I Want You to Stay

Chapter 18

Hana's POV

"Aaahh!" A scream leaves my mouth when I had to rapidly and firmly press the breaks on my car to abruptly come to a stop, activating my anti-lock breaks while I steer in the opposite direction from the psycho who was right in front of my car.

When the car stopped, I was afraid of looking up. What if I accidentally... No! Let's not think like that.

I hear a knock on my window which forces me to look up. I find Miss Elsie to be the one who was about to cause a road accident. I sigh before rolling down my window.

"I'm going to the hospital to see my mum. I don't have my car with me. Could I have a lift?" She asks, to my surprise.

"I'm sorry, I'm in a hurry. I can call you a cab."

"I don't have money for a cab. They are money rippers. Especially the hospital being far."

"I-I will pay for it, but I really can't give you the lift," I respond as I search for the number of a cab that I used to use often before I got married to Sahil.

"What happened? What's the hurry?"

"The cab will be here in fifteen minutes. Take this." I tell her once I was done with the call, handing her a twenty-pound note to cover for the bill.

"Do you just give money to strangers life that?"

"You said you were going to go see your mum at the hospital. I believe this is a good cause. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go look for my daughter." I speak and pause as I realise my last sentence.

I don't bother clarifying it. I start the car and speed up towards the park once again. Reaching my destination, I find my mum hugging Sarah really tight. I sigh in relief that she had found her.

"Sarah, where were you?" I say when I reach the two of them. I pick Sarah up to give her a really tight hug as she smiled at me.

"I found her by the ice cream van." My mum says.

"The man got me ice cream." Sarah points at the van. I look towards the van, but the van man was no longer at the window. The van is driven outside the park as soon as I thought of walking towards it.

"Where is the ice cream?" I ask.

"I ate it while having a friendly conversation with the van man. He knows dad."

"Did he ask you anything?"

"He asked where I live so he could go surprise dad with a visit."

"Did you tell him?"

"I told him I didn't know." She smiles and I sigh in relief.

"It's good she doesn't know your address. That man could have been very dangerous." My mum says and I nod in agreement.

"I know where we live." Sarah interferes and then proceeds onto spelling out her home address for us.

"But you told him you didn't know."

"Yes, because dad told me not to give personal information to strangers." She smiles before running off towards the slides.

"We were lucky there. I don't think she told him anything that may put her in danger. Sarah is a smart girl." I try to be reassuring, not only to my mum, but also to myself.

Unfortunately, I had to give Sarah the bad news that we had to return back home. I drop her off with my mum and I text Sahil that I wouldn't be able to go back to work. To minimise the problem, I email him what I found out from my meeting with Miss Elsie.
From his reply, it was obvious he suspected something was wrong.