Leonardo

As I burst into Maya's room, a jolt of shock surged through me as I found it totally empty. The air held lingering traces of her sweet addicting scent, yet the room itself was hauntingly empty without her. My frantic search extended to the bathroom, yielding the same desolate result—nothing but silence and emptiness.

Where could she have gone?

A pang of worry gripped my heart, intensifying the ache of her absence. I strained to sense her presence, but it was as if she had evaporated into thin air. 

Did she….

She couldn't have, not Maya. 

If leaving was her intention, she wouldn't have endured everything until now. She would've departed long before this point.

"No sign of her?" Maximus's voice, laced with concern, punctuated the stillness as he scanned the room.

"It seems... she might have left," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. The mere thought of a day without her felt suffocating.

I couldn’t fucking lose her. At any cost! She was the basis of my fucking existence. 

God. What are we gonna do?! We can't even track her.

"She wouldn't just disappear," Maximus mumbled, echoing my own frantic thoughts, “She can’t fucking leave us. She has to be somewhere around. Yes! She can’t be that far away! Let’s track her, alright?”

"She fucking rejected us. We can't track her anymore. Have you fucking lost it?!" desperation crept into my words. I was going insane already— I wanted her before my eyes, here, with us. 

"So, what do you fucking expect me to do? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs? She's obviously left, or else why reject us? We've got to find her before she goes far away, completely out of our reach. We can't let that happen!"

He was right. But I didn’t know why an unsettling feeling gripped me, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, finding her was a futile endeavor. 

How long has it been since she left?

 We did not have a single idea.

Maya was smart; if she orchestrated an escape right under our noses, the odds of us tracking her down grew slimmer by the moment. 

By rejecting us, she'd cleverly blocked any attempt to trail her. She anticipated our moves, setting herself free from our reach. She'd placed herself far beyond our grasp...

"Let's ask the guards first. Someone must have seen her," I exclaimed, darting out of her room and rushing downstairs. My heart raced in my chest, mirroring Maximus's growing restlessness.

What in the world would we do if she successfully escaped? How could we continue without her? She was our breath, our life. Without her, existence would become a torturous void—a living hell.

But wouldn't staying with us have been hell for her? She did what was best for herself, didn't she?

Fuck it. I couldn't say. Even if it was the best choice for her, when it came to her, my selfishness knew no bounds. The mere idea of living without her was unbearable.

As we made our way downstairs and I hurried towards the door, Maximus's voice halted me in my tracks.

"Leo, wait..." 

I turned to follow his gaze fixed on the open door of our father's office. As I returned to his side, the faint remnants of Maya's scent lingering from the direction of the office caught my attention, suggesting she might have been there before leaving.

"What could she be doing in Dad's office?" I asked, perplexity furrowing my brow.

"I don't know. Let's find out," Maximus responded, stepping inside the office. I trailed behind him, and unexpectedly, my eyes landed on two envelopes resting on our father's desk.

One bore the inscription: "To Alpha Alaric." I immediately recognized the handwriting—it was Maya's. Her distinctive script was unmistakable. Yet, my attention was drawn to the other envelope: "To Maximus And Leonardo."

My heart skipped a beat as I stared at the letter.

"So, she really left, huh?" Maximus bitterly chuckled, reaching for the letter. His trembling hand mirrored my own unsteady grip as I gazed at the envelope.

"Shouldn't we just search for her? What the fuck are you doing, Max? Let's go. We have to find her. We can’t just waste our time!”

"No. Let's see what she wrote," he replied, his voice subdued. "At least she didn't leave without saying goodbye. She came to us tonight, didn't she? It was us who didn't let her speak. We didn’t even bother to hear what she wanted to say.”

Damn it. He was right.

We shut her out. We didn't grant her a chance to express herself or share what she wanted to say. What if she came to communicate something important or to have one final conversation, assessing if enduring our torment was worth it?

This was worse. We might have erased any flicker of uncertainty in her mind and made it clear that... it wasn't worth staying.

"She left a letter for Dad too..." I hesitated, holding the other envelope, unsure about opening it while Maximus delved into the one meant for us.

As he read, his body tensed, tears welled in his eyes, and his agitation became palpable, his pain visibly etched across his face. What on earth could she have written in that letter?

It was surprising that she deemed us worthy of the final words.

While he read the letter, his expression shifted from guilt to shock at certain points. I couldn't discern the contents, but it was clearly something he hadn't anticipated.

"What is it, Max?" I found myself asking, lacking the courage to read her letter. 

I just couldn't bring myself to read it, knowing that we hadn't provided her with a single moment that could be considered a positive memory. All we had given her were nightmares she desperately wanted to erase. 

The weight of our shortcomings and regrets weighed heavily on me, making it impossible to face the words she'd left behind.

Maximus hesitated, visibly shaken, clutching the chair for support. He exhaled sharply before meeting my gaze.

Then, he uttered the words…

"She's... she's pregnant."