Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

een missing for the past month. Entering the hotel, he went to the reception desk to see
if there had been any messages. No, monsieur, nothing for you tonight.
Charlie went up to his suite and opened the doors to the balcony, letting in some fresh
cold air. The cold air kept him on his toes, helped him to think clearly. Paris had been a
dud. She had been here, but she clearly wasn’t coming back. He should try Los Angeles
next. Even though her brother Alex had assured him she wasn’t there, he was still
suspicious. His entire security team and all the private investigators he had hired had
been poring over everything since day one. Astrid had been meticulous. She hadn’t left
any sort of paper trail, no bank transfers, no credit card charges in more than five weeks.
Someone had to be helping her. Someone close.
He stepped out onto the balcony and leaned against the railing, gazing at the soft
golden glow that always seemed to hover over Paris at night. The city, breathtakingly
lovely as always, suddenly seemed so lonely. He should never have let her come to Hong
Kong. She had insisted on coming, wanting to help him through his crisis, but when she
saw Isabel in the ICU, hooked up to all those machines…he knew she was trying to be
strong for him, for the girls, but he could see that it just devastated her. And then when
Isabel’s mother saw Astrid at the hospital, she went berserk, and that’s when she gave the
whole story to The Daily Post, breaking the scandal wide open. It was all his fault. His
stupid damn fault.
Charlie went back into the suite and sat down on the bed. He opened the drawer beside
the bed and took out a small brown padded envelope. It was an envelope that had been
mailed to him in Hong Kong from this very hotel a few weeks ago, and inside was a box
containing the engagement ring he had given Astrid, along with a handwritten note that
he had now read hundreds of times:
Dear Charlie,
I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking over the past days. Ever since I
came back into your life five years ago, I’ve only caused you heartache. I
dragged you into my problems with Michael, I dragged you into my
horrendous divorce, and now I have dragged you and your daughters into
an unthinkable tragedy. Chloe and Delphine almost lost their mother, and
I am the only one to blame. I feel like no matter how hard I try, nothing I
do ever leads to anything good, and so the best I can think to do is to
simply go away so that no more damage can be done. I don’t think I will
ever be fit to be your wife, and I can only hope and pray that you and your
family will in time be able to find happiness and peace again.
Yours truly,
Astrid
P.S. Please give this ring to my cousin Nicky when you next have the