Chapter 6

Getting back to his place Cannon found Mary waiting for him in the living room. He frowned as he didn’t expect her to wait for him this long but without bothering to listen to her, he spoke up, "Why are you still here? Just leave."

Mary was thinking that Cannon was going to get Elaine back from wherever she had gone but when she found Cannon walking in alone, her face fell. She thought of following Cannon as he ascended the stairs without bothering to talk to her and she did.

Totally forgetting Bella's words that Elaine had left, Cannon made his way to Elaine's room. But when the room looked empty, it hit him. Bella's words echoed in his mind.

He took out his phone and called Elaine but it was switched off. After trying several times, Cannon thought of calling Hina thinking Elaine must have gone to her.

Hina's number wasn't there saved in his phone book. Giving it a thought, he called Sam but it was answered by Sarah, Sam's sister on its second ring.

Sam was taking a shower then and Sarah was waiting in his room for him as she had something to ask him. Seeing Cannon's name flashing on the screen, she answered the phone smilingly, "Hey, big brother. How are you?"

Cannon directly got to the point, "Sarah, where is Sam?"

"He is taking a shower." Sarah replied and then added with a concern, "What happened? You don't sound good, Cannon." Generally, Cannon would go on chatting with her before asking for Sam. But today wasn't just a simple day for him to act likewise.

"Nothing. Ask Sam to call me." Cannon didn't give any chance to Sarah to go on with her questions as he knew she would ask him and cut off the line. He was in no mood to talk normally and he couldn't give her the details obviously.

He saw Mary standing at the door but didn’t mind anything. His mind was flooding with thoughts of Elaine only.

His phone rang off minutes later, flashing Sam's name on the screen.

As soon as Cannon answered the call, Sam got asking him, "Cannon, what happened?"

He was already worried after hearing Sarah. He knew Sarah wasn't guessing on her own as there was a very real possibility of something going wrong with Cannon given the happening of the day.

"Send me Hina's contact number." Cannon said shrugging off his question getting Sam confused, "Hina's contact number! What will you do of it?"

Uttering, "Sam, just send it.", Cannon cut off the line.

Sam did as he was said. He sent but got thinking, "What's going on actually?"

~~

Hina was quite shocked getting a call from Cannon and at the same time, some thoughts got crossing her mind only to get her worried. But Elaine's disappearance wasn’t something, she expected to hear, and literally shouted at Cannon when he asked her to get him to talk to Elaine as he wasn’t reaching her.

He didn’t bother asking whether Elaine was with her. He was pretty sure about Elaine going to her.

Hina was more than just surprised, "What do you mean by that? Why will Elaine be with me? Isn't she at home?"

"No. She isn't here." Cannon answered worriedly as he glanced at his wristwatch. It was showing 10:45.

Where would she go at this time of night? Cannon was about to get relaxed as he uttered, "Maybe she has gone to her place then." but got startled as he forgot he was still on the phone call and Hina reminded that by shouting at him again, "There is no way Elaine would have gone there. It was never her place anyway."

"What do you mean? Though she was adopted, they brought her up like their own daughter." Cannon uttered as he thought about it. He had seen how warmly Evana’s family treated Elaine though it was just for one time.

"Adopted? Who? Elaine? Yeah, they brought her up like their own daughter and then send her to you to be tortured as their daughter was on run." Hina uttered sarcastically getting Cannon confused. He never thought about it. He clearly told them he loved Evana then how could they make Elaine stand in front of him as Evana in the church if they cared about her!

"Do you even know anything about Elaine?" Hina's cold voice got him out of his trance, "But then why would you even try to know her! After all, Evana the bitch is your beloved which tells what kind of person you can be. But mind it Mr. Henderson, if something bad happens to Elaine, I won't spare you. All this time I didn't do anything thinking of Elaine but not anymore. You have done enough damage to her."

Cannon couldn't say anything and Hina cut off the line as she tried Elaine's number immediately. It was switched off. She called Clara, the salesgirl at their boutique, her orphanage, and every single person she could think of. But Elaine wasn't with any of them. None of them even said anything about seeing her today.

She restlessly kept pacing as she thought about what might have happened for Elaine to behave like this. Cannon must have done something but what?

She again called Elaine and when she got the same response, she called Cannon. Cannon answered the call at the first ring, "Is Elaine with you now?"

Hina frowned hearing his concerned voice but shrugging that, she asked him coldly, "What did you do to Elaine?"

"Hina, is there any place you happen to know Elaine could think of going? Any place? Just tell.." Cannon was cut off by Hina's deadly voice, "Stop your drama, Cannon. Just tell me what you did."

Cannon got silent. There were many things he had done but still, he couldn't get himself to utter anything. Many things were going on in his mind.

Guessing nothing for an answer coming her way, Hina cut off the line without bothering to wait for a moment and then called Sam.

If it was some other time when Sam's mind wasn't full of thoughts about the possible reason for Cannon's strange behaviour, he would have been very happy seeing Hina's name flashing on his phone screen.

~~

Cannon called Elaine for few times again as he paced in Elaine's room. Where would he search for her? He thought.

He again made his way out of his apartment when he saw Mary approaching him. Why wasn’t she leaving yet? He thought too much for his irritation.

Where to go? Where to search Elaine? He got asking himself as he slid in his car. He needed to say many things to her and needed to hear many things from her as well.

He wasn’t expecting her forgiveness but he wanted to let her know at least that he was sorry and never meant to be cruel to her but circumstances and his not so good luck made him do this.

Dawn broke down as he roamed all around the town. He called Dylan, his private investigator, and asked him to search for Elaine but nothing got working.

Ethan didn’t know about all this before he came back from his business trip months later. Mary could have told him but for now, trying to keep Cannon together was her first priority.

Ethan couldn’t control his temper knowing about Aiden. He made Aiden leave the CEO position of Henderson Industries. Mary and Ethan tried to talk to Cannon but Cannon didn’t bother him with all this.

A few days passed like this but there was no sign of Elaine. Cannon got considering whether he would get a chance to meet her let alone give his pleas as it was like Elaine's existence was faded in the thin air. With every passing day, Cannon was getting aloof and colder like never before with the guilt haunting him.

Besides the matter that Aiden had drugged him and the way, Elaine ignored his words for the first time on the very next day after that night about accompanying him out of town crossed his mind. Just one question was crossing his mind. What if he had forced himself on her!

This thought alone was enough for him to reach his bottom line. Everything around started getting him terrified and feel suffocated.

Getting the chance for the first time ever and drunk on revenge and getting power, Aiden played his last card........