Lizzy drove into the parking lot with the kind of speed she had never imagined she could drive. She went out, walking ahead to the house with almost the same kind of speed she drove.
Before she got home, she got another call, not from a stranger, but from another strange person, especially because she couldn't remember the last time she spoke with her.
"Hello." The not-so-familiar voice came up, and Lizzy, who was already too exhausted to start worrying about who the person was, asked who she was.
"It's Mia. Don't you remember me?" She didn't remember anyone named Mia at that point and it took going down memory lane to remember that she was her high school colleague. But she was thinking about possible reasons she would wake up and call her after several years.
"I think I might have answers to the identity of the person sending you weird texts ." Hearing this come from the other end of the call got Lizzy scared, because how did she know she got weird texts earlier?
"Okay, please spill it out!" Now, she was impatient, looking for the right words to say so that she wouldn't come out rude to her.
"It's not that easy to spill it out. We have to see. It's deeper than you think." Mia's voice sounded unsure and ambiguous by every sound she made.
"Okay. When can we see? Please, I need answers to what is going on. As we speak, I'm on my way back home. It looks like my mum's life is in danger."
"Yeah, that's because...." She paused again, trying to put words together and not to reveal too much at the same time. "Your mother, she may have gotten herself into some dirty stuff which led to your separation from them."
That didn't make sense to Lizzy. She remembered that her mother always ignored the question of what happened before their separation, but she did not think about the reason she had been ignoring that question.
It started making sense that even her father didn't want to have anything to do with that discussion, but another thing that was left hanging was the question of "why". Why, why why...
"Does it mean that my mum and dad have a little dirty secret? I don't believe this though." She just told her how she felt, but she needed to hear whatever she had to say.
"You don't have to believe this. Your belief doesn't guarantee the truthfulness of it generally. In the end, you'll have to know that Elena isn't the woman you think she is."
"What do you mean? Can you please explain further? I don't have this kind of patience." Sincerely, her impatience has only increased over time and all she had to do was to comport herself.
A subtle voice then came in, sounding like it wasn't Mia. "I am sorry to break this news to you. Your mother was into something related to child laundering." she expected feedback from Lizzy, but it took more than a minute to get herself together.
This was such an expensive joke if Mia was really joking, and it was not the right time to make such jokes, however, Lizzy knew Mia would not just wake up and call her for jokes. "Are you sure about this? She said, looking for a safe place to stay because she needed time to listen and process every word Mia was saying to her.
"Lizzy, I know you would find it hard to believe, but believe me, I know what I am saying, and I can't lie to you." She said softly again, and Lizzy suddenly took herself down memory lane when she went into her mother's room without knocking and her mother terribly shook at the sound of the opening of her room.
She saw terror in her face as she was probably on a call before Lizzy strolled in. Lizzy only wanted to share the good news with her, but she was startled at her mum's reaction, but she did not know what happened, so she asked her if she was okay, and went straight into the news.
"Are you there?" Mia's voice interrupted her subtle time travel. "If I find out this is a wrong accusation, I will kill you, trust me." She didn't believe she could threaten anyone, but she was flustered by this news and she wanted to hear it so badly that it was false.
"As I said earlier, I have a lot of work to do other than to call you on a Wednesday and feed you with lies." this time, she sounded curtly on the phone, and Lizzy had to calm down because she might be telling the truth.
"Look. I am so sorry. I just don't know how to take this news."
"Yes, I know. I'm sorry I reacted that way too. I'll call you later." Lizzy heard nothing after that. Her eyes were still on her phone, and she wished she could call back and explain so many things.
In that instant, she acted like Lucas, and she hated herself for it, but she couldn't help but ask too many questions; Why does a total stranger know all of these? Why does it look like she has been in a very thick darkness? Why did her mum sound that way on the phone? One way to find out was to get back home as soon as possible. So she zoomed off, awaiting the confrontation she would give her parents, if her mum was at home of course.
The first person she saw when she came out of her car was her dad, looking so disturbed and dejected. He turned to see her and she quickly went to hug her father, her father sinking into her arms like he needed protection from danger.
"Dad, are you okay? Where is Mum? The confrontation she was planning evaporated at the sight of her father's look. Fear gripped her like she hugged her dad.
"She's missing." tears were already in his eyes and he made an attempt to wipe them off, but the pain was still in his eyes.
"I don't understand. What happened?" she was trying to be calm, but a lot of things were going through her head. She left him there and ran inside to search for her mum, checking the living room, her room and the kitchen. But she was found nowhere.
Coming out of the house, it was her turn to be a crybaby, and she couldn't control the tears. "Where is mum?" she said amidst her sobs.
"Oh, baby." Markus didn't dream of seeing his daughter in this condition. He took her in a very long hug and it only increased her sobs for some minutes. After what seemed to be a decade, she felt better and wanted answers as to how her mother disappeared.
"I was in a meeting when I got a call from her. She spoke in hushed tones, telling me some people had come into the house, strange people in masks, in her words. I had to end the meeting with them and take the shortest route home. Unfortunately, before I got home, the call ended, and I tried calling but her number wasn't connecting." he said, trying to control himself and hide his emotions. He understood he had to be strong for his family, especially his daughter, even though he had no idea where the love of his life was.
"Have you received a call from anyone?" she asked him, being more composed but so scared. "No, I have not received any call. I've also tried to call my wife, but her number is not connecting." In the midst of the challenge, Lizzy still recognized the fact that he called her his wife, and she felt good about it on her mother's behalf.
"Are you sure no one has called you?" she asked again, just to be sure, as she checked his phones. Truly, there was no phone call from a stranger, but she saw tons of ignored messages on his second phone.
"Elena is here with us. You just have to do one thing. Hand Lizzy over to us or your wife is a dead meat!"
"If you are still interested in having your wife back, you have to agree to let us have your daughter."
"Dad!" she screamed, forgetting that her father was just some metres close to her. He quickly got out of his thoughts and wondered why she started shouting. She went ahead to show him the two messages that came in an hour ago, just thirty minutes after he got home.
"Are you kidding me right now?" This time, his fear accelerated as he read the messages again. Reality dawned on the two of them, that Elena's life is in danger. He took his phone and typed something in response to the messages.
"Who are you? Please, don't let anything happen to her." he typed hurriedly, his fingers shaking and his mouth saying what he typed. Lizzy thought the only way to get a speedy response was to call them, but as she was about to suggest it to Markus, a ping came in.
"Are you ready to abide by our requirements?" This sounded familiar to Lizzy. She remembered saying it to someone and the name rang a bell. "Lucas!" Lucas!" she kept repeating to herself. Was he behind this? But the last time she checked, he was in the station, so how would he pull that kind of thing locked up? Was that the reason Scarlett visited him there?
Her thoughts were going around in circles but had just one destination: Lucas. He could do it, because he had that kind of power. However, he looked helpless in the cell, although she knew that he could be pretending all along.
"Why are you mentioning Lucas? He is in the station, right?" confusion settled on his face as he asked his daughter that question.
There was no need to talk about Lucas when a looming secret was not yet revealed. Instead, she decided to tell her dad what happened on her way home and her conversation with Mia.
His expression changed from a disturbed one to an indifferent expression, his face could no longer be read by Lizzy, and this got her thinking that there was a lot to be unravelled.
"Daddy, is there anything I don't know?" She was convinced that something was lingering, but she was scared that the secret was bad enough to ruin the name they had worked so hard to build.
Just as he was about to say something, the doorbell rang, and the person did not bother to get a response. Lizzy found herself smiling as she saw Caleb coming in and sitting next to her.
"I'm so sorry about what is happening. It's all over the news."
"What is in the news?" she didn't have time to check the social media buzz for an hour."
"Your mum's disappearance." Lizzy couldn't believe that in just an hour, Elena already filled headlines with her name and caused traffic on the internet.
"As soon as I heard it, I left all I was doing and came here immediately." that sounded so sweet to her. This man had been making her smile every day and she was so grateful for him. One of the things she needed right now was someone who would stand by her or be with her.
"Any update yet?" he asked, with the sweetest expression of anxiety in his voice. He held her hands when he asked the question.
"Well, nothing yet. We only got threat messages."
"Threat messages? Wait. Where is Elena?
Lizzy had to ask if he was joking, but his face did not show anything of that sort.
"What are you trying to say?" Lizzy asked him, releasing her hands from his.
"Wait. News is flying around that Elena has been involved in child laundering. That was the reason I came."
"Wait. What?" Markus said, rising from his feet as he showed Lizzy the news.
"Scandal Unveiled: Multimillionaire's Wife Arrested in Shocking For Child Laundering Case!"