(See the first chapter for disclaimer, notes, spoiler, etc.)

June 2017

Olivia

The unending drone of the Gulfstream's engines surrounded me, filling my senses with a loud enough sound to keep me from sleep. Not that I could sleep. I was wired, my body consumed with an anticipatory hum. On my lap, AJ's silver smartphone was illuminated brightly so I could see every miniscule detail of Gregory. My Gregory. Even now, my heart still skipped a beat, watching the way he inhaled. The way he angrily rubbed the salt and pepper hair of his beard. My Gregory was alive!

Across the aisle, AJ sat watching me as he raised a flute of champagne to his mouth. A patronizing smirk lit up his expression as our eyes met. "Just a few more hours, Olivia dear."

I glared and turned back to the device in my lap. Gregory's glare crackled from the screen as he leaned over his knees, looking up. Somewhere, out of frame, was a screen featuring my own face. The perverseness of the last few months came roaring back to my consciousness. All the times that I thought I was alone with AJ, tempting the truth out of him. Bile rose in my throat and my eyes fluttered. Gregory had seen it all. All of it.

"Headache, dear? Or perhaps it's that shoulder of yours?"

With narrowed eyes, I kept my attention on Gregory. Gregory, who was alive. Gregory, who sat on the foot of a bed somewhere, a careful expression on his face. Gregory, whose worry I could still suss out, despite his very carefully constructed expression. His Lawyer Gregory face. Not like AJ's. The orange pill bottle sat on the wide arm of my seat, but I barely paid it a glance. I could only hope it still did what Morris promised me it would all those months ago. Or that he would know to check the tracker sooner rather than later. "I'm fine," I snapped, rotating the chair away from him. I slowly turned the overstuffed leather chair back to him a moment later though. Gregory deserved to see every bit of me. "How much longer?"

Another condescending chuckle from AJ. "Several hours to Marseille and then a 25-minute helicopter ride to Lacoste."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. France. Of course, we were going to France. "Is that where Gregory's been this entire time?" I murmured, hoping it sounded as absentminded as I wanted it to sound.

"Oui." He sighed as he leaned back in his own chair, his brow arched. "Really though, with how useful the technology turned out to be, I could've kept him anywhere."

I saw Gregory wince and I frowned, my fingertip tracing the outline of his body. My brain simply couldn't fathom how torturous the last months have been for him. Seeing everything. Being able to stop nothing. Seeing us. Seeing me. But still being so painfully and cruelly separated from us – the people who love him. The people who are still grieving him. My head throbbed again, my brain struggling to accept the reality of everything. Except for Gregory. He was real. He was alive.

And I was coming for him.

Evy

She leaned back, letting Benjy's arms go around her. The living room was abuzz with conversation, Morris and Casey holding court by Dad's bar cart. A shiver went through her and a moment later, she felt one of the fuzzy Sherpa blankets pulled over her. Mom had never met a throw blanket she didn't like. Their house was full of them, draped over piece of furniture and folded into the linen closets. "It's going to be ok, Evy," she heard Benjy murmur, his lips brushing against her ear.

She shook her head, trembling beneath the blanket in her bathing suit. Time no longer made sense. One moment she was cuddling in the pool with her boyfriend. The next moment, the house was flush with panic at the realization Mom had disappeared. None of this made sense. Nothing made sense.

"LOOK!" Sean bellowed and she jumped, turning her head in the direction of his voice. He was standing with Morris and Casey, his arms folded tight against his chest. But it was his expression that gave her pause. His expression was dark and murderous as if he was ready to slaughter Morris right then and there. "You've got to tell us, man! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU AND OUR MOTHER?"

An eerie silence filled the vacuum after Sean's outburst. It was just them in the living room with Morris: Mom and Dad's four children. Charlie, Diana, and Shasta were outside with the kids, keeping them as much as possible from the storm brewing indoors. From across the room, Caitlin cleared her throat and held her infant against her chest. "Please, Morris. You've been a good friend to Mom these last few months. I know you've known her since she and Daddy were dating."

She heard herself speaking before she knew what she was doing. "Cait's right," she said softly, turning her swollen brown eyes up to the quiet hulking man. "You and Aunt Bette…you're Mom's best friends. This is the only time we'd ever want you to betray her trust."

The big man sighed deeply and wiped his mouth. "It started so simply," he began, leaning against the arm of the overstuffed club chair. His expression was vacant, his eyes hazed over as he went back in his memory. "Olivia felt lost because she couldn't remember what happened the day of the car crash. She couldn't remember her last day with Greg."

Her throat tightened, remembering the way it felt to watch Mom sitting in Dad's study for hours. Her eyes would always be closed, her face tense as she attempted to force her memories back into existence. "It tortured her that she couldn't remember." She burrowed deeper into Benjy's embrace and she covered her face with her hands, a deep sob rising in her throat. "And all she wanted to do was remember!" she cried.

"So, I helped her. We dug into the police reports and news coverage of the car acc- crash. We had everything translated. And then, one night a few weeks ago, Olivia remembered."

"But, what she remembered wasn't real?" Caitlin murmured, cradling the swaddled infant against her. "It was a false memory. My doctor said she could be prone to them because of the concussion."

Slowly and painfully, Morris shook his head. "The car accident was no accident," he replied quietly. Blinding silence suddenly filled the living room and she sat forward, leaning over her knees as she covered her ears with her hands. She didn't want to hear anymore and the silence was so painful.

That was when a phone chirped pleasantly. Morris reached into his pocket and immediately started tapping at the screen. "Olivia has the GPS tracker on her," he sighed.

"The what?" Casey and Sean asked at the same time as Caitlin asked, "Where is she?"

With Benjy's hand rubbing a soothing line down her back, she still heard Morris' deep voice through her hands. "Kansas."

Casey

The name of Meg's home state hit him like a punch to the gut. Whatever he expected Morris to say, it wasn't that. "How much cash do the four of you have on-hand?" Morris asked, raising his cell phone to his ear.

His head spun and he croaked, "Wait, what? Why?"

He glanced up, an undecipherable expression on his face. "Because Olivia's going after AJ and we need to go after her. She's already got a four-hour head start."

"This is insane!" Sean gasped as Caitlin started digging through the diaper bag at her feet.

"It is insane," Caitlin replied, setting the sleeping infant in her carrier seat as she pulled out her cell phone. "But we need to get Mom. Now." She glanced over at Morris and asked, "How much?"

"As much cash as you can raise," he replied quickly before he turned away and lowered his voice, conversing with someone on the other end.

A moment later, he felt Caitlin's hand on his arm. "Call Daddy's investment banker. See how much stock you can sell off and have the cash transferred into the household account. Evy's a co-signer on it."

"Cait," he heard Sean begin.

"Now, Casey!" she said before she turned to their younger brother. "Sean, call Aunt Bette. She has assets she can liquidate." A moment later, she turned away and began speaking to someone about selling her stocks.

Sean nodded and reached into his back pocket for his phone. He met Evy's eyes as she stood, one of the many throw blankets wrapped around her. "What should I do?" she asked tentatively.

"Get dressed," he said as he began scrolling through his contact list. "You need to go to the bank and withdraw the money." She nodded and dashed for the staircase, the fuzzy blanket falling to the floor in a rumpled heap.

As the line droned in an endless ring, he heard Benjy clear his throat. "Casey, we can use the Liberty jet. Should I call the airfield?"

He nodded, suddenly grateful for the young man's presence. "Yes. Tell them to have it on standby."

"And gassed up to get us to Marseilles," Morris interrupted. "Marseilles, France. A source at the airfield just confirmed that AJ Deschanel's private jet took off from there not even three hours ago."

Olivia

I startled as the jet shook, feeling the sensation of the jet descended. As I blinked my dry eyes, I reached over and raised the screen. Warm golden sunlight filled the jet's interior and I realized that it was already the next day in France. It's been hours since I last ate anything and, a moment later, my stomach clenched. But it could rebel as much as it wanted to as I willed the hunger pains from my mind. I didn't need food. I needed Gregory.

From across the aisle, I heard AJ stir. He had fallen asleep hours ago, a silk sleep mask over his eyes as a thick blanket covered his body. Covered the only device that allowed Gregory to see me. It was infuriating that he wasn't afraid. That he didn't fear me. The memory of the knife's weight as I held it to his throat briefly flashed in my mind. But, he knew he had the upper hand. That no harm would come to him until he had taken me to Gregory.

That AJ had played me from the beginning wasn't lost on me. I frowned deeply, disappointed that I hadn't wondered enough, and turned back to his phone. Gregory had stood from a chair by the window, remnants of a newspaper scattered by his feet. Slowly, his hands deep in the pockets of his pants, he wandered closer to me. He must've seen the movement from AJ's tie pin camera. Suddenly, he was there before me. I gazed at him in rapture, looking at all of the details I've missed the last few months. The thick salt and pepper beard. The longer hair. I bit back a smile, realizing his hair hadn't been below his ears since the 1970s. With my lips pressed together, my eyes moved over the line of his shoulders, the length of his arms beneath his polo shirt's short sleeves. My God, if I didn't know better, I'd think he was ready for a day on the golf course with our grandsons.

"Good morning, my dear." AJ's booming voice echoed in the cabin and my spine immediately stiffened. "My goodness, the sunlight on your face is radiant! As if the stars shine in your blush!"

"It's not a blush," I snapped. "It's simmering rage."

His laughter grated on my nerves as he crossed the aisle and leaned over. "I suppose that Gregory's temperament rubbed off on you."

As he tilted the phone, looking down at the glare on Gregory's face, I muttered, "If you think that, then you never knew me at all."