Chapter 33

LISA: THEN

Seven years ago

New York City

ME: I WANT TO FLY TO California and see you next week. What's the best day to come?

ME: Jennie?

ME: Jennie, it's been over a week since I texted you. Can you text/call me back?

SUBJECT: WHERE ARE you?

Jennie,

Are you ignoring me? Are you still coming to draft night? (I need you to be there.)

Love you,

—Lisa

SUBJECT: REALLY?

Jennie, please answer me.

Lisa

SHE NEVER SHOWED UP for the draft night or returned my calls, but that didn't stop me from calling her every day for several weeks in a row. I sent her emails and text messages, and they all went unanswered. Her friends refused to talk to me. Jisoo wouldn't even make eye contact with me when I ran into her at JFK airport.

After a month of confusion, I called Stanford one morning. I was determined to get ahold of her since every flower delivery I'd sent to her address came back returned. Their phone attendants passed me around from department to department before finally passing me off to a donation line.

"How much would you like to donate to the Stanford Alumni Fund, ma'am?" a woman asked. "I couldn't quite hear you."

"I'm not calling to donate. I'm looking for—" I paused. "I'm looking for my fiancée who I haven't heard from in a while. I would appreciate it if you all would stop sending me from line to line and help me, so I can figure out what the hell is going on. Please."

"Okay." She let out a sigh. "I can pull up the registered student directory for you, but that's all I can do."

"Thank you."

"What's your fiancée's full name, ma'am?"

"Jennie Ruby Jane Kim."

"And you're sure she's enrolled here?"

"One hundred percent positive." I heard the sound of a tapping keyboard.

"There's no student named Jennie Ruby Jane Kim, ma'am," she said. "There aren't any students here named Jennie at all."

What? "She accepted Stanford's offer." I shook my head. "I was with her when she shipped her things and she sent me pictures of the campus."

"Ma'am, all I can tell you is that Jennie Ruby Jane Kim is not listed as a student here," she said. "And even that is too much information without knowing who you are. I have to go." She ended the call.

I called the other law schools that accepted Jennie.

I called the art schools. I called her advisor. Her parents. Her friends.

No one knew anything. So they claimed.

I spent countless nights unable to sleep because I had no idea why the hell she would ghost me and I wasn't sure how to deal with the unfamiliar ache in my chest.

WHEN I EXHAUSTED ALL the search options I could handle on my own, I ordered Seulgi to enlist the aid of private investigators.