"Iverson?" Her soft voice came with the creak of his door but he didn't answered, he laid still on his bed staring at the dark space before him.

Valeria was most likely the most obstinate person he'd ever came across, no matter how many times he rudely demanded for her to mind her own fúcking business and leave him the hell alone, she'd always come back to disturbed him.

"Iverson?" She called again and he felt her walking further into the room. He shut his eyes and clenched his jaw, he was going to lose his shít if she turned on the lights. He had grown to cherish the darkness in room.

"Iverson, are you in here?"

"What do you want?" He wanted to sound harsh but his voice was gruffy from lack of use and even to his ears, he sounded weak.

"The police are here, they said they want to talk."

His eyes flashed opened but it made no difference, everything was still pitch back.

"I told them they could talk to me but they said it's very important they speak with you in person." She rushed out. He was still getting use to how fast she talk whenever she was nervous.

"Okay." He whispered.

"Okay? You coming out?" She asked, sounding surprised. How many times had she tried to get him out of his solitude to know avail?

Well it was the police this time, it wasn't like he had a choice.

"Yes." He said, slowly sitting up in bed. On a normal day he'd have been concerned with why police where at his door but he honestly couldn't bring himself to care about anything. The faster he got rid of them, the faster he can return to shutting the rest of the world out.

He didn't bother with modesty, he walked out of the bedroom after Valeria in the same boxer shot he had been wearing for God knows how many days. The bright light in the hallway assaulted his eyes like they were enemies and he grimaced, shutting his eyes tightly and slowly opening it as he approached the entrance door.

He had never felt so lost and weightless in his life, it was as if he was floating instead of walking on his legs.

Opening the door, he couldn't resist glaring at the two uniformed officers he saw.

"Mr. Benson?" One of them asked, eying him up and down in disapproval. Maybe for his lack of decency or the ugly beard that covered his cheeks and jaw.

"What do you want?" He asked impatiently. He didn't give a fúck about their opinion, he was just done with everyone's bullshít.

The officers exchanged a look before shuffling closer to him, one with a pen and paper in hand like a wannabe journalist. "Mr. Benson, can you tell us where you were on the 7th of this month?"

"I was here."

"Where was "here" exactly?" The second officer asked. "Can you tell us if you ran any errands, met up with any friends, how exactly did you spend that day?"

Truth was, Iverson couldn't remember anything. He didn't even know what day it was presently or how long ago the 7th was. "I was here in my home, I don't remember running any errands."

The pen and paper officer jotted something down as the other asked. "We have reports that you were seen with Ms. Wright on that day and you travelled to Kadeville together, how could you have been here then?"

The name sent pinpricks of pain into Iverson's heart, he had been trying really hard to erase that name from his mind and the face that came with it. He hasn't had much success, she was in every of his waking thoughts.

"What is this about?" He finally asked the officers.

"When was the last time you saw Ms. Wright?" The officer wanted to know.

Iverson gritted his teeth, her face as he drove away from her at the train station flashed in his mind and made his whole body ache. He missed her, he missed her so damn much. But she hurt him quite as damn much and he loved her as much as he hated her at the moment.

"That would be the same day we went to Kadeville, I dropped her off at the train station and I haven't seen her since then." He said grudgingly.

She had told she loved him, he knew she didn't mean it but he'd still held out hope that she would make an effort to see him after that. Even if it was for the guilt of what she put him through.

"Where did you go after dropping her off at the station?"

Iverson shook his head and cleared his throat. "I went to my mother's house in Kadeville."

"Did you spend the night there?"

"No, what is this about again?"

"Where did you spend the night Mr. Benson?" The officer asked without answering his question.

"Here." Iverson replied, irritated.

"Mind if I ask why you dropped her off at the train station? You took her to Kadeville, why didn't you bring her back?"

"How about you start answering my own damn question too, what the hell is going on?" He snapped.

To his mounting annoyance, the officers exchanged a look again and still discarded his question. "Mr. Benson, we may need you to step down to our station with us and give an official statement." The officer with "Carter" on his breast pocket told him.

Iverson folded his hands across his chest. "I'm not moving an inch until you've told me what is going on."

Carter exchanged yet another look with his colleague before facing Iverson again. "Ms. Wright has been missing for ten days now and our report said you were the last person she was seen with."

It took a moment for the officer's words to register in Iverson's mind and when it did, he wasn't sure he fully understood what it meant. "What do you mean by missing?"

Carter had tried to the best of his ability to explain what "missing" meant in a layman's tongue yet ten minutes later found Iverson in his car, driving after the patrol car towards the police station still wondering what the heck "missing" meant.

He had hastily threw on some clothes and switched on his phone for the first time since he got back from Kadeville, the number of messages and voice mail he had were unbelievable. His sister owned a good portion of it and Biggie came second. He couldn't believe it had been ten days already, ten days he had been wallowing in self pity while Bella had been...missing? Whatever that means.

Following the directions of the officer's, he was lead into an office with two prior occupants, a woman turned around in her seat when the door opened to let the officers and Iverson in.

He recognised her as Bella's mother instantly, their resemblance was almost uncanny. Her worried brown eyes settled on his like a punch to the gut, he had a sick feeling he was about to understand what "missing" meant exactly.

"Where is my daughter?" The woman directed at him, instantly getting up from her position to face him head on.

"I don't kno..?" She was in his face, grabbing two fistful of his shirt before he could complete his sentence.

"What have you done with my daughter?" She demanded in his face. Iverson saw the worry and panic in her eyes and he could relate really well. The word "missing" as an adjective was becoming clearer and clearer to him.

The pounding of his heart and the headache growing behind his eyes were prove that he now understood what missing meant. "I..I haven't done anything to her, why will you think that?" He asked, grabbing hold of the woman's wrists to keep her in place, it was clear that jumping to conclusions sort of run in Bella's family.

The other man in the room Iverson guessed would be the inspector approached them and thankfully steered Bella's mother away from him back to her seat. "Why don't you let the young man take a seat, Margaret." He said, helping her to sit back down. The way his hands lingered affectionately on the bare skin close to her neck didn't escape Iverson.

Turning back around, the man dismissed the two officers he came with and stuck a hand out. "Inspector James, nice to meet you Mr. Benson."

"Call me Iverson." He replied, taking the offered hand in a firm handshake. After then he took the seat beside Margaret and waited for the inspector to take his seat across from them.

"What is your relationship with Ms. Wright again, Mr. Benson?" He asked upon sitting.

It was indeed a tricky question, he wasn't sure what their relationship was. According to Bella, she had an itch and he was the guy available to scratch it for her whilst she was simultaneously plotting her revenge against him for a crime he didn't commit.

"I was dating her." He answered as best as he could. She was his girlfriend, it didn't matter what he meant to her.

"And you also lived together until over a month ago, why did you move out?" The inspector asked and Margaret made a disturbed sound at the back of her throat. She didn't seem too keen to learn he and her daughter shared a roof.

"We had a misunderstanding and she asked me to leave." He said but the look on the inspector's face told him to elaborate and so he did. Recounted every painful detail, to their recent and the reason he took her to Kadeville.

"From what we've gathered, she didn't want to go with you and you took her by force." Inspector James stated, it made Iverson wonder how much and how true were what they've gathered against him.

"You took her to Kadeville against her wish and though you came back to town that same day, you didn't bring her with you and no one has seen or heard from her since then." Inspector James laid out.

"Am I in trouble?" Iverson asked, he had no experience in dealing with police but he sure knew when something sounded like trouble.

Margaret turned in her chair to glare at him. "My daughter is missing,"

"She's not!" He interrupted with a yell. "She can't be! She's probably hiding away at one of her friends', watching me get ready to be slaughtered and laughing her head off. You may not know this but your daughter hates me with a burning passion and would do anything to see me ruined! All I ever did was love her." His suddenly outburst was a surprise even to him, Margaret seemed at a loss for words.

"I'll never do anything to harm your daughter ma'am, I love her so fucking much." He said, feeling tears burn the corner of his left eyes but he held Margaret stunned face without blinking.

That was until inspector James broke in. "But she didn't feel the same and that must have been a blow to your heart. Did you do anything in the heat of the moment?"

Iverson jolted out of his seat at a lightening speed, fury taking over his body that he began to shake. "She made out and is in love with one of my best friend but I'd rather die than lay a hurtful finger on her! Have any of you check with Dan, I bet they are both having the time of their lives together somewhere."

"Unlike you, Mr. Jacob have a strong alibi as he had been staying with his girlfriend's long before Ms. Wright disappeared with you and never came back."  The inspector said.

Alibi. Iverson thought, wasn't that something you need when there has been a crime? The only offence he saw there was loving Bella.

He stood there for a long minute watching the man through one narrowed eye like he was about to jump on the desk and rip him to shreds but the poor inspector wasn't the enemy.

Bella enjoy playing these cruel jokes on him, funny that she would also be the first to call him a sadist. If only she knew the only torture here was him worrying if she was okay wherever she was. Not the possibility of going to jail.

"I'm done here." He said, snapping out of his thoughts. "Unless I'm under arrest, am I under arrest?"

The inspector stood up and rounded his table towards Iverson but only ended up standing beside Margaret. "Not yet Mr. Benson but I'll keep in touch." He said assuredly.

"Unless we find Ms. Wright soon and unharmed, you are our first suspect. I suggest you don't leave town or the country for the time being."

Boomer! After dropping Bella off at the train station the first thing Iverson did was to call his sister. He was ready to leave the country that very day and join Ivory in LA, it wasn't like he had much going on for him here and he would much rather just get away for awhile.

Maybe Bella knew that and this was her way of sabotaging his plans for what now? He didn't know.

"Iverson?" Her mother called as he turned to leave and she took a step towards him. "I didn't get the real story of what happened between the both of you in highschool but she was very upset about it for a long time and she nearly OD'ed." The woman broke into tears at the last part.

"What kind of mother am I? I didn't know you were back in her life, I didn't even know she lived with a Daniel."

Inspector James was back to soothingly rubbing Margaret's neck, Iverson wondered if it was part of his job description. "You are a good mother." He cajoled softly.

Margaret took a deep breath. "You may not have done anything to hurt her but if she was upset because of you, I'm worried about what she can do to herself."

Iverson closed the gap between them and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder beside the inspector's. "Your daughter is fine." He said with more conviction than he felt.

"And I'll find her so that I can kill her myself." He turned to leave again but not before giving the inspector permission to write that down.