Page 210 of Carnal Games

No clanking of utensils in the kitchen.

Even though I moved her into my place, some of her belongings were still left in this apartment. I see none of it. Every single room is barren, like nobody ever lived here.

Only a faint strawberry scent lingers.

Perhaps she’s waiting at my place.

Yeah, it has to be it.

Rushing out back into the hall, I unlock my door and storm inside. I’m immediately enveloped by the soulless and ominous energy swirling in the air. The kind I know all too well. The one I’ve lived in for the past eighteen years.

I was finally becoming used to the absence of it.

“Rainbow?” I call out, hoping my mind is playing tricks on me.

She wouldn’t leave me.

“Iris!”

I shove open the guest room, stalk into the closet, and the empty shelves stare back at me. Her suitcase is gone. The bottomcolumn, where she kept her heels neatly arranged in a line, is vacant.

No!

My chest, where I have her name tattooed, burns as I blindly run to my bedroom. All her things are gone, like she never stepped foot in here. She’s taken everything except for her scent, which taunts me with every inhale.

What the hell happened tonight?

What did Nathan do?

Did he take her?

If he has, and against her will, no less, I will end his sorry excuse of a life.

I stumble out, pulling out my phone and dialing her number. It keeps on ringing before going straight to voicemail. I try a second time. She never picks up.

I want to run to her, but I have no idea where she is.

Furious, hollow, worried—I’m a mixed bag of emotions.

Had she not confessed her marriage is of convenience with Nathan, I would think she had chosen him over me and left. However, it’s not the case.

So, what could he have possibly said that made her disappear without a trace from my life? Our future?

She brings me back to life, then leaves me for dead?

With a roar, I hurl the phone across the room, and suddenly, a piece of paper on my bed catches my attention.

Knowing nothing good will come out of reading it, I slowly walk toward it and pick it up.

Seven words, and she stomps over my nonexistent heart.

I’m sorry.

I have to marry him.

I crush the paper in my hand.

Iris came into my life like a thief in the night.

She left like one too.