I'm In Love With My Bestfriend's Billionaire Fiance!
Chapter 102: The Unraveling Begins...

Chapter 102: The Unraveling Begins...

(Casey’s POV)

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My fingers twitched with urgency as I snatched the device up again, heart pounding, lungs tight like a vise was wrapped around my ribs. I’d been looking in all the wrong places—frantically tearing through paper trails, hoping for a miracle—when the answer had been in my digital fingertips the entire time.

Now that I thought about it, there was no way the number could have been written on any piece of paper, because Janet didn’t give me her phone number herself. I got it from Kira, and the only way she sent it to me was through our chats.

Letting out a deep breath, I rubbed my hands together, as if preparing for the action I was about to take. I then picked up my phone and hurriedly began to scroll through it. I opened the messaging app with a furious swipe. I went to our private chats and clicked the search icon. My thumb hovered just a second above the search bar, and then I typed in her name:

Janet.

The screen was filled at once with search results—hundreds of messages exchanged between Kira and me with mentions of her househelp, scrolling like a film reel of memories, some casual, others heavy with coded meanings I hadn’t noticed before. The name, Janet, blinked up at me over and over again. Mentions in passing. Fragments of plans. Background noise in the storm.

This was not news because I basically knew everything about Janet. I knew when she did things that Kira didn’t like, and she was contemplating firing her. I also knew when she impressed Kira, by a particular act she carried out months ago. So there were so many occasions that we talked about her, and it showed in the chats.

Yet, as I thumbed through it all, I found nothing substantial. Still nothing! The light of hope that had been lit up inside me began to die out. I didn’t think I could endure this failure. There had to be something there that I could use, something to give me a sense of direction so I could know what to do next. However, I wasn’t scared. I was certain that her number was buried somewhere in my chats. I just had to find it.

I skimmed each mention of the name, each hit of the keyword sending a spark of hope that fizzled as quickly as it came. There was no phone number. Just the same recurring name... Janet, Janet, Janet.

Until—

One message jumped out like a flare fired into a midnight sky.

It was mine. A text I had sent to her.

"I should have it ready by tomorrow morning, and it will be delivered to your home."

A perfectly mundane message. I remembered typing it like it was yesterday.

Then Kira’s reply followed:

"I won’t be home, though. Janet should be there at the time—she can accept the delivery on my behalf."

My breath caught in my throat. I scrolled again, and there it was—my response. The final piece to everything I was looking for.

"That’s good. Send her contact to Liam. He’d let her know when the delivery would happen so she’d be expecting it."

I froze.

A jolt ran through my spine like lightning through a metal rod. I felt it rise through my body and settle in the pit of my stomach—part thrill, part dread. My fingers curled around the phone with renewed desperation.

Of course.

Kira had never sent Janet’s number to me. She sent it to Liam

I nearly stumbled backward in my rush to move. For a moment, the edges of the office blurred. The dim desk lamp cast a long, thin shadow across the floor, warped and shivering like something out of a fever dream. But I was focused now. Sharper than I had been all day. I finally had it.

Now, the real unraveling could begin.

Without wasting a second, I jabbed Liam’s contact and pressed the call button. The phone barely had time to ring once before his voice came through, upbeat as ever.

"Hey—"

"Get to my office. Now. And bring your phone!" I snapped, my voice slicing clean through his greeting like a scalpel. I didn’t give him a chance to ask questions. I ended the call before he could say another word.

The moment the line went dead, I stood there, frozen in place, the blood in my veins pumping like war drums. My hands trembled slightly—not from fear this time, but from something else. Something sharper. Control. I was starting to feel like I had it again. Like I wasn’t just flailing around in the dark anymore. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I was on the verge of progress.

But yet, I couldn’t shake the fear that was coursing through my veins. What if Liam had deleted the number? What if he lost it somehow? What then was I going to do? With this development, all my hope was now on Liam, and if he didn’t have the number, then my chance of figuring out what the hell was going on would hit a major roadblock. There was no way I could allow for that to happen. Still, despite all my fears and misgivings, I had hope.

My eyes darted toward the door.

Come on, Liam...

Seconds passed like minutes, each one filled with the quiet hum of the desk lamp and the sharp ticking of the wall clock overhead. The silence in the room was thick enough to choke on, as though it knew something I didn’t. As though it was holding its breath with me.

Then—finally—the door swung open.

Liam stepped in, looking half-amused, half-alarmed. "Alright, alright, what’s with the 911 call?" he said, phone already in hand as he shut the door behind him.

I didn’t answer right away. I just stared at him, willing him to take me seriously. I had to let him see that I wasn’t in the mood for his usual jokes at the moment. There was too much at stake for casual banter.

"You remember Janet?" I asked, voice taut, each word measured and heavy with urgency. I kept my eyes on him as I spoke, pinning him in place. "Kira’s housekeeper. She helped us accept a delivery on Kira’s behalf once. You still have her contact, don’t you?"

He blinked, processing. His brows knitted together in thought before he slowly nodded. "Yeah... yeah, I remember. That was a while back, though."

My breath caught in relief. I closed my eyes for half a second and exhaled through my nose. "Do you still have her number?"

Liam gave a small shrug. "I should. Let me check." He began thumbing through his phone, his casual demeanor only slightly chipped by the speed of his fingers.

I watched him like a hawk. The room felt smaller now, the air heavier, as though we were on the verge of unlocking something we weren’t quite meant to. The light from his phone screen cast strange shadows on his face, carving out new lines that weren’t there before—stress, maybe, or something more. At the moment, I didn’t care.

He moved around the desk and stood beside me, screen extended.

"There," he said, pointing. "Janet. Got her."

And there it was—plain, simple, and ordinary. Janet’s phone number. A digital key to a locked door.

"Thank you," I breathed, my voice cracking slightly under the sudden weight of emotion. I grabbed my own phone and punched in the number as fast as my fingers would allow. "You’re the best."

Liam grinned. "Oh, I know. But seriously—what’s going on?"

But I wasn’t listening anymore. My attention was already tunneled into the screen as I hit "Call" and lifted the phone to my ear.

The first dial tone rang out—a hollow, echoing chime that bounced around my skull like a ghost’s whisper.

I bit down on my lip and began to pace the room.

Pick up. Come on, pick up.

Second ring.

I closed my eyes again, this time not in relief, but to keep the mounting anxiety from overtaking me. I forced myself to stay centered, to breathe evenly. To remember Kira’s voice. To remember the way she’d smiled even when she was worried. To remember that she trusted me.

Third ring.

What if Janet didn’t pick up? What if the number was old? What if something had already happened? The questions came in waves, each one darker and more crushing than the last. I couldn’t afford more delays. Not now. Not when I was this close to getting answers. Not when the shadows were getting bolder, creeping in from corners I’d never noticed before.

Fourth ring.

Still nothing.

I pressed the phone harder against my ear, as if that would somehow pull her through the other side. As if sheer willpower could force a connection.

Behind me, I heard Liam shifting, sensing the tension but unsure how to ease it. I didn’t have time to reassure him. My mind was locked on the line, every second stretching like a wire about to snap.

And as I listened to the dial tone, I let out a deep breath, forcing myself to be patient and to be clear-headed. That’s what Kira needed.

And all I needed was for Janet to pick up her damn phone!

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