Chapter Five

Jason stared at the documents on his desk without reading a single word on them.

He was angry at himself. He had offered to help her and she had declined, walking out of his life as cleanly as if their three years together had meant nothing at all, and he could not understand why that bothered him as much as it did.

He reached for his coffee and took a sip and immediately set the cup down.

Something was wrong with it.

He pressed the intercom. "Daniel."

His assistant appeared at the door within seconds. "Sir?"

"What is this?" Jason pushed the cup forward. "This isn't my coffee."

Daniel looked uncomfortable. "Sir, it is the same coffee as always."

"It doesn't taste the same. Take it away and bring me what I actually drink."

Daniel hesitated, and Jason looked up sharply at the silence.

"Sir," he said carefully, "the coffee has always been prepared by Mrs. Morrison. She bought the beans herself and left them with me each week with instructions on how to prepare it." 

He paused. "She didn't leave the recipe when she left."

Jason said nothing for a moment.

"She prepared my coffee," he repeated.

"Every day, sir. She would bring it to me herself and ask me to take it up so you wouldn't know."

Jason sat back in his chair and said nothing. He picked up the cup again, looked at it, and set it back down.

"Is there any news on her whereabouts?" he asked, and his voice came out flatter than he intended.

Daniel shook his head. "Nothing yet, sir. It has been three days and her phone remains switched off. We have no trace of her current address."

"Then keep looking." He turned back to his desk. "I want to know where she is."

"There is one thing," Daniel added. "The last location we were able to confirm was a visit to HR Hospital three days ago."

Jason frowned. "The hospital?"

"Yes sir. The day she left."

Jason was quiet for a moment, turning that information over. Bella at a hospital. Bella who had been collapsing and pushing him away and refusing to see a doctor. A cold feeling settled at the back of his mind that he couldn't quite shake.

"Find out why she was there," he said. "Which department, which doctor. I want to know."

"Yes sir." Daniel stepped out to make the call.

The door opened again almost immediately and his secretary appeared. "Mr. Morrison, Ms. Natalie is here."

Jason exhaled slowly. "Send her in."

Natalie came through the door with a bright smile, crossed the room without pausing, and threw her arms around his neck. "I missed you," she said against his shoulder. "You've been so distant lately. It feels like you're a million miles away."

Jason put his hands on her arms and gently stepped back.

He looked at her. She was beautiful, she had always been beautiful, and she was looking at him now with wide soft eyes that were asking for something he wasn't sure he had to give.

Then he noticed the ring on her finger.

He went still.

It was a simple silver band with a small blue stone.

"Where did you get that?" he asked quietly.

Natalie glanced down and smiled easily. "This old thing? I've had it forever. You know how I love collecting little trinkets." She reached up and touched his face. "Stop frowning. You'll get wrinkles."

She laughed at her own joke and moved to perch on the edge of his desk, picking up his pen and spinning it between her fingers, reaching over to flip through a folder that had nothing to do with her, chattering about a restaurant she wanted to try and a friend who had called her that morning.

Jason watched her.

He thought about how Bella used to sit in this office sometimes, quietly, never touching anything that wasn't hers, bringing him coffee she had prepared herself and never once mentioning that she had done it. She never filled a room with noise. She never demanded that his attention stay on her. She was always just there, steady and unobtrusive, and he had barely noticed her because of it.

He noticed her absence considerably more.

"Jason." Natalie was looking at him with a small pout. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Drifting off somewhere." She slid off the desk and stood close to him. "I came all this way to see you."

Jason looked at her for a moment and then made a decision he had been putting off for no reason he could properly explain to himself.

"We should set a date," he said. "For the wedding. I've kept you waiting long enough."

Natalie's face lit up immediately. "Really?"

She smiled and leaned into him, and over her shoulder her smile shifted into something quieter and more satisfied, the smile of someone who had just watched the last piece fall into place exactly where she needed it.

She thought about the morning she had slipped into Bella's room while the house was quiet and found the small velvet box in the nightstand drawer. She had taken the ring without hesitation and closed the drawer and walked out and never looked back.

Bella could not have Jason. Bella could not have anything.

Behind them, Daniel reappeared quietly in the doorway with his phone in his hand. "Sir, I have the hospital on the line. The doctor who treated Mrs. Morrison is available to speak with you now."

Jason glanced over Natalie's shoulder at his assistant.

Then he looked at Natalie, who was saying something about flowers and venues, her eyes bright and her attention entirely on him.

He turned back to Daniel. "I'll take it later," he said. "I'm busy."

Daniel nodded and stepped back out.

Jason told himself it was the right decision. Bella was gone and she had chosen to go, and whatever she had been doing at that hospital was her own business now and nothing to do with him.