Chapter 1: "First meeting"

03 May 2022, New York, USA.

01:22 AM

It was late at night in the spacious bedroom, above the double bed it could be barely seen two figures, one of a man and one of a woman.

The man completely covered by the darkness of the night slept deeply, next to him and caged in his arms stood out a woman like him also in a state of deep sleep.

The glow of the moon coming from a small slit between the curtains of white linen illuminated her face, making it possible to see the outlines and feautures of her face.

She had long and smooth brown hair scattered on the pillow almost forming a spider web, the face slightly round with the chin a little pointed, the eyes ajar did not allow to see the color of her eyes, the lips were slightly raised and of a color on the bright red, she was resting her head on the pillow allowing us to have only half of her face to be seen. She was in her mid-twenties

Meanwhile, the man was sleeping behind her, she was caged in his arms and was sleeping quietly until an annoying noise awoke him but not her, it was was the ringing of a phone. It was his phone.

The man was confused at first about what was going on, then sits on the mattress and answer the call, paung attention to not wake up the woman sleeping next to him, he answered with a whispering tone of voice.

"Hello?" replied the man, slightly annoyed at the caller, for being woken up in the middle of the night.

"Sorry to bother you at this hour, are you Mr Matthew Cox?" another man answered him, who, unlike him, had a very clear and solemn tone, it was clear that it was not a courtesy call.

"Yes, it's me, who am I talking to?" he asked, trying to get to the point.

"Good evening, Mr. Cox, I'm sorry to disturb you at work, I'm Eric Jones a detective of the New York City Police Department, of the Homicides and Missing Persons Department, "The detective stopped for a moment to catch his breath and continued," Are you Miss Elizabeth White's spouse?" asked the detective, thinking that Matthew was still at work.

Matthew remained a moment in silence, prey to his thoughts and answered in a very confused tone, "Yes, it's me, what happened to my wife?". It was clear that the woman next to him was not Elizabeth.

"You see... the police department received a report on the alleged disappearance of your wife, it reports that around 9:27 am on the morning of May 2 that Mrs. White did not show up for work and did not respond to several calls from her colleagues." After the Detective said the reason for the call, it was as if Matthew had finally cleared his mind of the multitude of questions and uncertainties.

"How are you certain that my wife isn't just out shopping or sick at home," Matthew did not believe that Elizabeth had disappeared and believed that it was one of her usual attempts to repair their relationship.

___

Him, Matthew Cox, 28-year-old and CEO of the Cox Enterprises.

Son of the magnate John Cox, founder of the renowned and famous COX companies and his only successor at the age of 23.

Her, Elizabeth White, 26-year-old, a nice kindergarten teacher, daughter of a worker and a housewife living in the city of Whitney south of Las Vegas.

Are you wondering how two different people became a couple and even got married?

Let's go back five years.

***

2 August 2017

08:02 AM

It all started that Monday morning, they were both heading into the classrooms of their respective courses, it was pretty cold, and all the students were dressed for the day.

Matthew was not an exception, he was also prepared like the others, he wore a pair of dark colored trousers signed Armani, a white sweater signed dolce&gabbana that accentuated the athletic build of which he was proud, a men's shoulder bag in black leather resting on the right side of the same brand and finally a pair of black sneakers signed Gucci.

An outfit that emanated wealth and attracted to him many looks, most of them were of desire and the rest of envy towards the lifestyle that Matthew led.

No wonder so many wanted to be in Matthew's shoes.

Matthew was in his third year of studies, and he was a young man of an almost divine beauty: his eyes were blue almost tending to green, his hair was short and dark brown were carefully styled and ordered on his head, a smile that made any woman fall victim to his charm, and a slightly tanned skin caused by the previous holiday in the Caribbean.

***

Matthew had almost arrived at his destination he was turning the corner when suddenly something or someone threw themselves in his arms, to follow a feeling of warmth at the stomach. They were not the famous butterflies in the stomach but the coffee contained in the plastic cup, which the culprit was using to warm her hands and body to escape that cold day. That feeling of slight warmth quickly turned into a burning sensation, alerting Matthew and causing him to grimace of pain.

"... What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Matthew asked the culprit assuming an expression of anger mixed with pain.

"I'm Sorry!... I didn't see you i was in a hurry, I didn't want to bump onto you!" She was embarrassed and very sorry that she accidentally spilled her coffee onto his shirt, so she tryed to help him by waving her book on his shirt hoping to relieve the burning feeling on his skin.

"Stop! Stop waving that book!" Instead of stopping she continued, Matthew having lost all his patience, took the book from her hands and hurled it away, clearly irritated by the fact that she was only wasting his time and that the situation did not improve.

"What!?... what are you doing!!? my book!" She immediately ran to the book, picked it up and cleaned it from the dirt, then turned to him and scolded him.

"Who do you think you are!? I was just trying to help you!" Seeing that Matthew didn't even want to apologize for his actions, she was getting ready to run away and to try to not being late for her first class of her first day of college.

But a hold on her arm stopped her, so she turned around to see who it was, but she still found herself in front of Matthew.

"Where do you think you're going?" Matthew asked with visible sarcasm in his words.

"I'm going to class, don't you see I'm already late!? Let me go!" She tried to tug her arm, trying to free herself from his grip, but nothing, it was like he had a steel grip, it didn't even move an inch.

"I don't think so! You ruined my sweater, look!" Matthew pointed out to her where the coffee had hit him, the beautiful white sweater now had a giant stain on the center of it.

"What more do you want? It was just an accident, now let go of me!" she tried again to struggle just to get the same result as before.

Matthew on the other hand was visibly irritated by her answer, he brought his free hand on his face and passed it on his beautiful combed hair messing them up in the process and giving him a sexier look, but if anyone were there, they would recognize that right now Matthew was very annoyed with the situation and that he was getting impatient with her answers.

Matthew on the other hand was so visibly irritated by her answer that he brought his free hand towards his combed hair and passed it trough them messing his hair in the process and giving him a sexier look, but if anyone were there, they would recognize that right now Matthew was very annoyed with the situation and that he was getting impatient with her answers.

Matthew on the other hand was so visibly irritated by her response that he took his free hand towards his hair and passed it through them messing up his hair in the process, giving him a sexier look, but if anyone was there, they would that Matthew was becoming annoyed by this situation and that he was getting impatient with her answers.

"Pay me for the sweater and I'll let you go," Matthew was just trying to wrap this up as fast as he could and then go to class because he was late, too.

She looked at him for a moment and nodded, Matthew loosened his grip on her arm and stretched out his hand, she rummaged a little in her purse and pulled out a small pink cat wallet, opened it, took six dollar and put them in his hand.

She looked at him in the eyes and said "Don't thank me, there is a laundromat nearby, keep the rest, see you around". Finished talking she turned around and runned to the classroom where it was being held her first lesson.

Matthew stood there and looked at the six dollars in his hand, and then he started giggling, not because he was amused by the situation, but because he was getting very angry at the girl's stupidity and naivety. Then he crumpled up the dollars and put the paper in his pocket. Later he went to the men's bathroom to try to clean his shirt, but nothing to do now the coffee stain had dried and would not go away. So he picked up the phone, called the driver's number, and had a sweater of the same color and brand brought in. He closed the call and headed for the university entrance. 10 minutes later, a black Cadillac was parked outside, a man in his 40s in a suit came out of the car and handed the sweater to Matthew.

Matthew took his shirt, greeted the driver, changed it in the university bathroom and went to class. It was the first time in three years that Matthew was late to class.