Chapter 10
The more Samuel thought about it, the more anions he became. He was worried that she left on a whim. What if she were staying in a hotel somewhere and found that she’d forgotten something? He was also concerned she might have overlooked something important. What if she went on a trip and ran ein at money?
Thus, he sat down beside the swing and made several transfers to her bank account. He didn’t even check to see how much he’d typed in. All he knew wax that he spammed a bunch of zeros. He was genuinely worried that she might have a difficult time out there by herself, not realizing that she never needed to rely on him to survive.
Soon, Samuel got a call from a bank employee. “Mr. Porter, I’m afraid all your transactions have failed.”
Samuel was already on the verge of a breakdown. All of his usual rationality seemed to have taken leave of him.
“Was there an issue with the amount or the number of transfers?” he asked bluntly. “I can confirm that it was me. If you need me to provide a confirmation code or a signature, I can do it right away. I need to transfer this money to my wife.”
He couldn’t remember the last time he transferred money to Emily himself. It felt like a long time ago. Following the rise in his wealth and standing in society, he stopped wasting his time on petty matters.
He hired an event planning company to handle his wedding anniversaries. He got Luke to buy Emily’s presents on his behalf. Even the money for their daily expenses was automatically deducted from his account.
On their own, these seemed like trivial things, but when put together, they added up to a pretty significant issue.
Samuel came to the beiated realization that he had grown so distant from Emily without noticing it. Overwhelmed with regret, he was desperate to make it up to her.
However, the bank employee replied, “There’s no issue on your part, Mr. Porter, but the account you wish to transfer to no longer exists.” “Why not?”
“It seems to have been closed yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Samuel repeated.
Once the bank employee confirmed that, he ended the call and covered his face in exhaustion before letting out a choked sob.
If he’d only just called Emily at any point during the last few days, he would’ve noticed that something was up with her, but he didn’t. And now, it was too late.
In the blink of an eye, an hour passed. Samuel was in no state to work. He combed through Emily’s social media accounts in a frenzy, hoping to find some sort of clue. Perhaps she might’ve shared her thoughts and feelings on the Internet, where no one knew her.
Samuel was not in the habit of using social media, but he knew the username Emily used. It was the same one, no matter what platform it was. She always used the username “WithEm“.
First, he checked on WhatsApp. Only then did he realize just how long ago they last texted each other. Her account seemed to have been deleted, for her profile picture was gone.
Samuel felt as if he had been punched in the chest. He searched for “WithEm” on all the social media platforms, only to find that either the username didn’t exist or didn’t belong to her.
Just like that, he kept searching tirelessly. Yet, all he could find were traces of when people had reshared her social media postings. Her accounts themselves seemed to have all been wiped from existence.
Refusing to give up, Samuel called up the customer service for one of the social media platforms. After providing the customer service representative with Emily’s details, he pleaded, “I checked your terms. It’s said that accounts that have been deleted can still be restored within seven days. I want you to restore her data.”
“Sir, the owner has to be the one who requests to have the account restored,” the representative replied, denying his request.
“I’m her husband! Can’t I make the request on her behalf?” Samuel demanded belligerently.
“I do apologize, sir.”
“Fine. In that case, I’ll take you guys to court! You’ll be receiving the summons soon enough! Don’t take me for a fool. I know very well how easy it is for you guys to retrieve data from your backup.”
“If you wish, sir,” the representative calmly replied.
They encountered all manner of unusual and unruly people in their line of work, so the representative didn’t take Samuel’s threats seriously. Even if he acted on his words, he would still need to comply with the legal procedure.
Seeing how the representative refused to cave no matter what, Samuel felt defeated. He ended the call and used his connections to get in touch with the CEO of the company who ran the social media platform.
This time, he humbled himself and pleaded for help.
“I know you have your rules to abide by, but my wife left the house without taking anything with her. She even deleted all of her social media accounts and bank account. If you don’t retrieve her data, I won’t have a single clue as to where she might be. Please. I’m begging you.”
