Kelly Henderson sat carefully on the pristine white couch, TV remote in hand. It was 5:30 pm. She placed the mug of hot chocolate she was holding on the coffee table as she changed channels after channels on the large TV.
"There's nothing interesting on here." She muttered to herself as she continued changing channels. After she'd had enough, she turned off the TV, picked up her mug of hot chocolate and began her careful journey to her room, not wanting to spill the chocolate.
'Her family would soon be back and the house would be lively again'. She thought to herself as she opened the door to her room.
They were out having fun like every other Sunday afternoon except that she used to be out with them but today she had managed to talk her mom into letting her stay home. Her mom, Karen Henderson was a strict family woman. She loved to spend every free time with her family. Her infamous quote was 'Every moment spent with family is never wasted and should be treasured and cherished forever'.
Karen, a good woman, beautiful, loving, kind and angelic, those were the qualities her husband - Jordan Henderson - saw in her that made her stand out from other women. He was a good man, though strict but fun to be with and he was Kelly's favourite parent.
Maybe because he understood her more or because he supported all her dreams and shared them with her or because of his teases or just because he was more fun.
She had almost exactly the same features as him, with the long golden blonde hair they shared, captivating electric blue eyes with green flecks in them, thin pointed nose, and a set of pearly white teeth. The only difference was body stature, where he was a huge man with an athletic build, she was a skinny girl with the body of a model, her mother made sure of that.
Kelly stepped into her room, laid across the queen sized bed and took out her laptop to watch movies on Netflix, wanting to kill off the boredom.
Halfway through her movie, Ann Maryland -the house cook- knocked on the door and walked in, handing her a plate of freshly baked cookies and after making small talk with Kelly, left the room.
Ann had been the house cook for over 11 years, she had been employed when Kelly was just 5 years old. She was a good woman, trusted by the Hendersons. She was in her late thirties, but didn't look much like it. She had jet black hair that reached her shoulders -it never passed that - it was her trademark, soft chocolate brown eyes that welcomes you warmly immediately you stare into them, she had a nice body and Karen Henderson had been slightly jealous of her during her first years in the Henderson's household.
Ann was getting worried, it was 6:35pm and there was no sign of the Henderson's.
'They probably stopped by to see a friend or two'. She settled with that. She didn't want to think anything had happened to them even though she had a gut feeling that something had really happened to them. They were never late. Never. Mr. Henderson was never late, given his job, he was always on time and 6:00 pm was the time they usually got back.
She tried to busy herself to lessen the worry by wiping the kitchen. 15 minutes later, she was done and there was still no sign of them. She began to do the laundry and even after that they still weren't back. She didn't want to bother Kelly so she left her in her room, she'd have come downstairs if she wasn't so engrossed in the movie she was watching.
Ann rang Karen but her line was not reachable. Something was definitely wrong. It was 7:00 pm already.
By 7:15, Ann was vacuuming the rugs when the doorbell rang, she ran to it expecting to see the Henderson's who would give her a good explanation as to why they were late. Instead, her eyes were met with a cop who looked to be in his early forties.
"May I come in ma'am?" He asked. Ann saw something in his eyes. Was it sadness? pity? something like that.
"Yes, please come in" She opened the door widely for him to enter.
"Should I get you something? Hot chocolate?" She asked.
"No, thanks ma'am." He shook his head. "I'm Inspector Christian Roy, from the Washington police department." He showed her his card and bowed his head. "The Henderson's were involved in an accident"
There was a loud gasp from Ann.
"They collided into a tree to prevent themselves from being hit by a drunk driver." He looked at Ann before carrying on.
"Both parents are dead alongside the other two girls but the little boy survived it though with a huge gnarsh to the side of his head. He's in the ER as we speak receiving treatment while the bodies have been sent to the morgue. I'm really sorry." He shook his head. "This is a great loss for you, the family, America. I'm really sorry." He said again, looking down before regaining his composure, patted Ann softly on the back and walked out.
"Two questions please." Ann said just as he was about to walk out. Tears had welled up in her eyes and were threatening to spill down her pale face.
"Yes?"
"Can I come visit him now?"
"No, I'm sorry ma'am. The doctors said they would need to operate on him and it might take a while. But you can visit him tomorrow."
"Okay." She let out a sob. "The drunk driver, was he caught?"
"No. But my men are out there trying to figure out where he went. The only way we knew he was drunk was from eye witnesses." He gazed at her with soft eyes. "I'm really sorry ma'am" He said for the last time and walked out.
Ann was shaken up. She felt something had happened but not something this terrible! Four lives lost, One survived but with a large gnarsh to his head. How would she tell Kelly all of this?
Speaking of Kelly..... She was walking down the stairs now.
Kelly had heard a car pulling out of the driveway and she didn't recognise it.
"Hey Ann...." She said as she walked down the stairs. "Why aren't they back yet?"
Ann frantically wiped her eyes so Kelly wouldn't realise she'd been crying before turning to look at her. But Kelly was smart, she realised immediately that something was wrong and it's not like Ann was as pale as though she saw a ghost on a normal day.
"Ann? What's wrong?" Ann sobbed harder. Since she'd been caught crying, she couldn't hold it back.
"Ann? Talk to me.... What happened?" Kelly asked, getting impatient.
****************
A/N: How are y'all!!
Welcome!! This is my first book and I'm so happy about it. I hope y'all are doing good and staying safe. #WeAreStrongerThanTheVirus.
~EnnyWrites💕💕