Annie felt uneasy that afternoon. This was not something that happened everyday. It was as if something had gone wrong.
Evening came still Christine hadn't come back. Fear gripped her. She never stayed back this late.
The door bell rang. She rushed to the door with expectation. She opened it and was surprised to see Christian standing outside the door.
Her heartbeat accelerated, "What do you want? What are you doing here?" She looked around but Christine wasn't with him.
He looked at her unable to spit it out. He breathed.
"I need to talk to you."
" I don't want to talk to you! Please go away!" She screamed.
He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again.
"It's about Christine."
She looked at him, "What do you want with her? I told you to leave her alone." She fired at him.
He moved closer. Annie pursed her lips and moved back. He arched his brow and kept forward. She was alarmed and wondered what he wanted.
"Stay away from me!" She moved backwards with every step he took forward.
He finally got into the parlor and stopped.
She looked at him annoyed.
He smirked, "Since you've forgotten how to invite someone in, I did it myself."
Anger was giving birth to children in her.
"How dare you?"
"Keep quiet Annie and listen to me." He added with a note of finality. He sighed and continued.
"I'm sorry Annie."
She rolled her eyes, "Keep your damn apologies to yourself!"
"I went to visit Christine today and..."
"Why would you do that? Do you care about her now? When I came crying to you years ago did you recognize having a child?" She half yelled.
He closed his eyes, she kept reminding him of what happened five years ago.
He opened them and he gave her a long stare. The way his eyes bore into hers made her a little shy and she dropped her eyes.
"I can't find her, Christine." He sounded worried.
Annie whipped her head up, "What... What do you mean by that?"
"I... took her out for lunch. Everything was fine until she didn't want me to waste food. She suggested we go give it to some beggars. I crossed the road to give it to them but on returning back I couldn't find her." He explained.
She felt her heart stop. All of a sudden she felt dizzy.
"Hey Annie. Take care." He caught her as she was about to fall.
"My daughter... My child... She's... She's been kidnapped?" Her eyes teared up.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered.
She pulled herself from his hold, "It's all your fault! None of this would have happened if you had stayed away from my daughter!" She yelled madly.
She broke into a very loud sob.
"You're the cause of this! You bastard! You've ruined everything! I told you to stay away from my daughter!" She kept hitting his chest.
He felt hurt seeing her that way. He didn't mean to hurt her. He'd hurt her once,just when he was planning to apologise, he hurt her again.
"I didn't mean to..."
"Don't say anything! You're a bad omen! You just make everything go wrong! Now I can't find my daughter all because of you!" She accused him not caring about what she said to him.
He kept mum, unable to say anything.
"I'm gonna find my daughter. And you're not coming!"
She proceeded to the door.
"Annie listen to me, you are not in a right state to look for her. I've reported it to the police. They'll find her." He held her from going out.
"Lemme go! You're the cause of all this, lemme go!" She tried releasing herself from his hold.
"Hey." He drew her close, "I'm sorry I lost her but I promise you I'll find her even if it's with the last drop of my blood."
All she could do was sob. What has Christine done that resulted in her kidnapping?
Christian's phone rang. He answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello dearest brother!"
His face grew red, "You. What do you want?" He asked furious.
If was Christian's half brother, Christopher Powers. They've been arch enemies ever since their father decided to transfer seventy-percent of the property in Christian's name. He has felt bitter and jealous and he decided to withdraw from the family.
"Oh c'mon brother don't be so rude now. Won't you ask me how I'm doing?" He laughed sarcastically.
"I don't care if you live or die but don't ever talk to me. Get it?"
"Aww, too bad I can't help find Christine." He said in sarcastic concern.
"What do you know about it?" He. He asked shocked.
" Oh don't worry now, she's in safe hands brother."
"Christopher if anything happens to my daughter, I'll rip you in two!" He threatened.
"Oh don't you threaten me or your sweet little Angel suffers it!" He warned.
Annie watched him helpless and confused.
"Christopher I beg you, please don't harm her, you have a problem with me not her. Let her go." He pleaded.
"Oh really? You going soft huh? Well nah I'm not letting her go"." He hung up.
"Hello? Hey Christ..."
"Who was that?" Annie asked suspicious.
He looked at her frustrated, "It's my half brother. He's got Christine."
Her heart dropped in her stomach.
"What has got against my daughter?" She cried.
He sighed. "I dunno but I know he's using her to get back at me."
Annie angry and frustrated took Christian's phone from him and ran inside.
"Hey Annie get back here. What are planning to do?" He shouted after her.
Annie locked herself in her room. She quickly dialed the last number that called Christian.
"Ah. Calling back so soon?"
"Hello?"
Christopher was a little surprised, the voice was female.
"Hey Mister, this is Christine's mother speaking."
His heart skipped.
"Annie?"
Ye... Yeah."
He could feel the excitement and nervousness rush down in his spine.
"Hey Annie, how..."
"Please mister you've got my daughter, please bring her back to me. I can't live without her. Please give her back to me."
He felt bad, he didn't want to hurt her, he never wanted to hurt her. Christian was just the bad one in the picture. An idea popped up in his head.
"Do one thing and you get your daughter back. Come over to meet me here and I'll present your daughter to you."
"But I dunno where..."
"I'll type you the address."
She felt uncertain about this but she was too desperate to think.
"Uhm... Ok."
"Good. Oh yes and come alone." He hung up.
Her heart skipped, was this right? She just wanted her daughter back.
She received a message. He had sent the address. She quickly wrote it down and deleted it from the phone.
She'd do anything to get her daughter back.