By six o'clock in the evening, everyone – Diane, Natasha, Nicholas, Jenny, Paul, Alyssa, Mark, Grace and Olivia, Haley, Sharon and Malvika were gathered around. Malvika was seated on the couch, in between Diane and Nicholas who both had inviting smiles on their faces. Everyone was presenting their gift and it was so heartwarming. Mark and Grace and bought her a baby cot. Haley and Sharon had both contributed money to get her a baby monitor. Other gifts included some baby boys clothes, feeders, pram and so on. Of course, these people didn't yet know that Malvika was planning to pass the baby on to Diane. All through the event, Jenny kept staring at Malvika, a confused look on her face. Why were they throwing a baby shower? Was Diane aware that Nicholas's was the father of the baby? She was beginning to suspect that Malvika didn't tell the truth of the story to Diane. She glanced at Malvika, hoping to catch her gaze but it seemed like Malvika was purposely ignoring her. So, she decided
With a frown on her face, Diane read the message repeatedly as though she couldn’t believe her eyes. Ashley was in trouble and she thought to text her, Diane? That made absolutely no sense at all. She and Ashley were not friends. They weren’t even acquaintances. They were more like sworn enemies. Kind of like her and Jenny. And even if Ashley wasn’t such a bitch, Diane wasn’t sure they would be friends. Ashley was her husband’s ex-boyfriend for God’s sake. How weird would it be to be friends with your husband’s ex? Freaking weird, I tell you.“Hey,” Grace whispered, nudging her. “Are you okay?”Diane jerked her head up. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”“You’ve been staring at your phone for a while.”“Oh, I’m fine. I just…” she glanced at her phone screen and quickly looked back to Grace. “I just need to make a quick phone call,” she said, rising to her feet. Nicholas was already engrossed in a conversation with his brother, Mark and he didn’t notice when she got on her feet and began to walk
A groan slipped out of Diane’s mouth. Her left leg moved a bit as she struggled to straighten her shoulders. She subconsciously tugged her hands, sensing that they were in some sort of bondage. She let out another groan, this time fluttering her eyes open slowly. Her hazy sight was, however, met with darkness. She blinked twice, glancing around but her gaze met nothing but darkness.What happened? She wondered, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to remember what happened the night before. With her eyes still shut, an image of her standing in the living room reading Ashley’s text message. She remembered leaving the house and going to a restaurant that looked deserted and out of business. She remembered thinking she would find Ashley there. And she remembered someone hitting her head. The last thing she remembered was blacking out.Oh God.Was she kidnapped? She was kidnapped! They freaking kidnapped her!Did that happen to Ashley too? Maybe that was why she was texting her. Did the s
“Any news?” Natasha asked as she descended the stairs with Alyssa behind her. Her eyes were red from tears and she rubbed her cheeks to clean them off. Malvika and Grace were seated on the couch in the living room. Olivia was spread across Grace’s leg, sleeping peacefully. They had all stayed in the living room, waiting to here from Diane but heard nothing.Malvika shook her head. “No. Mark and Nick went to the station this morning,” she said.Natasha sighed, slumping on the chair. Alyssa sat down quietly beside her. “But where did she go?”“No one knows.”“She told me she wanted to receive a phone call,” Grace informed them, rubbing her hands slowly round her daughter, Olivia’s back. “That was all. I didn’t see her again.”“Her car isn’t in the garage,” Malvika said. “So, she went with her car.”“But someone must have seen her leave.”Malvika sighed. “We didn’t and we don’t even know who to ask. Hopefully, Mark and Nicholas will come back with good news.”The four of them sat in the
Malvika sat in front of the car with Nicholas, her nose pressed on to the window as she was deep in thoughts. Beside her, Nicholas drove as carefully as he could, the both of them thinking about Diane. He was driving her to the restaurant where Diane’s cat was found. She had an inkling of what the restaurant was or who might be behind the kidnap but she needed to confirm it first.“What are you thinking about?” Nicholas asked, breaking the silence.She pursed her lips, turning to look at him. Then, she answers, “I might know who could be Diane’s disappearance,” she answered, slowly and carefully, watching his face for any reaction.He darted a surprised glance in her direction. “Really? Who?”“You are not going to be happy about this,” Malvika answerez. She paused, before finally saying, “Jenny.”“What?!” Nicholas sharply pulled the brake of the car in shock, halting it. A loud honk resonated behind them as a car drove angrily past them. “Sorry!” Nicholas called out, before turning ba
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be possible,” Jenny says into her phone, pulling the cigarette away from her lips and blowing out a puff of smoke. She was seated on the chair, her legs crossed out in front of her as she listened to her brother ask her to come to the house. “Nick, I really appreciate the invite, but I’m sorry, I’m not going to be able to make it. And by the way, I’m really sorry about Diane.” After a while, she hung up and threw the phone on the table, letting out a sigh. “Nicholas?” Ashley asked as she flipped through a magazine. She glanced up at Jenny, raising her brow. “Yeah.” Jenny let out an exaggerated sigh. “He wants me to come over today,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m not going though. I’m in the middle of something,” she said, blowing out a ring of smoke while Ashley chuckled. “Why can’t we go, though?” “We?” Jenny raised a brow? “Who’s we?” she asked. “You and I of course.” “Okay cute, but he didn’t invite both of us. He invited me, his sister.
“Hey,” Malvika said as she walked down the stairs tiredly. Natasha was sprawled on the couch, tired from her constant crying. Her eyes were red and her cheeks looked swollen. Malvika walked towards her and sat beside her. “Hey, are you still crying?” She asked, looking around the living room. She saw Nicholas standing by the door, talking lowly to someone on the phone. “I’m too tired to cry,” Natasha answered weakly. Her weeping had seeped out every of her energy. She pulled herself to sit up. “What do you think happened to her? She said she was going out and all of a sudden, we couldn’t find her. How did that happen?” “Okay, I need you to calm down,” Malvika said. “The cops are doing everything they can and Nicholas and I are trying our hardest best to find her. We are going to find her, okay?” Malvika tried to reassure her younger sister. She sounded sure of herself, but deep down, her insides crawled with doubt and fear. What if they were never able to find her? Was she so sure th
Diane slowly opened her eyes. She let out a soft groan of pain as she tried to adjust herself on the ground. Her hands kept pulling against the cuffs. She glances around, shuffling her legs. The entire room was dark, except for the ray of light coming in beneath the door. She had spent almost two days in this hell hole that Jenny and Derek had locked her up in. Just yesterday, one of Jenny's goons had placed a call to her family, demanding a ransom. Diane let out a pant. She was feeling hungry and thirsty. Not only that, her entire body was in serious pains. Her body ached to the marrow and she had this massive headache that forced her to wince from time to time. She could not wait to get out of here, yet she had no idea how she would get out. The doors and windows were locked, her hands and feet were handcuffed and there was absolutely no way that she could free herself. Her best and only option was to wait for Nicholas to pay the ransom so she could be released. Just then, the door