Chapter 388 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“Jamal?” She asked, and when Benne nodded she asked, “Why?”

Benne quickly gave her a recap of everything Jade had told him, and then she sighed, “Poor kid. Everyone seems to be having some sort of drama in their life.”

Before Benne could respond to that, Celsie’s phone started ringing, and she took it out of her handbag to see that it was a call from her dad.

Seeing the call, she could tell that her father was calling because her mother was still feeling pretty awkward over what had transpired between them. That and the fact that she was probably feeling ill since she hated to travel by air, “Hey, dad! Good morning!”

“Good morning, princess. How are you?”

“I’m okay. How is mom feeling? When did you guys get home?”

Andrew hesitated for a bit, and Celsie noticed, “She is okay. We arrived in the early hours of the morning, but we didn’t want to disturb your sleep by calling then. I suppose you are on your way to work now?”

“Yes, I am. What about Lucas? How is he doing?” Celsie asked curiously since she could hear the worry in her father’s voice, which he was trying to hide.

Andrew was silent for a moment as though contemplating whether or not to say something, and then he sighed, “We don’t know, Celsie. He wasn’t home when we got here, and we just got back from his apartment. He’s not there either. His phone is off,” Andrew said, and Celsie felt her stomach knot with fear.

Perhaps her mother had been right. She shouldn’t have told Lucas about it when he was alone. “What about his car?” Celsie asked, trying to come up with a number of places he could have gone to.

Hearing the sudden worry in her tone, Benne turned to spare a glance, sensing that something was wrong.

“His car is parked here, and none of the neighbors saw him leave the house. Although it looks like someone broke into the house through the kitchen window, I don’t know if it was Lucas…”

“What about Rachel. Maybe we should call her and find out if she has seen him?” Celsie cut in.

“Yeah, I planned to do so after speaking with you. Don’t worry. He might be distraught, but I’m sure he won’t do anything foolish to himself,” Andrew assured Celsie before hanging up.

“What is the problem?” Benne asked with concern, and Celsie sighee.

“It’s Lucas. He is nowhere to be found,” Celsie said, unable to help the pang of guilt in her chest that was beginning to make her stomach churn.

“His absence has nothing to do with you. Don’t blame yourself for it. He probably just needs to get away for a while. I’m sure he will call when he is in a good state of mind. Don’t let it bother you too much,” Benne said as he reached over to squeeze her hands softly.

Celsie took a deep breath to calm herself, as she kept telling herself that it wasn’t her fault. She did what she believed was best for him at that moment, and she trusted Lucas enough to not do anything stupid to himself because of something that wasn’t his fault.

After the phone call with Celsie, Andrew sighed as he turned to Janet who was sitting with her head slumped forward and her face buried in her hands.

She raised her head to look at her husband when we noticed that he was done with the phonecall, “How is she doing?” She asked, sounding exhausted.

“She is worried about Lucas. She thinks we should speak with Rachel to find out where he is,” Andrew said, and he watched as the annoyance crept into Janet’s eyes at the mention of Rachel’s name.

“You will have to call her yourself, because I might not be able to hold back from saying something to her,” she said, and her husband nodded in understanding.

He didn’t want to talk to Rachel either, but they needed to know if she had seen Lucas, and when last she could have seen or heard from him, so he dialed her line.

Rachel who had barely managed to fall asleep after a long sleepless night, lifted her sleeping mask from her eyes as she reached for her phone when it started ringing.

She silently prayed it was Lucas calling, and not one of the vendors calling to express displeasure over the sudden postponement of her wedding like a lot of them had done the previous day. She had told everyone the wedding was postponed and not cancelled. She couldn’t bring herself to say that out loud. She didn’t want to believe it.

As far as she was concerned Lucas was very upset at the moment, but she knew that he loved her. Once he was calm, he would forgive her and then they would move on from this. She couldn’t give up yet.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Andrew’s name displayed on her phone’s screen, and immediately she received the call, “Good morning, Andrew! I’ve been trying to reach you for the past three days. Lucas wants to call off our wedding,” she complained, hoping that he was calling because he sympathized with her over the break-up and was going to help her settle things with Lucas.

Andrew’s blood boiled when he heard her voice, but he reminded himself that he couldn’t let her know that they were on to her yet, “When last did you see or hear from Lucas?” Andrew asked, ignoring her greeting.

“Lucas? oh, my God! Is he missing?” Rachel asked in alarm and quickly got off the bed when she heard the impatient worry in his tone.

“Have you seen or heard from him since yesterday?” Andrew asked, wanting to know if she was aware that Lucas was back.

If she wasn’t, then he had no business talking with her when he wanted nothing more than to sit back and watch his wife and daughter hit her.

“Yes. I saw him yesterday. I was at the house, but…”

“You were at the house? At what time?” Andrew cut in.

“In the morning. I was there yesterday morning but he was very upset and he didn’t want to speak to me. You won’t believe he even made me go out through the kitchen windo…” She let her words trail off when she realized what she had just admitted to.

Andrew frowned in confusion, “Lucas was the one who broke the kitchen window?” He asked, wondering why Lucas would make her leave through the kitchen window.

Rachel realized that she had forgotten about the broke window. She had thought he would get it fixed, but seeing as Andrew knew about it, it meant that he had left it to her to fix it. That was so unlike her Lucas.

“I’m sorry. I broke into the house through the kitchen window when Lucas refused to open the door. I’m going to fix it, I promise. Let’s just focus on finding him first. I heard after I left him, he went to the hospital and quit his job, and…”

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