A Way Back To You

10| Absence

Definition: The state of being away from a place or person.

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Trigger warning: This chapter deals with moderate implication of abuse. Reader discretion is advised. 

3 days later, Thursday. 7pm. 

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Ant smiled down at his cousin as she told him about her day. Although her speech still had room for improvement, her trip to the doctor that afternoon had proved promising. Ariana had already begun to put on some weight, if not much. And she was improving steadily with her health. 

It was then with this relaxed, calm frame of mind that Ant found himself pulled from his thoughts to the sound of his phone ringing from an unknown number. "Princess, can you go see Ollie for a minute? I gotta take this." 

Ariana nodded at him, and Ollie nodded to his boss as Ant answered the call. "This is Ant." 

"Yeah duh, I know that." Ant was surprised to find that Mina's voice was what responded to him. 

"Mina? What's wrong? Also how did you get my number?" Ant asked. 

"Zelan gave it to me." Mina said. "And that's not important. Look I need you to answer this seriously ok?" 

"I make no promises." Ant snorted. "This is random." 

"I mean it Antaeus." Mina snapped. "Have you heard from Maddy?" 

"What?" Ant blinked. His heart began to race. "No, of course I haven't. Why are you asking that, what's wrong?" 

Mina huffed. "So she didn't come to Ariana's kindy this afternooon? You haven't heard from her since when?"

"Um, she messaged me yesterday Tuesday morning saying she couldn't come see Ari? I haven't heard from her since." Ant responded. 

"Fucking dammit. That was 2 days ago." Mina groaned. "If she calls you tell me." 

"Why the fuck would she, and what the fuck is going on?" Ant snapped. "I want to know. Right now." 

"Maddy had one class yesterday, and we met up for lunch after it. But she wasn't there when I came home last night. I thought maybe she'd gone to see you so I texted her, but she hasn't responded to a single message in 24 hours." 

"Shouldn't you be calling the cops? Not me?" Ant panicked. 

"No! She's done this before. That's why I called you." Mina replied. 

"Um, why me? Have you not been paying attention? She hates me. As if I would know where she is over her best friend." Ant said frustratedly. 

"Yeah that's exactly why. She won't expect me to come to you for help." Mina said in a 'duh' tone. "Now just use your famous person thing and find her." 

"I'll get my tech guys to see if they can track her phone. Keep me posted if you find anything or hear from her." Ant said. 

"Ditto." Mina agreed. "Bye." 

As she hung up, Ant let out a long string of curses. If Mina was calling him, it was bad. Maddy had serious flight fever, he knew that better than most. But if her best friend was calling to ask for help, that was a bigger problem than any of them realised. 

Ant quickly typed in a new number to his phone, and the person answered almost immediately. "Hi boss." Lily, his head of communications, responded. "Can I help?"