At the same time, Ryan, Selena, Dan and Justin's group arrived at the space where the cars have been parked. The group separated and was about to get into their respective cars. However, right before she got into the car, Selena suddenly remembered that she hadn't called her parents since she left for Nova!
A long time had passed since then and she knew her parents would have started to worry by now. But when she thought of taking out her phone to call them, only then did she remember that she hadn't seen her bag and suitcase at all after getting captured and to be honest, neither did she have the time to think about it at that time.
"Ryan!", She quickly grabbed the corner of Ryan's shirt and said with some urgency in her voice. "Have you seen my bag and suitcase? I want to make a quick call to my parents to tell them that I have arrived back here safely."
Justin who was about to get into the car alongside Dan paused on hearing Selena's words and finally remembered that he still hadn't told Ryan and Selena about Nina's call.
"I am afraid it is too late to say that now", He turned back to say to Ryan and Selena who was standing together.
"Your parents already know."
"What!"
This was Dan screaming out in shock.
"How! How the h*ll did they know?", He asked disbelievingly with thoughts that things were about to go awry in his mind.
Justin looked at Ryan whose face had changed completely and Selena who also looked a little pale and said helplessly, "I also didn't expect it, but a few hours ago, Nina called me and told me that your parents has somehow gotten her number from somewhere and called to ask about you. Apparently, they have been expecting you to call them hours after you left for Nova to report your safe arrival, but you weren't able to."
"Moreover, they also tried calling you to no avail as it didn't go through. Considering all that, it was really not a surprise that they had started getting worried that something happened. But this also shows that they really care about you and pay attention to your matters. "
Selena's face was a little pale after hearing his words and guilt also appeared in her eyes. Although, she hadn't done it deliberately and had in fact been in unfavorable situation all this while, she still felt guilty for making her parents worry so much about her.
But this wasn't the time to feel guilt. She should quickly give them a call.
"Ah. I forgot to tell you this as well", Justin suddenly said, making the faces of Selena, Ryan and even Dan tense up again, with the latter almost shouting out, what again! He really suspected that Justin was doing it intentionally and was getting a sadistic pleasure by deliberately telling them one thing at a time.
What a perverse man!
"Nina also told me that your parents would be coming to Nova. They might even already be here by now."
Sure enough, not a single of the other three faces looked good in hearing that. However, Dan quickly recovered from the news and even had the time to tell a joke.
"Then.. I guess that means Ryan would be meeting his in-laws in advance?"
But neither Ryan nor Justin found the joke funny as they both understood that it definitely wouldn't be as easy as Dan put it, considering how Selena's kidnapping was intricately connected to Ryan.
Neither of them thought they would be able to fool a powerful family like the Preston's if they really put their minds to investigating how and why their daughter had been kidnapped. And that was if they do not even already know of it as of the moment.
Of course, Dan also knew this very well but he could only try to downplay the situation as little as he could, so as to reduce the pressure on his dear brother, but looking at Ryan and Justin's grim faces, it obviously wasn't working.
He sighed and didn't say anything more even as he couldn't help but think that it was really hard for this brother of his to have a happily-ever-after with his beloved woman. Problems keeps popping out one after the another.
But thankfully, he thought to himself, he only had a lover and had no plans of ever getting married...
On the other hand, Selena had some guesses in her mind upon seeing the not-so-good expression on Ryan's face after he heard that her parents were coming down to Nova. In the end, she wasn't dumb enough not to have realized that Ryan was somewhat connected to why she had been kidnapped in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that she had seen quite clearly the emotional struggle in his eyes whe he stopped in front of her earlier on, the last name 'Anderson' which he shared with the people who had ordered her kidnapping also became a dead giveaway. More so, if he wasn't connected to her kidnapping in some way or was even the direct reason, why would he fell guilty?
Why did he not dare take that last step towards her?
Why did he hesitate?
Of course, there was also the possibility that the reason for feeling guilty was only because he blamed himself for not coming earlier, but she doubted that possibility since she believed that she shouldn't appear that narrow-minded to him.
She wasn't crazy enough to blame someone who she hadn't even informed that she was coming back. She even considered it a miracle that it hadn't taken up to the second day for everyone, including her parents to notice something was wrong after all, to be honest, she was no longer a child.
But even if she had guessed that he was indeed related, she didn't and would never hold it against him since she knew from both the years they had spent together and from the emotions he wasn't able to hide when he saw her that he would never and never meant to deliberately hurt her.
Also at that moment, she also guessed exactly why he had avoided discussing marriage with her and also agreed to her decision to breakup back then. It was all to protect her, right?
After all, the eyes never lies. He loved her just like the way she loved him and to Selena, there had never been a better news than that.
So back then when he had hesitated, she took the initiative to take the last step he hadn't been able to due to some reservations and threw herself into his arms. At that moment, she also made a resolution in her mind while being surrounded by the warmth of his embrace that her place was right by his side and she never wanted to leave again.
But that aside, she had more important things to do and later.. she would find Ryan to settle scores with him because although, she had no plans to hold it against him, she still felt he deserved some lessons for still hiding some things about him from her even after so many years they had spent together!
It seemed like a long time has passed while Selena thought about all this but in fact, only a few minutes had gone past.
Selena gathered her thoughts together and still with some dissatisfaction with Ryan originating from her last thought, Selena glared angrily at Ryan and demanded matter-of-coursely, "Phone. My phone!"
She had to hurry and give her parents a call and see if there was a possibility that they hadn't boarded the plane yet, though even Selena herself felt that that possibility was quite slim in view of the fact that from Justin's words, their call with Nina was hours ago.
Well... She thought to herself, if they were really on their way already or was even here, she could only blame it on Ryan's bad luck. Hehe
Ryan smiled dotingly on seeing her looking at him with dissatisfaction and temporarily put aside his worries about Selena parents not accepting him. He had really had missed her acting feisty to him during her absence and even had a wicked thought of not answering her and see her get angrier at him.
If Dan, Selena or Justin were privy to his current thoughts, they would have surely asked if he had masochistic tendencies!
However, Ryan didn't have the guts to really do that to here especially on seeing how anxious she was about calling her parents. He could only sigh, walk a few steps and opened the door of his car and made his upper body reach into it and soon came up with a phone.
He straightened up, walked over to Selena and gave her the phone. On seeing her take the phone excitedly, he smiled faintly before explaining how the phone ended up with him.
"When I received news about your impromptu return, I rushed to the airport only to find out you were gone. Your handbag and suitcase were the only thing left on the scene so, I brought them with me when I was coming here just in case you needed it."
Hearing his narration, Selena didn't speak and only stared at the phone which was displaying a call interface as she waited for her mom to pick up. This was because she knew that compared to how lightly Ryan was talking about it now, his feeling back then must have been vastly different. Therefore, because she could guess how he felt back then on seeing only her things but not really her, she didn't know how to comfort, not that he really needed her comforting anyways and chose to keep quiet.
On seeing her like this, Ryan also didn't say anything more. Seconds later, the call interface showed that someone had picked up the call. Selena hurriedly placed the call on her ears with some excitement and guilt.
"Mom..", She called out.
"Darling, is that you? Is that really you? You are fine? Where are you at the moment? Are you still in that abandoned refinery? Wait for mommy, okay? We would be heading over soon!," Mrs. Preston rambled on and asked about every and anything the moment the call connected. In the end, she used the coaxing tone used to persuade a child to tell Selena to stay where she was.
"Mom..", Selena's voice choked as she called with guilt in her voice. Ever since she returned to the Preston's, she understood her mother to be someone who spoke gently with one word at a time. Not like the woman who was currently rambling on the phone with no care of image or how she would be perceived.
How anxious she must have been to behave that way..
"Mom.. I am fine now, truly fine. My... friends.. came to save me. Why don't you tell me your current location and I will come to meet you there. You really don't need to come here since we are already leaving.."
"Really? You are not lying to me? You are already safe?", On the phone, Mrs. Preston asked repeatedly just to be sure.
"Uhm.. I really am safe, mom. Really fine. Why don't you send me your location and when you see me before you, you can truly believe it then?"
"Okay.. okay.. Its great that you are fine. That's really great.. great.."
"And about the location, the place where we are currently is not convenient for us to meet. How about this, I will tell your brothers to send you the location of the hotel we are staying at and you can come to meet us there?"
Selena didn't ask why the location where they were at wasn't 'convenient' but when she heard her mother say brothers, she was still stunned.
"Mom.. What do you mean by my brothers? Do you mean they are also here together with you and dad?"
Unfortunately, Selena wasn't able to hear the answer as in her excitement, Mrs. Preston had already hung up the phone. So, on hearing the dial tone, Selena took away the phone from her ears with an expression of doubting life.
Immediately after, Dan and Justin moved closer to her with Dan asking urgently, "Hey. Are your brothers really here as well? Seriously?"
Even Ryan whose face had turned dark after Selena said her 'friends' had rescued her faced her with some imperceptible nervousness in his eyes as he waited for her answer.
Selena looked at the equally nervous faces staring at her and answered blankly, "I don't know.."
However before the other three could feel relieved, they heard her continue, "I don't know because my mom hung up before she could answer. But from what she said, it seems that my twin brothers are really here?"
Ryan's face instantly froze on hearing Selena's conclusion. Dan and Justin glanced at each other and saw the same helplessness in their eyes.
Dan walked over to Ryan and patted him on the shoulders with a sympathetic look on his face, "Brother. Don't think too much. Everything will be fine."
Ryan's face turned even more expressionless as he stared blankly at him.
'Don't think too much? Everything will be fine?' Hehehe.
Why did he find that quite hard to believe?
He was already having a hard time trying to think of ways to convince the Preston couples that he was worthy of being entrusted with Selena's future and that he was capable of protecting her, and would never let anything like today happen ever again. But now, the Preston brothers just had to come to join in the fun too.
Even if they hadn't personally interacted with their sister, Selena. She had after all been missing for so many years before they found her, so not to talk of their parents who would be reluctant to marry her out as soon as she was found, even those brothers of hers would feel quite reluctant, okay?
So yeah, sure, everything will indeed be 'fine'.