Page 136 of Heartbreak & Cupcakes
ALEX
I knockedon Sadie’s door again. Still no answer.
Something was wrong. I could feel it in my bones. In my gut.
“Where’s Sadie, Daddy?”
“I’m not sure, Nugget.” I did my best not to let the fear that was gripping me show in my face.
“You should call her,” Lexi suggested as she spun in a circle on her toe. Her hair was up in a bun and she had on her black leotard, pink tights, and pink ballet slippers. She was ready for her recital, we just had to pick up Sadie.
I pulled out my phone and did just that. After several rings it went to her voicemail.
“Hey, it’s Sadie. If you’re getting this, best-case scenario is I forgot to charge my phone, worst case I lost it and forgot to charge it. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you after I locate and or charge it. Thanks!”
Lexi stopped spinning and looked up at me. “Did she answer?”
I shook my head but made sure that my expression was relaxed and didn’t reveal any of the alarm that I was feeling. “Hey, it’s Alex. I guess you must be running late. We’ll meet you at the dance studio.”
My heart was pounding wildly as I grabbed Lexi’s hand and we walked down the steps to the car.
“Is she going to meet us there?” Lexi asked.
“Maybe,” I wasn’t going to lie to my daughter and promise her something that I knew I couldn’t promise.
I double-checked the bakery for any signs of someone inside, but it was locked up tight. Which made sense considering it had been closed for two hours. I noticed that Sadie’s car was parked in its spot in the back of the building.
I’d tried to convince her to have Frank drive her to do her after work deliveries and bank deposits. I didn’t like the fact that she went to the bank, the women’s shelter, and the senior center alone. But she wasn’t going for it.
She refused most of what I’d offered, except flowers. She loved flowers. Which is why I’d been sending them to her nearly every other day. I would send them every day but Mia said that it might be overkill. So, it was every other.
As we climbed into the car, I put Lexi’s music on and tried not to panic. I was sure that I was overreacting. She probably just got busy running errands. Or maybe she ran into an old friend or something.
That was what I was telling myself, but I didn’t believe it.
The drive to the dance studio was both excruciatingly long and surprisingly short. My mind was racing a mile a minute with every scenario that might be playing out. She was lying dead on the side of the road. She was kidnapped. She’d had an aneurysm. Each scenario was more horrifying than the next.
Before I knew it, I was pulling into the parking structure.
When we got out Lexi was talking about what she wanted for dinner after the recital, but I wasn’t really listening. I checked my phone for what felt like the hundredth time in the past twenty minutes. Still no return call. No text. No nothing.
As we walked up to the studio, I saw that Maddox was there with Hannah. The two girls ran inside, giggling and talking without a care in the world.
“What’s wrong?” Maddox asked before I said a word.
“Sadie. I was supposed to pick her up to come with us, but she wasn’t at home. I tried calling her but it went straight to voicemail.”
“Maybe she forgot to charge her phone.”
I nodded. That did happen. But she’d never not been somewhere she said she was going to be.
His hand rested on my shoulder. “I’m sure everything’s okay.”
I could see in his eyes that he meant it, but I didn’t share his confidence.
As we took our seats in the auditorium to watch the girls’ warm-up, I considered calling Charli and asking if she’d heard from Sadie.
Was that too much?
