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Niklaus

I wake up to an empty bed, Allegra's side cold. She definitely has been gone for a while. With me not sleeping very well the last couple of weeks, I was out cold. Usually, I would have picked up on any movement. The fact that we made love in the early hours of this morning also surprises me that she is up as he looked exhausted last night already when I saw her painting in her studio outside.

Allegra did not hold back this morning, calling for me to fuck her harder and faster while I made her ride out three orgasms before finally giving into one of my own. As I put my pants on, a sinking feeling forms in the pit of my stomach, her words to me last night as we fell asleep odd. But I didn't push for an explanation thinking we had time. Perhaps I was mistaken.

"My time with you has been the best of my life. I won't ever forget it, Niklaus," she said quietly as I held her in my arms, our heartbeats matching a rhythm as if we were one. As I fell asleep, I thought I heard her say, "I hope you can forgive me. It was all for you."

Making my way through her house, I hear a noise in the kitchen, though the relief that floods me is momentary when I see it isn't Allegra.

"Hello," I say, the woman standing by the sink jumping and dropping the mug she is cleaning into the basin. She looks about fifty, with grey hair and a pleasant face. Motherly.

"Mr. Rosi, Allegra told me you would be here. Can I make you a cup of coffee?" she asks, drying her hands on a dishcloth as she unties her apron.

"No. Thank you. Who are you?" I ask, confused as I look around, hoping Allegra will appear any minute.

"Ahh, I am Allegra's housekeeper, Anna. Though I only come once a week, if that. She prefers to do things herself. But with her away, she asked me to clean up and then lock the place up tight until she returns," Anna says, smiling at me as she talks. That smile falters as she continues looking at me.

"Sir? Are you all right?" She asks me, her face now full of concern.

"When did she leave? And when will she be back?" Apprehension sets in. Her words and actions last night start to make sense. She was saying goodbye.

"I don't know, Sir. She was already gone when I got here at seven." I look at my watch. The time is now nine. She had a two-hour head start.

"She canceled my services, saying she will contact me when she is back, so it must be for a while. I'm sorry, I thought she told you," Anna says quietly, understanding I am in the dark about Allegras plans.

"Where did she go?" I ask, already knowing the answer when Anna says she doesn't know. Allegra doesn't want to be found, and that thought shoots through my heart.

I rush back to the room, pulling on the rest of my clothes and grabbing my phone. On my way out, the painting on the wall I saw when I first came to Allegra's house grabs my attention, the one with the woman and the wildflowers. I approach it, leaning in to look at the A.M. in the corner of the painting. She signed it using her mother's surname. Allegra Maribar. It didn't take me long to figure out. The pieces fell into place when I looked her parents up online. Her mother chose to take her father's surname, Edevane when they married.

Allegra was Divoká Rostlina. To think the paintings that resonated with my soul were painted by the same woman who owned it.

I gently unhitch the painting from the wall, Anna's words of protest falling on deaf ears as I put it in the back of my vehicle.

Once on the road, I call Aashiv, hoping Allegras best friend knew where she was.

"Niklaus?" Aashiv answers on the second ring.

"Where is she, Aashiv?" I ask, not bothering with pleasantries. I was way too stressed out for that. It felt like I was losing her all over again. After the masked ball was bad enough, but now, after knowing her and tasting her, and seeing into a bit of her soul, I don't know how I will handle it if she disappears again.

"I don't know. I got a strange message from her saying she was going away for a while and not to worry. When I tried calling her back, her phone was off. I was hoping you could tell me what's going on," Aashiv says, her concern clear through the phone.

I recap the evening, leaving out the part about Allegra sleeping together. That wasn't anyone's business but our own.

"For the last couple of weeks, she has been acting strangely, but I thought that was from the pressure of completing her latest collection. I meant to go round there, but with both the kids back, things have been hectic," Aashiv says, guilt seeping into her voice.

"Where would she go?" I ask, only knowing Allegra's house as her safe haven. In all our talks, she never spoke of another place, echoed by Aashiv when she comes up empty-handed with ideas.

"Let me know if you hear anything," I say to Aashiv before ending the call.

Fuck. I hit my steering wheel, frustrated at this situation.

The drive back to my place is quicker than it took last night, and I hoped that I wouldn't see fines in my post in a couple of weeks.

After a quick shower, I make my way to work.

"Sylvia, cancel all my meetings," I instruct as I get to the top floor of Rosi International, storming past her desk and into my office.

I have an important meeting with investors today for a new development site in the Bahamas. These investors are pivotal to the development there. But I couldn't think straight. I needed to find Allegra. Something must be going on for her to just up and leave. What we have is something I cannot give up easily. She shouldn't either. I could see how happy she was with me. How she became alive. Bloomed.

"Niklaus?" Ade says, entering my office, concern on his face and lacing his tone. I'm sure I looked as crazy as I felt.

"Have you or Aashiv heard anything?" I ask, pacing my office to burn off the chaotic energy inside.

"Nothing. We have called the few people who we know of, but they haven't seen or heard from her in weeks. Even the curator at the showroom for her latest collection. She hasn't heard from her at all since sending the pieces two weeks ago." Ade's words do nothing but raise alarm bells. Something wasn't right.

"Maam, you can't go in there!" I hear Sylvia say before my office door opens. The last person I expect to be here is Eve. I thought after our last encounter and throwing her off Rosi Island that she would catch a hint that I don't want her around.

"Niklaus, tell your guard dog to sit," Eve says, throwing Sylvia a dirty look before.

I nod to Sylvia, who slowly retreats back to her desk.

"What do you want?" I grit out, my anger directed at her.

"I came to help you," Eve says, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder while looking hurt.

"What?" I say when she doesn't say anything.

"I heard you are looking for Allegra, and I know where she is," Eve says, her words freezing me to the spot.

"But I warn you, Niklaus. You won't like it. She played you from the beginning," Eve says, approaching me with her phone in her hand.

Ade joins me as Eve hands me the phone, the picture on the screen draining the blood from my face.

There on the screen is my Allegra, lips locked and arms wrapped around none other than Kraven. The man I despised most in this world. She has betrayed me. Played me for a fool. Something inside me breaks as I throw Eve's phone across the room, my arm sweeping my table and smashing everything to the ground. Breaking everything. Just like I feel inside.

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