# 3—Chapter 41
Anastasia
Hawaii is breathtaking.
It is everything I could have asked for and more. It is vacation paradise. The warm air kisses my skin and the soft breeze combs through my hair. Angelo and I don’t have any plans, but we’re both so mesmerized by our surroundings that we need to take a moment to let everything settle in.
I can’t believe we did this. We’ve abandoned our families, our duties, we can never return to Boston. I don’t think I’d ever want to either. I’ve never seen palm trees before, I squeal with delight as I rush over to touch one planted right outside the airport.
“When can we see the ocean?”Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.
“Whenever you want,” he grabs my hand and kisses my knuckles.
I clap my hands together nearly bouncing up and down with excitement. Then I stop, I look over at Angelo’s sullen expression. “Do you think we made the right decision?”
He looks at me with wide eyes. “Of course. Do you?” I nod my head in response. “I’m just being cautious. We need to lay low. Honolulu is a big city, very touristy. I think we should take a flight over to Maui. We can find a nice secluded house where no one will ever find us.”
“Okay, I trust you,” I repeat. “Let’s do that,” I lock my fingers with his. We press our foreheads together relishing in this moment. We took a big step that we can never recover from. From this day forth our lives are changed. “I’ll follow you anywhere, Angelo.”
As we walk along the beach looking at hotels to stay in for the time being. We are both jet lagged and even the sun is just starting to set, our bodies think it’s the middle of the night.
Wow. The water is so clear and beautiful as the orange sunset reflects off of it. I walk toward the sand kicking off my shoes letting my toes feel sand for the first time. I’m in disbelief. This is the place of my dreams. My hideaway in fantasies. It’s come true.
I turn around to see Angelo, but he’s gone. I circle searching for him. My eyes analyze everybody in the vicinity. He’s not here.
I never use my voice to talk, it isn’t trained like a normal person’s voice but I scream his name anyways. People stare at me, some looking concerned and others judging.
No. No, this can’t be happening. He just must’ve… he must have just walked away and thought I was following him. He’ll find me. I have to stay put.
He’ll find me. I know he will.
I close my eyes trying hard not to think that something bad has happened but my gut tells me otherwise. It was all going too well. Something bad has happened. I wait for minutes and minutes and soon those minutes turn into the sun has set and it’s now dark out. I walk around trying to look for him. I can’t sit around any longer.
Not far from where I was waiting, tucked near a bench and a garbage can is our duffel bag. He wouldn’t have left it here. I open it to see the credit cards and passports are there. If he abandoned me, he wouldn’t leave his only source of money behind.
Something terrible has happened.
I take the credit cards and stick them in my back pocket along with passports and try to explore for him some more. The night sky has chilled the air and I rub my hands over my goosebumped arms to keep myself warm. I’m lost. I have no idea where I am. I have no idea where he could be. I’ll never find him and if I do, I’m scared what shape he’ll be in.
If he’ll even be alive…
I stay along the beach walking as long as I can before walking back looking for any clues. Anything to link me to where Angelo might have gone. I should have never turned my back on him. I should’ve held his hand and held him close to me. Then maybe none of this would be happening. If he’s dead at least if I stayed by his side maybe we both would be. It feels like a better scenario than this crippling loneliness.