"I'll get the door," Steph offered so as to give her parents time to calm down before the visitor/s came in.
She opened the door to find the Jacksons standing at their door.
"I…uh… what brings you here?" Steph asked Ivan in a whisper as she moved from the door to let the family in.
"I missed you and kept calling, but you didn't pick up, so now deal with me here," Ivan answered with a smirk as he placed a kiss on Steph's cheeks, making her blush in embarrassment.
Max's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when he saw how affectionate Ivan was towards Steph and how charming Victoria had become in the presence of the visitors.
Begrudgingly, he greeted the Jacksons and asked them to sit down.
Noah looked at the room from one end to another before saying, "we came with news about your son's disappearance."
"What!" The Lees asked in unison.
"I'm told Travis sent you a message," Noah asked, looking directly at Max, who slowly nodded and wished the ground would swallow him.
He had gotten the message, and since he wasn't so sure about Travis being the sender, he had only told the police and kept the news from his family.
He could see how Victoria was looking at him with hostility, and he knew hell would break loose in a matter of a few seconds.
"It's obviously from a banner phone, so they can't trace it," Noah said and extinguished the little hope the Lees had started holding onto.
"So I asked one of my friends, a private detective and an ICT guru, to look into it. There is hope as he has already known the phone was bought near his school in bulk," Noah said.
Victoria turned to look at him hopefully and asked, "Who bought it? How many were such phones bought? Why does he have a banner phone? Does that mean he is involved in something illegal?"
"He might be involved in something illegal," Noah said, and Victoria turned to look hopelessly at Max, who had the look of, "I told you so" on his face.
"The phones were bought using your work card," Noah said, and Victoria chuckled nervously before saying, "Are you acting because I almost believed you? How did Travis get my card? How did he even know the pin?"
"Beats me, but he did," Noah said as he removed a printed copy of the receipt of the purchase of the phone from his wallet and handed it over to Victoria, whose eyes widened, and she started trembling, yelling, cursing, and kicking things near her.
She felt her heavy heart almost explode from all the pain and betrayal she was experiencing, and it didn't make things easier that Max was right and she was wrong.
She was responsible for her son's disappearance.
Xxx
The water freely flowed down the stream, and the trees swayed, bringing with them a sweet breeze.
A few meters from the stream, Amy sat with a copy of Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews.
She was enjoying the cool and serene environment and was very engrossed in reading how Cathy and Chris would work through their plans after finding out that their grandfather had passed away and their mother, Corrine, kept the information to herself.
She didn't realize Steph had slowly walked up to her.
"Hey," Steph said, smiling as she sat down next to Amy, who responded with a smile and closed her book.
For a while, the two friends sat in silence, looking at the stream below them and, once in a while, stealing glances at each other.
"I just wanted to let down the steam, so I came here," Steph said in a low voice, and Amy looked at her with understanding and said, "Yeah, me too."
"What really happened, Amy? You've shut me down like a stranger. You take forever to text back, you come to school late, and you're just not bubbly. Is there any way I can help?"
Amy slowly shook her head and shut her eyes, remembering that her last visit home hadn't gone well.
One photo in their family album had changed her life upside down in ways she could never imagine, and unbeknownst to her, Steph was in the mix.