Janely's eyes widened in shock, as did Chloe's.
"That's gross. I'm never giving up on men for women," Chloe said with disgust.
Rina nodded as she dismissively said, "you'll continue crying for these ungrateful men you keep falling in love with."
"Chloe," the three girls heard a male voice call out Chloe a few meters away.
Janely and Rina both turned to look at the person while Chloe sat rooted on the spot.
She had recognized the voice, and she was shaking violently, wondering why on earth the man was in the park and asking the ground to open up and swallow her.
"Chloe, dear. It feels so good to see you away from home," Martin said happily, and Chloe cringed in fear.
Her two friends were looking at her strangely, and she knew they would ask her questions thereafter.
"Who is he?" Janely was the first to ask, and summoning all the strength in her, Chloe turned to look at Martin, who was holding the hands of a three-year-old boy and smiling weirdly at her.
From the Lee family home, they could hear a loud siren blaring. Steph sat upright on the bed when she felt the sound approaching their home rather than disappearing.
Her heart beat faster as she thought of the worst. In her bedroom, the same had happened to Victoria, who could already imagine the police knocking on their door and telling them, "I'm sorry, I know this isn't what you expect to hear. I wish I didn't have to break this news to you, but sadly, we have lost them."
With shaking hands, Steph stretched to switch on the lights in her room and sat upright as she held her fast-beating heart.
"Mom! Mom, I think the cops are in our compound," she whispered when she got outside her mother's bedroom. She tried unlocking the door, and when it opened, she walked in to find Victoria peeping outside through the curtains.
"It's really the cops," Victoria whispered, more to herself than to Steph, whose head had started throbbing loud, and her vision had become blurry.
They heard a knock on the door, and Victoria held Steph's hands and urged them to go find out what was happening.
"I…can't," Steph said as she trembled. She felt her body giving her away, and she really wished she was strong enough for what was about to come her way.
"But you have to," Victoria said in a flat voice, and Steph intently looked at her in disgust.
"Do you," Victoria said with disgust as she walked out of the bedroom and went to open the door to find two officers standing outside with poker expressions.
"We have some news for you. You need to come to the precinct," Simeon asked, and Victoria swallowed saliva hard as she slowly tilted her head in confusion.
"Do you mean precinct or mortuary?" She asked in a low inaudible voice as she looked at the cops with teary eyes.
"Station. Where is your daughter? Both of you will be safer at the station. We don't want unnecessary publicity on this now," Dennis asked, and out of nowhere, Steph walked into the room like a zombie.
It is while in the police car that the two were told of Max and Travis having been rescued and is in police custody.
"W…what?" Victoria asked as she pinched herself hard. Steph, on the other hand, mock removed wax from her ears as she looked questioningly at her mom and then the two cops.
"Are you kidding?" The mother-daughter duo asked in unison, and Simeon, who was driving, shook his head.
"Thank God!" Steph said with relief, her hands folded in a sign of prayer.
"We found them the night before yesterday," Dennis added, and sensing the confusion on Steph's and Victoria's faces, he quickly added, "It was Max's request not to let you know."
"Oh," Victoria said in shame. She felt anger slowly rise within her. Was Max going to let the whole wide world know that they were having issues? She wondered.
As they continued driving to the precinct, which seemed farther away than usual, the cops briefed the Lees on how their kin had been found.
"They must have walked for so long. Some of our cops were on patrol when they saw them lying by the road in the cold. Travis was so shaken he couldn't even murmur a word, and Max only stated that they had been held hostage and escaped. After verifying their identities, our colleagues handed over the case to us," Dennis said in brief.
"Why do you still have them in the precinct then?" Steph asked as a matter of fact.
"Travis was taken from your house, and the same could happen to any of you. Plus, it's only Max at the precinct. Travis is hospitalized…."