Love Me Back (Amelia and Daniel) novel Chapter 200

He leaned heavily on the desk, pulling open each drawer one by one, desperately hoping to find something—anything—Amelia might have left behind. Anything that might still carry a trace of her.

In the bottom drawer, he stopped short. There they were: the pair of porcelain vases.

Shattered.

Both of them, broken to pieces.

Daniel froze, then dropped to his knees, staring at the drawer filled with sharp porcelain shards. Eventually, he bent his head lower, shoulders starting to tremble.

...

“He’s still not out?”

Grandma Edith was equal parts anxious and frustrated. She sent Nora to check again. “He’s been locked in there for over ten hours—he’s not going to do something reckless, is he?”

But then she shook her head, realizing her own worry might be too much. “Amelia’s just disappeared, nothing terrible’s happened. Daniel’s not the type to go that far.”

Nora soon returned, shaking her head. “I heard him moving around. He’s fine, just refuses to come out.”

All Grandma Edith could do was sigh. “Let him be. This is his own doing—if he’s miserable, he’s only got himself to blame.”

The room was dark, the only light slipping in from the street lamp outside, casting a melancholy shadow over everything.

Daniel lay on the bed, staring at the dim ceiling. Beside his pillow, he’d lined up Amelia’s ring, a photograph taped back together, and his phone.

He lay there quietly, letting the silence wash over him, threatening to pull him under.

His phone buzzed.

Despite his exhaustion, he grabbed it with surprising speed. When he saw Violet’s name flash on the screen, he didn’t have the energy to deal with her. He tossed the phone aside and pressed his forearm over his eyes.

A moment later, the phone buzzed again. This time, fearing it might be news about Amelia, he checked it. Finley was calling. He picked up.

“Anything? Any word from her?”

Whatever Finley said on the other end, Daniel suddenly flew into a rage. He roared like a wounded animal, “Why should I give up? She’s my wife. She belongs with me—do you hear me? Keep looking!”

He just couldn’t give up. Amelia was his wife. Why should anyone tell him to stop searching?

“It takes the person who tied the knot to untie it,” Grandma Edith muttered.

Grace choked out, “But Amelia’s gone.”

If only they could find Amelia. If she were here, doing nothing but standing in the doorway, Daniel would snap out of this in a heartbeat. But she’d vanished without a trace. They’d searched every inch of the city, even sent people across the country—Amelia had simply disappeared.

“Amelia’s gone, but their feelings aren’t,” Grandma Edith declared, getting to her feet. “I refuse to believe he’s beyond hope!”

No one knew how many days Daniel had been lying there.

He’d never hit this kind of low before—hair unkempt, stubble overgrown, the only neat spot on him his left hand, where two wedding rings shone, polished over and over.

He heard footsteps outside the door; another attempt to reason with him, no doubt. He didn’t care. If it wasn’t Amelia, no one could get through to him.

He shut his eyes and pulled the blanket over his head, determined to shut the world out.

Outside, Grandma Edith’s voice rang out, high and dramatic, cutting through the door like a knife.

“Well, if he dies, all the better! I’ll find my granddaughter a new husband! Amelia’s so wonderful—she deserves someone even better!”