A PANG of anxiety went through her.She kept calling Ethan, hoping that the car would come to a stop and her husband would run towards her. However, it did not happen. It was as if cold water had splashed over her. Her whole body tensed, making her unable to move for a brief second before the fear started to consume her.Her husband was going away!Afraid that she would lose him again, she stepped back, parted her lips, and immediately ran to the cab she hired. As the adrenaline rushed through her, she commanded the driver to follow the car where Ethan was.“Drive faster, Sir. It’s my husband. I need to see him!” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks as she couldn’t help but become anxious by the second.The car Ethan was in was driving so fast. Luckily, her driver understood that it was urgent and drove fast too to follow her husband.Swallowing the lump in her throat, she tried to figure out for herself why Ethan did not even look her way. She called him, but he never responded.
“WHO WAS SHE?”Ethan was raising hell when they went home. He was damn frustrated. He could feel that his insides would explode in frustration.Jasper had been so silent on their way home, but with the way the man drove the car so fast, Ethan knew that the woman who called him back in front of the company building chased them.He wanted to know why they ran away from the woman. Was she dangerous? Why did she know his name? Why did she chase them?Those were the questions that kept fucking up his mind. The only person that he thought could answer all these questions was Jasper, but the goddamn nurse would not open his mouth to say a single word about what happened.“Jasper!” he shouted. His chest went up and down due to his heavy breathing. The apartment was silent, which only meant that Ellaine was not home yet. It was a perfect time for them to talk. “Goddamnit! Why don’t you speak now while Ellaine isn’t here yet? I’m so fucking confused!”“This is not the right time for you to know
EYES followed her as she paced back and forth in the living room, hands clasping together in anxiety as she waited for Andrew to call. On the couch, Megan, who was holding Marsha on her lap, and Gregory were seated, waiting just like her.Michelle knew it was impossible for her to seek help from the U.S. police faster, which is why she decided to contact Andrew and Megan. The couple had seen the CCTV footage and were taken aback to see Ethan in person. Andrew immediately took action and went out to go to the police for some help.Andrew had been out for almost two hours. Michelle could feel her heart ripping through her ribcage. She had not calmed down since seeing Ethan in front of the company building. The desire to see and hug her husband consumed her, so she wanted to see him as soon as possible.Her daughter, Marsha, was only watching her quietly. The little girl’s eyes radiated with curiosity and utter confusion. Michelle hadn’t told her that she saw Ethan, but the little girl k
SHE rested her elbow on the railings of the stairs, gazing down to the bottom of the stairs with furrowed brows. Jasper. She hadn’t known anyone whose name was Jasper. The man she was speaking to on the phone confused her.“Jasper,” she uttered his name in utter curiosity. “Who are you, really?”“Your voice tells me you are a feisty woman,” Jasper commented, which was followed by a sigh. “Let’s just say I can be your ‘helping hand’ in this situation. “Didn’t you see your husband earlier this afternoon?”Michelle sucked in a deep breath. “Yes, and how did you even know that? Like I asked, who are you, Jasper?”There was a moment of silence. The darkness of the second floor was utterly triggering the nervousness she felt deep within. She wanted to know this man who just sent her a cryptic text message. She wanted to know what he knew about her husband…“Who are you?” she asked once again. This time, desperation emerged in her voice.“I am the man who was with your husband earlier.”Mich
“THE NAME of the man is Jasper Reid.”Andrew handed her a paper that had a well-detailed sketch of the man. Michelle was surprised to see the familiarity of the man’s face. It was really that person who accompanied Ethan that day when she saw him.“He’s a caregiver,” Andrew added. “We are not sure what his motives are for taking Ethan away, but the cops are already tracking his location. He’d be on the news as a wanted person. I’ll put a price on his head so anyone who sees him will not hesitate to report him to the police.”“No, you can’t do that,” Michelle objected, sitting down on the couch near her. She could feel her mouth running so dry due to a lot of things she had on her mind. “Don’t do that, Andrew. We can’t publicize that he’s wanted.”“What do you mean we can’t do that?” Andrew looked at her with a confused expression.“Michelle, this is for the best. We need to find Ethan, and so to speed up the process, we thought we could seek help from the media to track that person do
“SIT down,” Jasper directed her, pointing over the available couch on his left.Michelle stifled in her direction. Anger went through her that she could no longer make any movement, and only looked at the man with sheer amount of hatred. Her eyes were bloodshot. One wrong statement from the man and she’d definitely lose her mind.“Don’t you dare lie to me,” Michelle said warily. She gritted her teeth, and dashed into the available couch to sit.Jasper sipped on his glass, and poured a drink to another glass. But then when he saw her pregnant tummy, his lips formed a thin line. “Alright, no drinks for you.”“Let’s not go around beating bushes, can we?”The man smirked, shaking his head afterwards. Michelle observed Jasper’s expression. He totally looked like an angel who could not do bad things, like a typical nerd you would see in the university wearing thick eyeglasses and with his sleek back jet black hair. There was no hint of danger on his face, too. No one could really tell that
HER BODY started to calm down, yet her heart ached so much.Dried were the tears she had shed moments ago. Her breathing went back to normal, and the cold that made her tremble finally left every bit of her skin. Sitting on the couch, her gaze was focused on the glass on the table. But her mind was somewhere else.That explained everything…The reason why Marsha felt that there was something different about her father when she saw him at the park; was the same reason why Michelle felt that something was off when she saw him in person in front of the company building.That explained why despite knowing the name of the woman he was with at the moment, Ethan never bothered to seek his way to escape, and why he never tried to go home even once after the plane accident.Everything was planned without their knowledge. While everyone, including their family, thought he was already dead, somebody out there was brainwashing her husband, confining him, and telling fake stories to keep him in th
“ANSWER ME!”Taking a deep breath, Jasper raised both of his hands to indicate that he wouldn’t fight. He slowly spun around, and stared at Ellaine. The look in her eyes was filled with hate and suspicion. There was a hint of fear too, which trigged the woman to keep pointing the gun on him.“Where have you been?” Ellaine asked one more time through her gritted teeth. “It’s past midnight.”“Don’t I have the liberty to go to a bar and have fun?” Jasper asked in low voice but filled with sarcasm.Ellaine clenched her jaw tightly. She sniffed many times, even came closer to him, and sighed a relief when she realized that he was telling the truth. His smell reeks of alcohol, as part of the plan, so that Ellaine would not be suspicious of his sudden disappearance at midnight.“You should have drunk alcohol here,” Ellaine said.“I need some sex too,” Jasper retorted. “There’s only one woman here, who’s apparently not available to have sex with.”Ellaine put down the gun and pushed him on th