The Vanishing of Regina Reid

A Chapter by Thoiba

When Abraham Reid’s wife, Regina, vanishes after a fight, he discovers a photo of her with a notorious psycho killer. As he searches for her, he realizes Regina is more than just his wife.

Chapter 1 : The Eye of the Storm

Abraham Reid didn’t anticipate this day at all. He knew he’d married one of the most stubborn, cutthroat women in the world. But this? This was beyond her. She wasn’t just missing�"she was in a photo, arm in arm with a notorious psychokiller.

The image burned in Abraham’s mind�"her hand on the shoulder of a man whose face grinned like a wolf. Notorious. Lethal. And yet, a hero to some. Abraham slammed the photo down on the table, his frustration boiling over. His jaw tightened as his fingers trembled against the edges of the photograph. He shoved back his chair with enough force to make it screech across the floor. If this were a manga, fumes would’ve been scribbled above his head by now�"bold, chaotic lines matching the chaos in his mind.

This wasn’t just a bad day�"it was the beginning of a nightmare. And he was already late for it.

Regina Reid entered his life without warning, like a storm tearing through a quiet valley. Their first encounter had been a legal battle over the ownership of a rural village field. His rigid business empire and her relentless social work clashed from the start�"oil meeting fire.

But it was that same raw honesty and passion, given freely and without hesitation, that had drawn him to her. Her kindness burned brightly, even when it seemed to consume her from within. Her sense of justice defied societal norms at every turn, a stark contrast to his world of rules and practicality.

She was an idealist to the core, unshaken by the compromises and calculations that defined his life. Yet beneath the fire was a coldness that could devour anyone who got too close. Regina could shift, become anyone in this world, and it was impossible to pin her down.

Despite being born into one of the most comfortable households he had ever known, she carried herself like someone who had lived and lost through countless lives, each ending in tragedy. She bore the quiet maturity of someone who had been fighting wars�"real or imagined�"for centuries.

But all of this only made her more desirable to Abraham. She wasn’t like the others. She didn’t shy away from asking for what she wanted, from taking what she needed. That openness, that boldness�"it made her irresistible. But it wasn’t just physical. It was the way she lived, the way she refused to compromise her values for anyone.

Yet, no matter how close he got, there were always parts of her that remained just out of reach. He had tried to get involved in her work, even attend a few of her social projects, but the moment he stepped in, he felt like a ghost. Regina would speak to him in that same, polite tone, but her attention was always elsewhere. She was warm, but not to him. She was never his. She had her own life�"and he wasn’t truly welcome in it.

Abraham found himself in the same familiar place, the one he hated most: an outsider.

He still remembered the day she went missing. It had all started with a fight�"another one of those heated arguments that seemed to come out of nowhere but always left him questioning everything. This time, it was her focus on the sexual victims she worked with, the dark undercurrents of his business partners’ lives. She had to dig through their dirty baggage to make sense of the people she was trying to help. It was never just about the work; it always bled into his world, threatening his own carefully constructed reality.

He had tried to explain it to her, how it made him uneasy. How it endangered her life, dragging her deeper into dangerous waters with every investigation. He couldn’t stand the thought of her getting caught in something beyond her control, of her getting hurt because of his business.

But Regina hadn’t seen it that way. "You’re just a coward. You’re just angry that I have to dig into the dirt your partners hide, and that you can’t just stick to your little world of deals and jokes."

Her words stung more than he cared to admit. She had always been brutally honest, but this felt different. It felt like a betrayal.

That night, they slept in separate rooms. He lay awake, fists clenched under the covers as he stared at the ceiling, his breath coming in shallow bursts. Coward. The word echoed in his mind, sour and bitter. He sat up abruptly, rubbing his temples, his chest tightening as if the word itself had physical weight. He knew how to get what he wanted. But this... this wasn’t about that. It was about Regina crossing a line that he couldn’t accept, no matter how much he loved her. She was a hurricane, always shaking the foundations of his world, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand in the wreckage.

But the next day was like any other after a fight with her. Regina didn’t show the slightest sign that anything had happened. She was polite, even caring. “Will you be late tonight?” she asked, her tone devoid of any irritation, as though nothing had changed. It was as if they were still in their honeymoon phase, lovebirds without a care in the world.

That was the tricky part. She could turn emotions on and off like a switch, while he... he couldn’t.

“Why? Is there something special planned for the evening?” he replied, his voice neutral.

“I just want to spend some time together,” she said, surprising him with the simplicity of her request.

That was new. And it should’ve scared him. When Regina did something unexpected, it meant something was shifting inside her�"something he would never truly understand. New Regina meant new plans, new motives, and maybe even new dangers.

But despite the gnawing unease, he couldn’t help but reply, “I have a meeting with a new client. But I’ll be here as soon as it finishes. I promise. I miss our time together.”

Their eyes met, and in that brief moment, the warmth they shared flickered between them. Regina, looking at him with that rare warmth in her eyes, made time seem to stretch. For an instant, he wished it would freeze, so he could stay in that fragile moment, if only for a little while longer.

For someone who had always scoffed at the idea of love and soulmates, Regina was the only exception. For her validation, he would’ve burned the world to the ground�"if he hadn’t been a little late to realize it.

He finished his meeting early and rushed back, almost running to make sure he would see her. But when he arrived, she wasn’t there. He shouldn’t have expected anything from her, but like any fool in love, he did.

Three days passed, and still, nothing. The silence gnawed at him until it hit him: Regina was gone. Not just gone from him, but from everyone. Her clients, who had always depended on her validation and love�"people who needed her far more than he ever had�"were now bombarding his phone. Messages, calls, all desperate for answers. She was unreachable to everyone.

Regina’s absence created a vacuum that rippled through every corner of her world. A women’s shelter she had tirelessly built was left leaderless, the volunteers overwhelmed by the chaos. Meetings with survivors were abruptly canceled, leaving many vulnerable souls adrift. Abraham overheard a desperate voicemail from a young girl�"barely seventeen�"pleading for Regina to return because she was the only one who believed her. The threads of trust Regina had woven in these lives were unraveling, one frantic call at a time.

Her projects began crumbling under the weight of her absence. Court petitions were left unsigned, and investigations into high-profile abuse cases she spearheaded came to a standstill. Abraham’s own inbox was inundated with panicked emails from her team. Without her, they didn’t know how to move forward. The beacon of hope she had been to so many was now a glaring void.

Abraham hated himself for how helpless he felt, caught between the tidal wave of Regina’s absence and the burning questions about the photo on the screen. He realized he wasn’t just searching for her; he was scrambling to hold together the world she’d built.