And She Was Caught (Completed)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mel watched as Vanessa disappeared behind the closed doors of the bedroom. Sighing, she sat on the sofa and the tears she'd been trying so hard to stop started spilling over the rim of her eyes.

She felt sorry for her, Mel's heart ached for her best friend and she felt so helpless because she couldn't do anything to ease the pain. Heck, there could possibly be no way to ease that kind of misery.

She sat there for the longest time just staring at nothingness, Vanessa's words echoed inside her head. How could these things happen to a person? Through her childhood, Vanessa had witnessed brutal deaths more than anyone could possibly encounter in their whole life!

Then she lost her first love trying to protect him and moreover, leaving the family she found because of the guilt that has been rotting in her soul. And if that wasn't enough, she found a man she thought she could spend the rest of her life with, only to be betrayed.

Then now, the last push to make everything grand. Vanessa was conceived through the sin of a heartless monster. How could she be a daughter of that man? Vanessa was the kindest and strongest woman Mel had ever met. She fought through everything that had happened in her life. Her friend lived, smiling and bringing warmth into her patients' lives.

Mel wiped the wetness in her cheeks and inhaled a deep breath. Without a sound, she gathered the china set from her coffee table and placed them in her kitchen sink, a plan to take care of them later.

She then trudged inside her room, careful as not to wake up her friend who was lying sideways in the bed. She took a pair of low cut jeans from her dresser, changed into it and went out, the door clicking behind her.

She took her mobile phone and dialed Jack's number. It rang for a number of times before his baritone voice sounded from the other end of the line.

"Melissa, what is it?" Mel rolled her eyes from the irritating way Jack mentioned her name. She had told him multiple times to call her Mel, but he was stubborn.

"Nessa is here in my house." She said and dead silence answered her statement. "Jackson, are you still there?"

"I'm at your door." He smart mouthed and Mel fought the urge to do another eye roll. "I'll be there as soon as I can." He continued and the line went dead.

She stared at the mobile phone for a long while before she pocketed it. She knew Alex must have been the one to bring Vanessa to the hospital to meet her father, and he must be going crazy looking for her. Mel didn't know how Vanessa managed to leave him but truth be told, Mel couldn't care less.

Alex had betrayed her best friend and it still stung, no matter what his reasons were.

It was quarter to nine when Jack arrived. Mel had finished eating her dinner and had prepared one for her guests, all through it, Vanessa didn't wake up even once. The Valium had worked.

"Where is she?" Jack asked as soon as he entered the house. He looked tired, there were dark circles around his eyes and a day old of beard in his chiseled jaw.

Mel offered him a Corona which he accepted gratefully, "In my room, she's been sleeping since five o'clock."

After he took a swig from the bottle of beer, his eyes went to the closed door across them. "Where did you find her, and how?"

Mel sighed, "She called me, actually. She told me to get her, she was at least five blocks away from the hospital where Joshua is confined." She faltered, her heart squeezing painfully inside her chest from the memory of how she saw Vanessa inside the telephone booth.