The CEO's Rose

Amy’s POV

It was not unusual for Amy and Vivian to go a few days without speaking to each other. But what was unusual was Vivian promising to reach out and not doing so.

But only had Vivian promised to call her with news on the move earlier that day, and not kept her word on that. Her friend had also not answered when Amy had called her. As a result Amy had not yet gone to bed despite how late it now was.

For a few hours now, she had been switching up between calling Vivian and waiting for her friend to reach out to her. Neither of those things had happened and she was feeling stressed, unable to shake off her unease no matter what she did. Now she was contemplating going over to Vivian’s apartment, or maybe stopping by the penthouse to check if everything was okay. It was the middle of the night, but her mind was all for the idea.

If Vivian had just been busy with the move and had forgotten to call, Amy knew that she would feel ridiculous the moment that her friend opened the door for her. But she just could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She had been feeling that way since the previous night, and instead of the unfounded feeling going away it was only getting stronger. Thirty more minutes, she would wait thirty more minutes for Vivian to call her. If her friend still did not reach out, then no matter how crazy it would look. She was heading over to the apartment and if Vivian wasn’t there she was going to head to Ryan’s penthouse and hug Vivian until her friend promised to never leave her hanging again.

Deciding to pass the time by watching the news Amy grabbed her remote, but before she could switch the TV on there was a knock at her door. Frowning, she put the remote down and got to her feet.

"I’m coming!" She called. Staring through her peep hole, she saw Mark on the other side of the door, and that made her pause.

What was Ryan’s best friend doing at her place so late at night? And why was he looking like he was barely holding himself together? Deciding to find out Amy opened the door and let him in.

***

Something was wrong.

One thing that Amy had learned to appreciate about Mark was the fact that the man was very direct. Every time that they had talked, she had never had to press him for information. If he knew something and she asked him he had always been more than willing to share. Now Mark was being very evasive.

"What aren’t you telling me and why do you want me to sit down when all that I want to do is go and see my friend? Whatever it is that you want to talk about we can talk about it on the way there. So move," Rather than budging, Mark shook his head. Moving forward he held out his hand, and Amy, her heart hammering found herself slipping her hand into his and allowing the man to guide her back to her couch.

"Amy, when was the last time that you talked to Vivian?" Mark asked. Her unease building, Amy answered him.

"Earlier today. She was really excited about the move and promised me that she would call as soon as she got to her apartment but she never did. Mark what is going on?" Instead of answering her, Mark gently squeezed the hand that he was still holding and then he covered it with his other hand.

Oh, whatever this was, it definitely was not good.

"I am not fully aware of the details, but there was an attack at Vivian’s place," Amy’s breath stilled in her chest.

What? There had been an attack and she was only now just finding out.

"When did that happen? Was it earlier this evening?" Mark nodded, pulling her hand out of his Amy jumped to her feet.

"What are we still doing here? Let’s go. Which hospital is she in? We need to-" Something about the look on Mark’s face made Amy lose all of the energy that had suddenly built up in her. Collapsing back onto the couch. She looked at the man, noticing the fact that his normally well put together look was off.

Why was Mark’s tie askew? And how come his pocket watch was facing the wrong way?

"I have not been able to get a hold of Ryan, but multiple reputable news sources are saying that Vivian is..." The man paused, and cleared his throat.

"They are saying that she is no more. She was murdered in her apartment,"

***

Tch, Mark was clearly on something. Looking at him, Amy scratched her head. What was he on about? Vivian was fine.

Reaching for her phone, she pulled it out and immediately went online searching her friend’s name. Unlike the last time where there were all of those awful naked pictures and the like. There was instead multiple articles from people expressing their condolences.

Amy stared at the words.

Shaking her head, she closed her browser and instead went to her call log.

"Vivian is fine. Look, she just talked to me," Opening up her messages, she smiled as she held out her phone for Mark, showing him the last conversation that they’d had via text.

"See, she is fine. We were just talking today, so there’s absolutely no way that my friend is dead,"

"Amy..." Mark began, his voice so, so reasonable and she just lost it.

"Stop it! If Vivian were gone, I would know. She is my best friend, not yours. So don’t you dare say that she’s... she’s..." Unable to even say the word Amy got to her feet.

"Call Ryan. He’ll tell you she’s alive," Standing Mark shook his head.

"I’ve already told you that he’s not picking up my calls. But I do know which hospital he’s most likely to be at," Not wasting another moment, Amy began heading towards the door.

"Come on, let’s go then. This is all some big misunderstanding. We’ll walk into that hospital and Vivian will just be getting a few minor scrapes looked at, and she’ll be perfectly fine. Let’s go," Despite her words, Amy found herself unable to walk through the door. She did not resist when Mark was suddenly behind her. His arm gently going around her waist as he guided her outside, allowing her to lean on him for strength.