wn body. The heat registered two seconds later, a sharp sting across her knuckles that she didn't bother to acknowledge. Her eyes were fixe

ce came from far away, underwater. "

of a woman Alena recognized from billboards and award shows and the kind of Instagram posts that got a million likes in an ho

k. His thumb on her jaw, her fingers in his hair, the angle of h

Hollywood's Golden Bachelor Finds His Ma

ular excitement people got when disaster happened to someone famous enough to make it entertain

st

, and stumbled toward the restroom. Behind her, Brenda called her name, so

painted steel door until she was sitting on the cold tile, her knees drawn up, her forehead pressed against her

he periphery of her life who knew, who had seen her disappear for weekends and re

article loaded in seconds, the website optimized for the traffic surge of celebrity gossip. Sh

ame three weeks Kane had texted her goodnight from "London" wit

night, telling herself that no news was good news, that his silence meant he was tired, not that he was gone. The way she'd bought the light chestnut hair dye

pp she hadn't opened in months, the one with the skull icon that Kane

e missed beat, two, before slamming back

he interface was stark, black and white, no encryption keys visi

this bathroom floor, while her coworkers were gossiping about his new l

TMZ leak about my l

dual letters, black pixels on white background, and her brain ref

ct fighting her, her nails

ip on the cover of Vanity Fair a

peared. Three dots. Dis

flight number. Keep your mou

efore she could think, her thumb hammering the icon, but the phone rang once and went to voicemail.

s reduced to a

ng: I'm going to the police. I'll pro

ge status changed to de

een fli

words and his vanishing like they'd never existed. The app interface went gray, then black. She tried to tap the icon again from her home screen

ner and her own sweat, Alena Gordon understood that she had never known