I nearly lost Felicia forever!

The day after, I was giddy with excitement at the prospect of seeing Felicia soon, completely unaware of what had transpired. At eleven o'clock in the morning, I assumed Felicia was disembarking from the cruise and would have her phone back. I called her repeatedly, but her phone remained powered off. Perhaps she had left it uncharged on the cruise for too long, and the battery had died.

I could only wait. However, night fell, and she still hadn't emerged. I couldn't reach her, and she hadn't sent any messages. Just as concern began to bubble up and I was about to call the police, I received a call from a stranger.

"Hello, is this William? I'm Roxanne, one of the members of Felicia's girl group."

It was Roxanne. The worst part was that I knew nothing about what had happened on the cruise, nothing about the ill will she harbored toward Felicia. Instead, I clung to her as if she were my savior and asked about Felicia.

"Felicia asked me to inform you that something came up. She'll return to you once she's done handling it."

I asked anxiously, "What is she doing?"

I knew Felicia too well. Other than her responsibilities at school and dance practice, she didn't do much else. I doubted the truthfulness of Roxanne's words.

Roxanne replied, "I have no idea what she was heading off to do. However, when we got to the airport, a rich-looking man picked her up in a luxurious car. Don't worry about her, though. She looked pretty happy. They should be fine."

A rich-looking man? A luxurious car?

I was confused. Felicia kept to herself. She didn't even have that many friends. Where did a rich man with a luxurious car come from?

As I stewed in suspicion, Roxanne said she wanted to meet to tell me about what happened on the cruise. I had no choice but to comply.

She chose a hotel as our meeting point, saying she had just returned to Welsington and had nowhere to stay. She was also exhausted and in need of a good night's sleep, which made meeting at the hotel convenient.

My calls to Felicia still weren't going through. I took a cab to the hotel. This wasn't the first time I had met Roxanne; I had given her a stern talking-to in front of the company.

I wasn't expecting her to have completely forgotten who I was. She grinned while we spoke and seemed extremely friendly. My impression of her improved greatly. After all, gorgeous women like her tended to look down on poor men. I was used to that. They seldom showed me any respect. When they did, I tended to approve of their personality.

However, when Roxanne met me, she was only wearing her nightgown. Her hair was draped around her shoulders, and she seemed rather exposed. It made me feel a little awkward.

I cut to the chase and asked, "Where's Felicia?"