Page 13 of Sacrificing Zoriah

We go to the elevator, and Ben types around on his phone while we wait. I look at Zoriah’s contact and contemplate calling her again. “Don’t,” Ben says. “Let’s just go to her apartment. Call Corbin when we get into the car.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because her phone hasn’t been used since Friday morning. Call her brother,” Ben says.

“Oh no…” I say quietly. “Ben…”

“Rome,” he says. “I know you are in love with her, and you are worried, but we need to take baby steps. Don’t rush into thinking the worst-case scenario.”

“Fuck,” I sigh. “Okay. Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“We both know it’ll be faster if we handle it, but we can let them know something when we know what’s going on,” he says as we step into the elevator. As we ride down, I pull up Corbin’s number. Zoriah doesn’t know that I’ve talked to him before or that he is how I know she has a history of panic attacks. I reached out to him once because she had a panic attack, and I didn’t know how to help. He explained that sometimes she just needs to slow down and breathe, and I need to remind her of that when she gets overwhelmed. He’s a good man. Highly protective of her too.

“What’s wrong?” Corbin says when he answers. “There is no reason you should be calling me this early unless something is wrong.”

“Have you talked to Riah since Friday?” I ask.

“No. I’ve been calling her all weekend. Fuck…” Corbin sighs.

“My best friend, Ben, owns a tech company. I guess he did something sketchy because he said she hasn’t used her phone at all since Friday. We are on our way to her apartment right now.”

“Shit. Okay. I’m with our dad right now. We will be there in a second,” he says. “Dad came here a few hours ago because he was worried that she hadn’t called. They got into a pretty bad fight Thursday night, but even pissed off, she checks on him. He didn’t want to make anything worse, so he came to ask me. I thought maybe she was working, but… fuck I knew I should have checked.”

“I made her leave her laptop at the office, so it meant she wasn’t doing anything that would require her to reach out. I just wanted her to take a break,” I say as we walk out of the building and go to my car. “We should be there shortly.”

“Okay. I hope to God she is just sleeping and gets mad at us,” Corbin says. “I could call her dumbass friend, but… I really despise that bitch.”

“Who?” I ask.

“Her best friend Haley. I’m friends with her brother, Huxley. She and her parents are nuts. She is a terrible friend and is awful to her. I try to be supportive, but I don’t exactly take kindly to people being mean to my sister. She doesn’t even see it. Sometimes, Haley will get her to go out to a bar or club. I’m afraid maybe something happened there.”

“I didn’t know she was still friends with her. She said she hadn’t talked to her friend in weeks,” I say.

“Well, best-case scenario, she went home with some random dude,” Corbin says.

“That isnotthe best-case scenario,” I say.

“Oh. Right… You tell her you love her yet?” Corbin asks. When I don’t say anything, he continues. “I thought so. Just don’t force her into something because you are her boss. She’s had enough heartbreak to last a lifetime.”

“I would never force her to do anything,” I say.

“Unless she tells him to make her again,” Ben chuckles.

“That was Ben. We are driving,” I explain.

“She said that?” Corbin laughs.

“Yeah,” I sigh. “I told her to sit, and she got an attitude.”

“She’s good at that,” Corbin laughs. “I hope she’s okay. I worry about her so much.”

“I was hoping I was just being weird and obsessive,” I sigh.

“So, best-case scenario, Roman kicks her door in and she stabs him,” Ben laughs.

“She would definitely stab me first,” Corbin says. “We are just around the corner.”

“Pulling up now. See you in a bit,” I say. I end the call, and we jump out. I’ve been here a few times before. When she is sick, Imake her work from home but bring her food and whatever else she might need. She’s going to work anyway, so the least I can do is force her to be comfortable. One time the roads were covered in ice, so I picked her up for a quarterly meeting.

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