Page 121 of Always Knew It Was You

But none of that happens. Only the silent streets of the Upper East Side, and a woman walking her poodle across the street, greet me.

Panic floods my thoughts and I try to breathe through it. I can’t panic now. I need to think. Someone has taken Carly and I need to find out who and why.

And then I need to completely destroy them.

I grab the purse from the ground and immediately storm back home. The whole time, a single phrase rings in my head.

I knew it.

I knew something bad was going to happen, maybe not today but sometime this week, or this month. I didn’t know what it would be, but there was this feeling this entire week at the pit of my stomach that Carly and I were being watched.

But I ignored it. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid and letting all of Amelia’s stories get to my head. I thought maybe I was just seeing ghosts where they weren’t.

But now I know how fucking wrong I was.

I storm into my home, startling both my father and grandfather, who were sitting at the living room engaged in a heated discussion. I also startle Elvira who was about to pour them some tea.

I fix my gaze on my grandfather. “Did you do this?”

“Excuse me?” His eyebrows furrowed.

“Carly. Did you fucking take her?” My voice booms across the entire room and the tension trembles in its wake. The two men share a puzzled look before turning back to me.

“Why would I take her?” he says. “And where would I take her?”

He looks genuinely confused and maybe old Micah would have believed him outright. But not this Micah. This Micah has his mind whirling with suspicion and doubt and so much fear and anger is choking out every other emotion.

“You didn’t want her to marry me. So you had her kidnapped, is that it?”

“Micah… did you just accuse me of kidnapping your fiancée?”

“Grandpa, I swear to God if you did–”

“I did not.” He looks so incensed that his face is totally red as he regards my father. “Has he lost his mind? What on earth does he take me for, some kind of Mafia don or something?”

“Micah, calm down.” My father stands holding both hands up as though to ward off my emotions. “Just take a breath. I don’t think your grandfather did anything to Carly.”

I ignore my dad and continue staring at my grandfather, and he stares back at me just as indignantly. And finally, I have to accept that I don’t think my grandfather did anything either.

After all, this all began in Laketown. And something tells me it’s about that damn pearl again, which is the reason Amelia got kidnapped in the first place.

And here I thought it was overkill that Declan still has so many bodyguards around even though the case happened months ago. Now I know that I should have done the same. And because I didn’t, Carly’s missing.

I take a deep breath through my nose and run my hands over my head.

And then my eyes open wide with a realization.

“You still have security cameras that overlook the street, don’t you?’ My grandfather is nothing if not paranoid, and he had three hundred sixty cameras installed on the deck to circle all around the front of the block. It should catch the park too.

He still looks annoyed at my accusation but he nods. “Yes, we still have the cameras.”

“Where can I access the footage?”

“You know where it is, Micah. It’s in the security room down the hall.”

I don’t say another word and jog across the vast living room. At the end of the hall, I open the door and startle the guard sitting there, watching the cameras.

“Move,” I order, and he obeys without a word.

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