“Are you with Zara?”
“No,” I hear him tapping against the screen, “I’ve text her your number but don’t expect a pleasant call.”
“She knows?”
“Some fucks filmed the whole thing, put it on social media. She’s pissed, River.”
“I don’t blame her,” I wince.
“I’ll make some calls, ask around and see if anyone knows where she is.”
It’s unlikely he’ll be able to find her, but I thank him and hang up. Not a moment later my phone lights up with an incoming call. I answer it quickly, hoping it’s Marly but knowing in my heart that it’s not.
“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” Zara snaps into the phone, tone laced in venom. “After what you did, Marly doesn’t want to see you.”
“I get it,” I rush, “Please, I get it, but I need to explain.”
“Explain what?” She hisses, “How you humiliated her and then left her in the dirt?”
“Where is she, Zara?” I beg, “Please.”
“I haven’t seen her, River,” Zara growls, so clearly pissed at me and with reason, “I’ve tried but you hurt her and now she won’t even talk to me.”
“She isn’t at her house, Zara, her room is trashed. I need to find her, even if she doesn’t want to talk to me, I just need to know she is okay.”
“What do you mean, her room is trashed?” The anger leeches from her tone, replaced by concern.
“Trashed,” I explain, “Someone ripped it apart. Her car is gone too, I don’t know where she is.”
“Shit,” Zara hisses, “You don’t think they…”
She doesn’t finish the question, but I know what she was going to ask. Have they hurt her? It’s within the realm of possibilities, they are more than capable of doing it but surely, they wouldn’t just for being with me.
“I have to find her, Zara,” I breathe, pain lancing through me. What if they hurt her? What if she’s alone and injured? Dead? And for what? Being with me, falling in love with me? Is it such a crime to them that they’d hurt their own daughter?
I rub my chest as my heart makes a painful thud. There is no world if Marly is not in it.
“Meet me at Jake’s house,” She snaps into the phone, “We’re going to find her.”
I pull up to Jake’s two bed town house, the paneling on the outside worn and falling off in some places. The lights are on downstairs, and he comes to the door before I can knock.
“Quiet,” He murmurs, “Amy is asleep.”
I dip my head in a nod, I already knew his daughter would be asleep considering the hour. Zara arrives around ten minutes later, letting herself inside before she kisses Jake sweetly and then glares daggers in my direction.
“Understand this, River,” Zara warns before I can even open my mouth, “If something has happened to my best friend because of you, I will kill you.”
I didn’t doubt it.
Jake squeezes her thigh, “So what do we know?”
“Nothing,” I run my hand through my hair, gripping the strands until I feel a sting on my scalp. “She isn’t answering my calls.”
“She isn’t answering mine either.” Zara chews her lip, “And I asked a few of our mutual friends, and no one has seen her.”
I can’t get a grip on my emotions, it’s panic and rage, sorrow and guilt, it swirls like a tornado inside of me.
“Her father is making an announcement in the town square tomorrow,” I say, “She’d be there, right?”
