Monday morning arrived, and with it, the usual buzz of activity at the company. Alex walked into his office, his mind still drifting back to the weekend he had spent with Isabella. It had been perfect, a rare moment of peace in their chaotic lives. He hadn't felt that way in a long time, and it scared him how much he was beginning to need her.
But as the day unfolded, something unsettling began to creep into his thoughts. Isabella was nowhere to be found. At first, Alex assumed she was running late or perhaps had taken the morning off without informing him. He brushed it aside, not wanting to seem overbearing by calling her. But by midday, when she still hadn't arrived at work, he began to feel a growing unease gnawing at him.
"Has anyone seen Isabella?" he asked, calling his assistant.
The reply was a simple shake of the head. No one had heard from her all day, and she hadn't called in sick or requested any time off. His brow furrowed, worry starting to cloud his mind. It wasn't like Isabella to disappear without a word.
By the time evening rolled around, Alex's concern had morphed into full-blown panic. He tried calling her, but her phone went straight to voicemail every time. The hours ticked by, and as darkness settled over the city, Alex found himself pacing the length of his office, his heart pounding in his chest.
"Where the hell is she?" he muttered under his breath.
He had sent a few men from his security team to her apartment, but they came back with no leads. She wasn't at Ava's house either, and none of her friends had seen her.
The quiet that had filled their home over the weekend now felt suffocating. His mind raced through a hundred different possibilities, each more terrifying than the last. Was she in danger? Had someone taken her? Or had she… left?
Alex's hands clenched into fists at the thought. The idea that she might have walked away from him without a word filled him with a sharp, unfamiliar pain. It couldn't be true. After everything they'd shared, after the way she'd kissed him in the rain—she wouldn't just disappear, would she?
But the question lingered. He had always known Isabella was independent, strong-willed, and unpredictable in her own way. Maybe she had finally decided she'd had enough of him—of their life together, their complicated marriage.
Or maybe something much worse had happened.
The thought made his blood run cold. He grabbed his phone and dialed Victor, one of his most trusted men.
"I need you to find her," Alex ordered, his voice strained. "I don't care what it takes or how far you have to go. Isabella is missing, and I need her found. Now."
"Got it, boss," Victor replied without hesitation. "I'll gather the team and start searching right away."
Alex hung up and stared at the empty space where she should have been. He was a man used to control, to having power over every aspect of his life. But in this moment, he felt completely helpless.
The hours dragged on, and Alex didn't sleep. His mind kept replaying the last time he had seen her—happy, smiling, relaxed. He thought of all the moments they had shared in recent days, the way she had started to let her guard down with him, the way he had started to feel something he wasn't sure he was even capable of feeling.
Where are you, Isabella?
His phone buzzed late into the night. It was Victor.
"Boss, we've got something," Victor said. "A sighting near the outskirts of the city. I'm sending you the address now."
Without hesitation, Alex grabbed his coat and rushed out the door. The thought of Isabella in trouble—hurt, scared, or worse—was unbearable. He needed to find her, no matter the cost.
As he sped through the city streets, his heart pounded with fear and anger. Whoever had taken her would pay. He would tear apart the entire city if he had to.
But when Alex arrived at the location Victor had sent, his heart sank. It was a run-down building, seemingly abandoned. There were no signs of life, no trace of her. His team scoured the area, but they came up empty.
She wasn't there.
Alex stood in the middle of the empty street, his fists clenched, a storm of emotions raging inside him. He had never felt so lost, so powerless. Isabella was missing, and the thought of never seeing her again was more than he could bear.
"Keep searching," he ordered his men, his voice cold and deadly. "We don't stop until we find her."
As the night stretched on, Alex felt the weight of something he had been avoiding for so long: the realization that he had fallen in love with her. The idea that she might be gone from his life forever was a pain he had never expected to feel.
He needed her back. Not because she was his wife on paper or part of his world of control and power, but because she had become the one thing he couldn't live without.