LOGINThat night, long after the last of the guests had left for their rooms, Andrew and I returned to the presidential suite to find that the staff had decorated it in preparation for our stay. All the décor, right down to the bed sheets, had been switched out for matching red and gold pieces. The light
Andrew’s eyes met mine as I approached the altar. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. He looked so handsome in his classic black tuxedo that I could hardly wait for after the reception to be with him. As I took my place across from Andrew, I handed my bouquet to Lily. The priestess bega
One month later, I stood in a suite at a private beachside resort, admiring my wedding dress. It hugged my curves in all the right places while still gently brushing against the ground like a low-hanging cloud. Crystals glistened in the room’s fluorescent lights, and the train flowed behind me effor
“Let’s continue this in the bedroom,” I said, breathless. Andrew nodded his agreement. I pulled Andrew to his feet as he stuck the ring box back in his pocket. Then I dragged him back to the bedroom, leading him by the tie. Not that he needed to be dragged; he would have followed me anywhere by th
Andrew texted me and said his flight was delayed by a few errands he had to run, so I waited. And waited. I waited for an entire day, and even began to worry that Andrew had changed his mind. Then I heard a knock at my door. I leapt off the couch and rushed to answer it. Stopping just short of the
Noah left the next day. I took him to the airport, we exchanged a hug and a brief farewell, and then I watched him walk through the gate. That was the last time I ever saw him. With a heavy heart, I returned to an empty apartment. All our furniture and my belongings—what little I still had—were the
My blood ran cold. Bob. Of course, Bob had something to do with this. “Crystal, please tell me what’s going on,” Eliza said, her voice sounding desperate. “I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do.” I didn’t know what to tell her. There was only so much that I could tell anyone about the situa
A few days after Pete and Chuck were arrested, I was driving Andrew’s gold Aston Martin to the hospital. Andrew had already gotten his driver, Carl, to take him back to the city for an important meeting about rising tensions between pro-integration and anti-integration demonstrators early that morni
The Newton’s cradle on Andrew’s desk ticked back and forth. Its metallic clang echoed throughout his home office. Yet not even this hypnotic rhythm could calm Andrew’s buzzing mind as he waited for Mr. Smith to appear. Before Andrew lay the note from dinner the previous night, its red envelope d
A week passed without anything happening. I put everything back to the way it was, and I only found that one scarf to be missing. It was almost as if nothing had happened. The more time that went by, the more that Jeffrey insisted that I should talk to the police or to Andrew. I knew that he wan







