The Queen's queen-like presence disappeared and she looked very much like a mother who had lost her daughter when she said, "Secondly, I needed a first-hand account from the people who know the most about this situation."
"Aria." Joseph muttered, frustration creeping into his voice. What the hell was Aria doing anyway? Where was she?!?!
Just as he was about to go off in search of her, another one of his father's friends burst into the parlor. "Finally!" Joseph thought to himself, but frowned the next instant upon seeing the expression on the man's face.
"What's wrong?" Mr. Scott asked as Queen Amber looked at the man with narrowed eyes. They had both apparently noticed the weird expression on the man's face.
"Aria is . . . . . " his voice trailed off and Joseph wanted to shake him till his teeth rattled. Couldn't this person get all of that out in one sentence?
"Aria is what? Come on Rule!" Mr. Scott snapped.
"She's not to be found." Joseph mumbled. "Right?" he asked for confirmation as everyone turned to look at him and Mr. Scott's friend nodded.
Mr. Scott's eyes narrowed upon hearing this. He walked up to Joseph and looked every bit like the commander-in-chief as he asked, "Where is she?"
Joseph shrugged. "How do you know she's not to be found then?" he asked again, his voice dripping with anger.
"Because she's not one to sit around. If she was in the mansion, someone would have seen her, doing one thing or another." Joseph spoke, surprised at the calmness in his voice.
Mr. Scott gripped Joseph's shoulder with all his might as he said, "I swear to god Joseph. I am done with kids hiding things. I will find out what is happening, one way or another. So you better . . . . ."
"I don't think he's lying, Mr. Scott." His words were cut off by Queen Amber's voice. "Do you, by any chance, have any idea where she might be?" she added, turning towards Joseph who shook his head.
Mr. Scott sighed and held his head upon hearing this. "What are we going to do now?" he spoke. "The only thing we can." Queen Amber said with a solemn expression and a shrug of her shoulders, "Try to find them."
Mr. Scott nodded and began ordering around, readying all the things that would be needed for the hunt. The whole mansion once again roused, everyone running around doing whatever was needed to be done.
Among all this chaos, no one paid any mind to Joseph. Not knowing what else to do and hoping to find something, he wandered through the castle.
Without noticing where he was going, Joseph ended up in front of Aria's room. He looked at the door for a few seconds before turning to walk towards Helen's room, but as soon as he took a step, something seemed to tug at his heart, asking him to go into Aria's room.
"You'll never let me be free, will you?" Joseph murmured softly as he entered Aria's room and let out a long sigh.
He looked around the room when something caught his eye. The green overalls Aria had been wearing when Joseph last saw her were strewn across the chair of her study table. "So she changed before she went out? Definitely had a plan then." Joseph muttered to himself as he walked towards the table.