Mafia Daddy’s Faithful Little by Mary Potter
CHAPTER EIGHT
Raymond
“Ethan! Ethan!” I knocked rapidly on the door, calling my best friend’s name.
It took him a few minutes to get to the door and a few seconds to pull the door open. Ethan Coast squinted at me with sleepy eyes, probably wondering why I was at his apartment at one in the morning.
The truth was that I couldn’t sleep. How in the world was I supposed to do that? Maddy knew the truth and she wasn’t picking my calls.
“I need to talk to you,” I said, pushing my way into his house.
Lisa Dexter was there in her pajamas, yawning loudly and bearing the same expression as Ethan.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“Maddy knows the truth,” I said to them.
“What truth?” asked an ignorant Lisa.
“What? How did she find out?” That was Ethan.
“I don’t know too,” I replied and showed him the text. “This was what she sent to me.”
“Oh, this is bad,” said Ethan.
“Hold up, guys, can someone explain what’s going on?”
I heaved and glanced at Ethan. He said nothing and didn’t object when I began to tell Lisa the truth. Her eyes widened with shock as the story went on.
“You did that to Maddy?” She said, her tone edged with anger.
“I had no choice. You need to see that I couldn’t tell Maddy.”
“And you knew about this Ethan?” Lisa asked her fiancé.
He stepped in front of her trying to calm her down. “He is my friend, Lisa. What would I have done?”
“Told Maddy the truth! You could have told her the truth! This only means you would have done the same thing to me if you got a girl pregnant.”
“No, no,” Ethan quickly said. “I wouldn’t.”
This was what I feared. I knew that Lisa would be as pissed off as Maddy and she had every right to. Her fiancé, Ethan, had helped me hide Naomi.
“Hey, Lisa,” I said to her, ignoring the way she glowered at me. “I know you’re angry and I don’t blame you but this is about Maddy. I’ve been trying to reach her since she sent me that text but she isn’t picking up. I went over to her place and couldn’t find her car. Maddy is gone. She isn’t with her mother either. I think she might be in danger.”
Lisa seemed to understand my plight after she heard this. Ethan took his phone and tried calling Maddy. After several rings, the line went dead.
“I’m scared,” Lisa commented. “If anything happens to Maddy, it’s all your fault.”
I agreed to what she did and silently prayed that Maddy was okay. I would never forgive myself if she harms herself or anything bad happens to her. I loved Maddy and I hated myself for lying to her.
“Is there anyone else she could have gone to meet? Possibly another friend we don’t know about?” Ethan was asking.
“No, not really,” I answered. “Lisa, call your dad. Tell him we have to find Maddy.”
She stared incredulously at me. “You know I can’t do that, right? We can only file a missing person’s report after twenty-four hours.”
I sighed in dejection, hitting my forehead with my palm. This wasn’t how I thought it would go. I never knew Maddy would choose to leave and go somewhere I couldn’t reach her.
“I think you should calm down, Ray,” Ethan advised me. “Let’s wait till daybreak or noon. If she isn’t back by then, we’ll go looking for her. Maybe she needs time to think.”
I shook my head. The feeling that overpowered me was strange. It was as though I could sense Maddy was in trouble.
“No, something is wrong. I can feel it.”
My phone buzzed in my hand. In hopes that it might be Maddy, I hurriedly brought the screen to my face. But it wasn’t her. It was Naomi.
“What do you want, Naomi?” I barked into the phone. “This isn’t a good time.”
“I’m sorry, Ray,” she said, crying. “But I had to tell Maddy.”
“You did what?”
Ethan came to meet me, placing a hand on my shoulder and urging me with his eyes to calm down.
“I told you to stay out of my life and Maddy’s. How could you tell her behind my back? It wasn’t your job to do so.”
“Derek needs a mother. I wouldn’t be here for long.”
“Just… don’t call me for now,” I said to her. “I need to sort some things out.”
With that I cut the call, walking to Ethan’s sofa, and dropped on it. My body trembled, pain threatening to tear me apart. I wanted to weep until I had no energy to do that anymore.
“You’ll be fine, Raymond,” Ethan’s voice came again.
Lisa walked into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. “Here. You’re shaking.”
“Thanks,” I appreciated as I took the cup from her.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at them. Shame consumed me but it was overridden by fear for what Maddy must be going through now.
My phone started ringing again. For the second time this night, I was heartbroken that it wasn’t Maddy. It was a strange number.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Baxter? Am I on to Mr. Baxter?” A husky voice asked from the other end of the line.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“Edward Cone. I met your fiancée at a bar a few hours ago.”
I sat up straight. “You did? How’s she? Did something happen to her?”
“No, but she looked d disturbed. I could see that she had been crying and called because I was worried that something must have happened to her.”
“Ah, thank you, Mr. Cone. Is she still at the bar?”
“No. She left before I did and from what I could see, she wasn’t heading back home.”
“She is missing, Mr. Cone. Do you know where she was going to? Did she mention it?”
“The Leevens sea. That place, I guess.”
Lisa, who had been listening, said, “I think I know where Maddy is.”
