Chapter 15
Zachary stood outside the apartment door, his finger hovering over the fingerprint scanner without pressing it. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous.
Just hours ago, he’d finally recognized his true feelings and decided to end things with Queenie for good so he could be with Yasmine. But now, standing before the door of a home that had once been filled with Yasmine’s presence, he felt an inexplicable sense of dread.
The door opened, but the entryway was pitch black. The light wasn’t on as usual, and there was no sign of the beige slippers Yasmine always wore. At that, Zachary’s heart sank.
He hurried inside and flicked on the lights, scanning the living room. The coffee table was bare of the financial magazines she loved to read, and the couch was missing the throw blanket she’d casually tossed there. Even the faint scent of jasmine that used to linger in the air had vanished.
“Yasmine?” he called out, his voice echoing strangely in the empty space.
There was no response.
Zachary rushed to the bedroom and threw open the door. The closet hung half–open, containing only his clothes. The vanity was completely bare, and even the perfume bottle she used daily was gone.
སོ ཇཙོ་བོཅུ =ཟོ ཛི F སོར ཚ ཕ རོ ཇ ཆེན དེ ཇི ཇི
His mind flashed back to yesterday’s image of Yasmine standing there with her suitcase. She looked at him with that cold, calm expression, completely indifferent to his leaving.
A wave of panic washed over him. Zachary pulled out his phone with trembling hands, pressed his lips together, and opened his chat with Yasmine.
After a long pause, he typed out a message. “Yasmine, where are you? I need to talk to you about something.”
The next second, he froze completely, his face draining of color. The message merely had one single gray tick. Yasmine had blocked him!
Sweat beaded on Zachary’s forehead, his chest heaving as he nearly dropped his phone. He shakily pulled up Anthony’s contact, about to call him, when his phone suddenly vibrated with incoming messages.
“My sister went abroad.
“What’s up, Zach?
“If it’s about business stuff, you can talk to me. She’s left me in charge of the domestic market now.”
Zachary’s finger froze on the screen, his blood seeming to turn to ice.
Abroad? When did Yasmine decide this? Why didn’t he know anything about it?
He immediately called Anthony. The moment the call connected, he couldn’t help but blurt out, “When did she leave? Which country did she go to?”
“Huh?” Anthony seemed startled by his tone and hesitated before answering, “She… got on the plane yesterday. Zach, what do you need my sister for anyway?” Zachary’s breathing hitched. Yesterday, she’d been preparing to go abroad when she’d been carrying her suitcase, not in preparation to go on a trip with him. And he had abandoned her without hesitation because of Queenie’s text, never even asking where she was going.
“S–She went abroad? Which country? Did she say when she’s coming back?”
After this barrage of questions, Anthony sensed something was amiss. “Zach, why are you asking all this?”
Anthony then chose his words carefully, his voice taking on a more serious tone. “Where my sister went shouldn’t concern you,
right?
“Shouldn’t you be focusing on sorting things out between Queenie and that secret girlfriend of yours? Why are you so desperate to find my sister?”
“I… your sister and I had discussed a business deal before, so I was surprised she suddenly went abroad…” Instinctively, Zachary covered up what had really happened between him and Yasmine, forcing himself to sound calmer. “I can’t reach her now, so I came to you.”
Anthony responded, “She said she wanted to expand into overseas markets and won’t be coming back anytime soon. And also…”
“What?” Hearing Anthony noticeably relax, Zachary pressed urgently.
“I think it’s pretty weird that she suddenly went abroad.” Anthony lowered his voice with gossip–filled amusement. “Before she left, she asked me for Xavier’s number and said something about how I’d have a brother–in–law soon.
“I suspect that whole expanding overseas markets thing is just an excuse. I think she really went abroad to go after Xavier.”
