Free Leaving Eva (The Eva Series Book 1) by Jennifer Sivec

enforcement authority he could think of in order to report James and Amy missing. He tried calling Elizabeth with the number that James had given him, but she wasn’t picking up her phone either. John was worried. He called his wife, Tricia, who told him to slow down. She was pregnant with their third child, and he kicked himself for calling to worry her.
    The police met him at the Harper House where the help were frantic. They had left days ago for their trip, and thought they were well on their way. Where is Elizabeth? Where is Eva?
    John and the police drove the road between the Harper House and the airport and saw nothing. John made them drive it two more times. It was as though they had vanished.
    They drove to Ellie’s apartment and found it empty. There were no signs of her or Eva there.
    There was nothing that could be done, and John felt helpless. He was in charge of the company until James could be found, and he thought he was going to vomit. He was ready to be Vice President with James at the helm for many long years, but this… this was too much. John was only thirty-years-old, and not ready for so much responsibility. He prayed that he wouldn’t run it into the ground.
    Tricia was devastated and worried for the Harper family, and her sweet husband. “Where are Amy, and Ellie, and Eva? What could have happened to them?” Amy had been so kind to them, and she adored Eva, though she could have done without Ellie. Tricia was a smart girl with motherhood coursing through her veins, and when she saw Ellie with Eva, she cringed. She wondered if she was being too judgmental, but Ellie had an emptiness that Tricia couldn’t understand. Eva was so sweet and such a beautiful child, and it was unfathomable how Ellie could be so cold to her own child.
    “I don’t know, honey,” John said, feeling lost. “It’s as though they have disappeared without a trace. They have vanished into thin air.”
    “What will happen to the company? What will happen to Ellie and Eva?” Tricia cried when John returned home after their search, her blue eyes full of concern. She knew that John was tired, but she couldn’t imagine what would happen now.
    John was tired. His face was already showing wear from the worry of the past few days.
    “I don’t know. I guess that the company will be left for me to run. It’s private, so I can manage it until… until, James returns.” John’s confidence in James’ return was wavering.
    “What happens if…” Tricia’s voice trailed off. She wasn’t able to verbalize her fears, even to John, her best friend.
    John didn’t answer right away. “If they don’t return… If they don’t… then eventually we would have to have them declared deceased. James was a smart man and took measures to ensure that his company and his family were taken care of if… if something ever happened to him. Strangely, he even accounted for this type of situation. He left me in charge of everything. Everything.” John spoke slowly, as if in disbelief. He felt too young, too inexperienced to deal with this type of situation.
    Tricia looked at her husband with sympathy and love. John was a good man, cute, boyish. She looked at his beautiful hazel eyes and sandy hair and thought for the thousandth time how lucky she was that she had found him.
    “I’ve got someone already searching for Ellie and Eva. We will find them.” John said trying to sound confident.
    Tricia rubbed her belly and thought of sweet little Eva, and her other two children. She thought that Ellie wasn’t the most responsible person, and about how helpless Eva would be in her care.
    John walked slowly into the bathroom and looked in the mirror at his tired face. What happens if we don’t find any of them? What happens to James’ fortune? I’m not ready to be the executor of his estate as he asked me to be. It’s just too much.
    John was sick with worry. But above all, he missed his mentor and his friend.

Wedding Rose
    ROSE NEVER