“I said don’t,” he said, his voice rising slightly. “Because if you say it…”
“Alex, it won’t make it any less true–”
“It makes it real. And this can’t be real. This is…some sort of nightmare. Just a crazy nightmare. It can’t be real. Ava can’t be gone.”
Across the room, Grant nodded, ending his call before he glanced at Julia, giving his head a slight shake.
“Let me see if Grant found anything out.” She patted his back before she hurried across the room to speak with her husband.
Alex pressed his hands together, balancing his chin against his thumbs. “Come on, Ava. Where are you? You can’t be gone.”
He glanced at Julia who slid her eyes closed before she glanced up again at Grant, squeezing his arm. The two of them marched across the room toward Alex as Kyle rejoined them, his bag in his hand.
“Anything?” Alex asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Grant said with a sigh as he took a seat on the coffee table across from Alex. “I had a contact atthe DHS look into any correspondence from the agents on the case before that flight.”
“And?” Alex prompted as Kyle perched on the edge of the couch next to him.
Grant pressed his lips together before he raised his eyes to meet Alex’s. “Agent Sanderson sent a message a few minutes before the plane took off that Ava was aboard.”
Alex’s heart stopped as the man said the words. “No…no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he murmured as though it would stop what was happening.
His life was spiraling out of control, and his feeble attempts did little to halt its progress.
Kyle clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mav.”
“No,” he huffed out again, his voice breaking. “No, Ava…she can’t be gone… She can’t be.”
His last statement was consumed by a sob that he tried to choke back before his features pinched. He clapped a hand over his eyes as Julia rubbed his back.
“We’re so sorry, Alex.”
“No,” he groaned again. “No, why is this happening?”
“There’s nothing I can say right now to help,” Julia said. “Nothing is going to take this away. I’m so sorry, Alex.”
His lower lip trembled as he tried to make sense of the news. It wouldn’t click in for him. Ava couldn’t be gone. They had just started their marriage.
He’d wasted so much time, and now he had no more.
He’d never see her smile again, never hear the sound of her voice, never see her sweet face, never hold her again.
“How can she be gone?” he sobbed.
Julia rubbed his arm, glancing at Kyle who nodded.
“Hey, buddy, mind if I grab a few vitals?”
“What?” Alex asked with a sniffle.
Kyle grabbed his wrist without asking again as he glanced at his watch. “Elevated pulse.”
Alex stared incredulously at him, tugging his wrist away from Kyle’s grasp, frustration simmering beneath his shock. Checking his pulse felt absurd when his world was collapsing.
Kyle pressed a thermometer to his head. “Normal temp.”
“I’m not sick,” Alex protested.
