Chapter 18 - Seeking Hope

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N/A: Mature language, I guess?

Emily's POV

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST HOPE?" I shout again.

I put the phone on speaker.

"I-I-um- I can't- I don't know where she is!" Lacey stutters.

"HOW THE HELL DO YOU LOSE A 3 YEARS OLD?!"

"Em."

I look at West, who, for the past minute, had looked like he's seen a ghost.

"Believe me, I'm just as piss as you are, but screaming won't bring our daughter back." He says, eyes fixed on the road. Every few seconds his eyes meet my own.

"We need to get back as fast as we can." He takes my hand and brings the phone closer to his face.

"Lacey, where exactly are you?" His tone is surprisingly calm, considering his knuckles turned white because of his grip on the steering wheel.

"At the house."

"We'll be there in 5."

I hung up and try not to think of the worst case scenario.

*At the house*

The car is not even fully parked when I open the car door and rushed towards our front door.

I slam open the door and jog towards Lacey who's pacing around the first floor.

"Care to explain what's going on?" I ask when I reach her.

She stops and slowly backs away.

"She- she wanted to play Hide and Se-" She holds up her hands as if telling me to calm down. Not gonna work!

"Are you that incompetent that you can't even play a game made for children?" I ask, wanting nothing more than to hurt her feelings right now.

I feel West come up behind me.

"Let her continue..." He says.

"You're being awfully calm about it? What's wrong with you?" I say, turning towards him.

"We won't find Hope if we don't get the full story!"

He signals for Lacey to go on.

"We were at the park and I couldn't find her anywhere. I just assume she might have gone back home so I came here and I look everywhere, I swear! But she's nowhere... she's nowhere." She shakes her head furiously, holding it in her hands.

"She's three. She can't even spell her name. Did you seriously think she would have walked all the way back here?"

West is about to reprimand me again but I can see that even he can't see the logic in that, so he stops himself from speaking.

"Look" I say, looking Lacey in the eyes. "West and I will go back to the park to search for her and you try again here. Make sure you search every little space." I take West's hand and lead him through the front door.

"You handled that better then I thought." West says, pulling off our driveway.

Right.

West's POV

It's late afternoon. Which means that we have to find Hope ASAP. I don't want to imagine my three years old daughter alone in the dark. What worries me as well is that, like every child her age, she's scared of the dark.

I point towards the playground where a bunch of kids are playing.

"Maybe she's playing with them?"

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