and Erica spent their time the most, also the place where he went down on one knee and proposed to her.

Once he arrived at the park. He immediately dashed to the center looking right and left while removing his helmet. When he saw nobody was there, his head hung low in disappointment. He sat on the closest bench and covered his face with his hands.

It's already eleven and he still had to work tomorrow. He told himself that he had to stop for now. He could hire private investigator or asked Alex to starting the search for missing person which had to wait till twenty four hours.

He knew she wasn't a reckless person. She maybe never disappeared like this before, but everyone knew she always knew what she was doing and there was always a reason behind all of her action though sometimes it didn't make sense to them. He also knew it, but he just couldn't cope up with the fact he didn't know her whereabouts. Deep down inside he knew he never thought she would leave him without notice. He thought she would cope up with him no matter how he treated her.

"Will I ever find her?" he said to the sky.

With a heavy feeling in his chest, he went home.

*****************

There was a knock. When the door opened, the sight of Erica was what greet the owner of the house.

"Mother!" she hugged Elaine.