Chapter 2
Adam was quiet for a moment, then leaned down and kissed my hair.
"You'd wait for me," he said.
As I looked back now, those words stung like a thorn, sending chills down my spine.
Turned out, the shoe wasn't Adam's after all.
Everyone let out a breath they'd been holding.
The stress was just too much for Madyson, and she fainted again.
I had no choice but to leave the river and take her to the hospital.
The doctor said she was just worn out and needed to rest.
She lay in the hospital bed, gripping my hand tightly.
"Emmy, if something really happened to Adam, I couldn't live," she whispered.
I felt my nose sting, tears threatening to fall.
"Madyson, you still have Lucas," I said softly.
She froze for a second, then started sobbing even harder.
"Lucas isn't the same as Adam," she cried. "Adam's always been the most filial, always putting family first.
"You two were about to get married. How could the heavens do this to us?"
I leaned over and tucked the blanket around her.
"Get some rest. I'll go get you some porridge," I said.
Just as I stepped out of the room, I heard a phone notification go off inside.
Madyson's sobs stopped dead.
Through the door, she lowered her voice and said something.
I couldn't make out the words, but I caught the name "Sophie."
I pushed the door open and walked in.
She hurriedly shoved her phone under her pillow, her face instantly slipping back into grief.
She asked, "Why are you back?"
I said, "I forgot to ask what kind of 周oatmeal you wanted."
Her eyes darted away. "Anything's fine. It doesn't matter.
"Emmy, please go. I just need some time alone."
I lingered at the door for a few seconds, feeling an unexplainable sense of unease stirring inside me.
But then, her tears were flowing again. "Do you think Adam might already..."
"No," I cut her off quickly, pushing away the doubt that crept up inside me.
She was just a mother, scared to death for her missing son.
How could I even begin to suspect her just because of one vague word?
As soon as I left the hospital, Lucas sent me a location.
He said someone had spotted Adam by Northside Highway.
I couldn't get a cab, so I ran two blocks in the pouring rain before Grace finally showed up in her car.
On the way, she kept getting calls.
Every time I glanced over, she'd hang up right away.
"Who's calling?" I asked.
"The wedding planner," she explained. "They're asking if we should keep preparing for the wedding. I told them to stick to the original plan."
My heart twisted in my chest.
Our wedding was just five days away.
Was Adam still alive?
Would he ever come back?
Was there any chance our wedding would still happen?
I had no clue.
But I couldn't bring myself to cancel it.
It'd feel like admitting he's never coming back.
When we got to Northside, we found a jacket stained with blood at an abandoned gas station.
It was Adam's.
I recognized it right away.
I'd stitched the left pocket myself.
The blood was already dry, and the cuffs were caked with mud.
I hugged the jacket tight, and for a moment, everything went dark.
Lucas rushed into the gas station, searching everywhere.
Grace steadied me, her voice shaky with tears.
"Emmy, you have to hold on," she said. "Adam might be hurt. He's still waiting for you to save him."
I nodded, clutching the jacket, and ran toward the hills behind.
The muddy path was slippery, and I fell three times.
My knees and palms were bleeding, blood mixing with the rain.
Grace called out to me from behind, but her voice barely registered.
There was only one thought in my mind.
Adam was hurt.
Maybe he was out there, lying in some hidden corner, waiting for me.
Before nightfall, the rescue team had combed through the entire hillside.
Still, they got nothing.
After the cops checked the jacket, they said there wasn't much blood; it looked like it was just from a scratch.
So there was still hope Adam was alive.
I held onto that jacket all night, never letting go.
It wasn't until later that I learned what really happened.
Before he left, Adam had cut his own forearm and smeared the blood on the jacket's cuff.
He was afraid the bloodstain wouldn't look convincing enough, so he kept smearing it again and again.
Then he handed the jacket to Lucas and told him to leave it at the abandoned gas station in Northside the next day.
That night, Sophie sent a cash gift in the group chat.
The note read: [Thanks for your hard work, Adam says just one more day.]
The one who claimed the biggest share was Grace, my best friend who spent ten hours searching with me in the rain.
*****
By the third morning, I was burning up with a fever.
Grace practically dragged me home.
She found some meds for my fever and kept watch by my bed, feeding me porridge.
My throat hurt so much I couldn't even speak.
She touched my forehead, her eyes swollen and red.
"If you keep going like this, Adam will feel terrible seeing you like this when he comes back," she said.
I stared at her. "Do you really think he'll come back?"
Grace's hand froze on the spoon. "Of course he will.
"You two love each other so much. How could he possibly stay away from you?"
I closed my eyes.
Ever since Adam disappeared, everyone kept saying the same thing to me.
He loved me.
He couldn't bear to leave me.
He would come back to marry me.
But for three whole days, the search team couldn't find him.
All his phone signals, travel logs, and bank activity stopped the night he disappeared.
It was like he'd vanished into thin air.
I forced myself to sit up.
"I have to go to the river," I said.
Grace held me down.
"You're burning up with a fever; can you please stop pushing yourself?" she said. "The search hasn't stopped. Waiting at home is just the same."
"It's not the same," I said.
I pushed her hand away.
"That's where he was last seen," I said. "What if he comes back and doesn't see me right away?"
Grace looked at me, her lips quivering.
For a moment, something complicated flashed in her eyes.
It looked like guilt, and maybe she just couldn't bear it.
But finally, she helped me lie back down.
"Emmy, just get some rest," she said.
"I'll take you there in two hours."
I took the medicine and drifted off into a deep, restless sleep.
When I woke up, it was already dark outside.
Grace was in the shower.
Her phone was on the nightstand, and suddenly the screen lit up.
I wasn't planning to look at it.
But then a message popped up with my name in it.
The sender was listed as Madyson. [How's Emily doing today?]
I froze for a second.
Madyson was supposed to be in the hospital, saying she didn't even want to touch her phone.
I picked up the phone and, without thinking, entered the password she'd used for years, the date we first moved in together.
The phone unlocked.