I'm In Love With My Bestfriend's Billionaire Fiance!
Chapter 115: Are You There?

Chapter 115: Are You There?

(Casey’s POV)

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"You’re... there?" I echoed after a long, stunned pause. My voice came out brittle, hollow, almost as if I were speaking underwater—or to a ghost. It didn’t sound like me. It didn’t feel like me.

I blinked rapidly, struggling to orient myself to the moment. My fingers clenched tighter around the phone, as though I could tether myself to reality through sheer pressure alone.

I shook my head—uselessly, irrationally, because she couldn’t see me—trying to shake off the growing chill inching its way up my spine. "That’s... that’s good," I managed to say at last. I swallowed hard. "That’s really good. So, uh... what do you see?"

Janet didn’t answer immediately. On the other end of the line, I could hear the muffled rustle of movement. Fabric brushing against fabric. Metal softly clinking. Her hand, maybe, rummaging through her purse. The subtle sounds that mean nothing—until they suddenly mean everything.

"Hold on a minute," she murmured, her voice slightly muffled. Her breathing was steady, but I could detect a thread of nervous energy beneath it. She was moving slowly. Carefully.

She was stalling.

"She gave you a key, right? I know you have a key so that you can carry out your duties even when Kira isn’t home." I said, trying to stay calm even as the unease in my chest began to twist into something darker, sharper. "It should be in your purse."

"Yeah," Janet replied. "She did. It’s here somewhere... I just—give me a sec."

The rustling continued. It wasn’t frantic, but it wasn’t confident either. Not the kind of movement someone makes when they know exactly where something is. It was the sound of hesitation. Of doubt.

Of dread creeping in.

Was all this just in my head? Was I getting paranoid?

"You haven’t gotten in yet?" I pressed after nearly a minute passed with no real update. My anxiety clawed at my throat, turning my words sharper than I meant them to be.

"Well, no. I’m on the porch right now," she admitted. "I needed to call you first. You know... just in case."

That last part wasn’t lost on me.

"In case of what, Janet?" I asked, my tone flattening. "In case something’s wrong?"

There was a beat of silence. Then her voice came back, softer, but resolute. "In case something’s off. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s nothing onabout what I’m about to do. Can’t you see that?"

I sucked in a shaky breath and stood up from my chair again, pacing the room like it might bleed off the tension crawling through my muscles. "Yeah... you’re right. But, this is very important! So... how does it look? The house, I mean. Anything strange?"

I imagined her standing there on the porch, eyes scanning the quiet street, the still lawn, the windows that looked just a little too dark. A little too empty. I could almost hear her turning in place, taking it all in.

"Well..." she began slowly. "Her car’s gone. Not in the driveway. Not anywhere on the street either. So she’s not here."

"And?"

"And from the look of things..." Another pause. Another breath. "It seems like she’s been gone for a while."

The words hit like a punch to the gut.

"A while?" I repeated, my voice rising. "What the hell does that mean, Janet? Be fucking specific!"

"I mean—just a few hours, Casey." Her tone shifted, defensive now. "It’s not like I’m saying she’s missing, okay? I’m just saying the place feels like no one’s been around since morning, that’s all. Like it’s been left to sit. You know what I mean?"

I didn’t.

Because I couldn’t afford to take anything at face value anymore.

"No, Janet, I don’t know what you mean." I said, my voice brittle, my patience razor-thin. "You’re my fucking eyes over there, so please be as clear as you can. If she just went out, why the radio silence? Why hasn’t she answered a single text? Why hasn’t she returned any calls?"

"I don’t know..." Janet whispered. "Maybe she forgot her phone? See, I didn’t know things were this bad. Are you sure we shouldn’t involve the police?"

"Hell no! We need to be sure that something is wrong before we bring them into this mess." I retorted. That was a better answer than telling her the real reason.

Silence settled between us again, heavy and electric.

Finally, I said what neither of us wanted to. "You have to go in."

"Casey..."

"You have to. I know how this sounds, and I hate the way it feels, but something’s not right. Even you can feel it!" I glanced at the time again, feeling the panic crackle just beneath the surface. "She’s been unreachable for hours. You said her car’s gone, but we don’t even know if she left in it. What if she didn’t?"

Janet hesitated. "You really think something happened?"

"I think..." My voice faltered. I turned to face the window, watching the streetlights blur in the distance. "I think I’d rather break into a house for no reason than stand around while something happens to my best friend."

A breath. A long, slow inhale from the other end of the line.

"Okay," Janet said quietly. "I’m going in now."

The rattle of keys filtered through the speaker like bones jangling in the dark. My breath caught. A heartbeat later, the low metallic scrape of a key sliding into the lock sent a chill straight down my spine.

Then came the creak.

Long, slow. Drawn out.

The sound of a door reluctantly giving way to the unknown.

I stiffened. Goosebumps erupted across my arms. I could almost feel the cold air bleeding out from the crack of that house—like it had been holding its breath all this time, and now, it was exhaling something wrong.

Janet was silent for a beat, save for the quiet rustle of her movements. Then I heard her shoulder the door open, its hinges groaning softly as it yielded. I knew the layout of Kira’s house like the back of my hand, and I could clearly picture it as Janet opened the door wide. A moment later, a low thud echoed faintly through the line—the door swinging shut behind her.

Then came her voice, a low, unsure hum. "Hmm..."

I clutched the phone tighter, the plastic digging into my palm. "What is it?" My voice cracked, taut with barely restrained urgency. "What do you see?"

A pause. A shuffling sound, like her shoes brushing against carpet. Then, "Nothing."

Another pause.

"I’m in the living room now. Heading toward the bedroom."

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t trust myself to speak without my worry bleeding all over the words. So I listened. Every breath she took, every creak of the floorboards beneath her feet, every heartbeat of silence—I drank it in, analyzing it like it might hold the truth.

That’s when she said it.

"That’s odd..."

My stomach flipped. "What is it?" I whispered, gripping the phone so hard my fingers ached.

A moment of silence passed before she responded. Her voice was low, puzzled, and coated in something I couldn’t name yet. "Were you here yesterday?"

That stopped me cold.

"No." I frowned, glancing out the window like I might see the answer etched into the sky. "Why?"

"You sure?" she pressed.

"Yes, I’m sure. Janet... are there signs someone else was there?"

"Yeah," she said, hesitation crawling into her voice now. "It’s subtle, but it’s there. I’ve worked with Kira long enough—I know what belongs here. And some of the things I’m seeing... they just aren’t her style."

My mind spiraled, reaching for explanations, rationalizations, anything. "Shit..." I muttered. Kira must have had someone over last night, it had to be the guy she was seeing. The one that she was yet to tell me about. The guy that Maven was using as a tool to blackmail her.

Janet didn’t say anything else right away.

I tried to get her to speak. "Janet, do you think you can figure out who he is? Maybe find a wallet or some kind of ID? Anything?"

I could hear her footsteps slow. Then, a sharp inhale. "He?"

The word landed like a brick.

"Yeah," I said, confused by her tone. "Her boyfriend. You know, the mystery man she must have had over—why?"

Silence.

Then, almost cautiously: "Casey... It’s not a guy."

My heart stalled. "What?"

"You heard me," Janet said, a little firmer now, but still laced with disbelief. "It’s not a guy. Kira didn’t have a guy over last night. At least not from what I can see."

I stood there, rooted to the spot, lips parted, brain sluggishly trying to reboot. "How do you—what do you mean?"

"There are signs here," she said, her voice more animated now as she walked. "Things that don’t belong to her. A silk scarf. Red. Perfume in the air—it’s musky, feminine, floral, and not one Kira owns. There’s lipstick on a wine glass, and not the nude shades Kira wears either. Bright crimson."

She paused. "There’s also a pair of heels in the hallway—size seven. Too small to be hers. There are dresses in the wardrobe that don’t belong to Kira. Casey, a woman was here."

My heart pounded like a war drum. I turned in a slow circle in my office, the walls feeling suddenly too close.

I sat down, suddenly too dizzy to stand. My legs had stopped working, or maybe I just stopped trusting the floor.

A woman. Not a guy. Not some anonymous boyfriend I could pin my suspicions on.

This changed everything. Who was this mysterious friend that I knew nothing about? Was it really a guy that had been seen by Maven? Was it a woman after all? But then, what did all this mean? Was Kira into women?

My mind whirled with possibilities, none of them comforting. Why would she hide that? Why would she keep this secret?

And why had she vanished, completely unreachable, after that person had clearly been in her home?

I gripped the phone tighter. "Janet... do you see her phone? Kira’s, I mean."

"No," Janet said after a moment. "It’s not here."

I closed my eyes. The room tilted slightly.

In that moment, I realized just how wrong I had been. I thought that by entering her home, I would get more answers. Instead, I only raised more questions. I was in a worse place than when I sent Janet into the house.

I got to my feet and picked up my coat. I was going to Paragon Park.

I had to handle this myself!

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