Chapter Eighteen

Sarah finally pays a visit to Wayne, and he is after a bag full of answers.

Chapter Eighteen: Sarah

Standing back, I stared at the door and waited for someone to answer my knock. The air was cold, it tickled my neck, I was glad to be wearing my thicker coat. It was the middle of November, and Florence still hadn’t been found. Michael was still away, and Stephenie was still with him, and Lewis.

I didn’t want to say that he had anything to do with the disappearance, but somewhere, deep down, I knew he did. Of course he did. And it was all my fault.

I felt like it was anyway; if Florence hadn’t have phoned me up, then we’d never have met and she wouldn’t have disappeared.

I was lucky to be alive though. I‘d had a car accident, and I was critically ill, then when I’d asked for Florence to visit, she never turned up. Something wasn’t making sense.

The door I’d knocked on believed to be the house where Wayne lived. Course, he didn’t know who the hell I was, but I knew all about him.

Unfortunately for me, Wayne wasn’t the one to answer the door. ‘Oh hello?’ A woman had answered, she was in her late forties at least. Her dark eyes matched the shade of her hair, bouncing round her face. ‘Can I help you dear?’ She asked sweetly, smiling.

‘Um yeah, I was just wondering…Do you have a son named Wayne?’

‘Oh yes, yes I do.’ She replied.

‘Oh good. Got the right house!’ I laughed nervously, ‘Is he free? I’d like to speak with him…’

‘What might it be about dear?’ 

‘Florence. His girlfriend.’

The woman’s face froze into a saddened expression. ‘H-How do you know F-Florence?’ She stuttered, her eyes studying me.

‘Let me come in and I’ll tell you.’ I shrugged, giving a smile.

She nodded, still frozen. ‘I’ll um, put the kettle on. Do come in…’ She gestured for me to come in, and then disappeared into another room.

I quietly shut the door, and refrained my eyes from looking around. I wasn’t here to be nosey, I was here to try and bring back Florence, alive and well for all of us.

I stood in the hall, and lightly bounced on my feet, feeling a little bit more than awkward.

A minute later, I decided to remove my coat and shoes, then Wayne’s mother came rushing back towards me. ‘Oh love, don’t worry about your shoes!’ She gushed, just as I removed my second shoe.

‘I don’t mind, really.’ I smiled, following her into the living room. ‘Do sit down dear, there’s your tea. I’ll go get Wayne…’ She said, and then disappeared again.

‘Thank you.’ I said, a little louder than I wanted. I sat down awkwardly on the sofa, my eyes trying to escape and wonder. It was quite old fashioned, the living room. The walls were pink with a flowery border in the middle. The furniture was mostly brown and probably antique. On the far back wall, opposite the sofas, was a glass cabinet filled with ornaments and family school pictures. It seemed that Wayne was only child, and his mother was a single parent, the pictures of his father seemed to fade after a while.

This was just a guess though, and I never liked to assume things.

I tapped my foot against the carpet, glancing out the window. Where was Florence? Out in the cold, alone….I forced myself away from the thought and sipped my tea, even though it was still too hot. As I placed my cup back down on the coffee table, Wayne’s mother returned. ‘Wayne, there’s someone here to see you…’ She said, and then stood back so that Wayne could enter.

‘Hi.’ I said, standing up to greet him. ‘I know what you’re thinking…’ I said, reading his mind from the expression on his face, ‘You don’t know who the hell I am!’ I laughed, waving my hands about, but Wayne didn’t react, his expression was cold and solid.

‘Wayne, why don’t you sit down next to, umm…’

‘Sarah.’ I smiled, ‘Sarah Martins.’ I’d been using ‘Martins’ instead of ‘Morgans’ for a while now, I just wanted to be someone different. The name ‘Morgans’ wasn’t just a name anymore, it was a whole history of my life. 

‘Sit down next to Sarah and you can talk?’ She said, smiling warmly. ‘I’ll leave you two alone.’

Once his mother had gone, he gradually loosened up. He sat in the arm chair in the corner of the room, but the silence was still present.

‘I know you don’t have a clue who I am, but seriously, I’m here….here for a good reason.’ I swallowed.

‘What do you want?’ Wayne asked, his voice cold and unfriendly.

‘I know Florence. She and I….we’re friends.’ 

Wayne stared at me in confusion, which honestly, was understandable. ‘You know Florence? What do you mean by know?’ Wayne almost hissed, his eyes piercing through me.

‘Like I said. We were friends.’ I replied softly, feeling just a little intimidated. ‘I’m not here to make things worse. I just want to help.’

‘How did you know her? She never even mentioned you.’

Okay, this was going to hurt him. I didn’t know if Florence had told Wayne this, but he needed to know, I couldn’t start helping Wayne by telling him lies. ‘Wayne, this might hurt okay? But you need to understand, how I stopped her…’

‘Stopped her from what?’ 

I took a deep breath, ‘F-Florence had phoned me. I’m a receptionist at a abortion clinic…’ I said, my voice so tiny it was barely audible.

‘Abortion clinic?’ Wayne repeated, his eyes wide in disbelief.

‘Now w-wait….wait okay?’

‘No! I-I can’t believe this!’ Wayne shouted aggressively, jumping out of the chair. ‘I can’t believe…’ He trailed off, as though he remembered something. Slowly, he retreated back to his seat, and pressed his head to his knees. ‘That…would have been my fault…’ He said, with guilt. ‘I told her to get rid of it. We weren’t on very good terms at the time…’

I frowned, trying to think this all through. ‘What happened then? You’re all alright now?’

‘Florence came back. She came to my house and tried to patch things up, she was so determined…’

‘But?’

‘I-I pushed her away…then my mum found out, and well she convinced me to go back to her. So I apologised and we made up when she was in hospital.’

I nodded, ‘Right, I see.’

‘But that still doesn’t explain why you’re here?’ His head snapped back to me, ‘Sorry for going off track.’

‘Don’t apologise.’ I held up my hand, ‘I’ve got plenty of time.’

Wayne returned a sympathetic smile. ‘I need to thank you.’

‘Why? What for?’

‘For stopping her. I was completely out of line, I was just shocked…’

‘I know the feeling.’ I sighed.

‘You do?’ Wayne’s voice was surprised, ‘How come?’

‘It’s ironic really. The reason I know how you two both felt is the reason why I stopped her. I had a baby at sixteen too, and well, all she needed was to have someone listen to her. She was sick of people telling her what to do. So we spoke on the phone a few times, and I told her everything what happened when I was pregnant and we became quite close.’

Wayne’s face had relaxed, as if he’d found some new sympathy for me. ‘Y-You had a child young too?’

I nodded, ‘I’m only thirty two. I had my daughter when I was sixteen, and she’s sixteen now. People I say I look younger though, which is weird.’

‘You don’t look thirty two.’ Wayne laughed, ‘You look about 26?’

‘Oh shut up!’ 

Wayne laughed even more, I was glad that he’d finally relaxed. ‘Anyway. Well I might as well tell you everything now too. My ex boyfriend, Stephenie’s dad. He isn’t a good person. He uh, abused me and kidnapped Steph when she was only weeks old. Then when I escaped, he murdered my mother. Which is why I use ‘Martins’ as my last name. My real last name is ‘Morgans…’

Wayne was staring, he was obviously listening intently. ‘Anyway, I told Stephenie that her father was dead. But Michael has never stopped trying to get to her, and he kidnapped her and made his nephew go out with her to help him kidnap her.’

‘She’s still with him.’ I finished, ‘And, well Florence was helping the police with the case and Michael didn’t like it. It’s very complicated.’

‘Michael has Florence too doesn’t he?’ Wayne breathed.

‘It’s just a guess.’ 

‘We need to tell the police…’ Wayne murmured, his face alight. ‘This is great news Sarah. Do you realise what you’ve done?’

‘Wayne, we can’t tell the police. I knew about Michael getting his nephew to help him get to Steph, he said he just wanted to be with her for a while. But then he took her and disappeared.’ 

‘That isn’t your fault. You won’t be in trouble.’ Wayne sat down on the coffee table, almost knocking over my tea, he took my hand. ‘We need to tell the police.’

‘We don’t have to. We can find her ourselves.’

‘You know where Michael is!’ Wayne roared, ‘Sarah, why didn’t you tell anyone!’

‘Because, I knew everyone would react just like you!’ I yelled back, ‘Listen, we don’t need to get the police involved. Not until the end. We find Steph, we find Michael and then we find Florence.’

‘How do we get hold of Steph? Sarah don’t you see the police would help us? We’d be much more stronger with them.’

‘No Wayne. We’d be slower. They’ll want to know everything, they’d ask questions. We don’t have time for that!’

‘Maybe they should ask questions….you seem like you know everything.’

‘Wayne. Trust me, I’m on your side.’

‘Then why haven’t you tried to find her before?’

‘I’ve just come out of hospital. I was in a car accident, in a coma for weeks…’

A silence passed, ‘Sarah, I’m sorry. You came here to help and I’m acting like a jerk.’

‘You didn’t know.’ I answered quietly, ‘Right, are you in or not?’ I slapped my hands together in conclusion.

‘I’m in.’ Wayne grinned, ‘Thank you so much Sarah.’

‘You’re welcome. One thing though, do you have a car?’

‘I’ll use my mum’s.’

‘Okay. Wayne?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Promise me something?’ I asked, not giving Wayne enough time to answer. ‘Always be there for Florence, never let her go. She really does love you, she needs you.’

Wayne nodded silently, we both rose from our seats and headed out into the hall. Wayne’s mum stood in the kitchen doorway, ‘You going?’

‘Mum, I’m taking the car.’

‘What? Where are you going?’ She asked, bewildered.

‘To find Florence.’ 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

Hasn't been edited. May be errors! Enjoy :)