Chapter 7

Callahan’s Point of View

“How many days has it been?”

My voice cut through the silence of the room. My eyes swept over the lights of the city, the sound of vehicles and people buzzing below me.

Two thousand thirty-seven days since Orana walked out of my office and disappeared as if she had never existed.

At first, I hadn’t thought much of it. She had always been emotional. too soft and dramatic sometimes when she doesn’t get her way. I figured she would cool off and come crawling back like she always did; she loved me too much to just walk away.

I also knew she had nowhere else to go. Her father would never take her back. Too much depended on this marriage for him to take her back.

And she had no friends.

I had even called her father days after she sent the divorce papers and left without a word. “Where is she?” I had asked, my tone clipped, already irritated by the inconvenience.

But he didn’t even know. I tried her sister, who was her only friend, and she couldn’t tell me either. I tried to force it out of her, but eventually I accepted that she didn’t know.

A week passed and then another. She didn’t come back to me. She loved me too much to just leave like that. Even if I asked for the divorce, I knew he would fight for me.

A month went by, and still nothing.

No calls. No messages. I had hoped she would come back like she always did, but it was as if she had vanished off the face of the earth.

I had my men search for her, hired the best. The ones who never failed me. “Find her,” I had ordered coldly, but even they came back empty-handed.

It didn’t make sense.

I checked every place she could go. Every property tied to her name, every contact, every connection. I even had people look through the morgues to check if anything might have happened to her, but still, nothing.

 How could someone with no connections and money disappear like that? It wasn’t making any sense.

I didn’t know whether she was alive or dead, and what I hated most was that I didn’t know which one I preferred.

I adjusted the cufflink on my wrist, my jaw tightening as my reflection stared back at me in the mirror, trying to fix it.

This shouldn’t have bothered me.

She was nothing more than an obligation. A responsibility I had taken on and tolerated for far too long.

And yet my hand paused as I reached for my tie.

For a moment, I saw her. Standing in front of me, her fingers clumsy but careful as she tried to fix it. She always got it wrong the first time, frowning slightly before trying again as it mattered.

Like I mattered.

My expression darkened instantly. “Fuck.”

The tie slipped from my fingers, and I tossed it onto the dresser with irritation, staring at my reflection.

I didn’t need her for something as simple as that.

I didn’t need her at all. She could be dead for all I care.

My gaze hardened, something cold settling in my chest. I took a deep breath, staring at the mirror again, and she would know what to do with my tie.

A humorless scoff left my lips as I grabbed another tie, but I couldn’t put it on. All of them reminded me of her.

“I like this tie on you, Cal,” She would softly say every time I put on my silk striped navy-blue tie.

And I would be an asshole about it. “I know” would always be my response, and she would smile too brightly, a blush to her cheeks.

I used to find it annoying, but now. Fuck!

“Run as far as you want, Orana,” I muttered under my breath, my voice low and dangerous. “The day I find you, you’ll pay for it.”

I didn’t chase things, especially women.

People came to me, but if she thought she could take what was mine and disappear, she had just made the biggest mistake of her life.

By the time I arrived at the office, the people in the building straightened the moment I stepped inside, conversations dying. Heads lowered. Eyes avoided mine, and most were scurrying away.

That was how it should be. Fear was good. It kept people efficient and productive. It’s how we have managed to build an empire like this one.

I walked through the floor without sparing anyone a glance, my presence alone enough to send a clear message: don’t speak unless spoken to, don’t exist unless necessary.

“Callahan!”

The voice grated against my nerves before I even turned.

Fuck. Not so early.

She hurried toward me, heels clicking too fast against the floor, her expression already pinched with displeasure.

I stepped into the elevator, and she joined me.

“Finally,” she huffed, crossing her arms as soon as she reached me. She looked at my tie, then frowned.

“Let me fix that for you,” She offered, trying to touch me, but I lifted my hand to stop her. I didn’t want her touching me.

 She wasn’t her. She wasn’t Orana.

“What is it, Marissa? Right now, it's not the time,” I say, putting some distance between us as I look ahead, watching the numbers increase on the elevator screen.

“Do you even realize how long it’s been since we spent any time together?” she asked.

Immediately the door opened, I was out, and I didn’t stop walking.

“I’m busy.”

“That’s all you ever say!” she whined, quickening her pace to keep up with me. “You’re always busy, Callahan. Work, meetings, calls. It’s like I don’t even exist to you anymore.”

I shot her a cold glance, my patience already thin. “Then stop acting like you need constant attention. You’re not a child.”

She blinked, clearly taken aback by what I just said. I never snapped at her or called her out on her nagging, but today was not the fucking day for her whining.

“What?”

“I don’t like clingy women,” I said flatly, not bothering to soften the words. “And I definitely don’t tolerate demanding ones.”

Her face fell, her eyes drifting over me as her lips trembled. “I’m not being clingy,” she argued weakly, though her voice cracked. “I just miss you. Is that so wrong?”

I exhaled sharply, closing my eyes briefly.

She was exhausting.

“You’re overreacting,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “I have more important things to deal with than this.”

Her eyes shimmered, lips trembling as she stared at me hard. I thought she might start crying right there in the hallway.

“Callahan…” Her voice softened, almost pleading now. “You’ve been so distant lately. Ever since she…”

“Enough.”

The word came out colder than I intended, cutting her off.

Silence stretched between us as I sighed heavily. Fuck, I hated clingy women. That’s what I liked about Orana. She was never clingy. She knew when to keep her distance and when she had to get closer.

She was fucking perfect, and I ruined it.

She swallowed hard, blinking rapidly as she tried to hold back tears.

I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly. I didn’t have the patience for this, not today.

“I’m not having a good day,” I said finally, my tone slightly less harsh, though still distant. “That’s all.”

It wasn’t an apology. Not really.

But it was enough for her.

She nodded quickly, clinging to it like it meant something more. “Okay,” she whispered. “I understand.”

She paused, her eyes roaming around my face.

“Can we do it another day then? We can do something together.” Her voice was quiet and almost breaking as I sighed heavily.

 She was fucking relentless, I must give her that.

“Yes. At the end of the week.” I continued. “I have a meeting in twenty. Can we chat after that?”

“Sure. Let me ask Ella when she can fit me in with your schedule. I love you,” She reached in, planting a kiss on my cheek, and my entire body recoiled. Which was strange in its own.

There was a time I craved her touch more than anything, and now. I just couldn’t stand it.

I turned, and as I stepped into my office, Ella was already giving me updates about my day.

 My phone chimed, and I picked it up without hesitation, my expression sharpening as I read the message. I was always waiting for when they would let me know they found her, but that wasn’t the news I got.

A slow, calculating smirk tugged at my lips as I set my phone down. “And here I thought today would be uneventful,” I murmured.

My gaze darkened slightly as I adjusted my cuffs again out of habit.

“Vaughn Carson is in town,” I said to Ella. She quickly pulled up the calendar from her tablet.

“He’ll be at the charity event tonight,” she advised

“Good.” My voice was calm. “Prepare everything. I want to be in that room when he's talking to the mayor.”

If Vaugh Carson was in the country, then this wasn’t just business, especially with our new collaboration. He might be planning how to fuck me over, and I won’t sit here watching him do it.