"You should sit down. Theo is already asleep," he told his cousin. Sarah sat down and placed Theo on her thigh.
"Jared is wasting a bit of time. It has been a while. I am hoping nothing happened to him too," Sarah said and Nicholas frowned. Leave it up to Sarah to think the worse.
"He will be fine," Nicholas said and sat right beside her.
"Nicholas! Sarah!" Jared shouted when he got into the clinic. Nicholas was already dozing off but immediately became alert when he heard Jared's voice.
"Jared, what took you so long?" He asked. The younger man shrugged.
"Long story, but that's not important now. How is Stephanie?" Jared asked
"We have not been allowed to see her, she is still with the doctors," Sarah said and Jared sighed. He reached out to touch Theo's hair and feel his smooth face.
"Thank God the both of them are home though," Jared said. He looked too calm for someone that was frantic over the phone.
"What about Astra? What happened to her?" Nicholas asked. Jared took a deep breath.
"I left her at her place to pack a few clothes and that I would be back in a bit. By the time I came back, I called her line severally and she did not pick up, at first the line was busy and then it was switched off, she was talking to someone at first," Jared said.
"I went up to her room and realized that she was packing and then she stopped. Her bag was not half way filled yet. But I still saw some odd things. Someone was there after Astra and before me. Her books were scattered even her table, I wondered why she would be looking for books for an overnight trip," Jared continued and Nicholas nodded. It did not make much sense.
"So I called you to say she was missing, and I immediately suspected Ray. I went on to ask the doorman if he saw her. The door man told me that she got in and went out like one hour later, that it was not so long since she left that I came. And she left and came in on her own. But he noticed something weird when she was leaving, she didn't talk to anyone. Astra was usually very chirpy and happy, and she always greeted him, but she didn't when she was leaving. He also said that he watched her a bit that she went into the coffee shop. I know the place so I went in myself, asking around a bit I discovered that Ray was there, he was on call throughout and that Astra came to meet him there and they left together," Jared continued. Nicholas was nodding as he listened to the story, and the wheels in his head were turning.
"This is what I think happened. Nicholas called and decided to strike a deal with her. She was to exchange her freedom for that of Sarah and Theo. Astra agreed, but she probably asked for evidence, that was why she was on phone for thirty minutes, to get Stephanie and Theo to your house. He kept her on the phone for so long so that she could not call anyone else, not even us, which was very brilliant. After he told her to meet him in the cafe and she did. He probably had the place surrounded. She could not run, and so she walked to meet him the cafe and they went together," Jared said.
"It seems like you have figured everything out," Sarah said. She was smiling.
"Knowing what happened is good, but we need to get Astra out of there, as soon a possible," Nicholas said and they all agreed.
As Astra sat in the car that drove both her and Ray, she wondered why she had not seen the signs. Well, there was also the fact that she might have seen the signs but had ignored them. At first when they were in high school, it was taken as just a crush and it was even looked upon as cute back then. It had made Astra feel a bit good that someone liked her that much. Over time, Astra saw that it was posing as a problem, but she did not take it seriously. It was when she got into college and realized that he was trying to sabotage her relationships that she even took a little seriously, just a little though. Astra had actually thought that if he met someone else that he would leave her alone.
Astra did not want that person to be Stephanie at first but her friend had been so hooked on Ray that Astra could have not dissuaded her if she tried, and Astra tried. She did a lot to make Stephanie leave him, but it did not work. After a while, it seemed like Ray's attention shifted from her to Steph and Stephanie loved the attention. Astra was cool with it. Hell, she was happy. Dating was still not easy for her though, because of the amount of breakups. When she met Nicholas, she was ready to fall in love. It happened so hard and so fast that they could barely see the obstacles on their way. When Ray was angry that she did not tell him that she got married, Astra figured he was angry for the same reason everyone was, that they were not invited to the wedding. He was living with Stephanie and they were basically the best couple she knew. Astra did not suspect that Ray was still in love with her.
Even when Nicholas and Astra started having issues of farce infidelity and all, Astra could have never even suspected Ray. Nicholas had many other enemies and it was not usually Ray's style. Her mind went to his direction once in a while but it never stayed there. When her marriage with Nicholas ended, Ray did not try to make a pass at her. He was still with Stephanie even. All the doubts she had left then.
She might have seen the signs but so many things contradicted them, and now this. Astra recalled when she came back to town and Nicholas put her on the case with Thompson. She wondered then what role Thompson had to play in it all, was he just a pawn? Or did he have a major role to play with Ray?
"What are you thinking about? Are you still shocked?" Ray asked. He seemed so smug. He was probably feeling himself because he had pulled it off, he fooled her.
"What does Thompson have to do with anything?" Astra asked. Evidence pointed to Thompson as the culprit, but it was never enough to pin it on him. It also seemed like someone was protecting him. It seemed like that person was Ray.
"Oh, you are trying to put all the pieces together aren't you? Well you have a lot of pieces to put together. Thompson is just one," Ray said, and Astra chilled. Did it mean he had done even more than she knew?
"I really love you, you know," Ray said moving closer to her. He took her face in his hand and she tried to move away from him. Astra felt like insects were crawling over her. This was not the friend that she knew. She felt so irritated.
"Don't touch me," Astra spat, and it seemed like Ray changed in the space of a second. His eyes grew angry and murderous. His grip on her jaw was extra painful and it felt like he wanted to rip her jaw from her body. Pain reverberated from her entire face and neck.