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Two days had passed since Kevin had fought with Ellena. Every hour, on the hour, he dialed her number, only to hang up after half a dozen rings, knowing that she was never going to pick it up. The night he left her apartment building, he drove the city streets for hours. He knew he had been wrong by approaching Ken in the first place, but he wanted so much to be with her on the road. And when she had gotten there – it had been pure bliss. He had not eaten nor had he slept – much. A few hours on the couch maybe, but he couldn’t spend one night alone in his bed when the last time he had slept there had been with her.
Questions raced through his mind. Why did she dance that night at the club? He so wanted to hear that explanation. She had tried to tell him but he had been too angry to give her a chance.
“Damn!” He muttered to himself. Kevin sat up from the couch and raked his hands through his dark hair. He needed to know the answer and he needed to know now, but first a quick shower and some black coffee for cripe’s sake – he looked like the walking dead.
Less than an hour later, he parked his car outside Ellena’s brick apartment building and turned off the engine. The three dozen roses sitting on the passenger seat wouldn’t make up for anything but at least they might get him in the door, he thought to himself. He gathered the flowers and walked briskly across the front lawn, past the new vacancy sign. He climbed the stairs and turned down the hallway. Kevin smiled at the memory of him and Lacey dancing in the corridor and singing about grilled cheese. It seemed a distant memory now. He raised his fist and knocked on Ellena’s door, hoping she would have the heart to open it to him. After several moments of silence, he knocked again, this time with a little more persistence. Still no answer. He pounded on the door with the side of his hand. “Please, Ellena. Let me in.” He shouted.
The door across the hall opened and a small man with wire rimmed glasses and grey hair peered into the hall.
“You missed her.”
Kevin turned to face him. “What do you mean?” He questioned.
“She left yesterday. In quite a hurry I might add. Packed all her stuff into boxes and left in the middle of the night.”
“Do you know where she went?” Kevin asked desperately. Why hadn’t he come yesterday?
“Sorry, son. She didn’t talk to any one before she left.”

~*~

“Oh yes, dear. She came to see me yesterday.” Mrs. Craig said as she set a cup of tea in front of Kevin.
“Did she tell you where she was going? Did she leave a forwarding address?” Kevin fired questions faster than he could think of them.
“She was very upset. She tried to hide it from me but I know her better than she thinks I do.” Her expression turned grave. “You didn’t have anything to do with her leaving, did you?”
Kevin hung his head. “Yes, Mrs. Craig. I’m afraid it’s completely my fault.”
Mrs. Craig smiled and patted his hand. “It will turn out fine, dear.”
Kevin grimaced. “I hope you are right, Mrs. Craig.”
Mrs. Craig dabbed the corner of her eye with a handkerchief and clucked her tongue. “I’m sorry I can’t help you more.”
“Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Craig. I have to be on my way.” Kevin kissed the old woman on the cheek and swiftly left her house.

~*~

“Cherry, please. You have to tell me where she is.” Kevin begged. He was standing on the front step of Cherry’s house. Cherry stood at the door with her hands on her hips and scowl on her face.
“How could you do that to her Kevin?” Cherry snapped.
“I don’t know! I wasn’t thinking.” He defended.
“Obviously!” Cherry snorted.
“Just tell me what she said when she came here yesterday, please Cherry.”
“Oh all right.” Cherry conceded. “She said something about chasing a dream that she thought she had lost when Eric left Lacey with her.”
“Did she tell you where she was going?”
“No, she didn’t tell me where she was going and I don’t think I would tell you even if she did. You’re not going to find her, Kevin. She doesn’t want to be found. She is probably as far away from here as she possibly can get. She won’t call you. Hell, I don’t even think she’ll call me. She’s gone.”
“Gone.” Kevin repeated the word that stabbed at his heart.
“Ellena has been betrayed so many times that she has come to expect it from people. Even if you do find her, she still might not let you back into her heart. Ellena has learned to rely on herself. She will claw her way back to the top but she will close her heart, not only to you, but to everyone. She reached her breaking point. I saw it in her eyes when she left here. She’s numb.”

~*~

One last chance, Kevin thought, and he would go home. He pulled up to the front door of Barbie Dahl’s and shut off his car. The club looked quite different in the day. Inside, there were a few people watching the spikey haired blond dance on the stage. Kevin recognized the bartender from Ellena’s apartment building the other night and went over to talk to him.
“She was here late last night but she’s gone now.” Jay said without looking up from the glass he was drying.
“When is she scheduled to work next?” Kevin asked.
Jay looked up at him and smiled. “She came in here with fifteen thousand cash and threw it at Ken, told him off and said she would never set foot in this dump again. Made me almost burst with pride how she did that.” Jay chuckled. “She finally got herself out of here.”

~*~

Seventy-two hours ago, Ellena had been lying next to Kevin, enveloped in his strong arms. Now she was sitting on a hard, uncomfortable bus seat headed anywhere away from him. She played the events of the night at the club over and over in her mind. Many questions had been answered for her that night. It hadn’t been a clerical error that her plane ticket had been dated before she told Kevin she had time off. He had booked it before Ken had even called her into his office. She also knew why Kevin became so angry the night when she told him that she was returning to Orlando earlier than she had originally planned. He had paid Ken for ten days and she only stayed for eight.
She spent the entire night packing up the apartment. She wouldn’t miss it. It hadn’t been a home to her ever since Lacey had been gone. Once everything was locked up in a storage garage, Ellena returned to the club for the last time. She had withdrawn enough money from her savings account to pay off the rest of the debt to Ken. She had $7000, minus the price of her bus ticket, to take her far away from Orlando to start a new life for herself. The money had been to put a down payment on a house for herself and Lacey but her plans had been changed.
She almost let out a shriek of delight when she arrived at the club to see Ken Dahl with two black eyes and a broken nose. She hid a slight grin at the thought of Kevin punching Ken in the parking lot. Ellena almost wished she had been there to see it for herself.
Yes, she was running. Whether it was running away from Kevin or running to a new beginning, she wasn’t sure. But she was running all right. She was running as fast as her legs could carry her.