Chapter 25

Warm sunlight slipped between the curtains and gently roused Elizabeth from a dreamless sleep. Her arm sluggishly drifted over to her boyfriend only to feel a cold vacant spot where he should have been. She cracked open her eyes only to see an empty pillow. Sean must have left for work early again. He had been doing that for the past two weeks and she missed having his warm arms wrapped around her in the morning. Inwardly, she was disturbed by his recent absences.

Once his three-week winter break was over, he came home later and later in the evenings and left early the next morning. They visited her parents as promised on New Year's and there seemed to be a strange tension among Sean and her parents. She could feel it but she couldn't quite figure out exactly what it was; perhaps it was the tightness in the corner of their eyes or how they steered around certain conversations. Sean and both of her parents were hiding something, what it was she had no clue.

When school started up again Sean's peculiar schedule began. The most noticeable change was in their lovemaking. Their passionate trysts seemed to lack a certain fire and they came less frequently. Her heart grew cold at the possibility that Sean had grown tired of her and now had someone else in his life. Was she doing something wrong? Was she not attentive enough to his needs? What was the problem?

Slowly, Elizabeth dragged herself out of bed. She brushed her teeth while she waited for the shower to warm up and then hopped in for a quick rinse to wake up. The hairdryer followed as she brushed out the tangles. She recalled how Sean always used to help her. He said he loved her hair and the way it smelled. Before she knew it Elizabeth was on the brink of tears. She was losing him! She didn't know how she knew but she did. She felt the same way with Charles before she discovered that he was having an affair with that big-breasted bimbo.

Quickly, Elizabeth caught herself before she went into hysterics. Her emotions shut down and the cold, calculating woman that saw her through her tumultuous divorce stepped forward. She went through a mental checklist of questions that helped whittle down her worries and give her a direction to follow. Her eyes flickered to the calendar. It was a Saturday. If Sean did indeed go to the lab then it was for extended research. He didn't go to work on the weekends before but this was his third Saturday in a row now. Elizabeth got dressed in a plain t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans then sped off in her car towards the university.

Elizabeth didn't remember the trip to campus; her mind was busy whirling through the possibilities of why the man she loved had changed. Was he going to cheat on her? No, he didn't have it in him to lie to her like that. Besides, she would know. Did she somehow hurt his feelings without being aware of it? That was a possibility considering how fragile he really was behind the noble exterior. Any armor has its weakness. Did he believe that he had done something to upset her? She couldn't be sure about that. The more questions she came up with and tried to answer, the greater her confusion. She pulled into the parking lot near the lab where he worked and paid the parking fee. Her eyes swept the lot but couldn't find his car. As she made her way to the laboratory she found his bicycle chained to a bike rack. That meant his car was back at his apartment and that he might not come home to her tonight.

Elizabeth quickly suppressed the rising panic of losing the man she loved. There was something wrong and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

She planned on walking into the building and sneaking a peek at him to see what he was up to, but she found the front door locked. Elizabeth tried the side doors, the back doors and any other entranced she could find. She cursed quietly and stormed back to her car and sat behind the wheel, her mind grinding a way to her next step.

The frustrated woman turned on the ignition, drove to Sean's apartment building and quickly pulled into the parking lot. She turned her key in the lock and entered his apartment. Her eyes panned the living room with a practiced efficiency. Digging through a person's office was nothing new to her since she gathered all of her own evidence against Charles proving his infidelity during their divorce. She swept through the room inspecting everything. She drew a finger across his keyboard. It was clean. After almost a month of supposed negligence, the keyboard was clear of dust. He had been using it lately. She booted it up and scanned through his logs and files. She discovered nothing. Elizabeth went online and inspected the history for his Internet browser. What she found startled her.

The log showed that he had been using the computer every night since they returned from Seattle. The times showed that he left her place almost as soon as she fell asleep. On the list were web addresses for several psychologists as well as self help manuals on how to deal with traumatic experiences. She didn't know what to make of it but printed out a copy of the list for future viewing. She shut the computer down quickly and then Elizabeth made her way to his bedroom.

Sean's bedroom seemed undisturbed save the bed with its rumpled sheets. Gently, Elizabeth inspected the pillow and found only one furrow in it.

She sighed, thankful that there was a strong suggestion that another woman wasn't involved. A quick inspection of the trashcan turned up nothing. Her eyes roamed the room. There was something different about the room. Elizabeth wasn't sure what it was but something had definitely changed. She took a calming breath and simply let the room come to her, fill her mind. It was a subtle thing, but if it weren't for the fact that she looked at it admiringly so often before she would never have noticed the difference.

Elizabeth's attention shifted to the walls. The mural with its intricate drawings that scrolled across the room always enchanted her. She stepped up to the aggressive lines and soft shadows; her hand caressed a hard smudge on the wall. The phoenix was marred. Sean's fingers must have pressed hard to have broken through the fixative that prevented the charcoal from rubbing off. He was disturbed by something; that much was clear. And it had something to do with her.