Ethan finished eating and ran off to the playroom.
My phone rang, it was Sam.
“Where’s Ethan?”
I told him.
“I think you should take some time off,” he said, his voice cold. “You’re obviously stressed.”
“Sam…”
He interrupted me, “I have to go.”
He put down the phone.
There was nothing left for me to do.
“I’ll be fine,” Mina said reassuringly, patting my back. “Let me make you some tea.”
“No, no,” I protested but Mina smiled and put the kettle on.
“Mr. Marshall gets like this. He gets angry quickly. But people make mistakes.”
“Not like this!”
I called a cab and went to my apartment. I hadn’t been here in ages. Tucker had only stayed a few weeks until he’d saved enough money to go on some trip with friends. That was three months ago. He promised to call me every week, but he did that maybe once or twice. Then yesterday, I’d seen a post on Facebook, in which he was tagged by someone in a club or something. It was obviously Tucker. And he was clearly not sober.
I crawled into bed, my sheets smelling of my brother and I started crying again.
My life was falling apart. I didn’t know where my brother was, and I had put Ethan in danger. Sam hated me now. I’d messed everything up.
I fell asleep and woke sometime in the morning.
My phone was ringing.
I answered it, it was Sam.
“Natalie? Do you know where Ethan is?”
“Ethan?”
“He’s gone!” His voice was frantic. “He went to bed as usual last night and this morning when I got up to get him ready for school, he was gone! His bed was empty. He’s nowhere.”
I tried to wake up properly.
“You’ve obviously searched the house?”
“I’ve looked everywhere, in the cupboards, under the beds, I don’t know where he could be?! Could you come help me find him?”
“I’ll be right there.”
I got to the house as soon as possible. Sam was waiting for me, in a complete state.
“I told him last night that you had to go somewhere. He was upset, he kept calling for you, asking where you were. I told him you’d be back when you felt better.”
He paused. “He’s nowhere in the house and the place was locked, no way he could get out.”
“Are you sure?”