Chapter 82

AMBER'S POV
Trying the school was just a leap of faith for me, I knew there was no chance the school would still be open but I had to check anyways. And why in the hell was Jay Harley not picking up his stupid phone? How can anyone be so unreliable? Weren't principals supposed to know the whereabouts of their students?
'Have they call..?"
'Did you fin..??"
Mel and I spoke at the same time as the call connected, I was slowly losing my mind as I drove out of the school, headed for God knows where. I had a feeling they could have ended up with Jay but it didn't seem plausible.
Jay Harley had been both unavailable and unreachable for hours, there was a chance he was busy with the company, the duties of a CEO wasn't something someone like me could understand but I also knew CEO was equivalent to boss and who stops the boss from making calls?
Hoping they had somehow gotten a ride from one of the neighbors whose kid attended Oxford Oaks, I decided to go check the house after Mel hung up. She had voiced out her suspicions in regards to Ken, had he maybe taken the kids? As a way to stop the impending divorce? It would have been possible if it was just his children but all of them? It didn't seem likely.
'Hey, Am, have you gotten through to them?" Carol's voice flowed through the receiver as I pressed the phone to my ear with the aid of one shoulder as I drove frantically through Alfred's headed to the house. I had called her again with the hope of getting good news.
I couldn't hide my disappointment, 'I was hoping you'd have some good news for me" I answered flatly. I knew the kids were safe, I just needed to get across to them. Knowing they were safe and confirming it were two entirely different things.
Asking me to join my faith with hers and keep a positive view to the entire situation, Carol had promised to call if they turn up somehow and I went back to focusing on my maniac driving.
The lights in the house was off, there was no better sign than that to tell me what I dreaded to hear. The kids weren't home. Worry had long given way to panic and as I sat with my head resting on the steering wheel with tears welling in my eyes, panic paved way for fear. What if something bad had happened to them? Was my positivity going to help?
With no one around to let me know my phone was ringing, I snapped back to reality to meet two missed calls. Checking the caller ID, relief swept through me like a flood. I hadn't found the kids yet but at least one of my worries had been elevated, the billionaire was fine. Was there a chance he had called even though he wasn't fine? My subconscious shoved the question forward in my head. I ignored it.
'I've been trying to call you all day! Why haven't I been able to reach you?!" His questions were the first thing that hit me as soon as the call connected.
I didn't know when the fear dissolved completely but I knew I was angry, angry at the man that was throwing accusing questions at me. 'You've been trying to call me?! How many times do you think I've called you today?!!" I screamed into the receiver.
The silence on his end wasn't expected and that was just the prompt I needed to start crying, 'What's wrong, Amber?" His soothing voice made it way through the nerve racking sounds I was making from crying.
Had he just asked what was wrong? I asked myself. Everything was wrong, nothing was right, nothing at all. My best friend had almost gotten killed cause she refused to leave an abusive asshole who gave her security, her daughter wasn't left out of the abuse then my mother had called me after over 7 years of no communication. Nothing was right.
When Jay said the kids were with him and he had called Melissa already, I thought they would most likely be at his parents house. I was about to ask for the address so I would drive over and pick up my kids after I had wiped my face that looked like I had just received news of my rich husband's death.
'Don't panic but we're at the hospital. Stacey fell unconscious and we had to rush her to the hospital" I had heard him clearly but I needed to be sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me, pessimism had it's down sides, not like there were any upsides to it anyways.
'Why are you at the hospital?! What's wrong with Stacey? What happened, Jay?!" Another thing with pessimism was paranoia, they worked hand in hand in making a person's life a living hell and as I bombarded the poor man with questions, I knew every other emotions had given paranoia a chance to reign supreme.
Without waiting for an answer from him, I hung up, threw the phone on the passenger seat, totally forgot about the clean up I had intended to do to not scare the children shitless and just drove out of the compound, heading straight for the hospital.
It wasn't like I had that much patience, another attribute of pessimism but I knew I could wait a little longer to find out what had happened to Stacey. Before I hung up, Jay had tried to calm me down but I knew I wasn't going to be okay till I made sure all the kids were fine.
As much as I wanted to hear the details to calm my racing mind, I decided against it. What was the use of asking him what had happened when I could just go see for myself?