Bella
“Thank you, Jeffery. I promise, this stays between us.”
“I trust you, dear. But, please be safe.”
I give Jeffery a smile before getting off the boat and practically running up the path to the castle. It feels good to be back, and I’m anxious to see if Cal is here. I’m just as nervous as I was the first time I arrived on this island, but this time, my nerves are for good reason. I’m ready to tell him I love him. That, really, I never stopped. Our futures have been carved in stone since before we even met and this is the way it’s meant to be. It was always him. It was always us.
Pulling open the door, I step inside the main entrance. “Cal,” I call out. My feet don’t stop moving as I go to the elevator. “Cal,” I try one more time, just in case he’s out back somewhere.
The elevator doors slide open and I step inside. It feels strange, but it also feels right.
With no hesitation, I go straight to Cal’s room with the key I stole from Peter. The door unlocks and I shove the door open. “Cal, are you here?” I scope out the entire room, the bathroom, even the closet. But it’s useless. He’s not here.
Just as I’m about to leave and go search the rest of the place, I turn back around and go to the closet.
I pull out the bottom drawer of the dresser and stand on it, pushing myself up until I’m kneeling on the top. Stretching as far as I can, I grab Cal’s memory box and jump down.
Carrying it over to his bed, I take the top off and sit down. That’s when I see it. My heart squeezes as I begin to sob.
It’s been here all along. If I’d only just looked.
I pull out the pink dress and it’s exactly as I remember it. Baby pink with ruffles on the seam. Lace embroidery that hangs around the collar.
Cal broke into the Beckhams’ house that night to steal this dress for me. He knew how much I loved it and he wanted me to have it for the meeting.
“Come on, Cal. You can’t tell me you don’t think she’s beautiful.”
He looks over at Lucy, who’s jumping rope in her driveway while we sit on the porch sucking on homemade Kool-Aid popsicles. “She’s not ugly but I wouldn’t say she’s beautiful.”
“I want a dress like that. Maybe then I’ll look pretty, too.” I look at Cal’s purple popsicle and my, almost gone, red one. “Trade?”
We switch popsicles, but I don’t stop looking at Lucy.
“Bella, she might not be ugly, but she’ll never be as pretty as you.”
I look over and smile at Cal. “You’re just being nice because you want your popsicle back.”
“If I wanted it back, I’d take it. I happen to like red better, anyways.”
Lucy stumbles a bit but gets back on track with her jumping. “Do you think they won’t choose me because I don’t have nice clothes like her?”
“No,” he laughs, “people don’t choose family because of their clothes. But, if it makes you feel better, I’ll ask Lucy if you can borrow a dress.”
“No!” I spit out, “that’s so embarrassing. She’ll know I’m poor.”
“Bella.” Cal levels with me. “We’re orphans who live in a group home. She knows we’re all poor.”
“Please don’t ask her. I’ll just wear the dress I always wear. Maybe I can sew the hole in the armpit.”
“I like that old dress better anyways. It’s unique.”
“Unique,” I chuckle, “more like an antique.”
Cal snatches back his popsicle and takes the last bite. “You know, maybe purple is better.”
Hugging the dress tightly to my chest, all my emotions spill onto it. My eyes swell from crying so hard, and my throat aches. I have to find him. I have to tell him thank you. He lost out on the life he wanted because he was trying to make me happy. Trent and Mark set him up and he took the fall. Then I left and he was sentenced to misery.
With the dress in hand, I leave the box and the room, searching high and low, but Cal’s nowhere to be found.
I go to the sixth floor to Peter’s room, and when he doesn’t answer, I use the key to go inside.
It’s at this moment the world stands still. My heart stops beating, the tears stop falling, and I hold my breath before screaming at the top of my lungs, “Nooooo!”
Still clutching the dress, I snap out of the state of shock I’m in and hurry over to Peter’s lifeless body lying in a puddle of blood on the floor.
Maybe it’s not too late. Maybe I can save him.
“Oh, Peter,” I choke out as I reach down and place my fingers on his cold wrist. It’s no use. He has no pulse.
Peter is dead.
I sit there next to him, crying for minutes before I finally get up to try and call for help, then it hits me. Someone did this. Peter didn’t die of natural causes. The puddle of blood is enough proof that he was murdered. Whoever did it could still be here.
He was such a good man with such a big heart. Who would do this to him?
Pulling open the drawer to his nightstand, I get out the diary and go to his page of passcodes, hoping like hell the password for the Wi-Fi is there. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one left here and making a call to the water transport company is the only way I’m getting off this island.
“Dammit!” I slam the diary shut and go to put it back but stop. Instead, I lay it on top of Peter. “You’re dancing with your Carolina now.” I smile through the tears, then hurry out of the room to try and find someone to help me.
An hour later, I’ve searched every part of the castle and no one is here. I’m completely alone.
Somehow I have to get off this island.
If anything happened to Cal…no, I can’t think like that. He’s somewhere safe. He has to be.
My only option is to walk the property and try to somehow find cell phone service. It’s a hopeless option because I tried for weeks to get service to no avail.
I go out back to the courtyard and hope washes over me when I hear someone talking. “Hello,” I call out, “Cal, is that you?” Keeping on the path I’m on, I follow the sound of the voice I heard.
“Byron?” I say his name in question. “Why are you still here?”
He ends a call on his phone and sticks it into his pocket. “Hi, Bella. I wasn’t expecting to see you.” He seems calm, which leads me to believe he has no idea that Peter is dead in his room. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I need to use your phone. Peter…Peter is in his room. He’s dead.”
Byron’s jaw drops. “What?”
“I said Peter is dead. Someone murdered him.”
Byron retrieves his phone from his pocket and begins tapping into it. “That’s ridiculous. I’m the only one here.”
He’s right. I’ve searched everywhere. Byron is the only person I’ve found. Paulina is gone, the guards are gone. Cal is gone.
But if he’s here and Peter is dead…
I backstep a few times until I bump into the glass table on the patio. It tips over and the sound of the metal hitting the cement startles me. I don’t take my eyes off Byron.
“Bella,” he says, closing the space between us, “I didn’t…you don’t think it was me?”
I steady myself and take a step back for every step he comes forward. “How long have you been here? Where’s Cal?”
His eyes widen and he suddenly wears a look of displeasure. “I just got here. I’ve been searching everywhere for Callum. He’s missing, Bella.”
My heart drops into my stomach. No. He can’t be. “What do you mean he’s missing?”
“No one has been able to reach him since yesterday morning when he left the island for a meeting. Peter got a call to send you away, so you were safe, but we’ve got no idea what’s going on.”
“Have you talked to the people he had a meeting with? Maybe he’s still there?”
Byron shakes his head no. “That’s the thing. We don’t know who he met up with. I came in on my private boat to see if maybe he came back. Bella, if someone killed Peter, that means we need to leave, like right now.” Byron wraps an arm around my shoulder and leads my hesitant body into the entrance of the castle.
I shake uncontrollably as we walk to the front doors. “We have to find him, Byron. What if—”
Byron’s phone buzzes in his pocket and he holds up a finger to me then pulls it out. I stop, listening intently as he takes the call.
“What? When? Where?” Byron looks at me as he speaks into the phone. “Shit.” He rubs his hand over his forehead. “All right, keep me updated.”
“We’ve gotta go.” He steers me quickly down the path to the dock.
“Who was that? What happened?”
Byron swallows hard and there’s a look of fear in his eyes. “They found a body. Apparently, it washed up at a public beach on Bradburn Isle.”
“No!” I gasp, slapping a hand to my chest, “please tell me it wasn’t him. Dammit, Byron. Tell me,” I choke out the words that are barely audible.
“They haven’t identified the body yet, which means you need to go home to your family where it’s safe, and I’ll call you if I hear anything.”
I haven’t stopped crying. Can’t catch my breath. I can’t even think as I ride in the back seat of my parents’ car. They picked me up at the ferry docks after Byron had his captain give me a ride. We exchanged numbers and he promised he’d keep me updated if he hears anything.
So far, I haven’t heard anything, but I haven’t stopped staring at my phone, waiting for it to ring. I’ve even searched the news for reports on the body found, but so far, it’s all hush-hush.
I refuse to believe it was Cal. He’s out there somewhere, and I will find him. I’ll do whatever it takes because, as Peter once said, the heart wants what the heart wants. And my heart wants him.
Together.
Forever.
Until kingdom come.
