Chapter 32
Richmond Hill
I stand in the garden as I stare into space. Memories of these past months flash through my mind and my heart hurts deeply. It has been five days since the disappearance of Cassie, and all effort to find her have proven abortive. I’m worried about her safety, I miss her so much and I wish I can see her again. For these past few days, I have not been myself and I have been so distracted from everything.
It hurts me deeply more than I can ever imagine it, not to talk of the pain Nelson have been passing through these past few days. He keeps crying and telling me to bring his mommy back home. I understand how he feels, because I’m also pained. I’ve tried tracking her phone to know her whereabout, but nothing is working. I can’t track down his location and I don’t know what’s happening. I tried checking the CCTV footage to see if there was any weird movement in the house that night that she disappeared, but I found nothing and that’s weird.
Tears slowly trickle down my cheeks as memories of my past stares back at me and haunting me. I was living just fine and loved my life. I met her and I fell deeply in love with her. She was everything any man want in a woman and I loved her deeply. She gave me all the love and attention I needed and made sure that I was happy.
Emily was the best thing that ever happened to me. We dated for a few months and then we got married and lived happily. I felt safe around her, my world revolved around her and we promised to be by each other’s sides forever, but then she didn’t fulfill her promise to me. Death snatched her away from me, leaving me lonely until now. It all happened on a Saturday evening, I mark that day the most horrible day of my life. It was just a few months after she gave birth to Nelson. We had gone to a family reunion and that was the last time I saw the beautiful face of my wife. She died in a fire explosion, leaving me alone in this wicked world to take care of our only our son. The explosion that day, something keeps telling me that it’s more than it seemed to be. That was why I had to take the job of an undercover detective. For many years, I have been trying to get to the root of the explosion, but nothing ever worked out for me.
For the past years, I and my son have been a horrible life. I have tried to remarry more than two times, but we always ended up breaking up, because they couldn’t deal with my unattentive attitude. What do you expect from someone that had his life revolving around his son alone and didn’t even had the time to look at other people? I had accepted my fate and given up on finding love again, but everything changed the moment Cassie came into my life. It wasn’t right, but I found myself fall in love with her so deeply in the space of a little time. I have tried to deny it, but I couldn’t have, especially having the truth staring right back at me, right? Her absence in my life now, reopened the scar of many years that I have been trying to get over.
“Daddy,” The little voice of Nelson bring me back to reality and I quickly wipe the tears from my eyes, before I finally turn to face him. He has the same sad expression on his face for the past few days since the disappearance of Cassie.
“My boy,” I squat down to his size and ruffle his soft hair while smiling at him. I’m just pretending to be fine for the sake of my son, I’m dying inside and that’s the truth.
“When is mommy coming back? I’m missing her,” He pout his lips close to tears.
“Come on,” I pull him into a warm embrace as I let my tears trickle down my cheeks. I need this hug so badly, I feel like not letting go. It hurts to see him like this again, after being so happy for the past weeks that Cassie have been here. I wish I can see that cheerful smile on his face again, I wish I can hear him laugh again, I wish I can see him play around again.
“Mommy will be back in four weeks, OK? She… she didn’t want you to cry, that was why she didn’t wake you up while she was leaving, OK?” This is the lie I have been telling him for the past five days, and I’m afraid what will happen when he finds out that I have lied to him.
“Are you sure?” He ask and I nod my head. I wipe my tears and pull away from him.
“Have you eaten anything yet?” I ask him, wiping the tears from his eyes. He shake his head.
“Come on, let’s go eat something,” I stand up and hold his hand. We both exit the garden and head back to the dining room. It’s almost time for his evening lesson, so after we are done eating, he leaves for the room with mom. She has been the one teaching him after the disappearance of Cassie.
The doorbell suddenly ring and I stride to open it. Behold, it’s Craig.
“Hey, man,” He give me a side hug.
“I’m fine,” I walk back and collide on the couch.
“Why are you here so late? It’s almost evening,” I ask as he take his seat and he shrug.
“You haven’t been picking up my calls, so I decided to come check up on you. Are you OK?” He asks and I just nod.
“Is this because of her? Are you seriously not gonna let her go? For how long do you plan to go on like this, huh? You should be worried about the safety of you and your family now, and not worried about her. I mean, it’s obvious now that she’s not plane, she was a spy…”Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
“Just stop it, Craig!” I yell at him…