22. Ian

Chapter 22

Ian

T he Olivia I just read about was a sharp contrast from the one Hazel told me she met. I wondered which version of her was the real one.

“We have to find her,” Hazel said, and I nodded in agreement.

“There’s a good chance she has the answers to Emily’s whereabouts.”

“She might even be the one responsible for her disappearance. I’m so stupid.” Hazel groaned her frustration. “How did I not see this? I’m supposed to be a reporter. I should be good at sniffing out the truth, but Olivia deceived me so easily. I’m so stupid.”

“Hey, don’t talk about yourself that way. You were only trying to help. It’s not your fault she turned out to be a liar. You just have a big heart and she took advantage of that.”

Hazel smiled at me. “I thought I had a savior complex.”

That was what I’d told her when we were standing outside Olivia’s home. “Yeah, you do,” I said, and I laughed when she lunged at me. I grabbed her and held her to me as we fell backward on the couch.

We stayed still for a moment, and I spent that time admiring every inch of her face. She was so unbelievably beautiful that it took my breath away. I’d never really noticed that before or maybe I did but it never fully registered. Now, it was all I could see.

I lifted my head at the same time Hazel lowered hers. Our lips met while my hand ran over the bare skin of her thighs. Kissing her was something I could really get used to. I loved having her in my arms, tasting her, and feeling her skin. It was unexpected and almost unsettling just how much I liked it. A part of me felt compelled to keep her in my arms forever.

We kissed until everything else felt unimportant. I wanted to carry her back to her room so we could pick up from where we left off last night. Hazel must have sensed my intentions because she placed her hand on my chest and pushed herself off me, taking the seat beside me again.

“We have to find Olivia. She needs to be our priority now,” she said as she adjusted my shirt to cover more of her body.

I smiled at her adorable attempt to compose herself. Who knew a time would come when I would find Hazel Jones adorable?

She stood up and paced the open floor of her living room, right in front of her TV. I sat back as I watched her, her eyes darted around the room and her brows scrunched together as she thought. She stopped pacing abruptly and turned to me.

“We should go back to the house. That’s a perfect place for us to begin our search, especially since we never actually entered the house because we…” she paused and looked down. “Well, you know.”

I smiled from my seat before pushing myself onto my feet. “I’ll drive.”

Hazel looked up, smiled, and nodded. We changed into more appropriate clothing which meant I had to take my shirt back from Hazel while she put on something else. For a brief moment, I thought that things would be easier if some of my clothes were already in her house.

That thought died a quick death when I realized how absurd it was. Hazel and I were… I didn’t even know what we were. The last thing I should be thinking about is putting my clothes in her apartment.

The drive to Olivia’s house was mostly quiet. It was as if the reality of what happened last night had finally dawned upon us both. What on earth were we doing? Were we in a relationship? If so, how would we break the news to Jade and the rest of our families?

The only thing that had ever been between us was animosity but now things had changed and there was no going back. The most terrifying part was that I didn’t want to go back. In just one night, my opinion of Hazel had completely changed. Learning about what happened with Dorothy and her reason for releasing that article helped me see her in a different light.

All this time, I thought she’d done it to hurt me but she was simply trying to help someone. How could I fault her for that?

I pulled into the driveway of the house and turned off the engine. Hazel and I remained quiet as we stared ahead. This was the place where we’d shared our first kiss. It marked the beginning of the events that would change our relationship.

I got out first and Hazel followed suit. It was a small house located in a quiet neighborhood, the perfect place for a person who didn’t want to interact with anyone. I looked around at the dilapidated environment, a clear sign that no one had taken care of this place in a long time.

Is this really where Olivia had been staying? The place looked too run-down to house anyone. I wondered if the house was a random address Olivia gave to the police. There was a chance she’d never lived here at all.

Hazel took the first step into the house and the floorboards creaked under her weight. Light as she was, the old house still cried out as if an elephant had walked upon it. It made me walk with more caution for fear of falling right into the building’s foundation.

“It doesn’t look like anyone has lived here for a long time,” Hazel said as she picked up a dusty book that sat on the center table.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“You think Olivia gave the police a false address?”

I nodded in response and she sighed. “Maybe Howard never even visited the house,” I said.

“But what about Finch? He’s far more efficient. There’s no way he wouldn’t come here to at least check on Olivia.”

“Maybe he didn’t know about it.”

“Maybe,” she mused thoughtfully.

Hazel coughed when a bit of dust entered her nose and I found myself rushing to her side to ensure she was all right. She smiled at me and I smiled back. I spoke first. “We should go to the police. They may not know about Olivia’s confession on the online forum. We have to tell them.”

“Yes, you’re right. Let’s do that.”

We made a quick trip to the police station. This time we were lucky to meet Detective Finch and not his sour partner, Howard. We told him everything we’d discovered recently, including what we saw at the house Olivia said she would be staying in.

Finch nodded when we were done, his face a mixture of pensiveness and uncertainty. He wasn’t fully convinced about the line we’d drawn from Olivia’s story to real-life occurrences but I was certain he would investigate it.

“Thank you for your help but you two need to go home now and let the professionals do the rest of the work,” he said. He walked us out and then he added, “I promise that I will do everything I can to find Emily.”

“Thank you, detective.”

“Should I drop you at home?” I asked Hazel as we made our way back to my car. I didn’t want to say goodbye to her, but I knew I couldn’t be with her forever. This was all still new, and she likely wanted to go home so she could be alone with her thoughts.

“Yes, that would be nice. Thank you.”

“Hm.”

She spoke again when I was about to get into the car. “Unless you…”

“Unless I what?” I asked, lifting my head to look at her.

“Where are you going?”

“Home. I need to change. I’m still wearing my clothes from last night’s dinner.”

“Oh right. I forgot about that.”

Silence fell between us. We stared at each other from either side of the car. “Do you want to come with me?” I finally asked.

Hazel slowly nodded, and I smiled. It would be the first time she was seeing my apartment. Unlike hers, mine lacked the personality one might find in a person’s apartment. I’d only rented it temporarily, so I saw no need in getting anything except the basics. That meant that the room was quite bland but for the decorations that were already there.

I watched as Hazel looked around the living room, her gaze scanning every corner. She almost looked like she was hunting for a story, a reporter through and through. “I’ll go change,” I said, gesturing to my room.

“I’ll stay here and work on my laptop.”

“All right.”

I walked into the bedroom and slipped out of my old clothes. When I returned to the living room, Hazel’s laptop was on the center table but she wasn’t on the couch.

“I’m in the kitchen,” I heard her call out. “I needed some water.”I nodded but then I remembered she couldn’t see me. I was about to say something when the picture on her laptop screen caught my eye. I squinted from my position behind the couch before giving up and moving forward so I could look at the picture more clearly.

It was a wedding photo. The bride was clearly Emily. I recognized her from the photos in the newspapers. I recognized the smiling woman beside her as Olivia. She looked exactly as Hazel had described.

But it wasn’t the two women that caught my attention. It was the groom. He looked oddly familiar. I tried to figure out where I’d seen him before but I just couldn’t remember.

Tall and lanky.

Brown hair.

Wide-rimmed glasses.

Why did that all seem familiar?

My eyes widened as it dawned on me. It was Eddie, the fan who stopped by on the day I moved into my apartment. The man who insisted I sign his jersey and claimed to live in my building even though I’d never seen him around.

Hazel returned at that moment. I looked at her and she furrowed her brows. “Is everything okay?”

“Who is this?” I asked, pointing to the man in the wedding photo.

“Fred, Emily’s husband. Sorry, ex-husband.”

“I know him.”

“Wait, what?” She took a seat beside me and stared at me with pressing eyes.

“He’s been here twice. The day I moved into this apartment, he showed up here demanding that I sign his jersey. I told him I was tired, and he left angry. He came back again, and I signed it. He told me to make it out to Eddie.”

“Fred. Freddie. Eddie,” Hazel said. Her voice helped the pieces fall into place in my head.

“Why would Emily’s ex-husband come here?” I asked.

“I have no idea.”

I looked back at the picture again. “I always found it strange. He told me he lived in the building, but I haven't seen him since. It’s like he appears and then disappears.”

“Fred said he lives in this building?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go find out how true that is.” Hazel stood up and grabbed her laptop. I followed her out of the apartment.

We started with my neighbors before slowly working our way through every resident in the building. Every single one of them said they’d never seen Fred before, and they didn’t think he lived in the building. It was becoming abundantly clear that Fred, Eddie, or whatever he called himself lied to me.

We stopped at the final door on the highest floor. An older man lived there, but he rarely left his house and whenever he did, he always used the elevator. We knocked on his door and he answered shortly after.

Mr. Wilson stared at the picture for a long time. Finally, he nodded. “I’ve seen him before.”

“Where? When?” I asked, urgency filling my voice. This was the first lead we were getting on this.

“I’ve seen the young fellow from my balcony. He comes by some days and lurks in the shadows for a while. Sometimes, he enters the building and other times he just stares at it as if he’s watching someone.”

Hazel and I looked at each other. We didn’t need to speak to understand what we were both thinking. Mr. Wilson said Fred was here to watch someone.

That person was me.