"You scared me to death, but I'm wasting my breath
'Cause you only listen to your fucking friends."
- Excerpt from Happier Than Ever by Billie Eillish
LORENZO ANTONOV
I've looked everywhere.
Absolutely everywhere for this woman.
I can't fucking find her.
I looked in the entirety of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon. I'm now entering Washington.
Specifically Seattle since that's where her sister resides but I haven't found anything...
I put an order in to track down Chloe's car and I end up finding it in Seattle, which makes sense, but I can't find any signs of Brielle.
I've sent my own people to find her but they're turning up blank as well. It's very upsetting...
I'm stressed out... so fucking badly stressed out...
Mama is on my ass, completely pissed, that I ditched the wedding but I frankly don't care. I didn't tell that to her face before, you know, bad things happen but I'm more focused on finding Brielle.
I need her back, right fucking now.
The amount of money I've thrown at people to find her is insane.
I'm spending nearly 10K per day and right now I'm contemplating bringing in some of my allies to help me out.
Brielle is a human. Humans can't just disappear out of thin air. She's somewhere and I'm going to find her.
The fact that I can't find her, with my own people, says something and I'm terrified that something bad has happened to her.
I still want to know why she left me.
I've done everything for her and then, out of nowhere, gets up and leaves?
I want a fucking explanation.
A good and proper one at that.
I'm going to find her because I'm very worried.
Brielle is probably lost and confused plus she's been seen, publicly, with me and, just like how our relationship started, someone might get a taste of her and never let her go.
I have too many enemies for my own good.
- транс -
I'm sitting in my office and then the phone rings.
It better not be Mama.
I take the handset and put it next to my ears.
"Hello?" I say.
"Is this Lorenzo Antonov?" the person on the other line asks.
"Yes, I am."
"So, this is Ryan Maxwell from The Silent Death," Ryan says.
He's from the group I hired. He better have some good news.
"So, we've been looking into the girl that you wanted us to find and I'm pretty sure we found her, based on the photo description you gave us."
I smile. See, it's all worth it.
"That's great," I say, "Where is she?"
"So we found her at this address..." he says and stays silent for a while before continuing, "12032 3rd Avenue NE, Seattle, Washington 98125."
I bite the inside of my cheek.
So she was at her sister's house. How could I not fucking know?
"It took a while because it was a rare chance to find her. She opened the door and she was throwing the trash out at night."
Well, no fucking wonder. She just hid inside the damn house the entire time.
Why was she hiding?
Is someone trying to find her?
"Thank you," I say, "you will be funded greatly."
I hang up and I run a hand through my hair. I don't have to pay anymore money to find her. She's so goddamn expensive.
I spent nearly $210,000 to find her.
Dariya walks in the room and scrunches her face up in confusion.
"Why the hell are you smiling so hard?" she asks. I laugh at her, trying to ignore her persistence in pissing me off.
"Dolly, I found her," I smile.
"Oh." She smiles with me and I begin going to my work. Now I'm going to be able to focus much better now.
Eventually I'll finally have Brielle back in my arms again where she really belongs.
- транс -
BRIELLE WILLIAMS
I'm sitting down eating a snack with Chloe and Ariana on the couch. I'm not fully relaxing until Lorenzo, who I know is going fucking insane based on Hannah's statement cools down.
I have sold all of my dresses, they're really high-quality and people, specifically Chloe's friends grabbed them quickly, and I made bank on them.
Right now I have about $550K and I actually have no idea what I want to do with it. I obviously want to share it with Anna and Chloe but with what?
I kept how much money I have from Lucas and the majority of it is in Chloe's bank account.
Until he cools down, I'm not making one for myself. He could use it to track me or something. I don't know. I just know he's still looking for me. I'm getting that eerie feeling that I'm being watched.
It resurfaced again.
The phone rings and Chloe picks it up, she says it's Hannah and gives the phone to me.
"Hello?" I ask.
"Hi, Brielle." On the other side of the phone, I hear a feminine sounding russian accent.
Dariya.
"I'm hanging up," I say about to put the phone on the cradle but I hear a shout from the other side of the phone.
"Lorenzo isn't with me. Please, this is urgent," Dariya rushes out, worried, staining her voice heavily.
It has to be urgent. Anna wouldn't have let her in otherwise so I should hear her out.
"Fine, what in the world do you want?"
"You need to leave Seattle."
"What?" I ask. What does she mean I need to leave Seattle?
How the hell does she know I'm in Seattle?
No-
"Yes, Brielle. Lorenzo found you and he's coming for you. He knows you're at your sister's house."
"That's not- That can't- I refuse to believe that," I stammer. My body begins to shake slightly out of fear and pure anxiety.
I manage to contain myself and then ask, "How?"
"He hired a gang from Seattle to find you... and by chance you walked outside and with the photo he gave them, they recognized it was you."
I almost drop the phone out of pure fear and my heart is thumping crazily out of my chest but I swallow it down and try to muster some words to come out.
"What should I do?"
"Fucking leave!" she shouts and there's silence between us before she begins speaking again, "Somewhere out of the country I'm pretty sure."
Why... I thought he wanted nothing to do with me. I should've planned this much better than abruptly leaving-
Lucas forced me to take out the trash that night because I wasn't doing anything. If that didn't happen, I would've been able to stay here just a little bit longer.
"Lorenzo has lost his fucking mind," Dariya explains, "He has always been obsessed with you for years but it was tame before but since he had a taste of you..."
"He's not going to let me go," I say, finishing her sentence.
"I mean it, Brielle, you should not try to speak to him nor explain why you left. You just need to leave. I'm afraid..." her voice breaks, "What might happen to you if he catches you."
That's the most terrifying sentence she has ever spoken.
Dariya, her own brother, an assassin along with him, who doesn't seem to ever be afraid of anything is telling me that she's afraid of what might happen to me if he catches me.
You don't understand how I feel right now...
"Thank you, Dariya," I say after a long minute of silence.
I'm going to need to pack, like right now, and get on a flight ASAP. I've looked earlier and there is no way I can travel outside the country without some form of passport, which is a documented thing in the government in which he could get hold-of-said information.
However, I'm desperate now and it's a chance I'm going to have to take.
That man will not stop if I don't.
I might have to do that. Hopefully he'll stop then.
"Dariya..." I say.
"Yeah?" she replies.
"I love you as a friend but knowing Lorenzo and his temptations you know-"
"You can't talk to me anymore," she finishes, "I know."
"Good-bye, Brielle," she says to me. It sounds like she was on the verge of crying and it makes me very sad because I barely see Dariya cry and she's about to do it right now.
"You were my only friend so I hope life goes great for you."
I open my mouth to say something but the phone hangs up and I place it down on the cradle and back away from it, my hand still shaking from the conversation I just had.
I walk back to the living room and say, "We need to go pack right now."
Chloe's face looks concerned and I completely forgot Ariana was here but she was so engorged in the Disney princess movie that she wasn't paying attention.
"Ariana, I'll be right back," Chloe says and she follows me upstairs to her room where I begin putting my clean clothes in a duffel bag.
I should wash the dirty clothes I have now so everything is clean.
Also my make-up bag and-
"We can't just leave like this," Chloe says.
I bite my lip and then continue shoving my clothes in my duffel bag, forcefully making space for this and soon I'm going to have to put the money-
"Explain Brielle! What happened?"
I swallow and turn to her, tears threatening to fall.
I'm panicking.
"Lorenzo found me."
"Huh?" Chloe asks.
I don't really elaborate, I don't think I'm in the right headspace to properly do so without scaring both myself and Chloe.
I continue frantically putting my make-up in my make-up bag and I'm trying not to cry.
Lorenzo found me.
Lorenzo is going insane.
The last time he hired men to find me was because I was kidnapped. I mean, I knew, I always knew, deep down, Lorenzo was obsessed with me but...
I stop dead in my tracks, my body not working with me and letting the make-up brush fall out of my hands.
Lorenzo has always been insane.
He's obsessed with me.
He doesn't love me...
He loves the thought of me.
- ECSTASY -