Chapter 6

There was silence.

Ava's head whipped to the side and her eyes widened. Klaire, even shocked by her actions covered her mouth with her hands, seeming to not believe what she had just done. Casey collected himself after a few seconds and immediately pulled away from Klaire.

"Ava, Ms. Maddison, are you ok? I am so sorry. Are you ok?" he said frantically and bent down to see her face.

A bright pink mark appeared on her cheek after a couple of seconds and when he saw her face he could not help but be puzzled. She looked somber. Ava shook her head a couple of times and then turned back and faced Klaire. And when she turned back there was a deep glare on her face.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Klaire said softly while shaking her hands.

"Get out," Ava said and then stood up.

"Ms. Maddison-" Casey got up as well.

"I said, get out. Now." her voice was scarily calm.

Seeing that there was no way out of this he looked back at Klaire and grabbed onto her arm pulling her up. Ava stayed with her back to them and Casey dragged Klaire out of the room. She stuttered to find something to say but nothing came out.

"I'm really sorry," Casey said before he opened the door and exited the room.

Once the two were in the hallway by themselves he tried to compose himself, taking a couple of deep breaths and counting in his head. Of all the things that Klaire has done, this was by far the worse. He was embarrassed, ashamed, and regretful. Regretful of this entire thing. Regretful for the past two years. Regretful of talking to her.

"Casey," she gently rested her hand on his arm but he roughly pulled away as soon as she made contact.

"Don't say anything. I don't want your excuses," he said bitterly before walking off.

Klaire didn't say anything after that. He decided to walk home instead of going in the car with her. He needed to clear his head and he wanted time away from Klaire. Luckily there seemed to be an absence of paparazzi outside of the office so he easily walked along the streets getting stares here and there.

Casey was the son of a famous businessman who ran a shipping company. His father was up there with Bezos and all the other rich people so he was pretty well known. Casey was well known because of his good looks and when the internet discovered that, it changed his life forever. He met a bunch of amazing people and made some amazing friends. But with that came the day that he met Klaire.

All of the other times where Klaire did something that tested his patience or made him feel a sliver of regret came creeping out of the crevices of his heart. All of those moments piled on top of the monumental situation that just happened and Casey seriously considered breaking up with Klaire at that moment. But he was afraid of what could happen next.

The more he thought the more he realized that his relationship was doomed to fail from the start. He had heard so many people tell him to get out of the relationship ad not give her a second glance. That they would break up anyway and that she would be the cause. He didn't want to believe them because he didn't want to be wrong. He was embarrassed that he denied all of what people said and now in the end he would break up with her.

But even so, he wanted to save his happiness and if that meant getting made fun of on the internet for a while because of it then so be it. Casey loved Klaire, he wanted to be happy with her. But he wished that she was different. He wished that he could have had a normal relationship with her.

With a sigh and a made-up mind, he turned around and walked in the direction of his house. He had been wandering aimlessly for the past ten minutes but he knew the city pretty well and so he could find his way back easily. People on the streets took videos of him and really could not care less. He was more amazed that the paparazzi had not made an appearance. Maybe Klaire was making a scene because of what happened and so they were all preoccupied.

"Klaire," he realized with worry.

She could be making a scene and doing something stupid and that could be the reason why. Her mind went to the craziest places sometimes but if she thought that he would break up with her because of what happened then she could be doing something that could get herself or other people hurt.

Worry filled his heart and he picked up his pace. Looking for a cab he looked around the streets and finally flagged one down. The driver screeched to a stop and Casey got in the back quickly.

"Take me to Maddison's Couples Therapy," he told the driver.

He nodded and then they were off. Because it was the afternoon, there was traffic and Casey rapped his fingers against his thigh as he waited for the building to appear in sight. When it did he craned his neck to look and see if there was a crowd or any sort of commotion. To his relief, there was none of that.

When the car stopped, he handed the driver a random bill, thanked him, and then got out and rushed towards the building. He ran down the ramp to the parking lot and then to the front entrance. Their car was gone so hopefully it meant that she had gotten home safely. Casey sighed in relief and then continued his journey inside the building.

Since there was nothing happening outside of the building, he wanted to go and check and see if Ava was ok. He wanted to apologize again since he was sure that Klaire didn't. When he pushed open the door, he smiled slightly at the smell of the place and when he turned the corner to the receptionist's desk, he was surprised to see it empty. Puzzled, he kept going.

Casey took the elevator up to the fourth floor and then he went to the room they were always in Room #10. He listened to see if there was any noise coming from it but he didn't hear anything. He even placed his ear on the door but he still didn't hear anything.

And when he tried to open the door, the handle didn't move.

"Where could she be?"

He saw that her car was still there so she was still in the building. So she was in one of the other rooms. So, he decided to check all of the rooms on the fourth floor. All of them were either locked or empty. Alot of the rooms had a different layout than the one he was familiar with and he wondered why but quickly pushed the thought away.

And then it was onto the third, second and first floor, but for every room he opened, he only found nothing. It was like the building was completely abandoned. But as he was racking his brain he suddenly remembered that there was a fifth floor.

He had hope again and then went to the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor. The elevator ride seemed to take forever and when he was finally on the floor and the doors opened he was immediately taken back.

Unlike the rest of the building, the walls of this floor were mint blue. There were abstract paintings and paintings that looked like they were from the 16th century hung up on the wall, all in a gold frame. There were fewer doors but the color of the doors was the only thing identical to the rest of the building.

"Wow," he exhaled as he walked down the hallway, Forgetting the reason he was there momentarily.

Casey admired the pictures and could not help but trace the brush strokes gently. After some time of wondering, he was finally able to snap back into it when he heard voices. He paused and listened, and then looked to the room to his left. As quickly as possible, he approached the room and leaned against it.

"-time back." a female voice said.

"Exactly, so just move on and forget about them. You are the great Ava Maddison. You have so many other people who could fill their spot in a heartbeat." a second voice said.

He guessed that it was the receptionists.

"That bitch does not deserve your tears."

Casey's heart jumped. Both at her harsh tone and the fact that Ava was crying. Klaire made Ava cry. Well, she did get slapped in the face. It must be humiliating for her as well.

"Those two are gone now so just focus on your other clients. They were both going to break up with or without your therapy. That was how bad their relationship was."

"Yeah, you can't fix something that was never whole, to begin with."