Gwen reached the exit only partially scathed. People hadn’t wanted her to leave. Some sounded confused or even pitying as they caught at her elbows in an attempt to stop her for a talk.

Others didn’t keep their opinions to themselves. They asked her how they could do that to Aiden, how she could be that sort of person. They accused her and called her things they thought she deserved.

And someone, she didn’t know who, had nearly wrenched her arm out of its socket in their attempt to keep her from leaving the room. Gwen could already feel the bruises from their fingers on her bicep. It was a deep, burning pain that clawed at her consciousness.

However, every part of her mind still functioning concerned itself with one thing: finding Aiden and making him understand. She knew that if only she could explain things to him, that the recording had been edited, the conversation changing things, taking them out of context, that Aiden would forgive her and everything would be all right.

Except when she finally spilled out into the hallway, she couldn’t find Aiden anywhere. Behind her, the music in the ballroom began playing again. At least no one had followed her out, yet.

“Aiden! Aiden?” Gwen called out, not caring when other hotel guests glared at her for the noise.

This time of night, there weren’t too many other people out and about. Most people were either in the ballroom or sleeping in their beds, leaving the hallway fairly clear.

And still she couldn’t find him. Gwen ran to the main lobby, thinking that maybe Aiden had headed straight for the elevators to take him back up to their suite.

The pair of night auditors watched her from their desks.

He wasn’t standing in front of the bank of elevator doors. He wasn’t sitting in any of the lounge areas.

“Aiden?” Gwen said again. She stood in the middle of that grand lobby and turned in a slow circle. Movement no longer keeping her together, her body began trembling from the terrible brew of shock, panic, and adrenaline inside of her.

“Aiden!”

She ran up to a tall man wearing a dark suit, putting her hand on his shoulder and spinning him around. It wasn’t Aiden. Even from the back, he didn’t really look like Aiden.

Why couldn’t he have been Aiden?

“Sorry,” Gwen said up into the stranger’s frowning face. She ran over to the main doors, the revolving ones still now and the sliding ones shut. At first, she saw only her own reflection against the darkness. She squinted, shifting her focus so that she could see out to the broad concrete patio and drive in front of the hotel.

She saw no one that could be Aiden. He was gone.

“Aiden...” she said.

“Miss? May I help you in some way?” a Swiss-accented voice asked.

It was one of the night auditors. A man, his dark hair slicked to the side. He looked concerned, as well as a little uncertain. This caliber of hotel probably didn’t get many crazy ladies running around the lobby in the middle of the night screaming out a man’s name.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Gwen said, her shoulders rising and falling rapidly. Her vision began tunneling, and she realized that she’d begun hyperventilating. Lightheadedness followed. She collapsed.

“Miss!” the auditor said, moving quickly and catching her before she could collide with the hard surfaced of the polished floor. He brought her over to a nearby couch and helped her lay down. He looked over his shoulder and called out, but Gwen couldn’t make out what he said. Everything was hazy. Sight, sound, even touch. Hazy.

He’d asked for water, apparently. He and the other auditor helped her sit up against the arm rest and then he tilted the glass against her lips. She swallowed, the coldness of the liquid shocking her system.

Aiden, I have to find Aiden, she thought, her mind beginning to clear.

“Now, what is the matter, miss? Shall I call for a doctor?” the auditor asked. His compatriot had her cell out, ready to make the call.

“No, that won’t be... No, I’m okay,” Gwen said. She wasn’t okay. It felt like her insides were about ready to shake themselves apart. She didn’t need some strange doctor poking at her, shining a light in her eyes, asking her how many fingers he held up.

“I’m looking for someone. My fiancé. He’s staying here with me. Can you tell me if you’ve seen him? He may have come through here right before I did.”

The auditors looked at each other, the woman shrugging. She said something in German to the man, who turned again to Gwen. “Your fiancé, what does he look like, miss?”

“He’s tall,” Gwen said, having trouble focusing. The auditor offered her the glass again, but she waved it away. “He was wearing a tailored suit. A black one. With a red tie.”

Again the two auditors conferred. Gwen didn’t need to understand the words to know the answer.

“I am sorry, miss, but neither of us have seen your fiancé. Perhaps he has returned to your room? It is possible we didn’t see him use the elevators or the staircase. They are difficult to see from the desks.”

“Maybe,” Gwen said. That made some sense to her. Maybe Aiden had gotten his fill of Judith and couldn’t stand to be there any longer. Maybe he’d gone back to the suite. That story didn’t fit perfectly (if it was true, why then did he leave Gwen there?) but it was worth investigating.

“Yes, maybe,” Gwen said.

“I can assist you back to your room...” the man said.

“Thanks, but no. I’m okay now, really. The water helped. I feel fine,” Gwen said, illustrating the fact by swinging her legs off the couch and standing up. She nearly fell right back down again as her equilibrium shifted, but she saved herself, refusing an offered hand, “Sorry about all the noise. I really need to find him.”

“It is all right. Should you need any further assistance, please don’t hesitate to call down to the desk. It is manned at all hours,” the auditor said. They both still looked a little concerned at letting her go by herself, but they couldn’t force her to any course of action.

She thanked them and made her way unsteadily to the elevators. One was already at the ground floor, so she entered it and hit the button for her floor. Then she leaned against the corner and held herself, the rail pressing into the small of her back as the trembles started again.

Alone in that cramped, air-conditioned space, her mind tortured her with a replay of Judith’s recorded message. She thought back to the real conversation, about the way Ben shoved his hands into his pockets despite it still being warm enough out that even Gwen hadn’t been cold.

He’d been turning whatever he used to record their conversation on, she knew. And then when he’d walked away, he’d turned it off. He’d manipulated her into saying things that, when taken out of context and shifted around as they’d been, Judith could use against her.

Had he been working for Judith the entire time? Quite possibly, she knew. The anger she felt towards him went a long way toward smothering some of the other feelings wracking her.

However, they wouldn’t help her find Aiden, so she put the anger aside for now. The elevator chimed when it reached her level, and she slipped out through the door before it had even finished opening. The carpeted floor muffled the sound of her running feet.

She nearly fell over when she started going through the clutch she’d brought with her to the ball room. And then even after getting the keycard out, it took a couple attempts to slot it into the reader.

The little green light blinked, accepting the card, and the lock shot back. Gwen worked the latch and put her shoulder to the door.

The lights were on in the sitting area. Had they left the lights on when they left? Gwen couldn’t remember. “Aiden? Are you here? Please answer me!” She stopped to listen, annoyed at the loudness of her own breathing, of the noise of the blood pounding past her ears.

Ten seconds went by with no answer. Twenty. Thirty.

He’s not here, she knew. Despite that, she called out for him again and once more waited for a response. Any response at all. No one answered, though.

She leaned back against the door and then slid down its polished surface until she sat, drawing her knees up to her chest and then leaning her forehead against them. He wasn’t in the suite. He wasn’t in the lobby. Was he still even in the hotel, or did he at that moment wander around the darkened city streets all by himself?

Gwen didn’t know her way around at all. She’d have no chance of finding him out there.

Another burst of energy filling her, she grabbed her clutch and then upended it, emptying the contents out beside her. She swatted away all the detritus of her daily life, the pack of gum, and tissues, the lip balm and lip stick and lip gloss, until she found what she wanted.

Her phone. She unlocked it and called Aiden, putting the phone to her ear. It went straight to voicemail. She left a message pleading with him to call her as soon as he heard it. Then she held the phone a few inches in front of her face, urging him to call, waiting to hear the ring and see his name pop up on the screen.

He didn’t. So she called again and left another message. Then she sent him a flurry of texts, trying and failing to explain what had happened. She just couldn’t get her thoughts in order long enough before the panic set in again to set everything down in words.

She checked and re-checked to make sure her ringer was on and at maximum volume. Then she checked the service. Full bars. All the texts had been successfully delivered.

Gwen had no way to know if he had read them or not.

A knock at the door sent a spike of shock through her chest, and she pushed herself to her feet.

“Gwen, baby, let me in so we can talk,” David said.

“Go away!” Gwen said.

David quieted long enough that Gwen thought he’d left. Then he said, “Those things Judith played, they’re not true, right? Tell me they’re not true.”

Gwen spun towards the door and slammed her fist against it, her rage flaring again, “How can you even ask me that?”

“It’s just that it sounded like you, and that picture looked real. I didn’t believe. I don’t believe it. Tell me I’m right.”

“You’re right. Now, unless you can tell me where Aiden is, go away and leave me alone.”

“Gwen...”

“Go away!” she said, hitting the door again and again. She stopped when the pain in her hand made her. Then she leaned against the door and peered out the peephole. She saw nothing but the door across the hall.

Not sure what else she could do, she huddled by the door again, her phone on the floor beside her. If Aiden came back here, she didn’t want to miss him. If she somehow fell asleep, he’d wake her up when he tried pushing the door open. And she had her phone at full blast.

He has to come here sooner or later, right? Gwen asked herself. She didn’t know the answer. She hugged her knees to her chest more tightly and watched the phone, her eyes stinging when she refused to blink.