CHAPTER 5

Veward P.O.V

After the party, I came home. I was exhausted and just wanted to doze in my heaven. So, I took a shower, changed my outfits, and bumped on the bed. As I lied down on my comfortable king-size bed, a smiley face appeared in my mind and I started to smile too.

'I don't know why? Or maybe I know...'

The adorable smile of her pink lips, the annoyed stare of her bright blue eyes. The wave of her head during a chuckle and the dancing of her brown hair. What a beauty! And...what an idiot I am! I know my feelings but I never told her. Sometimes I often expressed.

'Because love is to express not to impress.'

Lost in admiration process of my beautiful kingdom and soon to be fallen asleep, when annoying music which was of my phone, rang...

"Fuck!" I cursed. If Marie heard me saying that word she would probably kill me. She didn't like that word.

The annoying music buzzed and went off, I was not in the mood for attending to any calls so I just ignored it. I shifted more under the duvet to continue what I was doing when it rang again.

Groaning, I sat up and started to find that disturbing thing. After turning the bedside table lamp on. I picked the phone to turn it off when it rang again.

It bothered me. Everyone knew when I wouldn't answer so it was a waste calling me again and again. I looked at the wall-clock and it made me more worried. It was displaying at 01:30 am. My phone rang again.

"Hello!" I picked it almost immediately.

"Drag your stupid-ass here right now!" The person on the other side yelled with full frustration and only a second was enough to identify him.

"What? Where?" I snapped back confused.

"Idiot! You want me to explain to you everything on a call. I'm sending you the location, so stop asking stupid questions and come here. RIGHT NOW!" Liam spoke in an aggressive tone and yelled the last word.

'Idiot! How dare he called me that!'

"You are an idiot. Why would I come and most importantly, where?" I snapped. He had already disturbed my beauty sleep. Well, ok not beauty sleep but still, who on earth called someone in golden hours and talked like that?

"We've found a car registered under Amino and there are high chances of people being inside it. Maybe Al, Mia, and Marie. It could be anyone. Caro is with me." Liam, for real, explained with a soft tone.

"Are you listening?" He added because of the pin-drop silence of this side. Aside from being shocked after hearing his soft tone. I was trying to grasp the import of what he was saying.

"What do you mean?" I asked, after a while, still confused. I certainly felt him letting a heavy breath out.

"YOU AS*HOLE!" He growled, making me put the phone away to protect my eardrums. "Just come on the sent location and check the hot news." He cut the call without waiting for my reply.

Great!

Pissed off, I stared at the phone screen. Sighing, I jumped off the bed, changed my sleepy outfits into blue jeans and a black shirt, I made my way out. As I unlocked the car and opened the door.

I checked the 'Times hot news' section and my breath got stuck inside my lungs as I forgot how to breathe. Without wasting more time, I hurriedly jumped inside the car and sped off.

It says, 'A car has found destroyed in an accident on the countryside one-way highway, which was reported by a civilian. It was registered under Amino property and there are high chances of people being trapped inside it. Resources says that...'

I didn't read further. Only the thought of someone's presence echoed Liam's words; 'Maybe Al, Mia, and Marie. It could be anyone.'

"No! No! No!" I increased the speed.

In five minutes, I found myself standing at a horrible scene. It took more than five minutes to avoid media and finally, I reached the main spot.

Smoke had surrounded the whole area. As a really bad irritating smell was reaching my nostrils. I started to cough. Cops were rushing to and fro in urgency and some were stopping reporters to come further. I shrank my eyes to look around when at last I located Uncle Max, Liam, and Caro.

My heart started to beat madly as I rushed towards them when two officers stopped me in my track and looked towards Liam. He nodded and they let me go.

"W...what happened here?" I asked and looked at Uncle who was arguing with an officer at some distance. In front of me was the brunt frame of something faintly recognizable as a car. It was just a metallic body in really terrible condition that the thought of people being inside it made chills ran down one's spine.

"What do you think? What happened here?" Caro yelled at me. Her face was covered in tears.

'Where is Marie?' My inner voice asked and my whole instinct shivered.

Liam took her away towards the car. After making her a bit calmed, he came back towards me. While I was continuously trying to call Marie but her phone was not reachable.

'God! Don't tell me she was inside it.'

"There are high chances of Al and Mia being inside it. But they still need evidence to confirm it." Liam said as he stood beside me.

"What?"I shouted. "Wh....where is Marie?" I managed to ask and he just shrugged. I felt like a hardball stuck inside my throat as anxiety overtook me. He walked towards Uncle while I kept trying Marie's phone but useless.

'Where is she? Nowhere to be seen and not a single call. Why her damn phone is switched off? Where the hell is she? What on earth could she be doing at this time?' Thousands of questions were crashing my senses to think something else.

Liam called me and I came back to the present. Because of media pressure and some other reasons, an officer advised Uncle to go back home and wait until they attained reports. Uncle found it reasonable and we drove back to the mansion.

After entering the mansion, I ran straight towards Marie's room. I thought maybe she was in her room unaware of the situation but the moment I entered her room, I was wrong. She wasn't here. Her room was empty and the lights were off.

My heart skipped several beats at a time. If soon, I would not see her then for sure I would forget how to breathe. What if........what if......... I really didn't want to think further.

I came downstairs to saw everyone sitting in the hall. Aunt Emily was crying loudly and Caro was trying to comfort her. Uncle was silently sitting on the couch with his face filled with worries and a lot of thoughts. I was going to make them more worried by asking,

"Where is Marie?"

Their faces went pale and they looked at each other. "She hasn't come home yet?" Aunt Emily asked and looked at Anna. She shook her head in response.

"I haven't seen her after the party," Caro said.

Uncle Max pulled his phone out of his coat pocket and dialed someone's number but his face contorted as he again tried. "Shit!" He growled and threw his phone on the table.

"John is also not answering his phone neither her bodyguards." He said with a frustrated voice.

"Marie is in the car." Liam said, coming from outside and I tried to dumb my ears.

"Which car? What car? Whose car? What are you saying?" I asked and hold my heart so that it wouldn't explode.

"I got the CCTV and it's a clear cut shot that she got in the car with them. I mean...with Al and Mia." He explained, showing us his iPad.

"What?" Uncle shouted as he grabbed the iPad from him.

"They are still waiting for forensic reports to confirm the victims' presence." Liam continued. I tried to comprehend his meaning. It meant that....that.......

"Mom!" Caro screamed and grabbed our attention. Aunt Emily was unconscious, her head was resting on Caro's shoulder. Anna called the doctor while Uncle shifted her into the room.

It all happened so quickly, like a scripted scene of a movie, like a horrible nightmare. Just a few hours ago, everything was so perfect and now it felt like my whole world had collapsed.

'Nah........I have a feeling, she's fine and alive. But where is she?'

It was selfish of me to only think about her right now but I couldn't help it.

I snatched the iPad from Liam and took my time to scan the footage appropriately. I could watch she was getting in the car but there was something else that caught my attention. It was the point why she was taking a ride from them instead of simply using her car?

Maybe she wanted to spend some time without bodyguards. No one knew better than I did how vastly she wanted to get rid of them. But where was John? I rewound the video and discovered that there was something wrong with the car.

"What about the other CCTV?" I asked.

"Other?" He asked confused and angled his head aside.

"Yeah, Footage of the crime scene, it's a highway. There is suppose to be a camera." I asked in a straight voice. We both were alone in the hallway.

"That place doesn't have any cameras." He replied and started to do something on his phone.

"Why?" I asked.

"How could I know? I'm not an employer of a security agency!" He whispered yelled with a glare. I clenched my jaw to stop myself from smacking his face.

"Are you insulting me?" I whispered yelled. My Dad owned the biggest security agency in England and almost all the guards and bodyguards in the Amino mansion were taken from our agency.

"I apologize. I'm a little stressed." He said with a soft tone and stressful expressions.

"Yeah! I'm dying with happiness and everyone are dancing, right?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"I said I'm sorry!" He said with knitted brows.

"Whatever!" I said and looked at Anna who took the doctor outside then came back.

'Never Lose Hope without even trying hard.' Marie's voice echoed in my mind. That was what she always blabbered and she was right. I couldn't sit here and wait for that damn report.

I walked towards the door when an annoying voice interrupted in my track, "To where?"

"Forensic Lab," I turned around and replied.

"I'm coming with you." He said and walked towards me.

"Ok," I said.

We both trudged straight towards our car. Of course, how could we share our cars with each other? I rather share my car with aliens and dinosaurs than him. Not a chance, it doesn't matter how serious the situation was.

To prove to myself that Marie was alright, I had to get the report as soon as possible. I had a feeling, she was alright, no matter wherever was she.

********

"No. It's not possible." Said the doctor.

The lab was neatly clean and the smell of some antiseptics was reaching my nostrils. We were standing almost in the middle of a long corridor.

"Why?" I asked.

For the past 15 minutes, I was trying to convince that damn doctor politely but he happened to be a very stubborn man.

"How many times I tell you?" The doctor replied with crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"And how many times should I tell you? Try to understand. It is a matter of life and death." I said and looked at Liam. He was just standing like a statue and watching the whole drama.

"No! You try to understand. It's a police case and we are supposed to deliver reports to them. Besides, we can't prepare reports in just a few hours. We have to follow a procedure and that's a time-consuming thing." He yelled and grabbed everyone's attention. He looked around wearily.

"Look, don't waste your as well as my time." He added politely.

Liam grabbed my arm and pulled me backward. I snatched my arm and glared at him. He whispered, "Let me try!"

He turned towards the doctor and smiled. What? Smile? Seriously? In response, he just rolled his eyes.

"I don't think you need my introduction but in case, if you don't know me then. I'm Liam, Liam Watson." He said with the same smile which soon turned into a smirk. As he continued, "And......if you don't want your tiny lab to get sealed and you turned into a studied supinator..."

"Are you threatening me?" I could see the anger on the doctor's face.

"No! I'm telling you the consequence if you don't listen to me." Liam smirked.

"I-it's illegal!" He whispered. But I caught the tiny trembling of his voice.

"1 hour," Liam spoke like the last decision ignoring his statement.

"2... 2 hours, please." He replied, wiping the sweat off from his forehead.

"Fine!" Liam stepped backward and turned towards me when the doctor ran in a hurry. I looked at him totally amused. So that bullshit happened to be useful, huh.

"What? No need to thank me. I knew your piece of shit can't handle this!" He smirked.

"Haha! Very funny!" I rolled my eyes.

So now, we had to wait for 2 hours. He informed Caro about the situation and I assured myself. It was just 120 minutes.