"Mike, is Karen with you? Her phone has been unreachable!"
Mike suppressed his unease, pausing for a moment before speaking in a casual tone, "She’s probably working late again. You know how she is, always a workaholic."
Kyle firmly disagreed. "Impossible! Tomorrow’s the wedding, she wouldn’t still be working at this hour!"
Mike fell silent for a few seconds, then quickly pulled out his phone and began checking the surveillance footage to track my whereabouts.
My heartbeat quickened and a faint spark of hope flickered within me.
Could he realize something was wrong?
Would he recognize that the person who was nearly tortured to death today was me?
"There's no one at home, just as I guessed. Kyle, don’t worry, Karen is either still working late or dragging her feet on the way home."
He hung up the phone and turned to the people around him, giving instructions.
"Prepare the car, I'll take Jane home."
My hope was instantly extinguished.
He would rather believe I was just lingering on the road than face the truth that the person he had tortured to the point of death was his fiancée.
"Mike, aren’t we going to play a little longer? You’re heading home so early?"