Page 64 of Chase

“No Chase. You need to stay. I’m going on my own.”

“I want to help.”

“I don’t want your help.” She says as she walks out of the restaurant. The finality in her voice hits me hard. She just pushed me away and I have no idea why. We promised each other that even if this didn’t work out between us, that we would still be friends because she deserved to have everyone in her life.

In a twenty-minute period she managed to push us all away and hit us where it hurt. Although she didn’t take a shot at me personally, she targeted my friends, fully knowing that they were my weak point.

“What the fuck just happened?” Arden asks as I sit back down and scull the remainder of my beer.

“I don’t know,” I say my voice distant. I get the feeling that the girl I love just walked out of my life for good.

“Julia, do you have any idea on where Millie might be?” I ask curiously. They’ve become close recently. I’d be surprised if Julia didn’t have a hint of an idea.

“Ummm…” Julia hesitates.

“Spit it out. You won’t get into trouble,” Arden says gently squeezing his sister’s shoulder, reassuring her with a single touch.

“She might be with Hayden.” Julia says.

“Hayden? As in my brother?” Rhys asks, joining the conversation.

“Yeah, they’ve been hanging out. Sneaking off at school and stuff.”

Rhys picks his phone up and dials his brother. It goes straight to voicemail.

“That little shit.” Rhys mutters. “Let’s go. I think I might know where they are.” He says getting up and helping Ally to her feet.

“We’ll drop you at home on the way Julia.”

“Okay.” She replies timidly.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Yasmin

I can’t think about what I just said to Arden, Ally and Rhys.

I know I shouldn’t have said those things, but they don’t understand.

I quickly get into Wander and pull up Dad’s number and wait for the phone to connect. I haven’t spoken to him since the day after Chase’s birthday.

I need his help.

“Yasmin?” He’s gruff voice comes through.

“Dad…” I say my voice breaking.

“What’s wrong?” I can hear the concern in his voice. It’s nice to know he still cares even after how we ended things.

“Millie’s missing.”

“What do you mean she’s missing?”

“She was supposed to meet us for dinner. I thought she was with her friend. Her friend thought she was with me. We didn’t realise until her friend showed up without her. Her phone is off.” The panic is evident in my voice. They weren’t supposed to be able to find us. I thought we had left this all behind us.

“It’s okay, we’ll find her. I’ll meet you at the house.”

“Okay,” I say officially broken. I don’t know what else to do. I’ve done everything I could to protect Millie. She knows just how important it is to check in with me. When we stayed at the hotel, I explained to her what had happened and why we moved here as suddenly as we did.

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