"I just ca to see if you’d heard from Katherine," Ava managed, forcing her voice to sound concerned.
Jas frowned, his worry clearly overriding his lingering anger toward Ava. "No, I haven’t heard a thing. I’ve called her office, her mother... I thought maybe you had heard sothing. You haven’t seen her, have you?" he asked, his eyes searching hers for any sign of her whereabouts, since their last fight she never contacted him since then.
Ava shook her head, maintaining her facade of concern. "No, Jas. I’ve been worried sick. She wouldn’t just vanish like this." Ava knew the silence was deeply troubling, but she couldn’t let Jas see the fear that she might be responsible.
Ava stepped fully inside the house, a sudden, desperate light in her eyes. Before Jas could question her further about Katherine, she abruptly reached behind her and locked the front door.
Jas turned, surprised by the finality of the sound. Before he could speak, Ava crossed the distance between them and kissed him unexpectedly, pressing her body against his bare chest.
Jas was montarily stunned, but he quickly realized he wasn’t returning the kiss. Ava, feeling his imdiate lack of response, grew more insistent. Her hand moved quickly down his torso, slipping toward his unbuckled trousers. "Stop it!" Jas yelled, his voice a strained mix of anger and self-loathing. He grabbed her wrist before she could touch him. "Let go of !"
Ava ignored the rejection and tried again, pressing kisses to his jaw, attempting to seduce him with manic intensity. "Don’t be shy, Jas. You want this," she murmured.
He shoved her away with a sudden, forceful push. "I don’t! Get away from !" He stumbled backward, putting distance between them, his hands raised in a gesture of defense. "I don’t want to hurt you, Ava!"
Ava stared at him, her face twisting in a snarl of baffled rage. "Why her, Jas? What do you see in Katherine that you can’t see in ?"
Jas’s eyes, despite their weariness, held a fierce, unshakeable conviction. "I love her!" he confessed, the words raw and powerful. "I love Katherine. I would do anything for her. I was a damn fool for believing the lies you told !"
Ava laughed, a sharp, bitter sound devoid of humor. "You are a fool, Jas! A fool for thinking Katherine was all perfect!" With that final, venomous shot, she grabbed her coat and stord out the door, leaving it to slam shut behind her.
Jas was left alone in the wreckage of his emotions. He was an absolute ss. The confrontation with Ava, combined with Katherine’s inexplicable disappearance, sent him into a spiral of self-hatred.
"A fool!" he roared, echoing Ava’s last word. With a yell of frustration, he swept his arm across a nearby table, sending books and a heavy ceramic vase crashing to the floor. He paced the room, destroying things at random. He was terribly tired, ntally and physically drained.
He loved Katherine, yet his toxic jealousy and blind trust in Ava’s manipulation had led him to accuse her of stupid things, things she would never do. Even after he cheated, he was still blinded by jealousy, focused only on Katherine’s perceived betrayal, not the depths of his own.
He ran a shaking hand through his hair, his breath hitching. I don’t know what to do, he thought, utterly defeated. He was trapped by his own actions, consud by guilt, and now, Katherine was gone.
Jas collapsed onto his chair, the remnants of his rage lying scattered around the room. He was defeated, yet utterly desperate. He knew he couldn’t face Katherine yet, but he couldn’t stand the silence. There was only one thing left to do.
He dragged himself to his large desk in his study, pulled out a piece of fine stationery, and began to write an extensive apology note. He poured out all his anguish, his love for her, his blind foolishness in believing Ava, and his profound regret for the nas he had called her. He sealed the note with a wax stamp, addressing it to her ho, and personally ensured it was submitted for imdiate delivery the following morning. Jas waited all the next day, pacing the floor near his mailbox, anticipating her reply. Evening ca, but there was no letter response.
"Why isn’t she responding?" he muttered, fear gripping him. Even if she was angry, Katherine was never one to ignore a letter entirely. He couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. He drove to her house. He found the windows dark and the door locked. She wasn’t ho, and the house felt unnervingly silent.
anwhile, at the publishing company, life was carrying on as usual, save for Katherine’s prolonged absence. Ava was at her desk, wearing a new, stylish gown that featured a low-cut back, perfect for the late sumr heat. Katherine, who had finally returned to work, walked past Ava’s desk, heading toward the editorial offices. As she passed, her eyes casually fell upon the exposed skin of Ava’s back. "What’s that?"
There, just below her left shoulder blade, Katherine noticed a distinctive mole. It was a small, black mark, slightly raised a familiar feature, Katherine froze.
A chilling mory flooded her mind the night she burst into Jas’s room, seeing the figure atop him, her face obscured by the long brown hair. In her fury, Katherine hadn’t focused on anything but the betrayal, but now, a terrifying detail clicked into place. She rembered catching a brief glimpse of that woman’s back as she scrambled away. The girl on top of him was Ava? she thought skeptically, the idea feeling both insane and horribly true. The realization hit her with the force of a physical blow, shattering the last fragnts of her trust and peace.
Jas’s anxiety over Katherine’s silence was a gnawing compulsion. He was frenzied to know why she hadn’t responded, convinced sothing was terribly wrong. Unable to wait any longer, he drove back to her house. He found the front door locked, just as before.
Driven by desperate suspicion, Jas reached into his pocket and pulled out a spare key that Katherine had given him months ago. His hands shook slightly as he unlocked the door and slipped inside, the familiar surroundings suddenly feeling alien and accusatory.
He went straight to her bedroom. He needed answers, and he knew Katherine, the diligent diarist, kept her secrets written down.
He began rifling through her drawers. Finally, he pulled open one of her larger closet drawers and found what he was looking for a thick pile of notebooks. The uppermost notebook bore a simple, stark title on its cover: "."
His heart pounding, Jas seized the pile and flipped open the top book, desperate to read the secrets held within. But before he could even process the first coherent sentence, a sound outside froze him to the spot the distinct horn of a car pulling into the driveway.
Panic flooded his system. He recognized the sound imdiately. He didn’t have ti to read, only ti to escape. He quickly shoved the notebooks back into the drawer, carefully closed the closet, and locked the front door behind him.
He was already halfway down the street before he dared to look back. The car had pulled up right to Katherine’s curb. Jas squinted through the distance, recognizing the familiar, deep blue color and the distinct lines of the vehicle. His stomach dropped. The car felt chillingly familiar, though he couldn’t imdiately place the owner. He drove away, vanishing without a trace, the image of those notebooks and the blue car burning into his mind.
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