Chapter 9
“It was impossible… It was impossible!”
“Karissa was afraid of heights, she couldn’t have fallen from the top of the mountain, she would have been very careful.”
“You must have been deceiving me, definitely! Karissa must have been playing hide–and–seek with me!”
“She was angry, just because Thaven’t been spending enough time with her lately. She must be hiding somewhere, waiting for me to
find her.”
“Karissa, Karissa where are you? I came to find you…….‘
He felt dizzy, as it the whole world collapsed with Karissa’s departure.
Stanley burst out of the bedroom and proceeded to open and search through the nearby rooms one by one, before going crazy and
sprinting downstairs to continue his search.
However, her figure was nowhere to be found
Not only she, but also her clothes, shoes, bags, as well as water bottle, towel, toothbrush… all disappeared.
This room looked as if Karissa had never lived here before!
Stanley suddenly felt a wave of immense panic.
He was overwhelmed by an unprecedented fear.
Karissa told him in that letter that if he betrayed their relationship, he would disappear forever
Did her disappearance mean death?
Stanley lonew rationally that Rarissa couldn’t possibly still be at home, but emotionally he couldn’t accept this fact. “It’s impossible,
Karissa couldn’t have left me…
He wandered around the villa like a headless fly, and inexplicably ended up in the two places where she used to enjoy spending time.
The backyard flower bed was personally taken care of by Karissa, even the daisy growing at the edge was carefully nurtured by her.
During the summer, she would stand here with her camera for half a day, just to capture the moment when a butterfly landed.
Recently, it was the season when poses were in full bloom, but the person who took care of them meticulously was nowhere to be found Only the servants were dutifully watering and fertilizing them.
Stanley suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, and he could no longer appreciate the beautiful scenery in front of him.
He returned to the building, quickly ascended to the rooftop, hoping that Karissa was just angry with him, so she deliberately hid on the terrace and played a prank to scare him.
The terrace was empty, with no one around. Only they sat together on it, swaying on the swing that hung quietly on the frame.
Stanley longingly sat down on it..
He couldn’t remember when was the last time he sat here, but he vaguely recalled that Karissa was snuggled up in his arms, both of them looking up at the stars, chatting aimlessly, until they fell asleep leaning against each other.
This good lite was ultimately destroyed by him himself in the past, just for a trivial beauty and his ridiculous male chauvinism vanity
With a deep sense of guilt, Stanley picked up his phone and dialed Karissa’s number. After a long busy tone, an emotionless automated voice came on, saying, “Sorry, the user you are trying to reach is currently unavailable…”
He hung up and called again, but the result was still the same.
Karissa didn’t hang up his phone, but actually turned off her cellphone.
He tried to send a WhatsApp message to her, but the only response he received was an exclamation mark in the message box.
He was deleted and blocked, so he can’t send friend requests anymore,
finally managed to identify the number oftheir mutual friend,
There was no way, Stanley flipped through the long address book and fina
Kariss.L
They were classmates and were once very familiar with each other’s social circles
However, old friends are bound to drift apart eventually. After Stanley became Mr. Vargas, his business engagements became Increasingly busy, and he had not been in touch with some triends who were not in the business circle for a long time.
He mustered up the courage to dial Karissa’s best friend’s phone number and asked straight away, “Is Karissa with you right now?
The voice carried an obvious anxiety.
The friend asked in a displeased tone, “Karissa is your wife, shouldn’t you have called her directly if you needed something:
Stanley didn’t bother to explain the reason, but he asked again, “Did she mention any travel plans? Or did she behave usually during your recent patherings?”
“So, your knew that she would have abnormal moments,” a friend chuckled on the other end of the phone. “Mr. Vargas, let me advise
you, if you don’t want others to know, don’t do it yourself;”
Stanley’s mind exploded like a pot, and he heard himself tremblingly ask, “Karissa when did she find out? Please help me tell her t it was all just a fling, my heart only belongs to her…”
His friend interrupted him and said, “You know very well what ugly things you have done.”
The phone was hung up..
Stanley reluctantly redialed, but after a few rings, the busy tone was replaced by an automated message, indicating that the call had
been disconnected..
He had no choice but to desperately call other people for help, even if he only had their phone numbers and had only spoken a few words
to them.
Some people agreed, some people disagreed, but the result obtained was the same.
His heart sank to the bottom of the valley time and time again, and some of the questions people sent him left him speechless.
“Sorry, I didn’t know where Karissa went ”
“She hadn’t contacted me for a long time.”
“Your relationship used to be so good, did you have a fight?”
“Karissa has such a gentle temperament, it shouldn’t be like this. Did you make her angry? Listen to my advice, you should apologize to
her first…
Stanley admitted that he was wrong, but he couldn’t bring himself to confess the mistakes he had made. He mumbled a few words and then hung up the phone, saying, “Thank you, I understand.”
This was the last phone call he could think of to contact Karissa.
As time passed by, Stanley’s last glimmer of hope, which he held onto tightly, was shattered.
