72. Bloomville, here I come!

It's been two months since the kidnapping incident and my talk with Walter, it also marks two months since his disappearance, the last time I saw him was at the hospital. His phone had been off and there was no life on his social media, I knew nothing bad had happened because he left Angela with apology flowers just before disappearing. I tried very hard to find him, I asked almost everyone I knew, including his cousin, the friends I knew and Rachel but no one seemed to know where he was. His company was still running smoothly though so I guessed he was still hands-on wherever he was.

Perhaps I should mention that not all was lost because of Khalinda, there was some bright side to the kidnapping. Lira and Angela finally came out of the closet, and another bright side was Angela's parents' wake-up call. They realized that her happiness mattered above anything, and although they were not completely comfortable with her sexuality, they were trying to do better. I admired Angela's strength, although she still had some scars on her body from that night and she needed therapy to deal with the PTSD, somehow she replaced her influencer hustle with an NGO that focused on helping survivors of kidnapping ordeals, like herself.

I also found out my company opened a new publishing branch in Bloomville, a city at the other end of the country and I was being transferred as a senior editor. I was honestly happy with the strides I was making in my career, from being an assistant to being a senior editor. I even managed to get myself a car. I must say, everything was coming together very well, although Walter was not there, seeing my career take shape gave me comfort.

The day before moving day, Angela, Lira, and Rachel came to help me pack, well, it turned out Rachel was not such a bad person to have around but she said the reason she was hanging around was to make sure we were safe. I had a lot of furniture and I was not planning on selling or leaving it behind, so I hired a long-distance moving truck, it was a 15-hour drive, but that was nothing compared to the money I would have spent should I have decided to get new stuff. Much to Angela's dismay, she had been trying to convince me otherwise, but I was adamant in my decision. 

"Angela, you know Thandie is right", Lira said in support of my decision making Angela pout. We all laughed at the scene of Angela acting like a 5-year-old, but that light mood was short-lived when Lira suddenly asked about Walter, she felt grateful towards him and the fact that she still hadn't thanked him was not sitting well with her.

"So, you still haven't heard anything from him?", 

My heart always felt heavy when I thought about him, I had not let him go and I was not planning on it, maybe it was because I understood why he disappeared. 

I sighed heavily fighting the sadness in my smile, and I declared, "No, not yet. but I will find him". 

Angela reached out to hug me, "You have to. He needs to know that what happened to me was not his fault. He is not the reason Khalinda turned out the way she did.", 

Tears welled in my eyes because I wished so much that he could hear this, no one was blaming him, and everyone still loved him. We pulled away, and I assured Angela that I would find him and make him come back to hear it himself.

"Okay! That's enough sad stuff, Thandie where should I put this?", Rachel asked in an attempt to cut short our period of everything sad. 

I had everything packed, except for a small suitcase which had my clothes for the following day and toiletries, and I decided to spend my final night at Angela's new place which happened to be Walter's apartment block. After what happened at her previous place, she decided to upgrade to a much safer environment.

Not sure how it happened, but my final night turned into my farewell party with dozens of pizza boxes, all-you-can-drink wine, and unlimited snacks supply and the living room was full of my work friends, we were about 12 in total. The wine did a number on me because I found myself sitting at Walter's door with my head gently resting on my knees as I began to sob, I knocked a couple of times too but I knew it was hopeless because he was not there. 

I heard Angela's voice in echoes calling me worriedly, but I was too drunk to even make sense of what she was saying so I just smiled with my damp face, "Angela! You are here", I said in my drunken voice as I extend my arms to hug her,

Her face held so much pity for me, she shook her head, "You poor baby", then helped me up and led me back to her apartment which was two floors up.

I woke up with a banging headache, but that would have to wait because I was already late, the moving guys were already at my place. I quickly cleaned up and gave Angela and Lira a goodbye hug, but I knew I would see them soon because they promised to visit once I had settled in my new city.

My heart was heavy with emotions, Amber City held so many memories for me, as I drove away from its border, a tear rolled down. The city welcomed me, I found love, but my love disappeared, I didn't even say goodbye to him. I wondered if I would ever see him because the distance between us was getting wider per second. At our first rest stop, just 3 hours from Amber City, my phone dinged, and I saw Angela's name pop up, she sent me a link to a Facebook post and I became anxious and reluctant to open it, the last time I was sent Facebook links, it didn't end well. Another text followed shortly as if sensing my skepticism to open the link.

"It's Walter!"

My heart panged and I didn't waste time, as anxious as I had become, I instantly clicked on the link which led to a gossip page, and the headline was:

Bloomville's ghost playboy finally caught on camera