Chapter 352: The Search

"Feeling better?" Lucy asked after a short while.

"Yes…" I replied in a whisper.

Contrary to my words, my head felt light and dizzy. I shook my head from side to side to try to clear the haze but that only made me feel extremely sleepy. My eyelids felt so heavy and then so did my body.

"Malissa?" Lucy called my name softly.

By that time, I couldn’t reply to her anymore. My entire body felt weak and heavy. The last thing I was Lucy’s face before everything went black right in front of me.

"I’m really sorry…"

I heard her voice whisper close to me and then I didn’t hear anything else.

…

"Miss Malissa is gone. We can’t find her anywhere…" the man mumbled.

"She’s gone?!" the boss thundered as he jumped out of his seat.

A deep red color started creeping up onto the boss’s face from his neck and everyone gulped at the boss’s visible display of extreme anger.

"What do you mean ’she’s gone’?! Find her! Find her and bring her back now!" the boss yelled as he pointed a finger at all of his men.

Hayden watched as his father went into berserk mode. He was extremely worried about Malissa, and something told him that this wasn’t just a simple disappearance. The men in black scattered and left the church to search for Malissa.

"Umm…what should I…" the old priest mumbled close to Hayden.

"Go die…" Hayden muttered in reply without looking at the old man.

The priest watch Hayden’s back as he strode away before making his way out the back. Hayden headed for the last place that Malissa should have been before she went missing. The door to the dressing room opened with a loud slam before Hayden strode in. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a soul in the room. Hayden’s eyes quickly scanned the room before he sighed.

There weren’t any signs of struggle. Everything in the room was orderly. Malissa’s wedding dress was still hanging there untouched. He opened the jewelry box on the dressing table and found all the diamond jewelry that he had purchased for her in there.

"Fuck…" he swore as he felt a throbbing pain in his temples.

Since whoever took Malissa left these here, they are likely not out to get money, or they are simply out to get a lot more…

Hayden ran towards the parking lot and was entering his car when he heard a loud familiar voice calling out to him from behind.

"Where are you going?!" Luka yelled loudly.

"To find Malissa…" he replied like it was supposed to be obvious.

What else was he supposed to do right now?

"I’m coming with you," Luka said as he got into the passenger seat.

Hayden didn’t want anyone to come with him, but he knew that arguing with Luka was just going to be a waste of time and he didn’t have any time to waste. Hayden started the car and began driving immediately.

"Do you even know where you’re going?" Luka asked.

Hayden was driving fast with his eyes on the road. Luka started to have a very bad feeling about this.

"Calm down. You’re going to get us both killed in a car crash before we find her," Luka said, and he wasn’t joking.

"I’m calm," Hayden replied coldly.

Luka glanced over at Hayden white knuckles as he gripped the steering wheel before he shook his head and reached for his seat belt.

Suddenly, the speakers in the car connected a call and the voice of one of the senior managers of the gang answered.

"It’s me," Hayden said coldly.

"Yes, Sir…" the older man replied.

There were chaotic noises in the background that told both Hayden and Luka that the man was still in the church and also the state that things were back at the church.

"Look into a woman name Lucy for me. She was heading the organizing team for the wedding. I haven’t seen her, and I doubt that she’s still around. Either she got taken along with Malissa or…" Hayden said without needing to finish his sentence.

"Right away, Sir," the man replied, and the line clicked dead.

"The organizer team? An insider job…shit show. Complete shit show. The boss is going to kill loads of people this time around," Luka said as he stared out the window.

One thing that Hayden quickly realized when Malissa went missing was that Lucy also disappeared and some people in her team along with her. The odds were likely that they were involved rather than victims. No kidnapper would bother to take along three additional people as extra baggage.

And the one behind all of this was probably none other than…

"Where are we headed? We’re not heading where I think we are heading, right?" Luka asked suspiciously.

As the car rounded a corner onto another road, Luka felt a sinking feeling in stomach while he prayed that he had it all wrong when he knew very well that he was right.

"Silva…" Hayden growled.

…

Hayden took my hand in his and entwined our fingers together. His touch was so warm and gentle as his hand held mine. We stood side by side in front of the same old priest who was supposed to assist us with our vows on that chaotic day in the past. I couldn’t stop smiling because I felt so happy although I was also nervous and extremely excited.

The priest said something that I couldn’t hear before Hayden turned towards me. He smiled and I thought that he looked just like an angel. His beautiful lips opened, and his blue eyes smiled at me but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

"Hayden…" I called his name, but no sound came out of my mouth.

Hayden looked confused while I started to panic. Suddenly, I started feeling very cold…

"Hayden!"

I woke up screaming his name. Disorientated and my mind hazy from sleep, I had no idea what was going on and where I was when I woke up. My body felt like it had run a marathon. My muscles ached when I moved, and my body felt very heavy. I winced in slight pain as I tried to move my hands only to find that I couldn’t move them.

What is going on?

--To be continued…