Father, Where are you? (Completed)

Chapter 23

Bella: “What did you find Iris?”

Iris: “You might want to brace yourself for this one…..”

I didn’t know what she had found but I knew I wasn’t ready to hear what she had to say. It didn’t sound good but again, I had no choice.

Bella: “Okay so I’m ready to hear it. What is it?”

You can say I was ready for just about a millisecond.

Iris: “I think they are also the ones that killed Maria-“

Bella: “Hold on now what?!”

That was something I was totally not expecting. What did she mean-

Susan: “How can you be so sure…….?”

Iris: “This one conversation they had about killing one of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s so that it could distract you from……finding out about your father. So they knew about your investigation.”

Bella: “But how did they find out about it??”

Iris: “I’m not sure about that, but this is something I’m not letting go of.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. So just to distract me from finding anything, they killed Maria. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to go and confront them. My heart and body, I could feel they were filled with rage. Uncle David is a parent himself. How could he not think about what Maria’s parents would feel before killing her? This is just outrageous.

Iris: “I can’t believe dad would-“

Stacy: “Neither can I.”

Susan: “We are so going to get them and make them pay for what they have done.”

Bella: “Yes we will.”

Just sitting there in silence we started to sob about what we had just found out. I didn’t think that it would go so far. Heck, I would never even imagine it. I wish it was a nightmare that I could wake up from. Even after pinching myself, I knew it was too real for it to be a dream.

I couldn’t believe they did something so absurd. To kill someone, all so I could get distracted from finding out more about my father by grieving over Maria. Are they crazy or do they have no shame at all? What have I done to them that they wanted to torture me so much?

Well then, tomorrow would be the day we all would find out. All of us decided that we would have a sleepover. I mean, even though Iris was staying with me, we still wanted to have it. And since we couldn’t have it the last time we took permission for one. It makes it a lot easier for us to plan and get them the next day. Together, all of us in one room were discussing it and although it was all going smoothly, I just still couldn’t come to believe it in the end.

Luckily everyone fell asleep after some time and for me, that was great. I went outside and sat in the living area. It reminded me of the day that my father was supposed to come home but didn’t. Which lead me to the conclusion that the accident that took place that day was possibly by them? The knife and the stone that we saw. To me, the puzzle pieces starting to fit but one question remained, Why?

Why did they have to do all of this and fake it all in front of us? In fact, their lives were also at risk for the car accident, so why? Did they really consider me family at all? And all the concerns and worries, why would they go do that? To me, the one precious thing I had was family. And that too was fake. All of this, for who knows what-

Because I stayed strong and let my emotions out of the way, I didn’t feel them and thinking about all of that just made me sob. Being strong in front of everyone hasn’t been easy and I don’t like showing my weak side. Crying isn’t a symbol of weakness. It’s a way to express how one feels but there are times where I’m stuck, lost and confused, which I don’t want to show. But this time, I was lucky that no one was around. Until I had to take back what I said.

Uncle David: “Hey kiddo why are you up at such a time? What’s wrong?”

He isn’t the last person I want to see but he’s also someone whom I want to see vanish. And he, of all people, is asking me. Uncle I must say, you are a brilliant actor.

Bella: “Oh nothing Uncle. I just don’t know…..things just keep happening.”

Even though I didn’t want to lie, I couldn’t tell him the truth. Then he and I wouldn’t be too different. But by tomorrow, I was going to show my true emotions and colors, towards both of them.

Uncle David: “You want to talk about it?”

I used to open up to him almost all the time, so it would be very suspicious if I said I didn’t want to. Great. At some point, I’m stuck.

Bella: “I-……. Well for one, Maria. It’s just something that happened suddenly and all…..”

Uncle David: “I understand. We can only hope for them to get better and be with them.”

Bella: “You’re right Uncle. Anyways, it’s best if I go to bed now.”

Uncle David: “Okay kiddo. Don’t think too much about it, okay? Good night.”

Bella: “Good night uncle…….”

The was the last time I woudl consider him family

The next morning had arrived and it was the day I was about to go and find my answers. We had to tell our parents that we would be going out today and spend the rest of the day out.  They had no objections and so everything was going exactly as planned. While we were getting our stuff ready, I’m not going to lie, I was nervous about it all.

Bella: “All ready girls?”

Susan: “I think so. We have packed everything and are ready to go.”

Stacy and Iris: “Yes ma’am.”

Bella: “Alright then. All we have to do now is to wait for them to leave.”

Susan: “I called the driver. He’s waiting downstairs.”

Bella: “Okay then.”

Iris went downstairs to check if they were gone yet or not.

Iris: “They are heading out now. Let’s go.”

We had placed a tracker on their car to see where they were headed. I knew it was going to be weird asking the driver to follow them, but we told him that it was all a game we were playing together. Like in the movies. Luckily he believed us and told him we had to make sure for them to not let them realize we followed them.

There were so many extra turns and stuff we had to make and had to be very careful of all of it. Where they were going seemed kind of far. After about 45 minutes of driving and tracking them, we finally reached our location.

The place seemed to look like a house from the outside. There were 2 watchdogs outside as well. This complicated things a bit. And I thought there would be security cameras so we had to come out of the car about a few kilometers away from the area. Because I knew they mostly wouldn’t go easy on father. He was a genius and they had to think of every possibility of him not escaping.

We headed out of the car and thanked the driver for the ride.

Iris: “We have to check through the windows what’s going on inside.”

Susan: “There would be some guards, right? I mean, they would take all measures necessary.”

Iris: “Bella’s dad said that they have kept guards inside.”

Stacy: “And I think now is the time we activate the plan right?”

Bella: Of course. Let’s get started.”