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“No. He left his phone behind and had the tracking chip removed.”
“What about his family? Have they heard from him?”
“His stepmother was the only one he ever kept in touch with, and since we get along like fire and gasoline, she’s not telling me anything.” Her voice grew thick, and she stopped to clear her throat before adding, “I’ve stopped trying to find him. When he’s ready—if he is ever ready—he’ll come back.”
“You’ve done all you can, sweetie. I cannot imagine why he’s being so bullheaded about this. It wasn’t even your secret. You happened upon the information.”
“I think that discovering that Hawke was alive and not telling him was just the last straw for him.”
“What do you mean?”
Her mouth twisted with emotion. “I never mentioned it because I hoped it would get better, but he’d been struggling for a few months.”
“Do you know why?”
“Some of it. We’d been trying to get pregnant, but we hadn’t had any success. We were scheduled to see a fertility specialist the week everyone found out about Hawke. We canceled the appointment, and when I asked him when he wanted to reschedule, he told me we should wait until we were sure.”
“Sure about what?”
“I don’t know. Sure about us, maybe.”
“That’s insane, Serena. You two were made for each other.”
“I used to think so, too. Now I’m not sure of anything.”
“I’m so sorry about this. Is there anything I can do? Maybe Gideon could find him and talk with him.”
“No. It’s going to have to be Sean making that decision on his own. If something like this can destroy us, then we weren’t very strong to begin with. Besides, it’s not like I was a royal princess of an exotic country and forgot to tell anyone.” The teasing twinkle in her eyes told Eve there were no hard feelings.
Throwing her arms around her friend, she gave her a grateful hug. “I’m sorry about that. It’s complicated. And there never seemed to be a good time to tell you guys that you should be curtsying to me.”
Serena sputtered out a laugh. “Can you see us doing that every time you came into an OZ meeting?”
“Yeah, that would’ve been awkward.” She gave her friend a teary-eyed smile. “Thanks for understanding.”
“That’s what friends do. Even when we keep things from each other, it’s not out of malice or with an intent to hurt.”
Hearing those words healed a fracture she’d still felt between her and Gideon. Their relationship might not be completely fixed, but Serena’s words helped her see beyond Gideon’s betrayal to his real intent.
She couldn’t help but compare hers and Gideon’s issues with Sean and Serena’s. The lies Gideon had told were much more involved, but she’d chosen to forgive him. Serena had simply withheld information that Hawke was still alive. There had to be more to Sean’s issues than just that. She just hoped he got his act together before he lost the best thing to ever happen to him.
* * *
Gideon poured Ash another cup of coffee and handed it over.
“So who’s your prime suspect?”
Ash knew him well enough to know that he’d already formed some preliminary assumptions.
“I haven’t said anything to Eve, because any of them being guilty is something that’s going to be hard for her to handle.”
“But…?”
“I’ve got my eye on her uncle.”
“Why’s that?”
“There’s just something about a man who stands quietly in the wings, doing his job, but never getting the credit. He’s the king’s brother, and if things were different, he’d be the king.”