The Tyrant's Wife

343  Unexpected scheme (2)

It took a battle of wits and immense self-control for everyone to sit down so they would finally discuss what happened. When Zeus came over, his first reaction was to cast a pitiful glance at Zaria.

"I'm sorry you had to leave your honeymoon."

"It's nothing. Our daughter comes first." She forced a smile. It was hard to actually smile when they didn't know where Rosaly was or what was happening to her.

Was she taken by an enemy? Did she lose her way? Was she scared?

Devonte had nagged the reception for surveillance footage and each time he had been told to wait for the correct procedure to be met, which explained why they called Zeus. They were taking way too long.

While Zeus took out his laptop, the others were on the lookout to ensure the restaurant management didn't catch on to what Zeus was planning to do.

"You are certain you didn't look away from the stall," Desmond asked for the umpteenth time. It was not an actual question. He was trying to figure out what they could have missed and like every other time, it all came back to that moment in the stall.

Natalie nodded yet again. "Positive. I mean, there's a second where I turned away to retouch my makeup, but I would have seen her reflection in the mirror when she left the stall. I didn't see anything. And don't even ask. I didn't close my eyes—I didn't even blink for longer than necessary."

"So my daughter vanished from the bathroom?" Desmond's forehead creased. Then he let out a breath. "There is something you are not telling us, Natalie."

It was not unexpected. She had expected that no one would believe her. Hell, she didn't believe it either. If she wasn't wide awake, she would have thought she was dreaming. She actually thought she was still dreaming even though everything was clear.

"I'm sorry it's not one of the things you want to believe, Des. But it's the only truth I know. I would never be negligent with a child." Was all she could promise. Not that her word meant anything when Rosaly was out there with heaven-knows-who.

After the initial shock of not finding her in the stall, she had gone running to Devonte to tell him and they had both scoured the entire restaurant in case the girl had tried to find her way back to him and gotten confused.

No one had seen a little girl on her own, and even when they went out to the streets, they knew it was pointless. Everyone knew the kind of child Rosaly was.

She would be terrified if such a thing happened and she was suddenly on her own. She would not go anywhere without someone she trusted. Besides, she was more likely to sit on the floor and wait for her parents to find her—someone must have told her it was easier to be found in one spot than running around all over the place.

Rosaly had been kidnapped, and it was taking ages for any of them to believe it.

"There is no surveillance in the bathroom," Zeus observed.

"That's because it is a bathroom." Skeleton shrugged, digging into his own computer.

Zaria raised a brow. She wasn't certain putting these two together was a good idea but as long as they got the job done.

"Right." Zeus was the last to speak before the room fell into total silence.

Desmond couldn't sit still for a minute before he was back on his feet, uncertain whether or not to call anyone else. Once again, not everyone could be trusted. It could be anyone. And someone who could be elaborate enough to snatch a child right from under someone's nose would also have access to any calls they made.

"Think…think…" he hissed, clenching his fists in fury. "fucking hell! I'm going to kill someone and then I'll rip their flesh off their bones."

"There should be something in the hallway." He said, finally responding to Zeus's observation about the lack of surveillance in the bathroom.

"And it should be wiped out." Zeus shot back. "Unless they want us to find them."

Zaria speared him with a glare for riling Desmond up even more. " Zeus, can you try to find out all the activity around the hallway at…" she glanced over at Natalie, who had Devonte's arms wrapped around her. "What time did you go to the restroom?"

"Soon after we entered the restaurant. Our reservation was for 1 pm."

"I can work with that." Zeus got to work, whistling an annoying tune. Only, everyone was too busy trying to pin the few pieces of the puzzle together to care about him and his antics.

___

Staying at the restaurant for too long would attract the owners to come over to them, and they would soon find out that they had taken the investigation into their own hands. Since the last thing they wanted was an unnecessary squabble, they all left the restaurant but not before warning the manager about anything leaking out.

"You can talk about this incident if you want." Desmond told him, only to narrow his eyes menacingly to add, "but that will also mean you no longer need your tongue."

The manager shrunk away, trying to hide the fear in his eyes. "I have no idea what incident you are talking about."

"That's more like it." He gave a slight nod and followed Zaria to the car. She was giving him the cold shoulder and he knew exactly why.

He finally caught up to her. "Babe,"

"Don't even come close to me." She shuffled closer to the window to avoid him when he entered the car.

"I deserve that." He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. Then he inched closer to her, keeping a little space between them to not upset her. "Can you hear me out?"

She crossed her arms with a huff. "I don't know. Do I risk getting blown off?"

He gave in to his urge to hold her shoulders. "I'm sorry, my love. It's just…"

"I know how much Rosaly means to you. But you can't go off blaming everyone for her disappearance. We don't even know what happened. And she means the world to us too." She scowled at him. "Besides, it is obviously an elaborate scheme if Natalie didn't see anything even though it happened right under her nose. It would have happened even if Rosaly stayed with Izzy the whole time."

"I know." He took a deep breath.

"You need to talk to Natalie." She told him, nudging him off when he tried to kiss her.

"I will." He promised.

Although he had promised to talk to Natalie, she got to her first. Natalie was on the second floor of Desmond's villa, staring out at the city while leaning against the balcony.

Having felt her footsteps, Natalie spoke up. "It's been so many hours. I can't imagine how she's feeling." When Zaria didn't say a word, she turned around to face her.

"I feel like I'm going crazy, Zaria. I mean, I felt you come up here even though I didn't know you were going to come. I had my back turned away too. Yet somehow I didn't see Rosaly leave the stall? I don't understand." She hugged her arms. "You know what's worse? Every bad thing that has happened lately is linked to me in one way or another. First the Nathaniel scandal, and now Rosaly goes missing in my hands. Am I the jinx or…"

"We know you would never hurt us. It was a coincidence." Zaria assured her, yet again, and once again she didn't know how much she believed her own words.

Luckily, Evan spoke from nearby and had them both looking over.

"You guys need to hear this." He hollered.

"What?" Everyone stopped what they were doing to ask. She hurried down the stairs.

"I asked around Rosaly's friends' families. Laia says she saw Angela at school." He announced.

It took a moment for the words to sink in, then everyone exchanged glances, linking the words to their meaning.

Desmond gritted his teeth. "Of course. That fucking skank."