Chapter 47

Lucas dialed his wife's number, but it didn't work. He tried repeatedly, it was still the same, he guessed his wife's cell phone was turned off, so it didn't connect at all. Lucas then called Clarie's best friend, Daniele.

Tut!

Connected.

"Yes?" says hello. "Why? You must want to find Clarie, right?" guessed Danny, Lucas frowned.

"So you know where Clarie is? Is she at your place?" Lucas asked directly, he did not like small talk.

"You don't need to know, Mr. Henderson, you just need to end your relationship with your ex if you want Clarie to come back," said Danny, she also doesn't like to beat around the bush.

"What do you mean, Daniele? What did Clarie tell you?"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter now. So choose either Clarie or your crazy ex-"

"Marion, her name is Marion, Danny," Lucas confirmed, because his ears didn't hear Daniele's words.

"Ah, it's not important and I'm lazy to say her name, don't force me. If you choose that woman I will beat you up because you hurt my best friend, I don't accept that you can cheat on Clarie..." Daniele slurred, spilling her thoughts.

Lucas took a deep breath. "So, is Clarie in your house or not?!"

"You don't need to know, I told you!"

"Well." Lucas cut their phone line, he still took his bouquet and got back into his car and drove to Daniele's house.

On the way, Lucas tries again to contact Clarie. But, it still doesn't connect because Clarie hasn't activated it.

The woman was bending her knees, her arms tightly wrapped around her legs, she was sitting with her half sister and mother as well. They are watching drama on television.

Her mother, who was carried away in the storyline, occasionally stomped her feet on the floor while cursing the antagonist role in the drama they were watching, even worse, bringing a baseball bat to hit their television screen and pointing at the bad actors telling it to her two daughters.

Clarie and Caitlin immediately shouted, forbidding their mother's action which they considered excessive, but not mothers if they don't act like that. In the middle of the advertisement, the mother is no longer annoyed, they even have a light conversation.

At nine o'clock Silvia told Caitlin to go to sleep because she had school tomorrow. The teenager nodded and walked unsteadily towards her room, Silvia then got up, approached her eldest daughter.

"Are you in trouble, Clarie?" asked the mother, eyeing Clarie closely.

Clarie was confused, she was confused between being honest or lying. She prefers to hug her mother and cry to her heart's content in her mother's warm embrace.

"Cry, if it makes you relieved. If you don't want to tell me that's okay," whispered Silvia in Clarie's ear.

The woman nodded once, sobbed for several minutes, then pulled away, wiping her snot and the remaining tears that had streamed down her cheeks.

"Thank you very much, Mom. I love you."

Silvia rubbed the corner of her daughter's teary eyes, stroked the top of her head and kissed her forehead like she used to when she was little.

"You are my daughter, and will always be my little princess."

On the other hand, Lucas has arrived at Daniele's flat. They sat on the sofa across from each other, Daniele hugged each other because she was annoyed that the man had barged in and searched all over the room for Clarie.

"Where's Clarie, Danny? Tell me," Lucas demanded, almost desperate.

"What am I telling you for?" Daniele acts fierce. 'Is he stupid or what? Didn't he call his in-laws, how come he didn't know his wife was there?' Daniele thought, she looked at Lucas again, sharp and piercing. "You're the one who made her leave, so feel it!"

"Danny, I told Clarie that I wasn't having an affair, how many times do I have to say...."

"If you don't cheat, then what's it called? Make a mistake... or just play around? Are you crazy? You got your ex pregnant?! Don't you have a brain?!" Danny accused him, she didn't care that Lucas was angry or immediately eliminated him, she would be very annoyed if that happened to herself, she couldn't even imagine it. 'Oh, Clarie how unlucky you are ...'

"Are you going to tell me or not, or I'm leaving now."

"No," said Danny, looking away and crossing her arms. It turns out that Lucas is not what she thought. Unpredictable!

Lucas got up and took a step, but Daniele then spoke. "Claire's right, you're SELFISH!" she shouted annoyed, Daniele also stood up. Lucas stopped walking, not even turning around.

"I don't care what you think, Danny."

Lucas pulled open the door and left. Daniele couldn't stop thinking, she also couldn't conclude whether Lucas was really having an affair or not, he only denied it once and without explanation.

"No wonder Clarie's upset," she muttered. Danny then sat down and grabbed her cellphone to call her best friend and magically it connected right away, yes ... because Clarie had just activated it.

"Hello Danny?" say hello.

"Claire, you should know-"

"What Danny? relax ... relax." Clarie tensed up too, Silvia looked at her daughter ... just stared but Clarie knew, her mother was asking her who had called her. Clarie then signaled for her mother to be quiet, and Silvia complied not for long.

Daniele took a deep breath and let it out roughly. "Lucas ... your husband Clarie, he's from here looking for you," said Danny finally.

"What do you mean?" asked Clarie because the sentence was not very clear.

"Lucas just came from my house, Clarie, he's looking for you here. He thinks you're in my house," explained Danny.

"Then... what did he say?" Clarie was excited, she wanted to hear something else.

"That's it ... he won't admit it, Clarie. I just believe that Lucas is selfish, and I can't say whether he really cheated on me or not, he said my judgment doesn't matter ... And I think he will definitely look for you to explain everything ."

"I don't want to see him yet, Danny," Clarie replied wearily.

"But, you have to hear his explanation, then you can decide."

"Um-I dunno, Danny."

The two of them chatted for a while then the call ended. Silvia waited for Clarie to speak and she just said there was a small problem and that was all. Her mother breathed a sigh of relief and told Clarie not to stay up too late because she would sleep first.

When Clarie was about to get drinking water from the refrigerator in the kitchen, her cell phone rang ... Clarie was sure it was Lucas so she ignored it.

She stepped into the kitchen, found some orange juice and brought it into the living room. She sat down on the sofa, took a few sips and put the juice on the table, she then checked her cell phone which had stopped beeping. Clarie gasped, it turned out that the calls and messages from Lucas were beyond her expectations, a hundred times more missed calls. The man doesn't give up, Clarie thought.

The phone rang again, but she had no intention of picking it up. And suddenly there was a knock on his mother's front door.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The uneasy Clarie became even more agitated. She didn't dare to go forward to open the door, she was afraid it was his stepfather. Because Clarie didn't want her mother and sister to wake up, she had to pick up the call from her husband.

"Claire?" called Lucas from the phone.

His wife was silent, not wanting to answer. Only the sound of his regular breathing could be heard.

"Honey. May I come in?"

Clarie immediately turned to the front door.

'Hah? Is he following me?'