"I am going to get my man back." Chloe said in a firm voice and walked out of the apartment.
"Chloe wait" Alisha ran after her, she would not want her to make any stupid decision
"Don't tell me what to do" she snapped at her.
"You have a right to make your own decision, but I suggest you stay back, don't go begging Max, he is not worth it, and you could also get to do a proper test, a blood test maybe to be really sure you are pregnant.
I do not want you to take out the baby if there is one, I will be by you, but if you must do it the right way, don't get rid of it stupidly please."
"Leave me alone, you always act like you have everything under control, you act as if you are the boss, don't tell me what and what not to do.
Look at yourself, you are single, lonely and without hope of finding real love, so just fuck off." She snapped again and went into a taxi that had just dropped off a neighbor."
"Alisha, remain calm, she didn't mean what she said, she is hurting right now and she does not know what she is saying." Alisha spoke to herself.
She went back into the apartment, fight her tears from dropping, was she always acting like a boss?
"I am not lonely, real love does not exist, men just want something from you, it's not like they really care after all." She wiped a tear that had dropped and loaded her things into her box.
She locked the house and kept the key where she and Chloe always did when either of them was the last to leave the house.
"I was beginning to wonder where you must have been." Mary said as Alisha stepped into the mansion.
"What are you doing here Mary, I thought I asked you to take some time off?" Alisha was not expecting to meet anyone in the house, she wanted to be alone.
"I know the whole house would need dusting by now, and I did not want you to do all that when I am being paid for it."
Alisha moved her things to one of the guest room, they were not expecting any audience, in fact she didn't know when Leonardo was going to come back from where ever he went to.
When she was done, she decided to get a few supplies and bake an apple pie for Mary and herself.
"Mrs Legend" Mary called out to her as she descended the stairs. Alisha gave her the "don't get formal with me look."
"Alisha" Mary corrected herself
"Yes?" Alisha replied her while contemplating if she should take the car or not.
"Mr Legend called the house line; he wanted to be sure you were doing fine."
"Good for him, I am fine, thank you" she said and decided she was not going to take the car
"Hmm, that was not what I told him ma"am" Mary was trying hard not to stammer, she might put herself in trouble with Alisha.
"What did you tell him?"
"Hmm, don't be mad at me Ma"am, but I ahhh told him that you, you look pale and have been very quiet."
"When he calls back, tell him you made a mistake, I am very fine" she left the house angrily, without even telling Mary where she was going to.
She knew Mary had no fault for being observant and honest, she was not mad at her, instead she was mad at Leonardo.
How could the son of a gun leave her without any hint to where he was? How could he ignore her calls and messages? And now he had the guts to ask an employee of the welfare of his wife.
He was definitely having something wrong with his head.
"I can't find her sir" Mary panicked into the phone
"What do you mean you can't find her? You said she was home and fine a few hours ago" Leonardo screamed at her over the phone.
"I think she was mad at me for telling you she looked pale, and she left angrily"
"Look for her, did she go with her car? Did the driver take her?"
"No sir, her car is here, and she gave the driver some days off."
"Hang on while I call Chloe to ask if she is there with her." A worried Leonardo hung up before Mary could respond.
"She is not here, we had a fight this morning, I said many hurtful things to her, I think this is my fault." Chloe had cried over the phone when he asked her if she had seen Alisha.
It was 9:00pm and Alisha was nowhere to be found. He had arrived California that morning and decided to rest in his apartment for a while before deciding if he wanted to face her and return to the mansion just yet.
He panicked as he picked up the car and drove to the bakery, she was not there, he visited the shops she loved to pick up baking items, the shops were all closed already. He drove round a few parks, eateries, but could not find her.
Frustrated Leonardo called up his private investigators, he could not deal with waiting for the police to wait for 24 hours before they declared her missing. What was he going to tell them? He had not spoken to his wife in a month, and she left? Or she had a fight with her friend and disappeared? What kind of a husband was he?
His investigators scanned recent accident records, checked patients admitted in every hospital that day, but could not find anything leading to Alisha's disappearance.
"I've messed up, I shouldn't have left het the way I did" Leonardo lamented as he returned home frustrated at 1:00am with no clue as to where Alisha could be.
He did not leave her behind for a month because he was mad at her, no, he was not in any way angry that she had stopped him halfway to pleasure. He did not stay away because he did not want to see her. He did not ignore her calls and messages because he was not interested in hearing from her.
He had stayed away from her because he wanted to tame himself. He wanted to put his feelings under control. He wanted to be able to face her and not think of sex with her or kissing her.
He stayed away for himself, and now that he thought about it, he knew he was selfish. He never thought about her and how she felt, he only thought about himself.
He had stayed away from other women too, not because he had chosen to be celibate, he stayed away from them because he didn't want to be with any other woman except Alisha.
Leonardo sat in Dr. Snow's office, he was still angry with himself, but he needed to see the therapist, maybe that way he could think straight and have a clue to finding his wife.
"It's been two weeks she went missing, I feel like I am in a dark and empty pit"
"You need to stop blaming yourself for her disappearance"
"I am to be blamed, what sensible man left a woman and not communicate with her for two months, I pushed her away."
"Do you think she was kidnapped or she ran away from you?"
"If she was kidnapped, I suppose the abductor would have asked for a ransom by now."
"So you think she ran away from you"
"I want her by my side"
"If you find her, and she is safe but asks for a divorce, what would you do?"
"I will fight her with the contract, there is no way she can leave me until after three years."
"You don't want to be with her (at least that was how you made her feel) but you do not want to let her go, maybe that was why she left."
"I will kill whoever took her away from me, with my bare hands I will crush his bones, break his teeth, and tear him apart." Leonardo got up and left the Dr's office without waiting for a response from her.
He sat in the car while the driver drove him to his office. Lately if he was not out trying to find Alisha, he was consuming himself with work.
He had found Alisha's purse, all her ID's and her phone at the mansion. There was nothing on her that he could use to track her.
He thought about calling her dad to inform him about her disappearance, but he did not want to appear incapable of taking care of Alisha.
He also was not ready to explain that he had left the house and had not spoken to her for over a month. He had met Mary crying a few times, worried that Alisha was nowhere to be found.
He had asked one of his investigators to also trail Chloe, he could not trust her. If she and Alisha were in a fight that morning, and by evening she was missing, she could be responsible for her disappearance.
Leonardo arrived at the house late at night, he was slightly drunk. He had decided to check the bar where Alisha used to work maybe he could get a hint to where she could be, he waited around, put his ears on the ground and had ended up drinking out of frustration.
The bakery was still running, the staffs were working appropriately, Leonardo had even gotten a supervisor to manage the bakery on Alisha's behalf.
When he opened the door to the mansion, he found Mary, Alisha and Anna sitting on the couch as if they were waiting for someone.
"Hello" he waved and climbed the stairs, staggering a little as he did.
"Get back here, young man because I am running out of patience already." Alisha's father shouted at him angrily.
Leonardo stepped down from the stairs surprised that he was being scolded. As he descended the stairs his brain seemed to work.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked surprised
"You waste yourself, drinking and having a good life, when my daughter is out there missing, scared and probably at the point of death." Her father was on his feet now and he was obviously very pissed.
"Mr Adams, you are misunderstanding the whole situation, it is not my fault that she is missing, and I am doing everything in my power to find her, please understand." He took the glass of water Mary offered him, gulped it down, and whispered a thank you to her.
"Then make me understand what is going on, Alisha has been missing for over two weeks and you did not care to mention it to me her father, what kind of a husband are you Leonardo?"
"Can we all go to sleep and maybe tomorrow we could talk?" Leonardo suggested, he was mentally exhausted and wanted to just go to sleep.
"No one sleeps until we have headway on how to find my Alisha."
"My investigators are out there, once they have a lead they will let us know, good night" he said and went up the stairs, he was getting annoyed already and if he stood before this angry father-in-law of his for another one minute, he might be tempted to give him a blow on his jaw.
"If you do not get down here and answer ever single question of mine, be sure that the moment Alisha is found, she would be shoving divorce papers to your face, because it is obvious that you are a useless, incompetent, irresponsible and sorry excuse of a husband." Alisha's father ranted angrily.
Leonardo stood in his track as he thought of what to do to this man who had just insulted him in his own house.