Still nothing.
Audrey was across the city by then, sitting in the back seat of a car with her suitcase beside her and her wedding band resting inside her closed palm.
She had removed it only after leaving the building.
That small act hurt more than she expected.
The ring had begun as one of her own designs years earlier, before Starlight Jewelry became the business people knew now.
She had shaped every detail of it herself.
Zayn had loved the design so much that he asked her to create his band in the same style.
At the time, she thought that symmetry meant something permanent.
Now she slipped her ring into the velvet case holding her grandmother’s earrings.
Her phone vibrated again.
Zayn.
Audrey watched his name glow until the call ended.
Then Elise called.
Audrey answered that one.
“Where are you?” Elise asked immediately.
Audrey closed her eyes.
“I left him.”
There was a pause.
“What happened?”
Audrey had imagined saying the words aloud would break her.
Instead, her voice stayed strangely calm.
“Maya is seven months pregnant.”
Elise inhaled sharply.
“His secretary?”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Then Audrey added, “He told me it wasn’t his fault I couldn’t have children.”
This time Elise said nothing for several seconds.
When she finally spoke, her voice had changed.
“Come to me.”
Audrey looked through the window as Oceanside City moved past in streaks of morning light.
“I am.”
At the apartment, Zayn had begun calling everyone he thought might know where Audrey had gone.
He stopped himself before contacting his mother.
He could already imagine the questions.
Instead, he called Audrey again.
This time he left a voicemail.
“Audrey, I know you’re angry.
You have every right to be.
But divorce? Please.
We were upset last night.
I said something cruel.
I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
He paused.
Even to himself, the excuse sounded weak.
He continued anyway.
“I love you.
Come home and we’ll figure this out.”
The moment he ended the call, another name appeared on his screen.
Maya.
He stared at it before answering.
“Hello?”
“You sound terrible,” she said.
“Audrey left.”
Silence.
“What do you mean, left?”
