Missing Pieces

16

If I'd thought days were unbearable to get through before, the events of that day had made everything so much worse.

I felt like I was in a daze most of the time, barely making it through each and every second. Inside of my head, I felt like my thoughts had been overtaken by a fog. Instead of facing all that had been thrown at me, my mind had simply given up.

On top of everything, sleep never came easy because I feared what I'd encounter in my dreams.

Pieces of my old life. Flashbacks I did not want to face despite the part of me that yearned to know who I was before. Who my family was without these foreign feelings. Who my friends were when they didn't have to pretend everything was alright for my sake. Who Kieran was.

Ever since Aisha had given me the shot, I hadn't had any new dreams. My sleep was restless, but not because of anything that I saw in it.

I snapped out of my thoughts as I felt my phone buzzing in my back pocket. After turning off the faucet and wiping my hands, I reached for it.

It was a message from Kieran.

171 East Maine, Seattle, WA.

An address.

A frown settled on my face. I was about to reply back and ask him why he'd sent me that when my phone buzzed with another message. This time, it was a link to a news article.

'Journalist disappears after publishing a story on Adair Industries.' 

My face paled as I sucked in a sharp breath. With trembling fingers, I clicked on the link. It took a minute for the page to load, but once it finally did, I wasted no time in reading it.

'Loren Marshall, twenty-six, has reportedly been missing. Famous for his growing story on Adair Industries, he was only starting out his career as a journalist when he vanished.'

"Marshall," I whispered to myself, my brows furrowing as I tried to figure out what it was about that name that caused my stomach to churn.

Swallowing dryly, I continued reading.

'His story delved into the tumultuous partnership that existed between Kyle Blackwell and Xavier Adair....'

Xavier. My dad.

"What's with the frown?"

I jumped and spun around, instinctively slipping my phone into my pocket as I came face to face with Soren.

His eyebrows rose, but he didn't comment on my actions as he walked over to the coffee machine. Instead, he changed the subject.

"You feeling better?" He asked, leaning back against the counter as he waited for his coffee.

I nodded, ignoring the way my heart pounded. "Yeah," I mumbled. "I was probably just tired and it was getting to me."

Soren didn't respond immediately, his dark eyes watchful. I'd always felt intimidated by him and Ezra, but now it was worse. These days, after my encounter with Aisha, I struggled to even make eye contact with my family.

Eventually, Soren nodded. "That's good," he murmured. "About that night..."

I froze, bracing myself.

Soren exhaled and rubbed a tattooed hand down his jaw, briefly closing his eyes before he met my stare again. "It was probably strange for you," he said quietly. "Our behavior. Especially with the way Ezra reacted."

"It was," I agreed, tensing.

"We weren't mad at you, okay?" He said gently. "I just realized it might've felt that way."