Page 85 of Hidden Heir

I am completely and utterly satisfied.

Sleep is almost instant.

37

LEON

“Tiff? Sweetie? Where are you hiding?”

I took my eyes off her for two seconds, maybe a little longer. One minute, we’d been playing in my office—she’d demanded that we play hide and seek, something I was more than happy to do—the next, I’d knocked my coffee over. I was a little too eager to hide under the desk and bumped it, causing the coffee to spill. I had to quickly clean up the mess before the coffee soaked into any important electrical equipment.

I turned away from Tiffany for maybe a minute, no more than two, but when I turned back, she was nowhere to be seen. Assuming she’d started the game of hide and seek, I searched my office high and low but found no sign of her. With that came a new feeling of fear, different since I learned I was a parent.

“Tiffany?” I wrench open the office door and stumble out into the hallway. “Tiff, where did you go? Are you out here?”

I’ve never been one to panic. Even in the most dangerous situations I’m able to keep a level head and stay calm, but this feels different. It’s not the first time she’s run away from me while playing a game, but something about the suddennessof her absence is searing through me like a hot knife through butter.

I need to find her.

“Tiffany!” I start calling her name, but after a few minutes of running up and down the hallway, and checking all the adjacent rooms to no avail, I start yelling. My heart begins to pound, my palms grow clammy, and sweat trickles down my spine.

She couldn’t have left the house and yet the fact that I can’t find her—or hear her—is quickly becoming terrifying. I break into a run, sprinting through the kitchen, then the lounge, but she’s not in either place. Every staff member I run into is grabbed and questioned but no one has seen her, which only drives my panic to new heights. By the time I’ve searched the entire first floor, I can’t breathe. My heart is pounding furiously, my head is about to explode, and there’s an odd tremble in my limbs that I can’t control.

I rush back up the stairs, yelling myself hoarse until Rik comes flying out of one of the rooms and crashes into me.

“Leon!” he yells. “What the hell?”

“Tiffany!” I bark at him, my voice sounding strained and alien to my own ears. “We started playing hide and seek in my office. I looked away for a minute and now she’s vanished. Rik, I can’t find her, I can’t?—!”

I can’t breathe, either. My chest seizes up like a crushing weight has landed on it and breathing is suddenly impossible. I clutch at Rik as the world tips and I nearly hit the ground.

“Leon!” Rik grabs me by the shoulders, catching my fall. He coaxes me down to the floor and seats me up against the wall. “You’re having a panic attack.”

No. I don’t have panic attacks.

I don’t panic, period.

“Listen to me. Tiffany is fine. She came running to me asking me to help her hide, but Brooke had just asked me to find herbecause it was bath time, so I took her to her mom. I’d assumed you were aware. She’s in there.” He points to Tiffany’s ensuite, the room he came running out of. “She’s with Brooke. She’s fine, Leon. You haven’t lost her.”

His explanation makes complete sense yet at the same time makes no sense. “Rik, I ran up and down the hall yelling for her before checking downstairs. How can she be up here, completely fine?”

“She found Brooke and me downstairs in the kitchen. We headed up the back staircase. We must have just missed one another.”

I stare at Rik, dumbfounded, clutching at him with all my strength. It feels like I’m dying, like something is stomping all over my lungs. My heart feels like it’s going to beat right out of my chest, and my vision is blurred.

“Leon, fuck.” Rik looks away and yells something I can’t hear. It’s like I’m in a vacuum. He looks back at me, cupping my face. “Leon, I need you to breathe for me, okay? You need to take a deep breath. Breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth. Do that or you’re gonna pass out. I don’t think you want me giving you mouth-to-mouth.”

If he’s trying to make me laugh, I can’t. I blink and the next thing I see is his phone in his hand. He turns the screen toward me, Brooke’s face appearing via Facetime, her expression full of concern.

“Leon? Baby? It’s okay. Look, she’s here with me. She’s safe.” Brooke turns her phone and Tiffany’s beaming, rosy face fills the screen as she blows bubbles off her hands.

She’s fine.

Something unlocks in my chest and I’m able to drag in a shaky breath.

“That’s it,” Rik coaxes. “Let it out slowly. Take another breath, come on. In and out.”

I stare up at him as the pressure in my chest begins to subside and I’m able to take another breath. Then another. It takes a few minutes for me to be able to control my breathing but I do, and finally I’m able to speak again.

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