AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m s-so s-sorry, Becky,” she hiccups softly. “So sorry.”
All the air is sucked out of my lungs as Linda cries on the other side of the line.
No, no, no.
“What happened, Linda?” I ask, the pit in my stomach growing larger by the second.
“She was here. I swear she was here a minute ago, but I just turned around and…” Linda’s quiet sobs make understanding her hard.
“Linda, I need you to take a deep breath for me and tell me what happened.”
More soft sniffles come from the other side of the line. I try to keep my cool as she sucks in long gulps of air. My yelling at her won’t accomplish anything, I knew that, but damn.
What is going on?
Not knowing was going to drive me crazy.
From the corner of my eye, I can see Miguel move closer, but I do my best to ignore him. There was only so much I could deal with at the same time, and the whole situation with my mom would always take precedence.
“What happened?” I repeat softly once Linda’s breathing returns to normal.
“We were in the living room. She was knitting and watching her TV show like she always does, and I was sitting there with her, but then I had to go to the bathroom. I was gone for a minute. Maybe even less, and the next thing I know, she’s gone.”
Shit.
My eyes fall shut for a moment as my brain goes into overdrive, trying to come up with all the possible scenarios.
“Did you look around the house? Maybe she went up to her room.”
Mom could get moody sometimes, and she wanted to be left alone. Usually, she’d close herself in her room.
“I checked the whole house, b-but…”
Another hiccup comes through the line, and I want to scream at her to spill it out already, but I bite my tongue.
“But the front door was left open.”
Double shit.
I bite the inside of my cheek, and my heart starts to race faster as my brain comes up with all the possible scenarios. Where could she have gone? So many places. So many possibilities. When she was like this, it was hard to tell what she might do. Where she might be. What if she was lost? What if she got hurt? What if—
“Becky?” Large hands fall on my shoulders, startling me out of my thoughts.
I blink to find Miguel’s worried eyes locked on mine. “What’s going on?”
I shake my head as Linda continues explaining what happened on the other side of the line.
“I went out, tried to call her and look for her. I hoped she just went out, but she was nowhere to be found. Not in the backyard, not on the road that leads into town. I called Chase, but he went into the city for his doctor’s appointment and…”
And he wouldn’t be back for at least a couple of hours, if not more.
Not that he could help.
Not when she got like this.
“Becky?” Miguel urges, his grip on my shoulders tightening, but I turn my back to him.
I couldn’t focus on him. Not now. There were more important things to deal with at this moment. Miguel and I? We were at the bottom of that list.
