-HUNTER’S POV-
The gas station attendant’s face twisted with anger the moment he saw me approaching the counter again.
His weathered features bore the expression of a man who had already answered these questions and had no patience for repeating himself
“Look, buddy, I already told your investigator guy everything I know he hid before I could even open my mouth. “Lady with a kid, bought pas, seemed upset. That’s it.”
I pulled out the photograph anyway, my hands trembling slightly as I slid it across the scratched counter.
The image of Celine and Caesar smiled back at me…. picture taken just weeks ago in the mansion’s garden, when Caesar had insisted on showing me his “dinosaur dance” while Celineughed in the background.
Back when we were still a family.
“Please,” I said, my voice rougher than I nned. “Just look one more time. Anything you might <b>have </b>remembered since talking to my
investigator
The attendant….Mike, ording to his name tag…nced at his watch with obvious annoyance.
“Dude, I told your people everything. She paid cash, filled up some beat–up Honda, kid was crying about wanting to go home. What more do you want me to say?”
Home
The word hit me like a physical blow to the chest. Caesar had been crying to go home….to me, to the Reid mansion, to the only stable life he had ever known.
While I had been wallowing in my wounded pride and self–<b>pity</b>, my son had been begging his mother to bring him back to his father.
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to process the guilt that threatened to devastate me. “The kid…you said he was crying about going
home?”
“Yeah, poor little guy. Kept asking his mama when they could go back to daddy. She looked like she’d been crying too.” Mike’s face softened slightly.
“Look, man, I don’t know what kind of family drama you got going on, but that woman looked heartbroken.“”
Heartbroken.
Because of me. Because of the cruel words I had thrown at her, the cold dismissal, the way I had retreated into my shell instead of fighting for what we had.
My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it eagerly, hoping for news from Vincent
“Tell me you have something,” <b>I </b><b>said </b>without checking the caller ID.
“I do,” Vincent’s voice came through the speaker, tense with urgency. “Derek mentioned something about a bus station. to disappearpletely, public transportation would be their best bet.”
My blood ran cold<b>. </b>“Bus <b>station</b>? Vincent, what if they have already leh? What if they caught a bus and they’re already gone?”
were nning
“Hey, calm down…..”
“Damn it, Celine!” I mmed my fist against the gas station wall, ignoring the sharp pain that shot up my arm and Mike’s started expression
“Why didn’t you just talk to me? Why didn’t you give me a chance to exin?”
“Hunter, getting worked up won’t help anyone,” Vincent’s voice cut through my spiral. “You need to calm down and act like sine person not some desperate ex chasing his girlfriend.”
I <bughed</b>, the sound bitter and sharp. “Ex? Is that what I am?”
“You’re whatever you choose to be. But first, you have to find them. Head to the bus station….Derek is pulling more information as we speak.”
Before I could respond, Vincent’s tone softened.
“And Hunter? When you do find them, remember that they ran for a reason. You can’t just drag them back. You have to give them a reason to want toe home.”
The line went dead, leaving me staring at the darkening sky. The sun was setting, painting everything in shades of amber and regret.
Somewhere out there, Celine was probably putting Caesar to bed in some strange ce, maybe telling him bedtime stories about the life they had left behind.
“Just where the hell are you, Celine? I muttered, climbing back into Vincent’s Ferrari.
The bus station was a maze of chaos….families rushing with oversized luggage, announcements <b>crackling </b>through ancient speakers, the smell of diesel and hopelessness hanging thick in the air,
<b>I </b>pushed through the crowd toward the ticket counter, clutching Celine’s photo like a lifeline.
The ticket agent was a heavyset man with graying temples and the expression of someone who had dealt with too many emergencies in his
<b>Cicer</b><b>. </b>
He barely looked up as I approached.
“Excuse me,” I said, cutting in front of a woman with three screaming children. “I need to ask you about…..”
“Hey!” The woman shoved my shoulder hard. “There’s a line, asshole!”
“Ma’am, I apologize,” <b>I </b>said, turning to face the growing crowd of annoyed travelers. “This is a family emergency.”
The ticket agent sighed heavily. “Buddy, everyone thinks their trip is an
emergency, Back of the <b>line</b>.”
I pped <b>the </b>photo on the counter, desperation making my voice crack. “Please. Just look at this picture. Have you seen them?”
The agent nced at the photo with professional disinterest, the same bored expression he probably gave to hundreds of travelers every
day.
“I see hundreds of people <b>daily</b>, sir, Can’t possibly remember individual faces.”
“Please, just try,” I pressed, leaning across the counter. “The little boy would have had a stuffed dinosaur….green, abo is big-
“What’s going on over here?”
A woman’s voice cut through the noise.
I turned to see another ticket agent approaching…..younger, with kind eyes and an expression of real curiosity rather than irritated
Her coworker exined the situation with visible exasperation.
“Who are they to you?” she asked, taking the photo and studying it more carefully than her colleague had.
I hesitated for just a moment, then met her eyes directly. “They’re my family. My wife and my son.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them, but they felt more real than anything I’d said in days.
That’s what Celine was to me–what she should have been all along if I hadn’t been too scared and damaged to admit it
Not just the mother of my child, not just the woman I had been sleeping with.
My family.
The woman’s face softened immediately. “You’re lucky to <b>have </b>such a beautiful family,” she said, then turned to her colleague.
“Sarah, doesn’t this woman look familiar? Like thatdy yesterday with the crying boy?“”
My heart nearly stopped beating. “Yesterday?”
Sarah took the photo, squinting at it under the harsh fluorescent lights. After what felt like an eternity, her face lit up with recognition.
“Oh my God, yes! <b>That’s </b>her! The little boy had that green dinosaur toy….Rex, I think he called it. Wouldn’t stop crying about wanting to go home to daddy,”
“Rex,” I whispered.
Caesar’s beloved stuffed dinosaur, the <b>one </b>he had hugged during thunderstorms and carried everywhere he went.
Sarah handed the photo back with an understanding smile.
“Your little boy made quite a scene yesterday. Poor thing was so upset, kept asking his mama when they were going home, I had to give him some candy from my personal stash before he calmed down enough for her to buy the tickets.”
The image of Caesar crying, confused and scared, asking for the while I had been too soaked up in my drama…. it felt like someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart with an iron fist.
“She b
bought tickets?” I managed to ask.
“Two tickets for the 7:30 AM bus this morning,” the first woman confirmed,
“But I’m not sure if they actually made it on board. My shift endedst night and I just started again this evening.”
This morning. Hours ago. They could be in another state by now, or…..
“Did they board the bus?” The question came out barely above a whisper.
The woman shrugged apologetically. “I honestly don’t know. But…” She pointed toward the far end of the parki
sat inactive.
“That’s the bus they
y would have taken. It’s back from its morning route. You could ask the driver.”
where arge blue bus
Hope exploded in my chest….dangerous, desperate hope that <b>made </b>my hands shake as I headed toward the parking lot.
Chap 178
The bus driver was a middle aged men with wrinkled nuds and tired eyes, performing some kind of
ite booked up as approached, wanness creeping into his fare at whatever he saw on my fore
“Help you with something?”
neck on his vehicle. <fn0c26> Content originallyes from fινdnοvel</fn0c26>
I thrust the photo toward him, my heart hammering against my ribs. “These two people, did they board your bus this morning? The 7:30 departure
The driver took the photo, studying it with the careful attention of someone who had learned to be attentive about his passenge
He held it under the overhead light, squinting slightly
Aber what felt like an eternity, he shook his head. “Hope. Never saw these two ”
“Are you sure?” Desperation crept into my wolne. “Please, look again. The boy would have had a stuffed dinosaur, the woman might have
“Son, I’m certain,” he said, handing the photo back with genuine sympathy.
“This woman and kid never gut on my bus. I would have remembered the dinosaur toy–kids with special toys always stick in my memory
My phone rang before I could ask another question. Vincent’s name shed on the screen
“Tell me you have news,” I said, my voice hoarse with exhaustion and fear.
“do, and you’re going to want to sit down for this” Vincent’s tone was strange–urgent but also something else I couldn’t identity.
<b>“</b>Derek found them, Hunter. He traced them to a motel–the Sunset Lodge, about fifteen minutes from where you are.”
“What?” I was already sprinting toward the Ferrari. “Are they still there?”
“That’s the thing….Derek doesn’t think so<b>. </b>But Hunter, there’s something else. Something important.”
I mmed the car door, engine roaring to life. “What is it?”
“Emergency services were called to that motel this morning. An ambnce”
The world staggered sideways. Everything….the parking lot, the darkening sky, the distant sound of traffic–seemed to fade into white noise.
“What?” I whispered.
“I don’t have all the details yet, but Derek’s at the motel now getting more information, Hunter, if someone got hurt, if something happened to them while you were……
“I’m already on my way,” I <b>said</b>, cutting him off before he could finish that thought.
I couldn’t process the possibility that while thad been racing across state lines, Celine or Caesar might have been in some kind of medical
emergency.
Alone. Scared. Thinking I didn’t care enough toe for them,
“Derek will meet you there with whatever he’s found. But Hunter?”
“Yeah?”
“Whatever happened, whatever you find when you get there… Just remember that they left for a reason. You can’t <b>just </b>demand they back. You have to prove you deserve them,”
The line went dead as I peeled out of the bus station parking lot, tires screaming against asphalt
The Sunset Lodge was a straight shot down the main highway, but every red light felt like torture, every slow–moving car like <b>a </b>personal
insult.
An ambnce had been called.
Someone had been hurt.
And I hadn’t been there.
As I pulled into the motel’s cracked parking lot, <b>I </b>could see Derek’s ck SUV already parked near the office. My hands shook as I killed the engine, dread and desperate hope warring in my chest.
I was about to find out what had happened to the two most important people in my world.
And I wasn’t sure I was ready for the answer.
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