Josephine had left the hotel by the time Harrison had gone out to look for her. Long before then, even. He had showered after talking to Cassandra and immediately went out to ask for her room number when the receptionist informed him that she no longer stayed there.

"Okay then. Thank you anyway for trying to help." He waved at the new receptionist and turned to walk out the hotel doors. Hot air blasted him in the face, but with the scarf around his neck, the effects were more reduced than when he first got there. His sneakers blazed, hot white in the sun, his dark hood pulled high over his head, and he smiled to himself. He was glad he would spend his last day without her constantly hounding him.

"Sir!"

"Yeah." He spun around to see a small woman running up to him in her flats.

"I am so sorry." Her accent was thick but understandable. "The receptionist couldn't leave his post, so he asked me to give you this. Miss Josephine left it for you last night before she went on her trip."

As soon as the brown envelope hit palms, she turned and left without a word. Her scarf, flapping with the wind. Harrison looked down at the letter in his hand and ripped the seal of the envelope off.

My darling Harrison,

What can I say that you don't know already?

Umm, alright, forgive me if I am making a complete fool of myself and my writing looks off. I am drunk right now, but I need to write this before I go because I have been working hard on us for the past few days.

My name is Josephine, and I am not an orphan. Both my parents are alive and more than happily married. Try seeing things from my point of view for a while; you were not a one-woman kind of man. There was no way to know that if I came open to you for being fabulous and rich, I wouldn't be in the same pile as your exes.

We've met countless times before, but you couldn't seem to notice me. There was once a time I got close enough to smell you, touch your hair, but your eyes were only for the woman on the table, and the next day she wasn't with you anymore. I watched you from afar as you moved around, but you never saw me, not once. That one night was my opportunity. I needed an escape from the madness not speaking to you was putting me through, the stress, the utter silence of only my heartbeat.

Oh, how I remember when I touched your hair, you slept so peacefully on the lounge chair on the beach, and I passed by you. All the worry left your face, not even a smile was on your face, oh, you were at peace.

Harrison's neck itched as he read on, his eyes getting wider with each line. One thing was true, in all of this, he had never noticed Josephine until the night of the charity when she came up to him. All these encounters she mentioned, was nowhere in his memory. Folding the paper cup in his hand, he looked for a bench beneath the trees and sat down before he continued.

Then there was another woman, I thought would leave like the others, but she didn't. She stayed longer, it was getting serious, and then I got nervous. I didn't know what to do, and that's when the lies started pumping through. You were mine, and she was the threat; I will do anything to keep what's mine. I was even more scared when I looked into your eyes from across the room as you smiled at her. There and then, I knew you had to meet me, or I'd lose you.

Ha! I am so drunk right now, see, my handwriting looks like it's climbing the stairs on the paper. Whatever. There was this night when your woman and I were alone, and she didn't even know I was there, needed to see her for myself. See her potential with you. Observe what made her so special. You spoke for a while, then I got her story, why you were so interested in her, the reason she was at your arm. She struggled.

All you wanted to hear was how she got past the struggle; that's what interested you. Then I decided to use some of my money to throw a charity, made sure my name was mentioned and invited you over. When you arrived, you still didn't look for me or notice me. All you were there for was to make a donation. That's when I stepped on your feet by 'accident'. Euphoria. My blood warmed me when you touched my waist to keep me steady, and all the cold anger I felt towards your other women boiled over.

Your silver eyes filled with concern for me, your fingers stable on my hips even when you made my heart unstable. Nothing you did was ever wrong to me then because I had you for the whole night. Lies neatly woven into the other as you sat and you listened. Mhm, it was glorious to have you talking to me for the first time. I should have stopped, taken it all back and left it behind, but I couldn't. You were so amazed by my strengths; it would have crushed you to know that I was just a professional model who didn't work for a dime through her life. Perfect family, perfect everything.

You are the most beautiful thing in my life, I didn't let you slip away, but I allowed my jealousy to push you. I lost control of my lies, and you found out and got disappointed. But we are still close. Two months ago, you were so tired after work you didn't notice my presence, but I found you on the couch of your house. I watched you for a while; I have missed sleeping by your side.

Harrison's widened, and his jaw dropped, but he kept on reading. How long had she been around him like that, watching him, close enough to touch, to breathe the same air as him?

Just so you know, this wine is unbelievably goof. Oops, mini mistake. Probably should correct it, but it looks nice there. We were right together, but you were too stubborn to forgive me. Then you looked in the one place I feared. No words can explain how wrong she is for you. Not weak, not spineless, but she is not yours either. It's poison to me when I picture you, she comes to mind as well, and I just want to smash stuff. Do you remember? You took her to break things some months ago, the day you deluded yourself into telling her you wanted to try a relationship with her. Why?

Not sure why you wish to disregard me as you did. Everywhere in your house suspiciously smells of her; your room, your office, your bathroom. She has never been to your house, has she? No. Yet her scent is everywhere, she rubs off on you, and then you take it all home. Her influence is all over you. It's maddening.

She is tormenting you, placing you on the same platter as Harrison Williams, and it hurts me every day you act like you don't mind. I was there, I am always there, but as usual, you never see me. I watched you cry over when she fell down those stairs. I comforted you when you slept on the hospital couch, waiting to be let into her room.

Cassandra isn't like other women you dated. She is like me, she has your affection, but she didn't earn it as I did. Rosemary, do you remember her? She was also another woman close to your heart, compared to all of us... how did you fall for Cassandra? You didn't. Trust me, I know you love me. You have to love me, me, me.

She had been drinking. There was a ring on the top side of the sheet. She had to be drunk, she didn't know what she was writing, she couldn't be speaking the truth. It was impossible. Suddenly, the heat was too much for him, but the letter was not finished. Six; she wrote on six pages, on all sides of the sheet, so there was more to go. His chest ached, but he just winched. Something wasn't right, there was something she wanted him to know, but he couldn't pick it up.

Do you know where I am, right next door, I can see you from where I am. I watch you with her, so caring and understanding. You never showed me such attention, but wait, no, no, don't get upset, I am not jealous. I know you are upset when I get jealous or anything, so you don't have to worry.

You know what forget it, I am not jealous, and you believe me. We will be together in the end, just like I promised you before, you and me, with no one around to stop us or point fingers. You don't have to worry about breaking the ice queen's heart because she won't be there to bother us. Alright. All you have to be is calm; she would have to understand that you are mine...

The paper was folded and stuffed into his coat pocket. He immediately drew out his phone and began dialling their contractor in Himont. "Hello, Mr Tomson, I would like to call and cancel our plans for this afternoon and late in the evening. All the files are ready, and I will have my personal assistant fly in and discuss it further with you for as long as you will need her."

"Is there a reason you are in such a hurry?"

"I apologize deeply, sir, something urgent came up back home, so I wouldn't be able to meet you. My assistant is more than capable, she has been on top of the project, and she would explain everything to you to the letter."

There was scuffling, then a grunt before the voice returned to him. "Well, we have already gone over the contract, so I guess that is alright. We would speak further when you begin production later on."

Harrison barely heard him speak as he ran up the stair with his mind bouncing about. Josephine was going off the edge, and if he didn't stop her, the one person that would get hurt would be Cassandra.

Rosemary, the name made so much sense to him now that he couldn't believe he never saw it coming. She was his girlfriend before Josephine came into the picture, but they were not too serious. At least, he wasn't. As expected, he ended their relationship when he and Josephine became a couple, but Rosemary still loved him.

Three days after her last visit to him, she was found in the bathtub of her hotel room, her wrist slit and blood oozing out into the water in the half-filled tub. At first, Harrison thought she wanted to commit suicide because he chose Josephine, but Rosemary regained consciousness, and all she remembered was going to bed. Her blood had come back with high traces of morphine, which meant someone had drugged her and tried to kill her. Josephine.

The shadow, that deadly figure that stalked Cassandra's reality and nightmares. It was no one else but Josephine, how he knew, he wasn't sure, but he knew. If Josephine really tried to kill Rosemary, then she was trying her best now to destroy Cassandra. The stairs, the shooting, the stalking and everything else supported his case.

If there was a chance that he was wrong, panicking for no reason, then he could at least be more safe than sorry. The door to his hotel door sprung open at his hand, and he rushed into the room, ready to pack his bags and call the pilot to get the plane ready. Then, he stumbled three steps into the room and was faced with more horror.

Pictures upon pictures of him littered the walls of the hotel. In sepia, greyscale, edge, coloured, black and white, any picture form in the world was on his walls. He staggered to the middle of the room and looked at each picture, some from his home. Every picture captured his facial expressions; it was like she was in the room with him, her finger tracing every pattern on his face.

He threw his clothes into his suitcase and pushed it shut, hurrying out of the room just as he dialled Maria's number.

"Listen to me very carefully, Maria." He insisted as soon as she picked the phone. "You pack a bag and take the first flight to Himont. Get here as fast as you can. I can't reach Cassandra, but I need your help."

"Of course, sir, tell me."

He locked the door and used the key to make sure no one else could get in, his legs moving quickly as he headed towards the elevator. "Tomson would be waiting for you to talk to him about our plans for his store tomorrow morning. Prepare everything to present to him, so he is adequately informed. I am leaving the key to my hotel room with the receptionist, she would keep it for you. When you get here, go to my room, and bring the police with you."

"What for?" she gasped.

"I can't explain it right now. You'll understand when you get there. Hurry."

Harrison called for his plane and asked them to prepare for him to leave on an earlier flight than they planned for the day. He needed to find Cassandra before Josephine did. He just hoped that he got there in time before something tragic happened to either one of them.