Fate

Mark Sinclair could not sleep.

The sun came up. Filled the room with a warm light. The bed was empty. There was a note on the nightstand. It said "I’m sorry" in handwriting. No name, no number, those two words.

Mark picked up the note. Held it for a long time. His head still hurts from the drug. His body remembered the heat of the woman who was with him.. His mind was angry. Who was she? Why did she leave him like that?

Daniel Reed knocked on the door. Opened it. "Mr. Sinclair the doctor is here. You were drugged last night."

Mark said "I know" without looking up. "Find her, " he told Daniel.

Daniel looked confused. "Find who sir?" he asked.

Marks voice was cold

. "The woman who was here. She was in this room. She left this morning. Find her."

Daniel said. “Sir security says no guest checked in last night. The cameras show you came home alone."

Mark stood up and walked to the window. "She was not a guest. She was already in the house when I came in."

Daniel said "Miss Hart came early. Her father is coming today.. She left before noon. She waited in the study. Then she left."

Mark turned fast. "Olivia Hart?" he asked.

Daniel said "No, sir. I mean... Miss Olivia Hart did come.. She left. The woman you are talking about we do not know who she is."

Mark closed his eyes. Olivia Hart was his wife on paper. He had never met her. He had never cared to meet her. Now she was the name in his head.

Mark told Daniel to get him the security footage from the night. He wanted to see everything. The gates, the halls, the stairs.

Daniel said "Yes, sir."

Mark put on a suit. He did not drink coffee. He sat in his office and watched the screen.

The footage showed Olivia Hart at the gate at 8:02 AM. She looked young and nervous. She was beautiful in a blue dress. She did not look like the women Mark usually saw at parties. No heavy makeup, no jewelry. Just her.

Her long brown hair fell past her shoulders. Her eyes were hazel and serious. She walked into the house. Waited in the study. Then at 3:17 PM another woman came down the stairs. She had a hood over her hair. She moved fast with her head down. She left through the side door.

Mark paused the video. He zoomed in on the woman's face. He could not see it clearly.. Her hands were small with no rings. Her walk was quiet like she did not want to be noticed.

It was her. The woman from the night

Daniel said "Her height matches Miss Hart…Miss Hart left through the front door at 3:20 PM. We have that footage too."

Mark frowned. Two women?. One woman trying to hide?

Mark told Daniel to find Richard Hart, Olivias father. He was coming to the house for a meeting. Mark wanted to see him

Two hours later Richard Hart sat in the study. He was. Nervous. He used to be a man. Now his shoulders were bent from debt.

Mark asked him "Where is your daughter?"

Richard said "Olivia? She came this morning. She said she wanted to talk to you first. About the loan. She left before I arrived."

Mark asked "Did she spend the night here?"

Richard said "No! Of course not. She has her apartment. She would never..."

Richards' voice trailed off when he saw Mark's face.

Mark stood up and walked to the window. "Three years ago we signed a contract. You got money. I got a wife I never saw. Now my wife was in my house at night. A woman was in my bed last night. I want to know if they are the person."

Richard went pale. Mark told him to leave and to give him Olivia's address and phone number.

After Richard left Mark sent Daniel to check Olivia's apartment.

Daniel came back an hour later. "She's not there sir. The landlord says she left this morning with one bag. She didn't say where she was going. Her phone is off."

Mark felt something in his chest. It was not anger. It was panic. For three years he had ignored Olivia Hart's existence. Now she was the thing he wanted to find.

He went back to the video. He watched the woman on the stairs again and again. He watched how she hugged her arms around herself. How she looked back once like she was scared.

She was scared of him.

The thought made his jaw tighten. He had been drugged. He had not been himself.. He had touched her. He had said things without meaning to. He had made her cry.

Mark told Daniel to pull Olivia's work records. He wanted to know everything about her.

Daniel said "Sir you never wanted to know anything about her."

Mark looked at him. "I know. That was a mistake."

For the two days Mark did nothing but search. He sent people to her workplace. She had not come in for three days. He checked her bank account. She withdrew an amount of cash and stopped using her card. She did not want to be tracked.

She was hiding .

At night Mark lay in the bed and stared at the ceiling. He remembered her skin. Soft. He remembered her sound when she tried not to cry. He remembered how she shook under his hands.

He had called her "mine" that night. He did not even know her name then.. Now he knew her name and he still wanted to call her that.

On the day Sophia Bennett came to the house.

Sophia was Mark's ex-girlfriend. Beautiful. Used to getting what she wanted. She walked in like she owned the place.

Mark said "I'm not sick" when Sophia asked about his health. He did not look up from the files on his desk. Files about Olivia Hart.

Sophia saw the photos. Olivia's work ID photo. Simple, no smile. "Who is this?" Sophia asked. "Your new secretary?"

Mark said "My wife."

Sophia laughed. Then she stopped when she saw Mark was serious. "Your contract wife? The one you said was invisible? Since when do you care about her?"

Mark said "Since she disappeared from my bed."

Sophia's smile faded. "Mark, you don't want her. She's nothing. A poor girl from a family. I can give you—"

Mark said "I don't want you. Leave."

Sophia left angry.. Mark barely noticed. He was looking at Olivia's photo again. Her hazel eyes looked at the camera. Brave. Tired.

Daniel knocked on the door. "Sir we found something. Miss Hart's mother, Margaret Hart went to a clinic yesterday. She paid cash. The clinic does pregnancy tests."

Mark's hand stopped on the paper. "Pregnancy test?"

Daniel said "Yes. We don't know the result.. Margaret Hart was there."

Mark stood up fast. His heart was beating hard. Olivia. That night. No protection. He was drugged and out of control.

If she was pregnant... Then the child would be his. His child. With the woman he never wanted to meet.

The idea should have scared him. Instead it made him feel something dangerous. Hope.

Mark told Daniel to find the clinic records. He wanted to know everything. "Find Olivia, " he said. "Check every hotel, every bus station, every place she could go with cash. She can't hide forever."

Daniel. Left.

Mark walked to the window again. Outside the city was busy. Cars moved like ants. Somewhere, in that city was Olivia Hart. Hiding. Scared. Maybe carrying his child.

Three years ago Mark thought the contract marriage was a prison. Now he understood something. The prison was not the marriage. The prison did not know Olivia Hart.

Mark pressed his hand to the glass. "Olivia Hart " he whispered. "You can run.. I will find you."

He had no idea that she was already making plans to leave the city. She had money to buy a bus ticket. If she left she thought the pain would go away. If he could not find her she thought she could keep her heart safe.

Mark Sinclair never gave up on something he wanted to keep.

In an apartment on the other side of town Olivia was sitting on her bed with her hands on her stomach. She was not sure what was happening.. Her body felt different. It felt tired and sensitive and scared.

She said loudly to the empty room "I am sorry baby. I do not know what to do."

She did not know that Mark was already looking for her. She did not know that he would search the city to find her.

The contract still had three months to go.

It seemed that fate had other plans for Olivia and Mark Sinclair.