Chapter 97

CHAPTER 97:

MOUNTING TERROR

Diane’s P.O.V.

It was traffic at seven in the evening, and it made me forget what I was thinking. It looked like it would be past eight o’clock before Lorenz could finally take me home because there wasn’t even a slight change on the stuck cars along the expressway. It was indeed a good thing that I went with him, and that was less stress over the congestion of traffic.

“Crap, it’s always heavy traffic on our way home! Anyway, would you like to share some details on your upcoming wedding, bestie? When would it be?” I asked him with a sarcastic smile, teasing him in the process. For sure, Lorenz’s blood would boil again in an instant.

Alright, let me count on it… in three, two, one…

Lorenz madly looked at me, and he devilishly smirked. The corner of his lips twitched afterwards, and his facial expression stayed like a five o’clock hands of the clock.

“Upcoming wedding, my foot! I would never let Dad manipulate me, most especially when it comes to my love life. He must take care of his own while I’m taking care of mine. I swear, I will really pretend to be gay once I saw whoever that woman Dad would ask me to marry!”

“You know what, bestie? You’re easily angered by your father’s request, that’s why I think he keeps on pushing you to obey him! A piece of advice, dude… stop pretending to be gay, or else time will come that you could be one. How would Karen even deal with that? We’ll never know. Karen might be back here real soon. She wasn’t just telling you,” I conjectured.

But the truth was I didn’t have the latest news with regards to Karen’s whereabouts. I hadn’t been able to contact her for three weeks now.

Mentioning Karen’s name made Lorenz paint a sweet smile all over his face. “Well, look who’s advising here when she couldn’t even deal with her own problem? Anyway, I couldn’t imagine marrying someone if it wasn’t even Karen. She actually took my heart when she left,” he said. The punk was crazily in love, though… and that made me yawn.

“Does it matter to you if I will sleep here, bestie? Just wake me up when we were already in front of our gate, okay?” I told him quite jestingly. But kidding aside, I was certainly sluggish due to sleep deprivation and a lot of stress.

Lorenz doesn’t have any other choice but to nod at me, prompting me to relax and comfortably rest my back to sleep. He murmured something, but it was too loud for a whisper.

“Woah, and you really treated me as your driver, huh? You have a CEO for a boyfriend and a COO for a driver. Such a lucky girl, unbelievable!”

Last week, Lorenz got promoted as a Chief Operating Officer of Villadares Group of Companies. His new work was primarily overseeing the day-to-day managerial and operational functions of their company. We opted to have fun, but we wanted to celebrate his promotion with Karen when she came back.

Beaming with the delight of how Lorenz got irked, I just closed my eyes and ignored him. I even adjusted my seat in a slant position to make him even more annoyed that his only role for tonight was indeed to be my driver. I even enjoyed lounging my head on the attached car pillow, making me feel more comfortable.

I guessed an hour had already passed when I felt that Lorenz gently shook my left shoulder to wake me up. I frantically looked outside while my knuckles were squeezing my eyes and found that we were already in front of our house. I looked at my wristwatch, and it was ten minutes past eight o’clock.

It was not the first time that Lorenz drove me here. When we didn’t spend the rest of the night at Karen’s place doing our projects and thesis, he would take me here as long as he could still drive.

The only difference was that… he looked very gay back then, whose foundation was even thicker than mine. He was even wearing a red headband, and he was someone who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.

So, back to our house, I couldn’t help but wonder why it was so dark in here. I waited for my eyesight to become steady before I fixed myself on the passenger seat. I knew it was already nighttime, but we were not supposed to turn off the lights inside and outside our house as long as someone from the family hadn’t gotten home yet.

Most of the time, the lights from the inside were not turned off because I was too afraid of the dark… and of course, David was the only man among us, and he was only a teenager. Even though Karen had once taught him some basic self-defense methods, he still couldn’t fight kidnappers and killers alone.

Oh my God! Couldn’t it be—isn’t it those bad people or worse, killers—have entered us? No way! What could have possibly happened to my mom and siblings?

Fear crept me up with my thoughts… and my heart leaped into my throat, making me swallow one after the other. Dread twisted in my guts, making my blood froze. Why does it have to happen now? I had so much on my plate right now, would this really have to add up?

Suddenly, I covered my mouth with my clammy palms and silently prayed with my eyes closed. Too many unnecessary scenes were occurring in my thoughts.

Lord, please don’t. Please… don’t allow my family to be in trouble. You already took Dad away from us, this time… please spare my siblings and my mom.

I certainly hope that they only forgot to turn on the lights here, and they just fell asleep in their respective rooms without waiting for me. Please, Lord… I’m leaning on you. I would never know what to do next if something bad happens to my family. Please…

That was when I opened my eyes. Lorenz had probably noticed my life-threatening anxiety and shivering, so he decided to unclasp his seatbelt. “Just stay here, bestie. I’ll check why there were no lights here.”

He was about to get out of the car when I said, “No. I—I’ll go with you, Lorenz.”

With my chest moving up and down, I hurriedly removed the seatbelt and nervously held my bag. I followed Lorenz out of the car and opened the gate myself. I got even tenser when I found that it wasn’t even locked and the padlock wasn’t there!

After marching from the gate, I decided to get in first. It seemed like every step I did would only add a double increase in my heartbeats. I was frightened down to the soles of my shoes, and terror mounted me every step of the way.

Lorenz held my left hand to comfort me, and when we locked eyes for a moment, I didn’t know why I refused to take my hand away from him. Maybe because I couldn’t do this without him. I guessed my breathing had stopped for so long already. The closer we got to the door, the more agitated and colder I became.

My body was shaking, and my heart thumped freaking faster and louder than usual. I suddenly remembered when David called me earlier, but the line abruptly went dead. Did my brother really hang up the phone, or did someone just snatch it away from him and intentionally ended the call?

What if they were already taken as hostages inside our house and just waiting to be saved? What if David wasn’t able to defend Mom and Denise? What if…

Damn! Could you please erase that nonsense thought of yours, Diane?

What were you even thinking? For once, stop yourself from thinking too much. Nothing bad has happened to them, okay? And your overthinking isn’t helping, so relax! I scolded myself as tears irrepressibly welled up.

Lord, I’ll leave it all up to you… please. I looked up to prevent my tears from falling. That was when Lorenz gently squeezed my hand, silently comforting me that everything would turn out fine.

After that, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I inaudibly opened the door and took a step. I was ready to face what was waiting for me and Lorenz. Pressing my lips into a thin line, I also soundlessly asked my best friend to stay quiet as we slowly sauntered inside.

Because I was afraid of the dark, I decided to open the lights. Using my quivering right fingers, I immediately groped by the wall, held the light switch, and turned it on, only to be shocked by…