Natalie rushed through her morning routine, and at 6:00 AM on the dot, she was on the bus on her way to work.By 07:00 AM, she was already logged in to her workstation and anxious as fuck, waiting for Levi to come in. She sent him a text, checking how far he was. She was dying to tell him about her little discovery.But when he still hadn't responded to her messages a couple of hours later, she dashed to the 10th floor."Mr Van Holt is out of the country. But he asked me to give you this." Angela smiled politely behind her glasses.Natalie took the envelope, puzzled by the PA's announcement. "But I spoke with him last night. He said he'll be here today.""He got a call at the crack of dawn. It seems the issue with the overseas distributor is much bigger than we'd anticipated—" Angela explained, but lost interest halfway through, leaving Natalie to fill in the blanks herself."When is he coming back?""Depends on how soon they reach an agreement.""Is Mark in yet? Can I see him?"Angel
Since the surgery was Friday, Natalie took the bus down to Sparrow Beach on Wednesday evening and spent Thursday at the hospital.There was a lot of paperwork to get through, and she met one expert after the other—from the finance side of things and all the way to the medical end of the spectrum.For some reason, everyone thought she had to know everything at once. They bombarded her with too many details she didn't need. She didn't even understand half the things they told her and wished they could just speak plain old English to her."Will they be okay?" Natalie finally asked Dr Eric Mwangi, the head surgeon Levi had flown in. She'd been locked away in one of the conference rooms with the transplant team for the better part of the afternoon, and she couldn't take any more of their rambling.She didn't care about all the fancy terms his team kept throwing around when they explained, in detail, the four-hour-long procedure.All she wanted to know was if her siblings would be okay."Th
Levi pushed Natalie into a cleaning supplies closet. It clearly stated in big, bold writing on the sign on the wall next to the door that the area was off-limits to the general public.But he didn't care.He wanted a moment of total privacy with his girl. Their kiss in the hallway was not enough for him. He wanted her in his arms."We're not supposed to be here." Natalie shook her head, but he hushed her up with a kiss, his hands resting on her waist. She'd lost a lot of weight and looked tired. Levi reckoned she wasn't eating or sleeping again. He'd have to fix that when they get home."I'm sorry I didn't call you over the past few days. Things were a little manic—" he tried to explain as he brushed her hair away from her face.Natalie stunned him, though, when she reached up and kissed him."You're not mad at me?" he asked the scepticism in his voice matching the suspicion in his eyes.He'd expected her to be fuming with him and throw every imaginable roadblock in his way. But Natal
A slow jam drifted from the jukebox in the corner of the room. Casey approached their table and held out his hand. "Nat? Remember this song? Our matric dance? Care to indulge this old flame?"Levi saw red.In a heartbeat, he was on his feet, getting up in Casey's face."Look, pal, there'll be no dancing tonight. There'll be no dancing ever again!" he glowered at the other man.Natalie tugged at his arm, pleading with him to stand down."Who are you to decide that?" Casey challenged him."Her boyfriend," Levi barked."Nat, who is this guy?" Casey asked, and before he knew what hit him, Levi's fist had already connected with his jaw, sending him reeling backwards before he crashed to the floor.Casey was back on his feet instantly, ramming his head on Levi's midsection.Stunned gasps and fearful screams swept through the room as he and Casey slammed into each other again, both trying to assert their dominance. It took all of Mark's and Seth's strength to pull Levi away from the brawl.J
Levi left Natalie in her bed early on Saturday morning to grab his stuff from the B&B.She wasn't in her room when he came back, and her house was oddly silent, lonely almost."Natalie?" he called out as he moved through the place, checking the rooms."I'm in here."He followed the sound of her voice and found her in what he assumed was the master bedroom, her face a splotchy mess of tears as she looked through her family photos.He sat beside her and took a few of the pictures she'd spread out in front of her. All were of a stunning Cape Malay woman with the same eyes and shy smile as Natalie’s. In all the shots, she either had all the Taylor kids around her or had one of them in her arms or on her hip."So this is my mom-in-law," he teased her, smiling with relief when Natalie laughed tearfully.She bumped her head lightly on his shoulder, and he held it in place. "Who said I want to marry you?""You will!" he told her as he gently patted her bedhead."I've signed too many papers whe
They set off for the hospital shortly after their shower and a quick cup of coffee. Natalie chose to ride with Emily, and Levi headed to the B&B where Mark and Seth were waiting for him.They were all over him as soon as he slid into the back seat."How's the honeymoon going?" Seth smirked in the passenger seat."Did you christen all the rooms in Natalie's house with all your makeup sex?" Mark asked, roaring with laughter."Shut up!""Anyway, we have a lead on Vivienne," Mark announced as he pulled away from the curb.Seth added, "Emily said Natalie has an invoice from a boutique in Rock Castle with their other boss' details. They'll send it to us when we get back.""What about the surveillance footage from that Heat place?" Levi asked, but he really wasn't holding his breath. He knew the tapes got wiped every so often."Apparently, they keep backups on an external drive," Mark announced, igniting his hope. "They'll get back to us in a day or two.""Where are we on the car? Anything?"
They didn't have a plan after leaving the hospital. So they all ended up at Natalie's house and spent a large part of their Saturday evening going over Colleen's case.Natalie thought it would be better if they all worked backwards and tried to piece together everything about Colleen's disappearance from there."Okay, so November 5th is her last known sighting," Emily said from her place on the floor at Natalie's feet as she rapidly ran her hands on the keys of her MacBook.Levi didn't like the idea that she and Natalie were already so heavily invested in searching for his twin, especially with their close ties to Dreams. The last thing he wanted was to put them in danger. But he didn't have the heart to tell them they were not on the case. So he watched the two of them plot out a neat timeline on a PowerPoint presentation."Before that, it was October 28th, at Smiths Town," Natalie said. She seemed utterly absorbed with their slide. It was almost as if he, Mark and Seth weren't even
They had a long journey ahead of them on Sunday, so they woke up early, took a quick shower and raced off to the hospital to see Natalie's siblings one last time before they drove back to Rock Union.Their first stop was the cemetery. Natalie wanted to see her parents and place flowers on their graves before leaving Sparrow Beach.So they walked to the chapel Levi had seen when they drove through town on Friday.He stood a respectable distance from her to give her some privacy while she spoke with her mom, but she waved him over.He knelt beside her and took her hand."Mom, this is the man I told you about the last time. He's a good man. Most of the time. But he does crazy stupid things, like picking fights with random strangers," she smiled tearfully, and Levi laughed.Yeah, crazy and stupid summed him up well, especially where she was concerned."But because of his crazy stupid ways, Jamie's going to be okay. And I wanted you two to meet, at least once," she openly wept, and Levi hug