I'm In Love With My Bestfriend's Billionaire Fiance!
Chapter 103: Janet’s One Job!

Chapter 103: Janet’s One Job!

(Casey’s POV)

___________

The dial tone shrieked in my ear like a warning bell, each ring hammering into my nerves with increasing urgency. I stood there, frozen, breath held in anticipation as the line rang... and rang...

Then—nothing.

The call cut off. The tone went dead.

Silence.

Cold, hollow silence.

"What the hell?" I gasped, staring at my phone as if it had betrayed me. My voice came out sharper than I intended, edged with panic. "Why isn’t she picking up?"

Liam raised his brows and leaned on the side of my desk, trying to keep things light. "Maybe she’s just... busy?" he offered with a shrug, his tone casual, but I caught the flicker of concern in his eyes. He was beginning to catch on that things were seriously wrong at the moment. It was about time.

"Busy?" I echoed bitterly, almost laughing. My jaw clenched, my fingers curling around the edge of the desk like I might rip it off. "Busy doing what, Liam? She works for Kira. Exclusively, I must add! That’s part of the contract she signed—hell, I helped draft it. Kira pays her more than generously. Janet doesn’t have the luxury of being too busy to answer her fucking phone. Not when this—" I lifted my phone, shaking it, "— not when this might be the only goddamn link we have to Kira right now."

Liam flinched at the venom in my tone, but I wasn’t finished.

"She had better be in Paragon Park right now or I swear I’m gonna make her regret not having her phone on her person every fucking hour of every fucking day!" I growled, pacing now, phone still clutched in my hand like it might give me answers if I stared hard enough, "I don’t care what she’s doing. She needs to pick up. Now. Or today will be the last day she has a job to be busy with. I can make that happen, you hear me?!"

I was already dialing her number again, my thumb hovering over the call button again, when I felt it—a light pressure. Liam’s hand, gently pressing against mine.

"Hey," he said softly, his voice a stark contrast to my rising hysteria. "Maybe... just slow down a second. Maybe we’re moving a bit too fast at the moment, don’t you think?"

I closed my eyes for a moment, unable to believe what I was hearing him say, "too fast? Are you fucking kidding me?"

I turned to look at him then. He didn’t flinch this time, but his eyes were etched with worry. Not just for me—he wasn’t that selfless—but for whatever storm he could feel brewing behind my words.

"This is starting to feel a little... off," he said carefully. "I mean, since you found out Kira’s unreachable, you’ve been... spiraling. I don’t know if that’s the right word. Not that I blame you—Kira’s important to you, I know that. But the way you’re reacting, it’s not like you. There’s no logic to any of it, just uncontrollable emotion. I’ve never seen you like this, and I don’t like it. Because if I’m being honest, it’s a bit scary seeing you this way. Should we maybe call the police?"

I recoiled as if he had uttered a taboo. "The police?" The very word felt wrong in my mouth. It was clumsy, premature and fucking dangerous. "And tell them what, exactly? That I have a gut feeling something’s wrong? That a housekeeper didn’t answer her phone, and my friend hasn’t checked in for a few hours? You think they’ll drop everything for that?"

Of course, those weren’t my only reasons. I couldn’t tell the cops about the blackmail because I was sure that the media would get wind of it and our attempts to keep everything under wraps would crash. Besides, so far, there was no sign that anything had happened to Kira; she had to be missing for more than 24 hours before I could report the matter to the police. Doing so before then would mean telling them about Maven. A full-scale police investigation was only going to worsen the matter, not make it better. That wasn’t the right move.

Liam opened his mouth to reply, but I didn’t let him. The air in the room had shifted—thicker now, like a storm was gathering between the walls. Liam didn’t know the full story, and it was going to remain that way. My way was what was best for everyone involved, and so it would stay.

"No," I said, pulling my hand from his. "There are better ways to handle this. Quieter ways. And that’s what I’m doing."

Liam’s face creased, his jaw tightening like he was biting back something he wanted to say. "I just think—"

"I need to be alone right now, Liam," I interrupted, more sharply than I meant to. The words cracked like a whip in the room, and for a moment, the only sound was the echo of my voice lingering in the heavy silence.

Liam studied me for a long time. Then, without another word, he nodded and turned to leave. The soft click of the door closing behind him sounded almost like an accusation.

As soon as I was alone, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. My heart was pounding. My chest felt too tight. The walls were too close. Every second that passed without an answer felt like a slow, deliberate squeeze around my ribs.

I stared at my phone again.

Why wouldn’t she answer?

The question repeated like a drumbeat. Rational explanations flickered at the edges of my thoughts—missed calls, dead battery, bad signal—but none of them stuck. None of them felt right.

Something was wrong. I could feel it in my bones.

This wasn’t just a missed call.

I sat down, bracing my elbows against the desk and running both hands through my hair. I couldn’t fall apart. Not now. I had to keep thinking. I had to stay one step ahead—because whatever this was, it wasn’t just going to resolve itself.

With trembling fingers, I opened my phone again. Hovered over Janet’s number.

And once more, I hit Call.

The ringing began again. Shrilly. Mocking.

And I waited, alone in a room that suddenly felt too still... too quiet...

As if the silence itself was listening. Watching.

Waiting.

The dial tone thrummed in my ear like a ticking clock, each ring sounding louder, more urgent, more alive than the last. My knuckles were bone white from how tightly I gripped the phone. My other hand hovered over the desk, fingers twitching with pent-up anxiety, nails digging into the wood like I was trying to anchor myself in something real—something stable—while the world around me cracked at the edges.

I couldn’t afford for the call to go without a response yet again.

Not this time.

Janet had to answer.

My entire body was taut with the kind of tension that coils before impact, before disaster. My lips moved silently, mouthing words I wasn’t even conscious of, prayers perhaps, or desperate pleas to the universe, to anyone listening.

Please pick up. Please, Janet. Please...

One ring.

Two.

Three.

Then—click.

A faint, static-laced beep.

My breath caught as I heard it—the line connecting. Someone had answered. The call had gone through!

I closed my eyes for a brief, fragile moment, and a shaky sigh escaped my lips. My shoulders slumped as though some invisible weight had been lifted. The tension didn’t vanish entirely—but it shifted, morphed into something more electric, more hopeful.

Maybe this was it. Maybe everything wasn’t spiraling out of control just yet.

"Hello?" came a voice—soft, uncertain, a little groggy with confusion. But familiar. Grounded.

Janet.

Her voice hadn’t changed. It still carried the same steady cadence I remembered from all those quiet conversations at Kira’s home—the calm behind the storm, the voice that floated in and out of the background like a caretaker ghost in a too-large house.

Relief nearly buckled my knees.

"Hi, Janet," I said quickly, my words tumbling out before my mind could frame them. "It’s Casey. Where are you right now?"

There was a pause. A rustle on the other end, like she had to switch the phone from one ear to the other. Her hesitation bled through the line.

"What?" she said, a puzzled note in her voice. "Casey? I... I don’t understand. How did you even get my number?"

The question stabbed at my already fragile calm, but I brushed past it.

"Janet, listen to me—how close are you to Paragon Park?"

"Paragon—? I don’t—" Her voice cracked. "Why are you asking me this? What’s going on?"

"There’s no time to explain," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "I need you to go there. Right now. I need you to check on something—something important."

Silence.

Janet didn’t speak, but I could hear the low hum of her breath through the phone. She was processing. Weighing her instinct to obey against the growing confusion clawing into her voice.

"What happened?" she finally asked, cautious now. "Is Kira alright?"

The question sent a cold ripple down my spine.

Is Kira alright?

I didn’t know. That was the problem. The terrifying, looming unknown that had been shadowing me since I first felt that tug of unease in my chest.

"I don’t know," I whispered, my voice tighter now. "That’s why I need you. I can’t find her. No one can. And you’re the only one who might be close enough to help me."

I could practically hear her pulse speeding up on the other end.

"What do you mean you can’t find her? I thought she was away—she told me not to come by this week."

I froze.

"She told you what?"

"She sent me a message—on Tuesday. Said she wouldn’t be home and that I should take the week off." Janet’s voice faltered, like the weight of her own words was only just beginning to dawn on her. "Said not to worry. I got the feeling that she had plans to spend it with someone."

I felt my heartbeat slow down as the words rattled in my head. Spending with someone?

"Do you know who this person is?"

"No, like I said, it was just a gut feeling. Besides you, Kira rarely had visitors when I was around."

"Fuck!" I groaned, slamming my fist into the desk.

Had Kira expected something like this to happen? Was that why she told Janet not to come back? The last time I went to Paragon Park, I remember asking about Janet, but Kira never told me all this. How long has all this been in motion? I was certain that none of these were a coincidence.

Something in the pit of my stomach curdled. A cold chill crawled down my neck, wrapping around my spine like a slow-moving poison.

"Okay, Janet," I said after a while. "I need you to do something for me. This is of utmost importance."

I sucked in a deep breath before I spoke again, and when I did, my voice was a bit more steady.

"How close are you to Paragon Park?"

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om