That same Saturday evening, Amy had dinner at Stella's before going back home. She had done her skin care night routine and was already under the covers with a book in her hand. Her phone chimed notifying her of new mail. Her heart knew who it was before she could check.
***.com: I'm done.
She smiled when she saw this. She was about to text back when she decided against it and had a better idea.
"Let's talk to Daddy", she spoke to her cupcake as her fingers moved on her phone. Within seconds, the connection was secured.
"That was quick", she said referring to his shower. Her fingers played with the pages of the book. Her cheeks reddened when she heard Zach's familiar deep voice erupt in an enchanting chuckle.
"That wouldn't be the case if you were with me", he responded.
Amy felt her face heat up and a smile she could not stop settled on her face. "Zachery", she scolded. She wanted cupcake to learn his/her daddy's voice but instead she just subjected herself to more of the man's flirtatious remarks.
"Fine. What are you doing so late at night?"
"I was reading a book, Pride and Prejudice", Amy turned the book and looked at the cover. While waiting for Zach to finish showering, she decided to start reading.
"A lover of novels?"
"Not really. I love the nerdy stuff. Like Cecil Martin's Clean Code", she wanted to give more examples but she didn't want to bore him with that.
"Sexy", Zach commented making her blush again.
She couldn't help her chuckle as she tucked some stray strands of hair behind her ears. Zach felt like he would melt on his bed after hearing her laugh. The chairman of Frost Corporation was all smiles as he turned to lie on his side and placed his phone on the pillow next to him and imagined he was having a pillow talk with Amy.
"So why are you reading this one?" He could not help his curiosity.
"Oh!" She cleared her throat. "I've never watched the movie so I thought to read the book. I started reading the first five chapters and got a little more curious."
Plus she knew she would never get past the first five chapters with the book club. So she decided to proceed without them because the storyline was quite intriguing for her.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
He smiled when he heard this. "I'm talking to you."
"Don't you have other things to do?" She blurted out.
"Tired of me already woman?" There was no sign of any amusement in his tone. His lips lifted in amusement when he heard her gasp. How would she appease him? He was curious. And true to that, Amy was panicked when she responded.
"No, it's not like that. I meant-" she was interrupted by the sound of her phone notifying her of a new message. She sighed when she saw the sender. Zach picked up on both sounds and he immediately sat up while holding the phone.
"What's wrong? Who's texting you at this hour?"
"It's nothing. It's Dylan...", She was absentminded as she responded while reading his text.
Dylan: Miss me?
"Doesn't he know it's rude to text someone's woman so late at night? It doesn't matter if you're his boss", Zachery grumbled into the phone.
Amy halted when she wanted to reply to Dylan's message. Did he just refer to her as someone's woman? And since he laid his claim on her, was he calling her his woman? She bit her lower lip to suppress a bashful smile.
"He... He doesn't know... that I'm a woman", she murmured loud enough for him to hear.
A.J: I'm busy.
"Still, he shouldn't bother you. It's late. You need your sleep."
'Says the person who's keeping me up at the same time?' But she didn't call him out on his hypocrisy. Instead, she found it quite amusing.
Dylan: Boss I need money, to keep up appearances.
What did he do? He was probably spending on women and alcohol like he had been. She ignored his message and muted all notifications. Even when she went back to talking to Zach, she could not help but feel trouble was brewing on Dylan's end.
And her intuition was right. Dylan was back at the club after a few days of absence. His face grew grim when he didn't receive any reply from his boss. He decided to do as he pleases and ordered for a few drinks per usual: for himself and the other customers.
That floor erupted with cheers and the men and women raised their glasses at Dylan in cheers. The latter raised his glass but it looked like he was toasting those people when in truth, he was toasting the people watching him from the upper floor. A sly smiled played on his lips before he downed his drink.
Aldo, who was watching him, narrowed his eyes at him through the tinted glass wall. His subordinate came in and stood a few feet away with a tablet in his hands.
"Sir, we found a footage from four days ago. She was last seen leaving this club probably going home. Did you check her place?" The subordinate asked.
"I was there this morning. Esmeralda was not there", he said with a snarl.
He kept his gaze on Dylan as he spoke. He could not help the bad feeling blooming within him. His betrothed had gone missing for the past few days. She left no word whatsoever except for a daily text sent at the same time saying:
'<strong>Hope your day was alright. Goodnight</strong>.'
At first he ignored it, but when he saw the repeatitive pattern. He felt something was not right so he went to check on her today and she was gone. Her place had accumulated a bit of dust; that was something a clean freak like Esmeralda could not tolerate.
"What about him? What happened the last few days?" He nodded at Dylan. He didn't want to accept it but he had seen how Esmeralda looked at that man. It infuriated him but he felt he held back especially after learning she found out about his flings.
"Him?" The subordinate followed his line of sight when he saw the blue haired young man. He tapped a few times on his tablet and he gulped as fear gripped him. He especially fear for Dylan as he reported his findings.
"He.... hasn't been to the club for the last four days."
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