The CEO's Secret Affair-Chapter 26: A Gut Feeling

~Riccardo’s POV~

"You haven’t seen Anne anywhere, have you?" I asked James for the second time just to make sure I was sure he wasn’t lying to me. But his answer remained indifferent.

"I last saw her about thirty minutes ago, she might have left the building for her break."

But it wasn’t her break time yet, hell it was barely noon. Anne wasn’t the kind to just stroll out of the office building anytime she felt like it, especially not when she knew we had a lot of things to be working on.

I had called her phone tirelessly but she wasn’t answering. At first I had concluded that she was probably still mad at me, but after the fifth call I began to get worried. Anne knew better than to put her personal feelings before her work. She might not agree to working together with Thomas Brown, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have other work to do. So to ignore all of my calls just because of the Nakamura deal felt very unprofessional.

I returned to her office, hoping she would have returned by the time I reached there, but was utterly disappointed. I tried her number once again, but like the last twenty times or more, there was no answer. Now I was worried. Where has she gone to now? Was she safe? Had something happened to her, I was anxious. It had only been half an hour since we last spoke, but I couldn’t help but feel like something dreadful had happened.

Tired of the aimless walk-around, I headed for the security room. I pulled up the building’s security feed on a monitor, fast-forwarding through the lobby cameras. There, 11:14 a.m. Anne walking out alone, head down, shoulders tight. She turned left toward the café on the corner, the one she went to when she needed five minutes away from everything.

I watched her disappear offscreen, but there wasn’t any footage of her coming back. She was probably still at the café, I told myself, but that wasn’t enough to fully convince me. Thirty minutes was far too much time to spend at the café, especially when it wasn’t time for her break yet. Anne wasn’t a slacker, she knew better than to play with her time.

Under normal circumstances, I would have sent someone to go fetch her. But after our phone call earlier, I decided it was best to go get her myself. Perhaps take a few minutes to discuss the Nakamura deal before finally returning to the office. It felt perfect, I was certain we would come to a reasonable conclusion over some tea and scones.

I left the security room with my coat slung over my arm, forcing my stride to stay measured as I crossed the lobby and stepped out into the streets. The café was only a short walk of two minutes if I moved quickly, and I told myself the whole way that she’d be there. Sitting at her usual corner table by the window, earbuds in, nursing a latte while she stared at her phone, still angry with me. I’d apologise, explain why the deal mattered, promise to shield her from Thomas as much as humanly possible.

The little brass bell above the door chimed as I pushed inside. The air inside the café was comforting, but that comfort disappeared the minute I failed to locate Anne. She wasn’t at the window table. Not in the back booth. Not waiting in line. She was not at the café!

I walked straight to the counter where the same barista who’d served Anne a hundred times before was steaming milk.

"Excuse me," I said, keeping my voice calm, professional. "Has Anne been in today?"

Lila glanced up, recognition flickering when she saw me. Riccardo Antonelli didn’t come in here often, but when he did, people noticed. She wiped her hands on her apron and shook her head.

"No, sir. I haven’t seen her at all today. I don’t think she’s stepped through the door since today. I’ve been here since we opened."

She never even stepped through the door?!

Anne had walked in this direction thirty-five minutes ago. She’d been twenty metres from the entrance at most. And somehow she hadn’t made it inside.

"Thank you," I managed, already turning away.

I pulled out my phone and dialled Marco, head of my private security detail. He answered on the second ring.

Police were out of the question. Forty-five minutes was nothing to them. They’d file a report, tell me to wait twenty-four hours, lecture me about adults being allowed to disappear for an afternoon. And the last thing I needed was official attention on why the CEO was losing his mind over a mid-level employee who’d been gone less than an hour. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

No. This I would handle myself. Because whatever had happened to Anne in the space between my building and this café, it hadn’t been an accident.

"Is something the matter, Mr Antonelli?" Marco inquired the moment the call connected.

"An employee of mine might have gone missing, I feel she’s been kidnapped. I want you to start investigating anything you can about Anne Allistair now, I’ll send every detail you might need via text."

I ended the call afterwards and proceeded to send him every detail I had of Anne, including the security footage.

Was I really overreacting? Perhaps I should check at her house first. Maybe she had gone home, tossed her phone aside, and fallen asleep on the couch. For a moment, that thought brought me relief, one that was short-lived. I couldn’t relax, not until I was certain she was really safe.

I found my way back to the office, and got into my car the second I reached there. I drove out in a hurry, which wasn’t really something new. As the CEO I was always in a hurry, so to the others me driving out so abruptly wasn’t new.

In a few minutes I was at Anne’s apartment door. It was locked, her key still hidden away behind the flower pot. She hadn’t come home, at least not yet. I wanted to believe that she was safe, that she was just taking a break from me. But every fiber of my body screamed otherwise. I could feel that something was wrong, that Anne wasn’t just hiding from me. I didn’t know how, but somehow I was almost certain that she had been kidnapped.