Vanish: Sasha

-»23, Accost

Dad put the ziplock bag containing the ring on the coffee table in the Emerson's living room. Mrs. Emerson picked it up and looked at it with tears quickly filling her vision. "Why would she leave it there? Why was she there in the first place?" She questioned us, looking for the answers to why her daughter hasn't returned home.

"We don't know. The owner said she was there with a white haired boy, do you know who that is?" Dad asked.

"No." Mr. Emerson fidgeted with his coffee cup. His eyes looked up and met mine but I quickly looked away. I can't look him in the eye right now.

"We've been asking the police if we could do a search party but they keep declining it, saying we shouldn't make a big commotion." Mrs. Emerson explained.

Dad scratched his neck and took a deep breath. "We can't have a mob of people walking around the outskirts of RiverHill whilst there's a killer on the loose. It would attract too much attention."

"What if my daughter is a victim of the murders?"

"I understand where you're coming from Isabelle. If Sasha went missing I would make that my top priority, but until we find more about the murderer, Addison's case is our second priority. But, I do have some of my top investigators on the case and with this new lead we should be able to find something."

Mrs. Emerson nodded slowly but still let a couple of tears leave her eyes. She looked over to me, her eyes having a slither of hope, but I shook my head telling her I didn't know anything.

"What about the person that broke in here? Have you got anything on that?" Mr. Emerson spoke up.

"The officers I put on guard have told me that nothing suspicious has been happening over the past week so I'd say the intruder won't be coming back anytime soon. We don't have an exact lead on who it was but maybe Addison messed with something she wasn't suppose to." A message passed between Dad and Mr. Emerson.

"Do you think she was doing drugs?" Mrs. Emerson started to freak out.

"Addison wasn't doing drugs. If she was I would of known." I reassured her. "Did she ever tell you about the job she got with one of her friends dad?"

"She only told us she got a job then never mentioned anything about it again. She would sometimes come home late at night and disappear for a couple of hours on the weekend when she wasn't with you, but we never really thought anything of it. She was getting really good money."

I furrowed my eyebrows together as I thought. I need to find out what that job was. At the moment that job is the only major thing insinuating why she ran away. Was she doing extremely sketchy things? The guy that went to the cafe looking for me must have something to do with it.

"I'm going to get a coffee." Mrs. Emerson got up to walk to the kitchen, Dad trailing behind her saying he would help.

It was just Justin and I sitting in the small room. I felt the one way tension hit me over and over again. I know exactly what I want to say to him, but I don't know how to say it. But I only have a short time to talk to him before Dad and Mrs. Emerson enter the room again.

"Can I talk to you somewhere... Private?" I asked it a slight emotionless voice.

"Sure." I followed him out onto the back patio. I sat on one of the black couches and examined Mr. Emerson. He looks like he hasn't slept in days but his hair is all tousled like he has. Overall he just looks like a stressed man that hasn't slept. But he was a guilty man. "What did you want to talk about Sasha?" He sat across from me.

"Do you usually go to the apartment block on Wednesday nights?" I asked passive aggressively. His skin paled drastically as he stared at me in surprise.

"Only when I have business." He answered like nothing was wrong, but him and I both know everything is.

"What type of business?"

"Just... Business."

"Does that include kissing Emera?" He paled even more. He knows I've caught him.

"It's not what it looks-"

"How is it not what it looks like?!"

"We were just in the-"

"You have a wife! You can't be in the moment with someone else when you're married!" I exclaimed. "Just tell me the truth. I already know you kissed her. How long has this been going on for?" I continued interrogating him.

He heaved a long sigh and gave in. "It's been going on for about a year. Something just clicked when we saw each other for the first time in years; she had just came back into town. Some past memories just floated back. I really don't want to hurt Isabelle, but I couldn't help it. So I started having an affair."

"Addison knew." I stated.

"Yes. She accidentally saw us one day when she was visiting a friend." Something about that made me feel weird. "How did you find out?"

"I was visiting the same friend." I lied. No way was I telling him the real reason. "You need to tell your wife. You can't keep doing this to her."

"I promised Addison I would but then she went missing and now Isabelle is having breakdowns every day. She can't have that weight on her shoulders right now; it'll break her." He stayed silent for a couple of seconds, thinking everything over. "I'll tell her when Addison is found."

"How does that make it better? One thing gets fixed then another one gets broken."

"I know, I know. I just... I just get the feeling she left because of me. Because I hid so many things from her." He let out a shaky breath.

"I doubt she would of ran away because she found out her dad was having an affair. It would take something more to push her." I tried reasoning.

"Once she knew about the affair she started looking into things... Everything went to hell so fast. I should of been more careful. I shouldn't of let her back into my life. I shouldn't of let Addison go to that party. I should of cared more about what I was doing..." He started rambling.

"Wait, what other things did she find out?" I questioned. Might as well pry at some information whilst I'm here.

"Just little things. She was the first to find out I was going into debt. But she dug around to find out who Emera was and..." He didn't finish his sentence. He put his face in his hands and let go a large breath.

"And what?" I pried.

"And she found out something she never should of known." I looked at him confused. He wasn't letting off anymore information after that, he just sat with his head in his hands realising everything he's done. I don't know if I should comfort him or not.

What did Addison find? It couldn't of been that bad because she's the one that went to Emera to talk. Does Emera have a bigger background than I thought? He said she came back into town, so did she do something so bad that she had to leave? I opened my mouth to question further but he beat me to it.

"She would of been a great mother." He whispered more to himself.

That's when it clicked.

"I didn't know her until recently. It was her father I was more familiar with."

"She found me. One day a couple of months ago, she just barged through the doors and asked about me. We started talking like you and I are right now and we became... Friends you could say."

Justin's tear filled eyes met my shocked ones.

"Is Emera Addison's mother?"

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