CHRISTIAN
I ended the call with Kylee, she was returning home because there w as nothing leading to Jenna’s whereabouts. I had tried to follow the tracks in the woods, I had learnt to do it in boarding school but whoever had taken her was great at covering their tracks.
It led to a dead end
“Eat something, please” my mum said.
She pushed the plate towards me once again.
“I’m not hungry” I told her.
“It’s almost four bin the evening and you’ve been frantic. You haven’t even had a sin of water”
“I don’t know where she is, I don’t know what she’s feeling right now and my mind can’t stop flashing images of her suffering. Right now I can’t even afford to breathe properly mum ”
“You’re doing your best to find her. The police are doing their job, everybody is helping…”
“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault, I failed to protect her”
My mum sighed and sat back on her chair.
“Elisa hasn’t showed up since yesterday, I think she knows something is up” my mother said and I felt a sting.
The universe was playing some kind of sick games. If I had brought Elisa home, I could have been able to get some information out of her.
“How could she do this to her own daughter …” Regalia said to herself.
She was curled up on the arm chair and pale faced. The moment I realised that Jenna had gone missing, I just couldn’t hold back. Everybody in the house found that we were in a relationship. My dad, Regalia… Everybody.
They realised that the ring in my finger was my sign of engagement to her and the entire house has been quiet. Even Regalia that has never been quiet a day in her life didn’t have anything to say about it. They didn’t know as far as her being pregnant but the police knew. They insisted filling a missing person report but once we showed them the security footage, they sprang into action.
But nothing, no news. The private Investigators I hired had only little information. They found a footage of Elisa and the two men in a casino. They saw her trying to escape and the men chased her, the rest they couldn’t see because they had left the range of the camera.
It was obvious that Elisa was giving her daughter as an exchange but someone disrupted it and killed the two men and took Jenna away. It might have been Josef but at this point I wasn’t certain of anything.
I picked up my phone for the millionth time and checked the screen. Nothing, I was restless. I stood up.
“Where are you going?” My mum asked me.
“I can’t just sit here” I told her.
“I don’t want to lose my son” she whispered.
I stopped in my tracks.
“And I don’t want to lose my future wife and our baby”
The gasp from Regalia showed that she heard the confession and was shocked by it.
***
Josef passed the plate to me, it was just broth and I was craving something else, something more solid.
“What’s wrong?” He asked me.
“Nothing” I said taking the plate from him forcefully , some of the soup spilled on the sheets.
I took a spoonful and instantly understood why they recommended something light, it felt as if the skin in my throat was peeled off. I started coughing and Josef handed me the bottle of water.
I drank most of it and the sting remained. I took more spoons of the soup and once I was done. I dropped the plate on the bed. He took the plate and dropped it on the tray that sat in the table.
The room was quiet, I turned to Josef and he was watching me.
“What are you looking at?” I asked harshly.
He chuckled.
“I thought big models like you go around the world by this time of the year”
I didn’t reply, I could see where he was going with the discussion.
“Why are you here, in Hungary?”
“Why are in Hungary?” I retorted.
“I’m here because of you”
I scoffed.
“I made Kylee ask me to join your family on the trip, I didn’t know that Christian was going to come and to be honest, I wanted him to get killed during the Russian mob shootout ”
I saw him a glare and he laughed.
“Why aren’t you in Paris or something like that?”
“My mum asked me to come on the trip. To hide me from the mobsters”
“True but I checked your record and the last job you and was months ago, a movie which got kicked out of because you hit your co-star with a pressing iron ”
“It wasn’t a pressing iron, it was Christian’s fist. And once he gets you, your autopsy report would show a something more tragic not even a pressing iron. I’d like to see what the media would say about that ‘Jenna strikes again, this time she hits her boss’ personal assistant’s ex with a dumbbell ‘”
He massaged his jaw as if he had really been hit.
“So Christian got you kicked out and since then your career has been on a downhill. You haven’t even modelled for any brands yet, no gigs”
“I got a job from Andreas” I said, trying to justify myself and shut that stupid voice in my head that keeps whispering that I’m a failure.
“Christian brought Andreas so you could have a job… You didn’t get that job on your own. They wouldn’t have picked you”
I held my breath, the voice in my head started getting louder. Failure, it screamed.
“You haven’t even shown up to a day of work” he said.
I turned to him, had he gotten all these information from Kylee or was he just a stalker and creep. I didn’t blame Kylee, I tell Christian everything because I trust him. She was just double the same too.
“Well at least I get paid” I retorted and he laid back on his chair.
“And isn’t modelling and acting your passion, don’t you feel depressed that you’re being paid for doing nothing?”
“Josef, what the fuck is your point?”
“My points is that just like every other thing and person in his life, you’re not any different. You’re just his property, he has brought you and you can’t see it”
I turned away from Josef and faced the other side to hide the tears from him.
“He’s going to keep you in chains for the rest of your life. He wants you and he is paying you… He’s your boss not your fiance”