(A/n here's an update for y'all!)

I crept out once mom and dad were asleep. Following the way which I was guided to, I sighed impatiently. I'd been driving for more than an hour. It was already past midnight.

I noticed that I was getting into a dark forested area and wondered whether she was alright. As I drove deeper, it got darker. I didn't make out whether it was all just real or the darkness cast over my heart suddenly was failing to hide.

My car stopped suddenly as I spotted her car beside a cliff. I ran towards it and found that there was no one. Much light was not there so I just tried calling her. The call went into voicemail.

Hey! Evelyn can't come to the phone right now!

Why?
Why? Oh! Cuz she's dead.
What?

Oh god! I'm busy right now. I'll call back later. Bye.

Who puts up such voicemail? Of course. She does.
However that sent an odd sense of displeasure course through me.

I decided to check her house once. Reversing my car, I began my hunt in the dark. These past days, I'd not talked to her but I realised what I had in mind about her. I realised that there was no need to push it all away. There was no such need. Because I now knew what I wanted and no way was I letting it go. Our chats. Our talks. How she sat on the slab staring intently at my hand and muttering how tall I was. I'd looked at her all the time. I just realised how much I'd changed. The unbelievably strong urge to hold her close to myself, to have her for me, to.. to take her away from everyone, to make her smile was unmistakable. Seeing Llan comfort her that day made my heart ache. Yeah. That's how she changed me. She taught me that I had a heart. And she ... I was slowly becoming addicted to her. Slowly. I'd no idea where that addiction had reached but I knew it was there. I just happened to do those things naturally. Just as Marie said. I had listened to my voice over the past few days, without letting anything overpower it. And it had landed me here. For good or for worse. I wanted to understand it instead of suppressing it and I knew she had the key to the place where the answers were hidden.

She will bring me the answers. Answers to these inexplainable questions.

An hour and half later I was returning to my house.
"Andad?" Mia had asked after I ringed the bell for the nth time.
"Mia actually it's me, your .... I mean Mr Jayce."
"Yes da... Sir."
My heart contracted.
"You're alone?"
"Please come in sir. Actually mom and Andad were at the hospital."
"I know. When did you last talk to her?"
"In the afternoon when I'd returned from school. Sir, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah? Sure."
"Is there anything wrong? All the times I've seen you, right now you seem pallid. I mean .... I'm sorry I just..." She got nervous as I stared blankly.
"Hey. Child. I'm fine. Don't worry. And why are you so nervous?" I asked.
"Won't you extract your revenge from my dad by striking me?" She asked.
"What?" Goodness. I was her dad now.
"Your dad?"
"My old dad. Not you sir."
"Who asked you to call me sir?"
"Mom."
I felt another jolt hit me. Where is she? Why do I feel insecure so suddenly? Is she alright?
I looked away. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I studied her.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you that."
"Come here." I asked as she gazed back nervously.
"I won't harm. I promise. You bring that knife if you want." She crept to me.
"What do you want?" I held her by her arms.
"I don't know."
"You're a small girl. What is so complex?" I asked her.
"Sir, she gave me a life much better than my own helpless one. She asked me to do something. But I don't want to do it." She ranted.
"We'll talk to her about that okay?" I asked pinching her cheek lightly.
"You don't get to pinch my cheeks..." She started but her hand flew to her mouth.
"I apologise. I mean..."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it hurts."
"Really?" I asked her frowning.
"Yup."
"You go to sleep. I'm leaving." I stood up.
"You're angry no?"
I shook my head. Her reaction when I tickled her flashed in my mind and I found it difficult to understand how I could connect everything with her.
I turned around noticing that she wasn't following me.
"I messed it up. Didn't I?" She asked slapping her forehead.
"No. It's fine. You're family." I smiled faintly at her.
Smile was something which was slowly killing me. My heart was pounding. How can I smile when she is missing?

"Thank you. Good night." She smiled back.
"Lock it then I'll leave." I said and she nodded.
Why couldn't she let Mia just live with us?
I drove away back to the same place. It was getting lighter. The dawn was sluggishly breaking in and I was hoping that the sudden dark fog that had been cast over my life would vanish.

I thought of once again visiting my house and checking. I dropped a voicemail to Llan asking him to inform me if she visits the hospital.

I parked my car just on the driveway and refrained from locking it in case they woke up with its sound.

Rushing inside, I headed for her room.
It was just as I'd left it.
I bent down to see if there was anything I could find. Any sort of paper. Any information from her gang members. Anything. Which could lead me to find her. Might be her lawyer could help me find. Any travel agency which could provide her a ticket. Ticket. I dialled the number of a friend at the airport.
"Hello?"
"Uh hi! John. Did I disturb you?"
"Steve? No. I was just at my shift. Anything urgent?"
"Can you please check if there has been any passenger travelling to anywhere with any airlines who had a name ....."
"Steve? I work for the control room. I mean you know my position don't you? I can't..."
"I'm sending you the details. Try it man. I'll send the descriptions as well. If any how you find her, just don't let her leave. And if she's left, text me all the details." I spoke cutting him off, amazed at my own helplessness.
"Alright." He said.

I kept looking around. I kicked the side table in frustration and it shifted a little. Sitting down, I buried my head in my own hands and tried to calm myself down. Where can she go?
I was getting up when something caught my attention.
Something was kept stealthily stuck in the lamp. It laid there unnoticed. A lamp similar to one which used to be there in my room.
I pulled it out to find it to be a cheque.

I left for the place I'd seen her car. On the sight of a police station, a thought crossed my mind.
I called him.
"Is Miss Stanford with you?" I asked.
"Eve?"
"Yeah?" I tapped my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.
"No."
"Then why are you awake at this time?"
"Mr Jayce? I'm just awake because I had night duty. What connection can I have with her right now?"
"Come to this address." I said and cut the call.
God I'm growing so impatient. Where is she?

"Hello? Miss Zelch?"
"Sir we've completed the editing. The next time she visits, we'll execute the plan hopefully. I hope the treacherous ones will be caught." She explained.
"Is there anything else?"
"Sorry sir?" She asked.
"What are my schedules for tomorrow? Cancel them."
"I afraid sir we can't. It's the meeting with Mr Moore. We can't possibly...."
"Fine. After lunch." I said and cut the call.

Few minutes later, I heard a knock. Sliding the window down, I saw him standing there in his casuals.
"Duty? Get in." I gritted.
"So.." He asked as I reignited the engine.
"Tell me where she is."
"Mr Jayce, I already told you that I don't know where she is. We had a talk last month after her birthday." He said.
I stared at the road, my mind making vague assumptions that she'll somehow appear. I shook my head angrily and gripped the steering wheel.

"I want the answers. What I don't like are lies." I said as I halted the car at a secluded place.
"I'm not lying." He said.
I pointed my gun at him. "What do you want?"
"Mr Jayce I swear by my girlfriend, I don't know anything about her. And lately, there hasn't been anything which was handed to her. At least by my knowledge." He answered.
"I don't know. I just know that if she has anyone whom she could use in such situation then it's you." I pulled the action back.
"How much you both love each other." He said smiling.

"You want to save your girlfriend?" I threatened.
"What? Where is She?"
"Answer. Yes or no?"
I was going against all my values. My virtues. Each second passing was like another thorn pricking into myself.
"Y..you don't know where she is.." He said, face losing its colour.
"I know."
"I'll...I'll help you f-find Eve. Don't include my girlfriend."

"Very good. Now tell me, what information do you have about this?" I asked him showing him the cheque. How easily he gave in.

"Fifty million dollars." I spoke.
"This?" He swallowed.
He stared at something behind me. I turned but noticed him trying to open the door. I locked it centrally.

"How careless?"
"Mr Jayce, she won't want anyone to know about this. I can't tell you." He stuttered as I bore my eyes into his.
"Fine. Then let's kill your girlfriend." I started the car.
"Nnnnno." He squeaked.
"Then answer me." I slammed my fist on the steering wheel.
"M..Mitchell..." He choked.
"See Swans. Answer my question and your girlfriend won't be harmed. You know my power and how I can get people disappear with just a snap of my fingers." I spoke bluntly, masking all the tsunami conditions developing inside me.
"Mitchell offered her fifty million dollars to kill you." He said making me flabbergasted.

"After I had a talk with her alone, she told me that while she was there, he asked her to be his side and kill you in cold blood. She didn't agree and that's why he tortured her. Trying to make her give in." He looked at me.
"You won't harm her, would you? M..my girlfriend?" He asked.
"Till the time you tell me the truth." I gritted.
"So then when we had a talk, she asked me to act like I was making her fall for myself and at the same time, I shall play a part to be on his side. We played dirty. I won over his trust by letting him lose and burning all the records that the building blasted was under his name. This way, he believed that he had power. He sent that cheque to her, asking her to kill you. He was ready to pay her more." He gulped.
"Then one day.. Uh.. Actually Eve works fo.."
"I know. So then?"
"Then, I asked him to act along me. I was the one whom Eve was cheating on you with, accordion to Mitchell."
"I don't get it." I asked him.
"When she was kidnapped, he had asked to let Eve go but she was to kill you, she denied. Once she was out, he sent her that money to kill you. Then I acted like I made Eve fall for myself to help Mitchell. That way, for Mitchell, Eve was cheating on you for me, I was cheating on her for him and it was all under his control, but actually, it was all Eve's game. I asked him to take me to the place where I told him to. Eve's headquarters. From there, he called her asking her to kill you. I played along. I blackmailed Eve on the phone asking her if she loved me to which she confessed falsely. She said she had killed you and was coming. You were luckily home that day but later on you left for god knows where. Mitchell's men tried to inform him but being less in number, we arrested them. Then Eve arrived and beat him up. And she adopted a girl." He sighed having finished blabbering.
"I know only this much. Please let me and my girlfriend go." He pleaded.
"One more help." I said once I'd recovered from the blow. There were reasons I never doubted her and now this was making me feel shocked. She risked her life for me. She could have died had something gone wrong in her plan. How could she? The thought of her getting harmed made a strange sense of anxiety hit me.

I drove to the place her car stood. The coldness of the night outdoing the hue of light fighting to spread across the sky. The road seemed to know, hiding everything underneath its layers. Mist glistening outside and enhancing the scene as if trying to mock me. My heartbeat was speeding and I couldn't understand why. I stared blankly. The storm raging inside me was not at all controllable. I was amazed at how in-docile my mind was behaving. Just because of her. As much as I tried, I couldn't help it before. But now, I was just growing more scared. Scared probably for the third time in my entire adulthood. Two out of which owe themselves to her.

The car broke into a sudden halt. He stepped out and ran towards the car without speaking or listening.

"Mr Jayce?" He choked.
I furrowed. "Yeah?"
"What is all this blood?"

I ran towards there and saw blood at the steering wheel, on the seat, hand pattern on the passenger's. I stood there frozen. Unable to speak.

"If it's all Eve's, then we really need to find her because she is dying." He said and searched the car.
"No." I screamed.
"She can't die."

He looked at me, eyes showing nothing but one thing that I hated in my life. Pity.

I punched him hard. My knuckles were already sort of bruised and now painted with his blood. "She is not dead." I muttered.
"One ready to give her life and the other ready to take a life for each other." He said coughing.

"Mr Jayce, this is a police case. We need to file a...."
"I'll find her on my own. No soul shall get to know that she is missing. You can find her unofficially, do it. Other wise just get yourself out of my sight." I let out and exasperated sigh.
"But..."
"Final."
"Alright I'll help. But why?"
Because if any of my enemies find out that the only woman whom I treasure so much in my life is out there missing in such a situation, they'll do what not to her.
"I'm not answerable to you. Trace her mobile phone. The vehicles going out of the city, and her credit card details. Find her." I said and he nodded, wiping blood off his chin.
"Don't you dare act over smart. I can still kill your girlfriend."

"Can you please drop me..."
I nodded.

Where are you? Come back. I need another chance. I need to make this marriage work. Not for mom and dad's sake but for something I don't know.

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Hey berries!
How are you people? And how was the Chappie!????
Hope you liked it.

Oh goodness! I'm so bored nowadays! Someone out there sitting as free as me? I know I'll be terribly busy again from the next month  so I'm chilling out!

And how about the story? Some comments are so good and cute! I just start feeling so happy when I read them! Thanks a bunch honey bites!

Cheesy? You don't know what cheesy is! Someone teach me how to ignore! Please! I'm fed up of some people!

Anyhoo? What's up with you? Can anyone help me with a cover? Do text me if so..

Thanks for reading!

VOTE & COMMENT!

XOXO❤️