Chapter 4

KEVIN’S POV

I barely slept, every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same thing again. Zelene standing there looking terrified.

By 6AM, I gave up trying to sleep entirely. Instead of going to my office, I drove straight to Max.

Max’s office smells like coffee and old paper. The guy looks exactly the same as he did years ago. Messy desk, messier life, sharpest investigator money can buy.

He glances up when I walk in. “Well damn,” he mutters. “You actually came to my office, I don’t remember when last you stepped in here”

“Good morning to you too.” Max leans back in his chair slowly. “So this is serious.”

“Yes.”

“That woman again?” My jaw tightens immediately. “Zelene.” Max studies me carefully for a second before nodding once. “Alright, tell me everything.”

Ten minutes later, his expression looks completely different. “You think the kids are yours?”

“Yeah.” Max exhales slowly before grabbing his laptop. “Okay, then let’s start with her disappearance.” He types quickly while I pace the office.

“What do you have already?” I ask. “Not much.” His eyes stay on the screen. “And honestly that alone is weird.”

“How? make me understand” Max glances up briefly. “People leave trails Kevin. Phones, payments, addresses, jobs.” His fingers tap against the keyboard again. “Zelene practically vanished.”

“What do you mean vanished?”

“I mean disappeared.” My jaw tightens. Max turns the screen toward me slightly. “She drops off financial records for months. No major purchases, no stable address, multiple temporary identities.” He pauses, “Fake ones.”

“What the fuck?” My jaw locks so tightly I have to force myself to breathe through it. “She comes back eventually,” Max continues, “but everything changes afterward.”

“How?”

“Different addresses, different financial patterns, cash-heavy spending for a while.” His eyes narrow slightly. “Like somebody was trying hard not to be tracked.”

Something slides slowly down my spine. “She was hiding.”

“Yes.”

“From me?”

“I don’t think so.” Max studies the screen again before speaking quieter this time. “Honestly, I don’t think this had anything to do with you.”

Silence fills the office then Max mutters something under his breath before opening another file. “What?” He leans back slightly. “There’s a hospital connection.”

“What hospital?”

“Private hospital in Vermont.”

“Can you access it?”

“Restricted.”

“Break it.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder.” I snap, Max raises an eyebrow slightly. Damn…..I’m losing patience too fast, he watches me quietly for a second before saying,

“Kevin…….. people don’t disappear this clean unless somebody helps them.” My chest goes tight for a second, I already know he’s right.

Three hours later, I’m sitting in my office staring at Jeremy Barnes’s profile on my laptop.

The more I look into Jeremy Barnes, the worse the whole thing feels. Publicly, he looks clean almost suspiciously clean. Wealthy, connected, private, no scandals, no visible relationships, no children.

I pull up another file and find nothing again. No public birth certificates connected to him, no custody records, no school documents listing him as the father.

But his financial history tells a completely different story. Payments connected to Zelene going back years. Private properties, security services, travel records.

He’s been helping her consistently, quietly, protectively. I lean back slowly in my chair, my stomach tightening harder the longer I stare at the screen.

Fuck…… the more I look at this, the less it feels romantic and the more it feels planned. Like Jeremy wasn’t hiding a girlfriend, he was hiding someone in danger.

That thought settles heavily in my stomach because if Jeremy spent years protecting Zelene like this, then what the hell was she running from?

My eyes close briefly and another memory hits me hard enough to stop my breathing for a second.

Zelene sitting at the edge of my bed years ago in one of my shirts. Crying, silent tears rolling down her face while she kept pretending she was okay.

I remember kneeling in front of her. “Talk to me.” She shook her head immediately. “Zelene.”

“It’s nothing.” Even back then I knew it wasn’t nothing but every time I pushed too hard, she shut down completely.

Unknown calls all the damn time. She used to stare at her phone sometimes like it physically scared her.

One night, I remember exactly what she said. “If something happens one day……. don’t look for answers.” At the time I laughed because I thought she was being playful.

Now that memory makes my stomach turn because suddenly it doesn’t sound like that at all.

It’s almost midnight when Max finally calls back. I answer immediately. “What did you find?” Silence stretched. “Max.”

“I got into the hospital records.” I stand immediately. “And?”

“There’s no pregnancy file attached directly to her name.”

“What?”

“But there is something else.” His voice sounds different now. “What else?” Papers shuffle quietly on his end. “Zelene’s mother.” Everything inside me goes still. “What about her?”

“She’s connected to an old sealed investigation.” I frown immediately. “What kind of investigation?”

Another pause then Max says quietly, “Financial corruption. Political ties. Missing evidence.” He exhales slowly. “And a suspicious death.”

“What?”

“There were police reports, but most of the files are sealed now.” His voice lowers further. “Somebody buried this deep.”

I grip the phone harder. “When did her mother die?”

“Two days before Zelene disappeared.” I stop breathing for a second. “What?”

“She didn’t leave months later, Kevin.” Max sounds grim now. “She vanished almost immediately after her mother died.”

Everything shifts violently inside my head. The fear in her eyes, the fake identities, the hidden records, Jeremy protecting her every step of the way, and Zelene panicking whenever I got too close to the truth suddenly start connecting into something far darker than I wanted to believe.

I sink slowly into the chair behind me, this story doesn’t look like heartbreak anymore.

“Kevin…….” Max says quietly. I can’t answer, I just stare out at Manhattan glowing outside my office windows while my pulse pounds violently in my ears.

Then Max says the words that finally make everything click into place. “Kevin……. I don’t think Zelene ran from you, I think she ran for her life.”