Disappearance of max and Nick

The next morning Ace is awoken from her alarm. Not giving  a shit she throws the alarm across the room. And turns herself back under the covers.

1pm in the afternoon Ace finally decides to roll out of bed. She prepares some avocado on toast with a glass of apple juice. She starts to scroll through Instagram and Facebook catching up on all the gossip then suddenly realised Max was gone. 

Why didn't he say goodbye to me or leave a note?  Where did he go? As questions kept popping into my head I felt nervous and overwhelmed. I quickly grab my coat and rush out the door. I didn't know what I was going to do. I just knew I had to go find max. As fear and regret settled into the bottom of my stomach I stood outside my work office. Half of me wanting to turn back and run as far away as possible the other half of me wondering if Max had came to my work to confront Mr Woods.

Entering the building I see Mrs Hutchinson on the phone painicking.

"Miss Pearce, thank goodness your here! Mr Woods hasn't turned up to work this morning and I've tried to get hold of him but his phone is switched off. Also I've sent him emails but had no response" Mrs Hutchinson spoken so fast, its very hard to understand what she had just said. She begins to stare at me, and waits for me to answer. But the truth is I have no idea what to say back to her.  I didn't particularly care where Nick was to be honest all I cared about was Max.

"Did he leave a note or anything" I ask trying to process the situation.

"No, he's just vanished" she vents on but I tune out what she says and try to look for signs to see if Max had been here. I find nothing and the whole day just seems very odd. I was half expecting Nick to be here waiting for me to come back to him, where he could deal with me and get his way back at me for last night. I imagined last night he was probably up all night thinking and planning how he was going to torture me and make me suffer.  Looking through my phone I see no texts or notifications from Nick or from Max. When I try to find my messages all of text messages from Nick had been deleted. This was strange, I hadn't deleted the messages and somehow everything was gone.

I didn't even have Max's number, there was no way of contacting him.

Soon the police arrive and Mrs Hutchinson and I have to give statements.

As I sit in a empty room, giving my statement, I feel uneasy and try to keep my self calm.

"Miss Pearce, when did you last see Mr woods" cop 1 ask

"About 8pm yesterday at work before I left" I confirm, almost wanting to break down in tears. If only I could tell them what he did to me, maybe they would help me. Dont be silly Ace I will look more like a suspect, If I start blabbing the truth out. I have to remember and remind myself Nick is a millionaire, police are hardly going to believe a man like him would waste his time on a women like me.

"Did he mention anything to you about today, before you left?" Cop 2 ask.

"No, not a thing. We didn't have any meetings today and as far I knew, he was planning to come in today to finish the notes for a meeting we have next Friday." So I tell a little lie  as long as it seemed believable, I would be ok.

"What is the relationship like here at the office between you both" cop 1 ask scrolling his eyes at me.

"Professional like any other workers" I answer with a meanful glare.

"Right" replies cop 1, catching eye contact with me.

I was beginning to get nervous and it seemed like the whole room was closing in on me. I had never been in trouble with the police before and I never thought I would be.

"Would you say when you left here last night that Mr Woods was his normal self or did he seem abit off to you" cop 2 ask.

I sit in silence for a moment trying to think of an answer.

"Not that I can recall" I finally reply.

"Not that you can recall?" Cop 1 repeats  back to me with a doubtful look on his face.

"Are you integrating me or questioning me?" I respond angrily.

"Questioning you for now, miss Pearce" cop 1  says causally.

"For now, what's that suppose to mean" I shrink back into my seat.

"Its mean while we have no evidence or witnesses, for now we are just questioning you" cop 2 replies.

A part of me feels like curling up into a ball and hiding away in cave, but clearly that wasn't going to happen. I could tell these cops, knew I was holding back from them. But I couldn't exactly tell them the truth because they wouldn't believe me even if I did tell the truth.

Making my way home, I feel a ball of dread in the bottom of my stomach. All I want to do is scream and shout from the top of my lungs. I was so afraid and max was no where to been seen and now Nick suddenly gone with no explanation, the police suspecting that I'm involved with his disappearance. the whole day is just shit, I need to go home and find Max.

I arrive home shortly after 6pm, as I unlocked my door I could hear someone walking about in my living room.

"MAX" I yell, just as I open the door.

There he is, waiting for me. Thank god. My hearts begins to pound, my lungs feeling like their going to clasp from all the excitement.

"There you are" I cry happily reaching out for him to come to me. Then before I get a chance to take another step, his arms are tightly around me, he holds me in closer to his chest. I can feel the hair on his body touch my face through his thin black  t-shirt. As I look up to him, I can see pain and sorrow in his eyes. 

"What's wrong?" I ask trying to find out what happened to him last night.

"Last night when I saw your body Ace, it made me feel physically sick. It made me as man horrified to know, any human being could be capable of doing this to you. You didn't want to tell me what happened. I respect that, it was to fresh for you to talk about it.  But I wasn't just going to stand here and let it happen to you again, I sure as hell wouldn't  let him get away with it either."  He exasperated.

"Max? what did you do to Nick" I frantically cry with a concerned expression on my face.

"Unfortunately he is alive for now" Max responds with laughter, trying to make a joke out of the situation.  Oh god I gasp for air trying to remain calm as possible. I didn't want to know what max meant by what he just said, but in the back of my throat I could feel dread.

"Max, please don't do this. Take me to him." I begged.

"Why, would you ever want to see a monster like that again Ace! Don't you see what he has done you. Can't you see the damage he has done to your body " Max furiously shouts back at me.

"Of cause I know what he's done to me. But you don't understand, what you have done, the police think I'm a suspect of his disappearance"  I angrily yell back in defence.

"Max he is a millionaire and a highly successful business man, you can't just take him away and expect no one to notice or find him." I cry hysterically.

"Fine I will take you to him, but if he tries to  lay another hand on you. He won't have so much as finger left" mutters max with frustration.

"Okay" I say, before softly kissing max on his chest.