Dusk Snow Hides All Return (Rowan and Adrienne) novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13.

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Adrienne closed her eyes, forcing down the metallic taste rising in her throat. “I need his specific info. Address in Canada. Phone number!”

“Ma’am… Ms. Merritt, we’re not authorized to release passenger information. And on the Canadian end-”

“Get me your General Manager. Right now. Now!” Adrienne was out of patience. Her voice shot up, drawing stares from everyone around her.

After a lot of back–and–forth, pressure, threats, and pulling every string she had…,

By four in the morning, she finally got an address and a phone number.

The address was a cheap Backpackers‘ Hostel in Toronto.

The phone was a Canadian number he’d picked up temporarily. She dialed it. Disconnected.

Adrienne stared at the string of numbers and letters. Her heart dropped into an ice pit.

He’d had this planned.

Not some impulsive thing. He’d been plotting it for a long time.

Sever ties. Break the engagement. Leave. Never come back.

With shaking hands, she booked the next available flight to Toronto. Noon the next day.

By the time she walked out of the airport, the sky was starting to lighten at the edges. The late–autumn morning wind cut straight through her thin blouse. She couldn’t feel the cold. There was just this huge empty hole inside her, and the wind was howling straight into it.

She drove back to the Ashford Estate.

The living room lights were still on. Mr. Ashford Sr. and Mrs. Ashford were still on the couch, not speaking, looking a hundred years old.

The second Mrs. Ashford saw her walk in, she shot to her feet. “Adrienne, how did it go? Did you find Rowan?” Adrienne’s voice came out wrecked. “He’s in Canada. Toronto. I’m on a flight tomorrow at noon to go find him.”

Mrs. Ashford froze. Then something hit her and the blood drained from her face. “Canada? He… he’s still hurt. Fresh out of surgery… Running that far on his own… what if he does something to himself? What if he¬”

“He won’t!” Adrienne cut her off sharply, not sure if she was trying to convince Mrs. Ashford or herself. “He won’t! I’m going to find him! I will!”

The last part came out through clenched teeth. Her voice still shook.

Mr. Ashford Sr. pressed his hands against his face, his voice breaking. “It was us… we’re the ones who drove him away…” Adrienne looked at the two of them, aged ten years overnight. She felt no sympathy. Just a cold, numb ache, and the grim recognition that they were all in the same sinking boat.

She turned and left without another word. Didn’t go home. Drove straight to the company.

By the time she got to the CEO’s Office, the sun was fully up. The whole floor was empty and freezing.

She opened the private cabinet she almost never touched. It was packed. All of it was Rowan’s

Every birthday, he’d made her a gift with his own hands. Some of them were rough. All of them were careful.

A hand–knit scarf, stitches crooked.

A handwritten poetry collection, handwriting neat and careful.

A handmade clay mug, shape a little off.

All the business magazine clippings he’d saved about her. Interview recordings. Even blurry side–profile shots of her at events–he’d cut them out and pasted them into a book.

A stack of boarding passes. Destinations all over the country and the world.

Cities she’d traveled to for work.

“Finally learned how to make her favorite Blue Mountain coffee. But she didn’t come home tonight.”

“Adrienne Merritt, I’m going to wait for you. As long as it takes. Until you actually see me.”

What had she destroyed?

Adrienne wiped her face and called her assistant.

“What’s on my schedule tomorrow?”

“Ten AM, M&A meeting with Goldman Sachs. Two PM, project talks with city officials. Evening-”

“Cancel everything.” Adrienne cut her off, voice hoarse.

“What?” The assistant thought she’d misheard.

“I said, cancel everything.” Adrienne bit out each word, clear and deliberate. “Freeze my entire schedule for the next six months. Every meeting. Every negotiation. Every event. Either cancel them or hand them to the VP. Unless the entire company is about to go under, don’t bother me.”

Silence on the other end. The assistant was stunned speechless.

Adrienne drew in a deep breath and added, “One more thing. From now on, anything related to Desmond, or anything to do with the Ashford Family–don’t report any of it to me.”

She hung up and tossed her phone aside.

She stared out the window at the sky slowly brightening. Watched the city wake up from sleep–traffic, bustle, business as usual.

But her world–from the second she’d pushed open the door of the Ashford living room last night and seen those two documents on the coffee table–had collapsed. It was a wasteland now.

She couldn’t find him.

That realization had her shaking with cold, bone–deep fear.

“Rowan…” She whispered into the empty air, her voice in pieces. “Wait for me… This time, I’m the one waiting for you.”

“Wherever you are. However long it takes. Whatever it costs.”

“I will find you.”