Page 13 of Ruined

DYLAN

When I come awake, the bed next to me is cold and the house is eerily quiet. I remember the dogs barking and rush out of the room. Looking out the window, I don’t see her small SUV parked outside.

“Son of a bitch,” I yell into the quiet, and the dogs scurry away from me.

I notice her cut and a note on the table. I storm over to them, upset that I finally pushed her away. Remembering what her professor said, I pick up the chair and chuck it across the room. It lands with a crack and slides into the back of the sofa.

I turn my attention to the table, taking in everything she left. Her cut, her phone, the necklace I gave her, a note, and another necklace with a red crystal heart and black rose wrapped around it. I’ve never seen her without it. She wore my necklace and that one all the time. Since the moment I put it on her, she didn’t take it off.

I pull out another chair and fall into it to read the letter she left for me.

Dylan,

Remember what I told you. Always remember that. I need to leave though.

I’m not whole, and the only way to be is to do this. I need some time to get used to us. Please take my cut to Riddler so she can take care of it and find someone else worthy to be their secretary. Also, the necklace with the rose goes back to Vixen. Tell her I love her and always will. It’s time for me to let go.

Love,

Minuet

Her words flow through me, and I’m so angry with myself. I did this. I pushed her too far.

I read the letter again, and again. The words at the top give me pause.Remember what I told you.

I rush to get dressed and head for the clubhouse. I’ll get Keys to look for her. Something tells me she’s not in a good place in her head.

An hour later, we are all standing around Scout’s office.

“What the fuck did you do to my daughter?” Vixen slams her hands into my chest.

“I told her I love her,” I confess as I drop my chin.

Keys walks in with her laptop. “She somehow disabled her GPS. The last location I have for her is on the Parks Highway down by Big Lake.”

“Anything else?” Riddler asks the group.

She refused to accept Minuet’s cut and said she would get her back.

“She was acting weird last night at dinner. I swear she started crying when she hugged me,” Vixen adds, and I nod.

“She cried several times last night after Vixen and Terry left. I thought it was because I told her I loved her, but then she said that she loved me too.”

“How long ago was that reading at Big Lake?” Riddler asks Keys, and I look over to her.

“It was about four hours ago. She got there at the crack of dawn, and that’s it.”

“How would she disable it?” I ask. This doesn’t sound like something Minuet would know how to do.

“Fuck. She’d have to have someone good at computers do it.” Keys confirms what I was thinking.

“So, it wasn’t you telling her you love her if she was upset before that. What was she doing yesterday?”

“She had the kids and went shopping, but she came home without any groceries,” I tell them.

“Son of a bitch. Can you bring Sky here, honey?” she asks Thad, and that’s when Titan walks into the room.

He’s got one of his laptops. Last month he scrubbed the footage of Minuet off the internet, but anyone could have seen it before that.

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