𝓢𝓮𝓮 𝓜𝓮

Chapter 50

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
𝕂𝕒𝕚 𝕂𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕠
»--•--«

It was the next morning. Eleven hours. Eleven hours since Emmaline disappeared, and I hadn't slept a second. My mind wouldn't shut off, racing with every worst-case scenario I could think of, images of her face flashing through my head—her voice, her laugh, her tears. My eyes burned from the lack of sleep, my body felt heavy, but none of it mattered. I didn't deserve to sleep when she was out there, God knows where. And every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was the look on her face the last time I saw her—the way I'd pushed her away. The guilt gnawed at me, kept me up, tore me apart from the inside.

Then they brought Amelia in an ambulance stretcher from the medical wing. I was standing near the window when I saw them wheeling her in, and my stomach twisted. They put a sleeping pill in her food this morning—waited until she passed out, then they brought her here.

Zade had taken Margrette the moment Amelia was out, distracting her, taking her away from the room so she wouldn't know what they were doing. He probably hated every second of it, hated having to be the one who does this, but he didn't really say anything. And Margrette wouldn't have trusted any one of us. Plus I wasn't really open to the idea of not knowing if we can actually find Emmaline or not and spending time with a kid. He was probably walking her around somewhere, keeping her busy until Amelia is back in her room.

Mum grabbed the scanner she'd been working on for days now, her expression flat, almost emotionless as she held it in her hands. But I saw it—the way her fingers trembled slightly, the shaky breath she let out before turning it on. She didn't meet my eyes as she powered it up, just focused on the task in front of her, the only thing keeping her from falling apart like the rest of us.

She moved slowly over Amelia's legs, scanning them one by one, her hand steady, though I knew it was taking everything in her not to show how much this was affecting her. Then she moved up to Amelia's stomach, her chest, her neck. There was nothing. No sound from the scanner, no sign of anything that would help us get to Emmaline.

I could feel my heart pounding, my pulse echoing in my ears. The walls of the room felt like they were closing in around me, the air growing heavier with each passing second. I clenched my fists, trying to keep myself grounded, but the anxiety was building, threatening to crush me. What if after all this—after drugging Amelia, bringing her here—there wasn't anything? No chip. No clue. No way to find Emmaline. The thought alone was enough to make me feel like I was going to explode.

Mum's voice broke through the silence, calm but with that underlying tension, "can you hold her up?"

The twins stepped forward, carefully lifting Amelia's unconscious body, supporting her as they guided her to sit up. Mum didn't waste time. She moved behind Amelia, the scanner now hovering over the back of her neck. My breath caught as I watched, waiting, praying for something, anything.