Sachi was not reachable by phone, his calls were only getting routed to voicemail and she would not reply to any of his texts either. Upon reaching the hotel and giving the keys to his car to the valet, he practically ran towards the elevators. He was pressing the 'up' button like crazy that the woman beside him gave him a look which he ignored, after all, he had a feeling that his marriage was on the line this time around.
When he finally reached the restaurant on the forty-eighth floor, he hurried past two other guests.
"Dinner reservation for two. Mr. and Mrs. Sugimoto please?" he said to the receptionist in between breaths, because he was still catching up his breath from all that running.
"Your wife has already left, sir," the receptionist told him with a sorry look on her face.
He was about to bolt out of the door when the receptionist shouted after him.
"Mr. Sugimoto, she wanted us to give you this," the staff looked even more sorry for him as she handed him the note with the ring in it.
He opened it slowly and read the note which said:
"I want a divorce. – Sachi."
"No, no!" Ryo said in protest.
He looked at the paper and at his wife's wedding ring in disbelief. He immediately ran towards the elevator and pressed the going down button like a maniac.
Ryo drove like crazy but still within the speed limit on his way to their hotel.
"Dammit!" he would curse whenever he caught a red light. Upon parking his car in the basement he immediately went to their penthouse suite. Upon entering, he noticed that the lights were off never the less he ran towards Sachi's room and began banging on her bedroom door.
"Sachi? Sachi? Listen, I'm sorry," he said but when no one answered he gripped the doorknob and he was surprised to find out that it wasn't locked "I'm coming in," he announced but found out it was empty. There was no sign of Sachi or Kuma-chi. The next thing he checked was the closet, he sighed when he saw that all of her clothes and things were still in there.
He helplessly sat down on her bed to think and catch his breath. But, he did not waste any time resting, he knew she could only be at her parents. He hesitated whether he should go there at this hour, his watch said it was now 9:53 PM.
And then, he kicked himself for even hesitating. He should be groveling right now on his knees asking for his wife's forgiveness not having second thoughts about getting her back, after all, the thing that he most dreaded about is now coming into reality. She was going to leave him now. Now, of all times, when he finally realized that he loved her.
He drove over to his in-laws past 10:30 PM and was ready to beg and plead Sachi to come home but when he rang the doorbell and was admitted inside, his in-laws told him that Sachi was not there.
"Did something happen? Is everything okay?" Sachi's mother asked him.
'Dammit, I just made them worry needlessly,' Ryo cursed at himself.
"Everything's fine, it's just that," he hesitated. "We sort of got into a fight and when I went home tonight she wasn't there."
"Sachi ran away?!" Sachi's father, mother and even her brother all said in surprise.
Ryo grimaced and nodded his head lightly unable to look them straight in the eye. "I'm so sorry to worry you and for the intrusion. I am going to find and make it up to her no matter what."
"Fights are normal between couples," Iyoshi said with a hearty laugh.
"Still, it's so unlike her to run away," Ayumi said with a worried look on her face. "Did she try to contact you or anything?" she shifted her attention to her son.
"No, I don't know anything," Kinosuke answered with a shrug.
"I'm going to check my phone, just in case," Ayumi said and hurried back upstairs to get her phone in their bedroom.
"I'm sure she'll turn up. She's a smart girl, she's probably just staying at one of her friends or in one of our hotels trying to cool off. I'm sure she'll be back tomorrow. You'll see," Iyoshi said brushing all their worries aside.
'Actually, I'm not so sure about that,' was what Ryo wanted to say to his father-in-law. Instead, he gave Iyoshi a weak smile and a nod.
"We'll try to contact her, too. See how she's doing. Don't worry, son," Iyoshi said reassuringly to his son-in-law.
"No calls or texts from her," Ayumi reported as she came back downstairs with her cellphone in hand.
"Let's all just call it a night. You go home and rest. If we hear anything, we'll let you know," Iyoshi said.
And with that, Ryo went back to their suite. It did not seem like his in-laws were trying to hide their daughter from him. Still, he was so sure that she will find her there.
"I guess, I really don't know anything much about Sachi. And, I'm to blame for that. For not trying to get to know her and always shutting her out," Ryo wanted to smack his head on the wall.
He got a bottle of whiskey from his study and began drinking it. He went to his bedroom and sat on his bed and looked out of his window. He drunk a large gulp of whiskey from the bottle. Ryo took out the note and her wedding ring that Sachi left at the restaurant for him. He looked at the ring closely with a sad expression on his eyes. He drunk from the bottle of whiskey again, this time greedily and hungrily, as if trying to drown his sadness and longing. The bottle was half empty now, he leaned back on the bed and looked out of his window to the night sky as if he was searching for her somewhere out there.
He willed himself to remember their past. Like, how, during their first year of marriage, she would always greet him with a smile and 'good morning' after setting up the breakfast table for him in the morning. He also remembered all the lunchboxes that she zealously made for him but he didn't eat because he was angry and he hated her. He also remembered, how she would greet her with a smile the moment he came through the door from work, and how she would sweetly ask him if he has already eaten dinner. She also used to wait for him every night, and probably even waited for him even on the nights that he did not come home and did not tell her that he won't be coming home for the night.
Memories of lost time and opportunities that he let go and passed because he was so absorbed in his hate and too focused on his revenge that he failed to see that the most precious thing was right in front of him. She showed and gave him nothing but love in exchange for his hate. But, that's all over now.
He stood up and faced himself on the full-length mirror.
"No use crying over spilled milk, you asshole!" he shouted at himself on the mirror of his dresser and punched his reflection on it. His knuckles hurt upon impact, the mirror broke and blood started flowing out of the portion of his skin that was cut by the glass.
"Aaaah!" he grimaced from the pain and fell on his knees. He stood up and sat up on his bed, holding his injured hand close to his body. He rolled over to his side and there he saw Sachi, smiling at him.
"Sachi, just come back and I'll do anything, everything for you. Please, I'm begging you. I'm sorry for everything," and then he passed out.
Ryo was woken up by the sound of the alarm clock that he set up to ring every day at 6 AM. He was also greeted by the throbbing pain of his head and his right hand which was bloody, although the blood has already hardened. He saw that his full-length mirror was cracked right down the middle.
He looked at his phone again and dialed Sachi's number, however, it was still unreachable so he tossed his phone on the floor in anger.
He went to the bathroom, run the faucet on the bathtub with the heater on. He then opened the cupboard and looked for pain medication, he found one and swallowed two pills.
Upon closing the cupboard, he caught a glimpse of his reflection on the mirror. He saw huge eye bags, dark circles under his eyes, and a three-day stubble.
'Great, you look like hell, how are you going to get her back if you look like that?!' he fought the urge to punch his reflection again.
Upon arriving at work, he immediately instructed his secretary to call his wife.
"Please keep trying my wife and don't stop until you reach her," Ryo instructed his secretary. "Hurry!"
"Yes, sir," his secretary said indirectly meeting his gaze. "By the way, sir, Ms. Hanazawa has been discharged earlier this morning, her tests results all came back normal. She said to tell you that she apologizes that the hospital bothered you and to thank you, as well. She would have liked to personally thank you but she has an important errand to attend to today."
Ryo just nodded in response. "Now, call my wife. And, if you do get through to her, transfer the call to my line."
"Understood," Secretary Fujiwara said, teary eyed. 'I guess, this means I'm not yet fired?'
Upon entering his office the first thing he did was take out their wedding picture that he hides inside one of his drawers. He looked at it blankly and sadness enveloped him.
"Why have I been running away from you all this time?" he asked Sachi's picture. She was a smiling and a beautiful bride on the picture as opposed to his stern and stiff expression.
"What kind of jerk couldn't even smile on his wedding day?!" he shouted at himself in the picture.
His secretary who was outside trying to call Sachi's number on the phone heard him.
'Boss and his wife got into a fight because of me,' Secretary Fujiwara grimaced.
Ryo got out of his office. "Here, tell one of the staff to recopy this picture, print it and put it in a frame just like this one. Also, make another copy, a large one, the largest one that they can print, and have it framed as well," he instructed handing his and Sachi's wedding day picture to Secretary Fujiwara.
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir," his secretary said.
"And tell them not to lose it, otherwise you're all dead," Ryo added and shut his office door behind him.
***