Chapter 13

Adrian’s POV

I couldn’t slept.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same thing — the studio, the chair pushed back too far, the light stand on the floor, the silence that didn’t feel normal. The more I thought about it, the worse it became.

Daniel arrived early in the morning, and the moment he saw me, he stopped walking.

“Adrian…” he said quietly. “You look like you haven’t slept at all.”

“I haven’t,” I replied. “Did you find someone?”

He nodded. “Yes. A private detective. He’s coming now.”

The detective arrived twenty minutes later.

He introduced himself simply and didn’t waste time asking unnecessary questions. He just listened carefully while I explained everything — when I last saw Ethan, how he went to the studio, how his phone stopped going through, and what I saw when I got there.

When I finished, he nodded once.

“Take me to the studio,” he said.

We went together.

The moment he stepped inside, he didn’t speak for a long time. His eyes moved slowly across the room, noticing things I hadn’t even seen properly because I was too panicked.

“The chair,” he said quietly. “It didn’t fall. It was pushed.”

My chest tightened.

He walked closer to the door and crouched slightly, touching the floor near the entrance.

“Two different shoe marks,” he said after a moment. “Heavy shoes. Not his.”

My hands clenched immediately. “So someone really took him.”

“Yes,” he replied calmly. “This wasn’t random. Someone waited until he was alone. That means they knew where he would be.”

“What do we do now?” I asked, my voice barely steady.

He stood up slowly. “We start with cameras. Streets, nearby shops, traffic lights. If he was taken from here, someone saw something even if they didn’t realize it.”

Hope and fear hit me at the same time.

“Can you find him?” I asked quietly.

He looked at me for a moment before answering.

“If he’s still in the city,” he said, “we will.”

I swallowed hard and looked around the studio again. Everything felt wrong without him there. The silence wasn’t peaceful anymore — it felt empty.

And the worst part was knowing one thing clearly, and that is wherever Ethan was right now, he was alone.

I didn’t leave the studio.

Daniel kept telling me we should go home and wait for the detective to call, but waiting felt impossible. Every second felt heavier than the last one, like time itself was working against me.

“What if he’s scared right now?” I said quietly, staring at the chair near the table. “What if he thinks I’m not looking for him?”

Daniel sighed softly but didn’t interrupt.

I walked to the desk and picked up Ethan’s camera. It was still warm, like he had used it not long before everything happened. My chest tightened painfully.

“I should’ve stayed with him,” I muttered. “I shouldn’t have left him alone.”

Daniel placed a hand on my shoulder. “You didn’t know this would happen. Don’t blame yourself right now. Just focus on finding him.”

Before I could answer, my phone rang.

Both of us froze.

It was the detective.

I answered immediately. “Did you find something?”

“Yes,” he said calmly. “A small shop across the street has a security camera facing the road. It caught a dark van stopping near the studio around the time you said he arrived.”

My heart started racing. “Did you see his face? Is he there?”

“I couldn’t see clearly,” he replied. “But two men got out. One stayed near the door while the other went inside. A few minutes later, they came out carrying someone.”

The world felt like it stopped.

“Ethan,” I whispered.

“We’re trying to trace the van now,” he continued. “Stay available. I’ll call again as soon as we get something.”

The call ended, but my hands were still shaking.

“They took him,” I said quietly. “They really took him.”

Daniel didn’t answer this time.

Because now we both knew it was real.

Ethan POV

I had stopped trying to untie the rope, not because I had given up but because I realized that the room wasn’t completely silent.

At first, I thought it was just my imagination, but after a while I heard it again. A faint sound from outside. Cars, not many, but enough to know we weren’t far from the city.

I lifted my head slowly and looked at the small window near the ceiling. The light coming through it was brighter now. Morning had definitely come.

That meant Adrian would have noticed by now.

He would have gone to the studio. He would have seen the mess. He would know something was wrong.

The thought made my chest tighten, but not in fear this time.

In hope.

I shifted slightly in the chair, ignoring the pain in my wrists, and listened more carefully.

A car passed outside. Then another one.

We weren’t hidden in the middle of nowhere, we were somewhere close to people and if that was true, then this wasn’t over yet.