I flashed her a smile. “Yeah, don’t worry.” Nodding, as she went back to her work, my mouth opened again. “But how would the meeting take place if Ace is not here? He was supposed to be there, right?”

“Yeah, but since he’s not here today, Caleb will handle the meeting,” she replied, not moving her eyes from those files.

Couldn’t she just say where he was?

“Do you have any idea where he is?” I probed.

She shrugged. “I called his PA this morning, and he said the boss would be away for a couple of days. He left early this morning.”

Something dropped in the pit of my stomach. Left? For a couple of days? Where? And why? Was everything all right?

Looking up, a thoughtful expression etched over her face. “Maybe he went to the UK again.”

“UK? How do you know he went to the UK?” Something dimmed inside my chest. He’d be gone for days?

“He often goes there and stays for some days. I don’t know why though, maybe for vacations. He actually needs it. Most of the time, all he does is work.” She shook her head.

“Does he have any business over there? Or any friends?” I didn’t think he’d go there for vacation.

“Nope. He’s a very closed off person. You should know that as you’re his close family friend. He doesn’t have any friends other than your siblings. Nor does he have any business over there.”

Nodding, I looked down at the catalogue again. Now I was feeling more guilty for not responding to his call sooner and not calling him back last night. Maybe he wanted to tell me something.

What happened that he’d to leave like that? Yes, he did this often, but it didn’t feel right. He was so disturbed last night.

After finally finishing with the work at hand, I delivered it to Matt and called Ace again. But again, his phone was switched off.

A heavy sigh left my lips.

Where are you?

The landline on my desk rang, snatching my attention.

“Hello.”

“Emerald, hey! It’s Matt. Can you please get me the files I sent to you this morning? I’m a little busy here. It’d be a great help,” he said from the other side of the phone.

“Sure, I’ll be down in a minute.”

“All right, thank you.”

Putting the phone down, I grabbed those files and walked out of my office. But my steps halted, spotting Tobias talking to Linn, a girl from the HR department.

“Tobias!” I approached him.

Excusing Linn, he turned to me. “Hey. How’s your day going?”

“Do you know where Ace is?” I was straight forward, not wasting my time asking what he was doing here.

“Whoa! Calm down there,” he said, watching me. “What happened? Why are you so riled up?”

Calm down, Em. Compose yourself.