This came as a surprise to her. She didn't expect Bruin to play games with her in such dire moment. It was already getting late and at this time, most of the taxis were out of the road. The only few remaining ones could only travel within the shortest distance.
Although Natalie could have estimated the distance from the southern wing of the estate to their homes on the western wing to be just five kilometres (0.6Miles) away, the truth of the mater was that the distance could be longer due to the routes they had to take.
The estate was so big. It occupied an area of eight square kilometres.
It was one of the biggest estates within the city.
"Where is the car that you said it was waiting for us here?"
Natalie asked after a moment of silence.
"There is no car, it was just a ruse for avoiding that girl's trouble of dragging us to her home. You know what this means..."
Suddenly Natalie seemed to understand Bruin's statement.
"She would want to know us more and even ask for our contacts?"
Natalie interjected.
"Yes, and when she has taken our contacts, it is clear that she would bother us to know when the boys would be returning. And if we keep giving her excuses, she can suspect our actions and as a result, this might corner us to reveal the truth of the matter to her."
At this point, Bruin who seemed unfazed by this development at the beginning of their search mission was now the most nervous among the two.
Unlike Natalie who had at least heard from Jean though for a limited time, Bruin on the other hand had not heard even a single word from his son since their disappearance.
The more their plans kept on failing the more his hope of finding his son kept dwindling. At this point, he was somewhat pessimistic about the outcome of their efforts of tracing the boys.
Natalie nodded in response, but still, she didn't understand why Bruin wasn't making an effort in stopping a taxi cab despite a few remaining ones passing them on the street at that moment.
When she pried on the guy, she noticed how nervous he was. In an instance, she understood why the guy was worried and just chose to flag down the taxi cab that was now heading their direction from the left side of the main street that they were currently standing by.
Just as she flagged down the taxi, Bruin turned to her and then at the taxi that was now standing in front of them.
"Why did you stop a taxi when we have our own private means of transport?"
Bruin asked in a somewhat enraged voice.
Without uttering a word, Natalie glowered at him.
Bruin on the other hand remained indifferent to her actions and just shooed the taxi driver to drive off the premises.
As soon as Natalie noticed Bruin's actions, she was forced to swallow her anger and just give the guy ample time to calm down. At this point, the weight of tracing their sons was heavily weighing on them and given the fact that Bruin was still on the dark side of the matter as far as his son was concerned.
'I just hope that we find our sons sooner or later. This mishap can drive us crazy if it continues lingering for long. I can't imagine losing my only son to some idiotic kidnappers. I just hope that all turns to our favour.
Natalie mused as she grounded her teeth out of anger. She was enraged by this mishap that was threatening to take her only son from her.
Just as the taxi cab drove off, Bruin turned to the right and entered the brightly lit up street as he gestured Natalie to follow.
Although Natalie wasn't that kind of lady that could be stumped on anyhow, in this occasion, she just let the matter slide. She understood that it was the shock of losing his son that crept on Bruin that was making him to act this impulsive.
The two then walked to the point where they alighted some minutes ago if not an hour.
When they were approximately a hundred meters away, Natalie who seemed confused by Bruin's unruly actions who seemed as if objecting him was the worst thing to do at the moment. Saw something in the distance.
Parked in the shadows, was a black highlander. Albeit it was still far, Natalie recognized the vehicle with just one glance.
This was Bruin's car.
'So, he wasn't bluffing after all. At least his scheme still worked in our favour.'
Natalie mused as she gave Bruin a furtive look.
Just at that moment, Bruin turned to Natalie and sighed. He already knew that Natalie had already recognized the car, so, he didn't need to remind her.
When they got to the car, the driver unlocked the doors and the two hoped in the car, with Bruin occupying the front seat as Natalie occupied the back seat.
Without further hesitations, the driver stepped on the accelerator and send the vehicle forward in a jolt.
While in the vehicle, Natalie went trance. What was running through her mind made him unaware of what was going around her.
At this point, she was trying to asses the surprise that Tasha was talking about.
'A surprise yesterday! Is this not a coincidence... Jean's birthday was yesterday and this was the same day they had promised Tasha a surprise.
After some moments of brainstorming, Natalie landed to a possible conclusion that the boys could have planned to surprise Tasha with Jean's birthday celebration invite.
This could have looked weird but this was exactly what the boys had planned.
They made sure no other person knew of their plans. This was the reason why even Natalie and Bruin didn't know any single thing about this plan of theirs. This was a bunch of friends that was good at keeping secrets Tasha included.
If the two parents could have found out that it was this same surprise that Tasha mentioned to them that spelt their sons' doom, they could have regretted barring their sons from conducting such a party freely. Natalie would probably be the one at fault, since she was the only rigid parent of the two when it came to such celebrations.
Although Natalie had her own reasons for doing so, but still, the repercussions that came with this prohibition out weighed the life of her son. It would be so difficult for her to condone herself in case she had to face up the truth behind her son's disappearance.
Twenty minutes later, the vehicle veered to the side before coming to a halting stop with a screeching sound.
Suddenly, Natalie was snapped out of her reverie.
Raising her gaze and peeping through the tilted glass window of the vehicle, Natalie's expression turned serious.
Just two meters away from where the car was standing, a familiar gate stood. This was her gate, a clear indication that they had arrived home. Heaving a sigh of relief, Natalie looked forward. As if noticing her gaze, Bruin turned back and met Natalie's gaze.
Just at that moment, Natalie spoke.
"Thanks for the lift."
Natalie stated in a haggard voice.
"Then I guess you are going to thank me countless times because we have just started. Anyway, I have something for you."
In response, Natalie let out a wry smile but didn't say a word.
Just at that moment, Bruin returned the smile and pulled out a small bag stuffed with some items and handed it over to Natalie. Although Natalie was a little bit hesitant in picking the bag, she still picked it.
As soon as she had picked it up, Bruin didn't even waste a mere second and told her what was contained in it.
"Those are some packed foods. I had instructed my driver here to bring it from his errand since I knew that we couldn't have enough time to prepare our evening meals."
When Natalie was returning home, she didn't have the mind of preparing a meal, she was just heading straight to the bathroom after which she would retire to bed on an empty stomach. She was too tired to cook and too stressed to eat.
But now that Bruin had saved her the stress of cooking with the parked food he gave her, she now felt like she could at least eat now.
"Thank you so much, I appreciate your generous gestures despite this..."
Natalie was forced to leave her statement midway because she was about to mention about the hard times they were passing through for the disappearance of their sons. Since the driver was there, it could have been easy for him to pry on the matter and worsen their situation.
When Bruin heard her pause midway, he seemed to have understood her actions. So, he just waved a hand dismissively.
"It is fine. Have a good night."
"..you too."
Natalie responded.
In the next moment, the door of the car flanged open and Natalie stepped out of the car. Her face was pale and she had a haggard expression on her face.
When she was out, she closed the door with a bang before waving a goodbye at them. The car then continued forward towards Bruin's home since he lived three hundred meters away from Natalie's home.
When Natalie was done taking her supper and was about to retire to bed, she found it important to confirm the identity of the code of the foreign contact Jean contacted her with.
Since the call, she had never cleared her call log history, so, it didn't take her long to identify the contact considering that she had a small circle of friends would could contact her.
When her eyes rested on the contact, she transfered it to the back page of her diary. This was for the sake of mitigating the chances of her losing the contact by accidentally clearing her call log history in the future.
The code of the contact was +E54. When Natalie saw this code for the first time, she became so confused especially after the call was disconnected abruptly.
It could have seemed strange that she had stayed with the contact for a period of almost three days without making an effort of confirming its country. But the truth of the matter was that since the moment the two communicated on the cellphone, and Natalie tried reaching him without fruition, she became so paranoid that such thought escaped her mind.
It was when she had settled down when she was able to think of such.
In the next moment, Natalie loaded the code in a browser and searched.
Two seconds later, the name of the country popped on top the screen.
Suddenly, Natalie was petrified as her eyes widened in bewilderment. She couldn't believe her eyes.
The name was boldly written
*WHIMLAND*
~(<:☆:>)~