Chapter 263

For the next several minutes, they talked about everything.

Adrian told her about a disastrous dinner he’d attended as a teenager, when he’d accidentally insulted a man who’d spent the entire evening trying to impress his father. Emilia demanded details. He refused to provide them until she correctly guessed what he’d said.

She guessed wrong four times.

He enjoyed every single one.

When he finally told her the truth, she nearly choked on her drink.

"You did not!"

"I did."

"Adrian!"

"He asked me whether I thought his company was innovative."

"And you said that?"

"I was seventeen."

"That doesn’t answer my question."

"It explains my judgment."

She shook her head, laughing. "I cannot take you anywhere."

"You brought me here."

"Clearly, I made a mistake."

He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. "Would you like to take me home then?"

The question was delivered with such perfect innocence that Emilia almost believed him.

She leaned forward. "Behave yourself."

His eyes gleamed. "Always."

She smiled at him, and Adrian watched her with an expression she didn’t entirely know what to do with.

There was so much affection in it that she had to look away. She wasn’t used to being loved so openly.

...

Halfway through dessert, Emilia’s phone lit up beside her plate. She glanced at it absently, expecting a notification from one of her apps.

Instead, she saw her mother’s name.

Mum ??

A smile appeared on her face before she’d even opened the message.

She tapped it.

Mum: Baby, I’ll be visiting Florida tomorrow. Don’t bother coming by as you drive to school. I’ll let you know when I’m settled.

Emilia read it twice. Then she smiled more broadly.

Adrian noticed. "What is it?"

"Mum."

His expression softened.

"Everything all right?"

"Yes. She’s going to Florida tomorrow."

She typed a quick reply, asking what time she was leaving and whether she had everything arranged. Then she paused.

She pressed the call button.

Adrian returned to his dessert while she held the phone to her ear.

The line rang twice, and then the call failed.

Emilia frowned at the screen. "That’s strange."

"What’s wrong?"

"She isn’t picking up."

"Maybe she’s busy."

"Never too busy to speak to me."

Emilia glanced at the message again.

Her mother had said she’d be visiting Florida tomorrow. It wasn’t an unusual thing to do, and her had never been particularly fond of long telephone conversations when she was preparing to travel.

Still, Emilia tried again.

This time, the call didn’t even connect.

She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it.

Her smile faded a little.

Adrian put down his spoon. "Sweetheart?"

"Her phone is unreachable."

"Could be a network issue."

"I know." She looked at him and managed a small smile. "It’s probably nothing. I’ll try again in a minute."

She typed another message.

Emilia: Mum, I just saw your text. Call me when you can, please. I tried calling twice.

She sent it and placed the phone beside her plate. Then she picked up her spoon.

Adrian watched her for a moment. "Do you want me to call her?"

Emilia shook her head. "No. She’ll call me back when she sees the messages."

"All right."

He didn’t push, and she appreciated that.

Her mother had always been independent. Selena didn’t need Emilia checking on her every hour, and she certainly didn’t need her daughter turning a missed call into a crisis.

Besides, they had a date.

Emilia didn’t want to spend the entire evening worrying about a phone that had probably lost its signal.

She lifted another spoonful of dessert.

Adrian looked at her plate. "You’ve barely touched that."

She glanced down. "I’m eating now."

She shook her head and took a bite.

The dessert was rich, sweet, and far better than she’d expected.

She told him so.

He nodded solemnly. "I’ll inform the chef that you’ve approved."

"Don’t you dare." She pointed her spoon at him. "You’re enjoying this too much."

"I enjoy most things that involve you."

The words were so simple that they caught her off guard.

She lowered her spoon.

Adrian’s expression softened when he saw her face. His smile turned tender. He reached across the table.

She placed her hand in his, and for a little while, she forgot about the unanswered calls.

Emilia wiped the corner of her mouth with her napkin.

Then Adrian’s phone vibrated.

He glanced at the screen. It was a message from one of his men.

The message read: We have a lead on Dante.

The warmth in his expression disappeared. He read the message again. Then another arrived.

Location: Mrs. Hayes’s apartment. He was there earlier. We tracked the signal, but it disappeared approximately one hour after he left. We’re working on the last known location now.

For several seconds, Adrian didn’t move.

He could hear the restaurant around him. The quiet conversation at the next table. The faint clink of cutlery. Emilia saying something about the café she wanted to take him to next week.

His gaze lifted to her.

She was smiling as she spoke, her eyes bright, with her fingers still resting in his.

He looked back at the screen.

Mrs. Hayes’s apartment.

Dante had been there. And his signal had gone dark an hour after he left.

Adrian’s jaw tightened.

He typed a brief response, asking for the precise time of Dante’s departure, whether anyone had confirmed that Mrs. Hayes was safe, and where the team was searching now.

The reply came almost immediately.

The message read" We haven’t been able to reach Mrs. Hayes. We’re checking the building and surrounding streets. No confirmation of her current location.

Adrian’s stomach turned.

He set the phone facedown on the table.

Across from him, Emilia had stopped talking. She was watching him. "What happened?" She asked, concerned.

He looked at her.

For a moment, he considered telling her that nothing was wrong.

He could have smiled, taken her hand, and bought himself another few minutes before the evening changed. He could have asked her to finish her water, called his men privately, and tried to determine what had happened before bringing her into it.

But he’d made a promise to her.

He would not make decisions about her life while keeping her outside the truth. And Mrs. Hayes wasn’t just another person connected to his investigation.

She was Emilia’s mother.

"I just received a message from one of my men," he said.

Her expression changed immediately. Emilia sat a little straighter.

"What is it?"

"They’ve got a lead on your father."

Shw swallowed, holding herself together. "Where?"

"Your mother’s apartment."

The colour drained from her face.

"They believe he was there earlier today. They tracked a signal connected to him, but it only appeared about an hour after he left."

Emilia stared at him. "My mother’s apartment?"

"Yes."

She reached for her phone.

Adrian watched her unlock it and open the messages she’d sent Selena. The two unanswered calls.

Her text asking her mother to pick up.

The message about Florida.

Emilia read them all again, her expression growing more unsettled with every second.

"She texted me," she whispered.

Adrian’s attention sharpened. "When?"

"Just before I started dessert."

She turned the phone towards him.

"She said she’d be visiting Florida tomorrow. She told me not to bother coming by when I drove to school."

He read the message.

She tried calling her mother again.

The line remained unreachable.

Her fingers tightened around the phone.

"Adrian, what if my Dad went there because of me? Maybe he wanted to just speak to me."

He reached across the table and took her hand. "We don’t know that yet."

"But why else would he be there?"

"We’ll find out."

"How?"

"By finding him."

The answer was firm, but he didn’t dress it up as a guarantee.

Emilia looked at their joined hands.

The date they’d been enjoying only minutes earlier seemed to belong to another evening, another version of their lives in which her mother was safe at home and Dante was a problem waiting to be solved somewhere else.

She swallowed. "I need to go to her."

Adrian glanced at the untouched water beside her plate, then at the phone in her hand. He wanted to tell her to breathe. To sit still, and to let him handle everything.

He wanted to protect her from the fear already spreading across her face. But he knew better than to confuse protection with making decisions for her.

He rose and came around the table.

Emilia stood as soon as he reached her.

He took her bag from the chair and placed it over his shoulder, then held out his hand.

She took it immediately.

"Have your men call me the moment they find something," she said.

"They will."

"I need my Mum." She sniffed, her nose reddening already.

"I’ll make sure you know."

She nodded, trying to gather herself.

Adrian reached up and brushed his thumb over her cheek. "Emilia."

She looked at him.

"We’re going to find out what happened. All right?"

Her eyes searched his.

He couldn’t promise her that Selena was safe. He couldn’t promise that Dante hadn’t done something terrible.

But he could promise that he wouldn’t let her face the uncertainty alone.

She nodded once. "All right."

He picked up his phone and sent one final message to his team, ordering them to prioritise Selena’s safety and contact local authorities if they couldn’t establish her whereabouts immediately.

Then he turned back to Emilia. "Come on, love."

She followed him towards the entrance, her hand locked around his.

At the door, she glanced back at the table.

Their glasses were still there. The candle was still burning. Her dessert plate was empty, just as Adrian had insisted it should be.

It was such a small, ordinary thing to notice.

An hour ago, she’d been laughing at him over roasted carrots. Now she couldn’t reach her mother.

Adrian opened the door and guided her outside.

The evening air brushed against her face, cool enough to make her realise how warm the restaurant had been.

He helped her into the car, then climbed in beside her. As the car pulled away, Emilia tried her mother one more time.