”Where did she go to? And for how long will she be there?” Gu Zhou asked in a voice that showed how much he missed his elder sister.

”Don’t they have phones there, why hasn’t she called me?”

All the questions were coming so fast and hard, Edward had to tell the boy to calm down.

”Breathe Gu, just breathe. Amy will…Amy will call you when she can.”

Even he was choked by the lie and had to take the phone away from his mouth for a moment.

”What I need you to do now is eat and get your strength. Amy would want you to eat.”

Edward heard Gu sigh and read that as a positive sign. “Okay. I’ll go eat now.”

”Thank you Gu. Give the phone back to Chynna.”

”Okay.”

”I will call you later to check on you.”

”Thank you.”

Another shuffling ensued as Gu Zhou returned the phone to its owner.

Edward heard Chynna whisper something to the boy before saying a soft hello into the speaker.

”He should eat now.”

”Yeah, I told him to get his plate of food from the kitchen.”

There was a pause on both ends as the involved parties searched for how to say what was on both their minds.

”Edward,” Chynna called out concernedly.

Edward sighed before telling her, “I’m trying to recover her body.”

”Jun Mo said so. You’ve tried before haven’t you? What’s changed now.”

”Well nothing except the approach. I drew up a plan that should make things much easier.”

In her house, wrapped warmly in a blanket on her window seat, Chynna nodded softly. “How’s that going?”

”Well so far, there’s nothing yet and everyone we’ve asked seem oblivious. A few confirmed the gunshot, but no floating body has been seen by anyone.”

Chynna blew out a long breath. “Don’t exhaust yourself Ed. If they don’t see her, we should just do a memorial service in her name.”

After Amy had died, no one had talked about a burial for a long time especially since her body hadn’t been found.

A part of them, though no one would openly admit it, had been hoping she would return to the surface somehow, that he had survived the gunshot.

But they had waited weeks for that miracle to occur and it hadn’t. Chynna had immediately suggested the memorial service so they could all begin the process of moving on and getting used to the idea that their dear friend was gone.

Edward had refused to conduct a burial ceremony without a body and his word had been gospel.

The rest of the crew had backed off and let him take lead on the situation. But if his most recent plan on recovering Amy’s body didn’t work, Chynna decided that she would have to out her foot down and demand a service.

”We all need to accept the fact that she’s gone and move on, Edward. We can’t stop our lives forever; Amy wouldn’t want that.”

Edward ran a hand through his hair and down his face. He let out a sound that was halfway between a growl and a sigh.

”It’s going to be okay Edward, I assure you. May not seem like that now, but in the end, it will be.”

And that was the problem. It was going to be okay in the end, but Edward didn’t want to be okay without his Amy.

It was a different type of hurt when you allowed yourself love for the first time and then the person is taken away from you the moment you are about to live as one.

Edward had been touched in a place where wounds never heal and he didn’t know how to be okay without the reason for his happiness.

”Give me a week Chynna. If she isn’t found by then, I’ll let you plan the funeral.”

”Okay.”

”I have to go now. We’ll talk later. Take care of yourself.”

”You too Edward.”

When he dropped the phone after a soft goodbye whispered, Edward stood up from where he was seated on the love seat in his room.

He moved into the bathroom and started the shower so that the cold water ran off for a while before it became hot, just the way he liked it.

While he waited for the temperature to adjust to his preference, Edward went into his closet to prepare what he would wear for the day.

Just as he stepped out with a pair of dark blue denims and a button down shirt, a soft knock came on his door.

”Who’s there?” Edward asked as he lay the outfit on his bed. A female voice called out a reply and he moved to the door to answer it. It was Greta, his housemaid.

She stood in front of Edward’s door with a tray of hot jasmine tea and steamed buns stuffed with shredded meat.

The scent of the dish wafted into his nose without an invitation and Edward’s stomach grumbled for the first time in days.

He too was guilty of the same crime he had just admonished Gu Zhou for committing.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to eat; ever since he’d started strategizing on the best way to take down the Yangs, Edward had been having difficulty concentrating on anything else.

Everywhere he went, he was always planning, thinking, calculating. His mind couldn’t stay focused on a task without drifting back to Jinn Yang.

Greta understood what was happening with her boss. She didn’t know the complete story, or have an inkling as to what he planned with Viktor behind the closed door of his office, but she knew he hadn’t lost his appetite as the other staff liked to claim.

It was for this reason she always insisted on bringing food to him anytime he was around the house, which as of recent had been less than usual.

He never actually finished the food, but he always returned the tray with less food than had been in it initially. Now, she was back again for the second time that day and it seemed to her that Edward would actually finish that tray.