A grey BMW convertible sped down a quiet neighborhood. Mira's soft red locks glowed in the sunlight, her smile played at her lips as she drove her car with a mission in mind.
*Alexander Carmichael.*
Her smiled deepened and her eyes determined than ever. Then, she finally slowed her vehicle and parked in front of a small house surrounded by a white picket fence. Casually, she climbed out of the driver’s side door and balanced on her heels without so much effort. Looking up, she then snorted at the flowerbeds lining the pathway up to a front door.
She headed for the door; the peacefulness of her surroundings thrilled her. All she could ever think about on her way there was Alex, and now, she was finally going to see him again. And somebody’s quiet day was about to go wrong.
Smiling from ear to ear, she smoothened out an imaginary crease on her burgundy surplice neck and split-thigh dress before pressing the doorbell.
She waited patiently. Although, she couldn't really contain the excitement that was about to burst inside her at the thought of seeing Alex again.
A minute or so later, a gray-haired woman opened the door. “Yes? Can I help you?”
“Hello. Um―is Alex―” Mira paused and smiled. “I’m sorry. Um―I'm here to see Harper and Alex.”
“Alex?”
“Yes. He’s my boyfriend.”
Perplexed, lines between the older woman's forehead formed. “What’s my daughter doing with your boyfriend?”
“I see…Harper is your daughter?”
“Yes.”
Mira grinned. “You must be Mrs. Fritz?”
“What do you want, Miss―”
“Murray. And…um―are they inside? They must be waiting for me.”
Mrs. Fritz looked at her for a few seconds, took a deep breath and let it out again slowly, then stood firmly by the door. “No. My daughter is not here. Could you tell me what’s going on? Why do you think she’s with your boyfriend?”
Mira snorted. “I’m hoping you could tell me…”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Murray. They’re not here. And you must be mistaken, whatever it is you’re thinking about my daughter. Let me tell you now that being the other woman is never in her character. Harper will never be with a man who’s already committed to another woman. So, I don’t really think Harper is with your boyfriend,” Mrs. Fritz said firmly, assessing the situation based on the little information she had picked up from what Mira had just said.
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Fritz, as Harper’s mother, I completely understand. Mothers would do everything they could to protect their own.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but they’re not here.” Harper’s mother tried to close the door, but she quickly blocked it with her foot.
“Um…I’m actually supposed to meet them here. I’m sorry for the confusion, but Alex is not cheating on me with your daughter. My god, no!” She chuckled lightly as if it was such a ridiculous thing to consider in the first place. “I’m sorry if it may come off as if I’m trying to catch them together.”
Mrs. Fritz’s face immediately lightened up. “Oh…”
She gave her an assuring and somewhat friendly smile. “Could I just use your phone? My battery’s empty. I’ll just call Alex and tell him to meet me at a hotel instead.”
“O-okay,” Mrs. Fritz said, sounding slightly hesitant, but she still pulled the door to let Mira in. “Come on in.”
“Thank you.” The redhead walked in and locked the door behind her. The lock clicked, and the sound immediately caught Mrs. Fritz's attention. She turned arround, frowning. “Why did you―”
But before she could even finish her question, Mira knocked her unconscious with a single and powerful punch to the face.
“Look what your little lie made me do, Mrs. Fritz.” She sighed and pouted at the unconscious woman.
* * *
Mrs. Fritz later woke up and discovered she was tied to a chair. Her eyes blinked under the blindfold; her arms were bound securely behind her with duct tape. Suddenly, she was whirled around before the blindfold was removed. She blinked in the bright fluorescent light then looked around in what appeared to be her laundry room in the basement of her house.
When her eyes soon adjusted, she gasped at the sight that met her eyes. Then she felt a throbbing pain where Mira’s fist had hit her hard.
"Oh, hello there again, Mrs. Fritz!" Mira stepped into her line of vision and blocked out the door. She grabbed her chin and said, "Shall we get down to business so I could be on my way before dinner time?”
Mrs. Fritz’s words were muffled against the duct tape over her mouth. She forced herself to breathe through her nose, trying not to panic.
“What?” Mira asked. “Okay, hold on.” She peeled the tape off in one painful motion.
"Why are you doing this? What’s going on?" the old woman spat.
"Who I am is not important, Mrs. Fritz. What is important is for you to cooperate and to tell me where Harper is."
“I don’t know where she is.”
“No, Mrs. Fritz. That’s not the answer I want to hear from you. Lucas said he and Harper and Alex are meeting here. So, again, where are they?”
“Who?” Harper’s mom asked again in confusion. She didn't know who she was talking about.
For a brief moment, she wondered if Harper had gotten herself into deep trouble with dangerous people while working for a very powerful and rich family, but she couldn’t really picture her daughter getting involved in any other people’s business. She wracked her brain, trying to think of any reason why or what could have happened to her daughter, but nothing sprung to her mind. She knew Harper would never befriend or connect herself with someone like Mira.
“Where is your daughter?” Mira’s mean voice entered her thoughts.
“I don’t know where she is.” She wondered too, and before she knew it, she was stabbed with a brass ice pick. Pain immediately shot through her body, and she screamed in agony.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Mrs. Fritz. You have to understand that torture doesn’t please me at all. I hate doing this, especially to an older woman like you. But you see, you are leaving me no choice here. You are keeping a piece of crucial information from me, and I don’t like it.”
“I already told you, I don’t know,” Harper’s mother cried, just before the ice pick stabbed into the flesh in her leg again. Her body went limp when she was done screaming.
“Mrs. Fritz, let me be honest with you, I want to believe you, but something’s telling me that you are lying.”
Harper’s mother focused her bleary eyes on Mira’s face; her whole body was trembling. “I really don’t know where she is, Ms. Murray. She never arrived on the day she told she’d come.”
Her answer was quickly responded with a hard slap across the face. She cried out as blood rushed into her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” Mira briefly apologized. “I just can’t help myself. I’m pissed, you see. I came all the way here, utterly excited to see my boyfriend and only to end up downright disappointed.”
“Ms. Murray, please let me go,” Mrs. Fritz begged, which was the only thing she could really do at the moment. She knew she had no one to come and rescue her. She was on her own, and the thought scared her.
“I don’t know, Mrs. Fritz. You may be right. They’re not here, but I really think you know where they could be right now. I mean, clearly, Harper would have called you to tell you there’s been a change of plan. And she must have informed you where they’d be going instead. I mean, that’s pretty standard. You inform people when there’s a change of plan.”
“But she didn’t call me,” she wept. She wept, not only because she knew that not being able to provide any information would bring her more torture, but because the realization of how deep in trouble her daughter might be scared her to death.
And now, she could only hope, as she was gasping for breath as pain soon consumed her weak body, that Harper would not show up on her doorstep. It would kill her to see her daughter suffer too. It was already too painful for her as she listened to Harper’s pained and betrayed voice when she told her that she and her husband had separated.
“Where’s your phone?”
“What?”
“I want you to call Harper and tell her exactly what I tell you to.”
“I…I…”
Mira laughed menacingly, her glare intensifying. “Come on now. Don’t tell me you don’t know where your phone is or that you lost it because I’m going to fucking lose it.”
“What is it you want from my daughter?” Mrs. Fritz asked instead.
“I don’t really care about your daughter, but my boyfriend, Alex, is with her…so I have to know where they are. As simple as that.”
“Why is your boyfriend running away from you?”
“He’s not!”
“But it doesn’t make sense. He is your boyfriend. You should be able to get hold of him easily. And why go to great length to torture me just to know where they could be right now? You will end up in jail with this. And if that guy, Alex, is really your boyfriend, shouldn’t he be calling you himself instead? And if you’re right, why is he with Harper in the first place?”
“Oh my god! All these questions! Alex and I had a fight, okay?” Mira casually replied.
But Mrs. Fritz knew better. She knew Mira wasn’t telling her everything. The redhead was, no doubt, a very dangerous woman, and, under no circumstance, she could allow her to be anywhere near her daughter. She had met women like Mira during her younger years, and with how seemingly possessive and fixated she was with Alex, there was no way she wouldn’t harm Harper by just being with him.
“Enough with this,” Mira brought the ice pick and held it hard against Mrs. Fritz’s neck. “Your phone?”
“You wouldn't get away with this.” Mrs. Fritz eyed her, horrified, but her voice was stern.
“Phone! Now!”
“I don’t know. And you will rot in jail.”
“Fucking hell! I just told you not to give me any bullshit answer. I don’t get it. Aren’t you afraid to die?”
She shook her head. “When you’re a mother, you would understand.”
“Fine.”
Mira struck the brass ice pick at Mrs. Fritz’s neck. The woman writhed as she fought before she soon slumped in the chair.
*I love you, Harper,* she thought before life left her body. A single tear escaped out of the corner of her eye and fell down her cheek.