Love Contract

Chapter 40 William's Disappearance

William had disappeared.

After their quarrel last night, Mary had not expected him to return. But she began to feel uneasy as the hours passed and William did not show up. She thought he must be with one of his friends or colleagues.

The day after he vanished, she learned that William had not been in contact with anyone from work, either.

Around lunchtime, Kevin approached her to ask if she had seen William.

"No," Mary answered.

Kevin frowned. "This is unusual. I've been working with him for several years now, and he's never disappeared like this before."

"Well," said Mary. "There's always a first time."

"There are some documents that need to be signed by the CEO," Kevin said.

"Don't you know where the CEO is?" Jane asked her directly. She shook her head. Jane was confused. "But Mary, you're his wife. Didn't he tell you where he was going?" Mary tried to hide her uneasiness.

"He... He had a business appointment last night, " Mary improvised quickly. "He never came home. I assumed he made arrangements to stay overnight."

Jane looked scandalized. "Mary, you shouldn't be so careless! Never let a man stay out all night without even informing you, or he will get used to such bad habits!"

Mary flushed. "I don't interfere in his business matters."

"Mary, it's time to call him," Jane said seriously. "He hasn't even come to work yet. You're his wife. You have the right to know where he is."

Mary brought out her phone, then hesitated. Assuring Kevin and Jane that she would try to contact him, she walked away from them. But once she was alone, she still did not call him.

She fretted, wondering what she should do. What Jane said to her at lunchtime was vivid in her mind. She should call him, if not as his wife, then as his assistant. However, they had just had a serious argument yesterday. He might not want to hear from her yet.

While Mary debated, Kevin came to her again.

"Mary, I have some bad news," he said in a rush. "What's wrong?" Mary asked, alarmed by his expression.

"There's an important meeting scheduled this afternoon, about the real estate cooperation scheme. The others have already arrived and they're expecting to meet with the CEO. What should we do?" There were beads of sweat on Kevin's temples.

"Did you try to call him?" she asked. Kevin nodded.

"Yes, but he didn't answer."

Mary's brows knitted together. What was wrong with William? What was he doing? It was quite irresponsible of him to fail to show up for such a critical meeting.

"When will the meeting start?" she asked briskly. "Half past one."

Mary glanced at her watch. It was already a few minutes after one. "Is it possible for Manager Zhao to attend the meeting on behalf of the CEO?" Kevin shook his head.

"He's not familiar with the details," he explained. "This endeavor has always been directly supervised and handled by the CEO."

Mary thought quickly. "All right. Then you go and stall them for a while. Invent any excuse. I'll try to call William." Kevin did not look convinced by this plan, but he nodded. He headed off to the meeting room.

This time, Mary called William without hesitation.

"Sorry," said a polite, recorded voice. "The number you have dialed cannot be reached. Please try again later."

Frustrated, Mary hit redial, but the call went unanswered.

'Damn it! He's causing trouble for the whole company, not just me, ' she thought angrily.

Mary put down the phone and began pacing. She thought of everyone she knew who was close to William, who might know how to reach him. Suddenly she stopped as Lucas came to her mind.

She grabbed her phone again and dialed Lucas's number. After several rings, he answered.

"Hello, Mary. What's up?" he asked amiably.

"Lucas, are you with William?" Mary said abruptly, getting straight to the point.

"No, I'm out of town," he replied. "Why? What's wrong?"

"William has disappeared," said Mary, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "None of us here in the office have been able to get in touch with him." "No way!" said Lucas, sounding shocked.

"You mean he disappeared on a whim? He didn't inform anyone? Not you, not anyone in the company?"

"No," said Mary with a sigh. She felt a rush of disappointment. She had really hoped that Lucas might know where William had gone.

"Have you spoken to his friends?"

Mary was embarrassed. "I don't know the phone numbers of his friends," she admitted.

On the other end of the line, Lucas was silent. 'Right, of course. William wouldn't bother telling a nominal wife how to contact his friends, ' he thought.

"Let me ask around for you, see what I can find out," he proposed.

"Okay," said Mary gratefully. "Please let me know immediately when you learn anything. There are urgent matters here that he absolutely has to attend to. Thanks!"

"No problem," said Lucas casually. "Don't worry too much. William is a sensible man, after all. I'm sure he hasn't done anything foolish."

"All right. Thanks again."

As soon as Mary hung up, Lucas dialed William's number.

Like Kevin and Mary, he was unable to get through. "The number you have dialed cannot be reached," said the recorded voice in his ear.

Lucas hung up and scowled. There was only one other option.

Frank. Of Course it was because of him.

Lucas dialed Frank's number.

"The number you have dialed cannot be reached, " said the voice again.

Lucas put down the phone, his face cold. Where had those two gone now? What were they planning? 'Are you going to drop everything for love? Abandon your work, abandon your family?' he sneered mentally at his friend. 'What a joke! You're just going to leave it all behind? You're immature and reckless, ' he thought angrily.

Lucas sent a text message to William. "Call me as soon as you see this message."

Then, with a heavy sigh, he called Mary.

As soon as Mary finished speaking with Lucas, she went to the meeting room. She found that the meeting had been cancelled, and a group of investors were walking out with aggravated and irritated looks on their faces.

Manager Zhao walked behind them, trying to placate them. "We apologize deeply for this inconvenience. Our CEO had an emergency to attend to, something deeply private and urgent. We will reschedule as soon as possible, at your convenience, of course," he said.

"Manager Zhao," said one of the investors sharply. He was a middle-aged man who looked capable and, right now, annoyed. "AJ Group is a large and reputable company, which is why we agreed to do business with you. But this is very rude and irresponsible. We did not expect to be treated this way. Not only has your CEO failed to show up to a scheduled meeting, he didn't even bother to send apologies or explanations!"

"Again, we are truly sorry," said Manager Zhao, bowing slightly. "We hope you will allow us to make it up to you. I assure you the CEO will apologize to you personally as soon as he can."

Shaking their heads, the group of investors walked into the elevator.

Mary walked up to Manager Zhao. "It's not your fault. Thanks for doing your best," she told him.

Manager Zhao ran his hand over his face, looking disgruntled. "There will be trouble because of this. It will affect the reputation of the company. Mrs. Lan, where on earth is Mr. Lan? Why didn't he attend this meeting?"

"He..." Mary trailed off, then said haltingly, "You're right, there was an emergency. He's — he's sick. He went to the emergency room."

Manager Zhao pursed his lips, glowering suspiciously at Mary. It was clear he did not believe her. "Well, I need to get going," Mary said hurriedly, eager to end the conversation. "Manager Zhao, you can go back to work, I'm sure you're busy too."

She nodded and smiled at him and walked away as quickly as she could. 'Because I'm the CEO's wife, everything he does is my fault too, ' she thought.

She tried calling William again, to no avail.

The rest of the day, rumors spread about William's conspicuous absence, each wilder than the last. Some whispered that he had stolen money from the company and fled. Others repeated Mary's story about the emergency room. A few mused that he might have been kidnapped for ransom and the police were suppressing any information about the case. Everyone watched Mary covertly. As the wife of the CEO, they were sure she had inside information. Their stares and whispers made Mary feel self-conscious.

Restless and furious with William, she avoided everyone, not wanting to spout any more lies to cover his disappearance. She had absolutely no idea where her husband had gone. As the hours passed, she even began to feel worried about the rumors. What if he had actually been kidnapped? She didn't even know if he was alive or injured or dead.

Finally, the work day ended, and the employees began heading home. Mary went over to Kevin as he was packing his things in his bag. "Kevin," she said, "Please tell all the department managers to inform everyone that William is in the hospital. Tell them—oh, I don't know. Just say that the specific nature of his illness is private and it's nobody's business what he has."

Kevin nodded. "Sure, I can do that."

"All right then," said Mary hopelessly. "Go on ahead. Thanks."

She left the office with a deep sense of powerlessness. Where had William gone? Where was he now? No one seemed to know. Was it time to call the police?

Once she got home, after a moment's hesitation, she picked up her phone and called William's father. Apart from Lucas, he was the only other person she could think of who might know what William was up to.

"Hello?" said Timothy. "It's Mary," she said nervously. He greeted her in an amiable tone. He didn't seem to have any inkling that anything was wrong.

"Father," she said, taking a deep breath, "I need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"William..." But as soon as she said her husband's name, she stopped, realizing that she shouldn't involve his father in this. It would be wrong. Judging by what she had seen of their relationship, telling Timothy about his son's disappearance would only cause more trouble and misunderstanding between them.

When she didn't continue, Timothy spoke. "Mary? What's wrong? What about William?"

"Oh," said Mary, shaking her head, glad he couldn't see her over the phone. "It's just—It's the wedding photos of me and William. We've received the photos and we also have an electronic version. We were wondering if you wanted a copy sent to you online?" ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Timothy relaxed. "Okay, that sounds great. Thank you for reminding me of this, Mary," he said.

"Of course, Father," said Mary, forcing her voice to sound cheerful. "That's all I wanted to say! Have a good night!"

"Sure. Good night, Mary."

Mary ended the call, then marched to the bedroom and flung herself down on the bed. She didn't know what to do next. She lay there without moving until she fell into a restless sleep.

Mary was awoken by the sound of the phone ringing. She stirred and reached for the phone, wondering how long she had been asleep. When she glanced at the screen, she saw that it was Lucas calling.

Maybe he had news about William. She immediately sat up, all sleepiness gone. "Hello? What's going on? Have you heard anything?" she asked anxiously.

"Yes," said Lucas in a low voice. He sounded tired. "I asked him to call me, but he sent me a message instead. He just said he was fine. Nothing more."

Mary squeezed her eyes shut, feeling like she was about to develop a headache. "So, when will he come back?" She knew even as she asked what Lucas would say. He had just told her that William hadn't said anything beyond the fact that he was fine.

"He didn't tell me," said Lucas. He added, "I tried to call him as soon as I received his message, but it was too late. His phone was already turned off again."

"Why is he doing this?" Mary asked. The longer William was gone, the more her anger grew. "What's his plan? Doesn't he care about the company anymore? Is he alone, or is he out gallivanting with someone?"

Lucas hesitated, wondering what he should tell Mary. After a pause, he decided that there was no need to tell her about Frank. There was nothing she could do even if he told her, and besides, that was William's private affair. So he said only, "I'm afraid the only thing we can do now is wait."

Mary gripped the phone harder than necessary. "All right," she said. "Then we'll wait."

"Mary..." "What?" she snapped angrily. She regretted her tone immediately. She must not take out her anger at William on other people. "I'm sorry," she said. "Lucas, I'm really sorry... I didn't mean it. I'm just so tired and frustrated."

"I know," said Lucas gently. For a moment, there was silence, then Lucas said, "William has told me everything, you know."

"Everything?"

"I know you have a fake marriage," he said.

"Oh, okay," she said quickly, relieved that he was being so kind. "Thank you for not being angry with me."

Lucas sounded like he was smiling. "Really, who wouldn't be angry if such a thing happened to them? William left without warning, leaving his mess for you to clean up. It's all right for you to be furious with him."

"I should save my anger for him instead of snapping at you," Mary said, smiling bitterly.

"Mary. I understand completely. Go to bed now and just wait until he turns up again."

"Okay," she sighed. "Thanks again. Bye." She put down the phone and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was eleven o'clock already. She had been asleep for several hours.