Chapter 10*~

But on the other hand when women come and speak to you
You kiss and hug them like it's something that you let me do
You're only jealous cause you know the ish you put me through
I might turn right around and do that ish right back to you

Justin focused in on the voice and looked around the corner, into the library where Aaliyah was lying on the floor writing. She hadn’t talked to him in the past two days and he knew that it was all over the Sam incident. He didn’t even want to tell her that he was going out with Sam later that afternoon but he thought he might as well tell her that before she decided to really get an attitude.

I hate a lyin dude, one who doesn't know the rules
If you gon cheat burn the receipt from the hotel room
But instead you're up in my face saying you were at friends
But they all call askin me where the hell you been

Aaliyah looked over her shoulder as she heard a sound and laughed slightly when she saw Justin and turned back to her notebook. She was in no mood to really have a conversation with him at the time. She sighed in frustration and just put her head down in-between her folded arms.

“Aaliyah...” He watched as she continued to ignore him and laughed slightly. “Will you stop acting like a child and listen to me for once.”

Aaliyah looked up with a amused look on her face and sighed. “Ok fine. You know what, I’m wrong you’re right, so from now on, whatever you say goes.”

Justin rose an eyebrow and shook his head. “Well anyway, I just wanted to come tell you that I’m meeting up with Samantha in an hour.”

“Ok,” Aaliyah shrugged and looked at him. “Have fun.”

“Woah, wait. What’s with you?”

“Nothing.” Aaliyah shrugged. “If you want to go out with her, I can’t stop you right? So why would I waste my time, trying to talk you out of it. Besides, you’re old enough to take care of yourself.” Aaliyah sighed and brought herself up to her feet. She brushed past him and into the kitchen where she took out a pack of ground beef and looked through a drawer for some seasoning. “Damn it, I have to run up to Dominicks to get some seasoning. Um so I guess I’ll see you later.” She walked past him without looking back.

“Aaliyah I...” He flinched as she closed the door and it slammed. “Love you...”

~*11:12 p.m.*~

Justin entered the house pretty late. He didn’t expect for it to be that late but he had lost track of time while he was out with Samantha. He knew the kids weren’t home. Catalina was in New York with Aaliyah’s parents, Xaviera was with Drew, and Andra-Li was with his parents. He looked into his and Aaliyah’s bedroom and was surprised when he couldn’t find her. He didn’t worry to much about it, because he was sure that she was playing a game; like always. He shrugged and went to sleep. He had nothing to worry about. She was probably just with one of her friends.

~*11:14 a.m.*~

Justin yawned as he awakened the next morning. He looked over and was surprised not to find Aaliyah. Sure she had been acting weird lately, but she would never just go out without telling him. He decided to call everyone she knew but was surprised when nobody had heard from her either. He rose any eyebrow and sat there trying to find out where she might have been. He hoped that maybe she had decided to go out for a little while and just wouldn’t tell him. He hoped that something didn’t happen to her, but it seemed as if something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. By the end of the day everybody in the state of Illinois was looking for Aaliyah, and the search extended farther than just the state, everyone in the country was out looking for the missing R&B Princess. Where could she have possibly gone?

~*4 Weeks Later*~

“You haven’t heard anything?” Diana Garcia, Aaliyah’s best friend asked and watched as Justin shook his head. “Well what do you think happened?”

“I don’t know. I mean I thought she was just playing a game. You know how stubborn Aaliyah is, but I think I’ve come to realize that this is serious now. She would not go missing for weeks without telling someone. I mean she didn’t even leave a note or anything.” He sighed and ran his hand down his face. “I just don’t know what to believe.”

“I’m sure she’s fine, and she’ll be home soon. Maybe something came up, and she didn’t have the time to write a note or something...well maybe not since I think she probably would have told someone at least.” She bit her lip. “She just goes missing out of the blue. Nobody knows what happened, or where she’s gone.”

“It’s weird. I have no idea where my wife has gone, the worse thing about it is...if anything happened to her, She never heard me tell her that I love her. The last thing I talked to her about was about Sam. Not about us.”

Diana nodded and looked at him. “Don’t feel bad Jay, nobody knew this was gonna happen. It was a freak thing. Who knew that this would all go down. I’m sure that she’s fine.”

“Mr. Timberlake, we found a body...”

Justin and Diana looked at each other and then at the cop who looked at them with an intense look.

“But, the young woman was not your wife, so we are holding out hope.”

Justin nodded and sighed slightly. “Thank god that wasn’t her.”

“We’ve found Mrs. Timberlake, please tell Mr. Timberlake that he needs to get down to the hospital now.” The cop gave Justin the thumb up and watched as he ran towards the door. “Good luck!”

“Thanks!” Justin yelled and ran off. He hoped she was fine. That she was going to be ok. That he was going to be able to hold her in his arms again.

~*1 Hour Later*~

“Where is she? Is she alright? What happened? Where did you find her?” Justin asked and looked at the doctor and watched as he looked down and bit his lip and looked at him.

“This isn’t easy for me to say, but we found your wife a few miles away from Chicago out in a field. She had been brutally raped and beaten. We actually lost her three separate times, but we think that with a lot of love care and attention, she’ll be ok. The best we can hope for now is that she’ll be able to cope with the emotional scars she’ll have. If you want to see her, you can go in there. She’s in room A22, she’s asleep.”

Justin nodded slightly and walked down the hall and reached for the doorknob and slowly opened it. “Omg,” He slowly walked up to Aaliyah’s bedside and looked her over. He sat down next to her and looked at her and wanted to cry. “I’m so sorry I didn’t care, I’m soo sorry...”