Instead of going back to Harry's, Tom drove them to their favorite lounge so they would hang out like they usually did in the past. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))
"So? What did Mia say?" Tom asked, wanting to know the outcome of Harry's discussion with Mia, since it had been their joint decision to help her.
"She is very scared. I think she would rather remain in hiding than face her husband and family again," Harry said and Tom sighed.
"Maybe she needs time. Until then we will wait. We can't help someone who isn't willing to be helped, can we?" Tom asked and Harry nodded as a waiter came to attend to them.
"While we wait, I will have someone look into her husband in the mean time to find any speck of dirt on him. We will need all the dirt we can find to make a mess of him," Harry said after the waiter had left with their order
"That's your area of expertise so I will leave it to you. But I have no doubt that finding dirt on him would be easy. Any man that can assault his wife to the point that she has to fake her own death in order to escape him, is trash," Tom said with disgust.
"You are right about that. By the way, did you hear from Philip?" Harry asked and Tom chuckled.
"I did. He called to inform me about his proposal. I can't believe he proposed to her already," Tom said and Harry grinned.
"He wants me to be his best men, since he met her thanks to me," Harry said and Tom nodded.
"Yeah. He asked me first to be sure it would be okay to ask you. Said he didn't want me to feel like you were cheating on me. I also agreed to be one of his groomsmen," Tom said and Harry laughed.
"That's cool. I'm proud of him. He reminded me that we were yet to hang out together as promised, and he suggested we do so before his wedding. I owe him that," Harry said and Tom shrugged.
"We can do that after you return from your vacation. Speaking of which...." Tom said and glanced at his phone when it started ringing.
He picked up his phone from the table and raised a brow when he couldn't recognize the number which was calling.
"Hel...."
"Hey, Tom! It's Lucas. Don't say anything yet. Lucy isn't close to you, is she?" Lucas said before Tom could say anything.
"Oh, Hey! No, she isn't. Why? And why are you calling from a local line? Are you in the country?" Tom asked curiously since the number which had called him wasn't a foreign line.
"You are quite observant. I just came in for Sony's wedding. I didn't tell them I would be coming. I wanted to surprise them all, so please keep it to yourself until they see me. I called to know if Lucy's apartment is available or if she is there at the moment. I wanted to be sure whether I should go to the hotel or go stay at her place," Lucas asked first, since he didn't want to ruin the surprise.
"No, no one is there. Lucy isn't here either. She is at Bryan's with Sonia. Why don't you come over to my place instead? I will have them prepare a room for you...."
"My parents mentioned that they will be at your place when they arrive tomorrow. In as much as I'm here to surprise them, I don't want to be around them all the time. I need my space. Also, I'm not alone," Lucas said and Tom raised a brow.
Even though he wanted to ask Lucas who his companion was, he didn't since it wasn't exactly his business and he could wait to see whoever it was the next day.
"Alright. You know where to find the spare key, right?" He asked and Lucas nodded.
"Sure. Thanks. Don't forget to keep this a secret," Lucas reminded him before hanging up.
"That was Lucas, Lucy's twin brother. He just came in for the wedding but doesn't want Lucy and the others to know he is around. He wants to surprise them," Tom informed Harry who was sipping on his glass of wine which had been served while Tom was on the phone.
"Oh, great! For a moment I thought it was one of your exes. You know, they just keep popping up," Harry joked, and chuckled when Tom glared at him.
"That's not funny," Tom said irritably as he picked up his own glass.
"Really? I thought it was," Harry said, still chuckling.
"I guess I will be meeting my second cousin soon. Interesting," Harry said and Tom sighed.
"Once again, I've forgotten that you're both related. Why do I keep forgetting?" Tom asked and Harry shrugged.
"Don't worry. I don't mind. I plan to keep reminding you that your girlfriend is my cousin," Harry said with a grin.
"I would have handled it for you. It's not too late to call the police now. You know what? I will do it if you can't. I will make an anonymous call to the police. I will inform them that you are my neigbor and I just saw someone strange breaking into your apartment when you're not there. That way, if anything goes missing, he will pay for it," Lucy said and Amy bit the nail of her right tiny finger as she thought about it.
"Are you sure that is a good idea? Do you think that is going to work?" Amy asked, unable to think straight at the moment since she was at her wit'a end already.
"Yes. If the police calls you, you can tell them what happened and have them protect you from him. Also, you can stay at my place until he has been taken care of," Lucy said and Amy sighed.
"Alright. Thank you. Thank you very much, Lucy," Amy said, feeling really grateful that she had Lucy to rely on at the moment.
"I'm going to hang up now, and do the anonymous call. Call me if you need anything else," Lucy said before hanging up.
Amy sighed as she looked around the apartment which she had been to twice, yet she felt so completely lost standing there in that moment.
Tears gathered in her eyes as she went to sit on the couch, and she drew up her knees and hugged them to herself as she cried, seeking comfort even if it meant drawing it from herself.
She couldn't believe that her once perfectly calm life had been thrown into disarray all because she had been trying to be a good friend to her dying best friend.
Everything was a mess and she had no idea where or how to begin to fix it. Maybe she should have listened to Lucas and did all she could to dissuade Miley from her plans instead of encouraging her as she had done only to mess up her own life.
She knew she probably shouldn't be feeling so regretful when she had done everything with good intention for Miley, but of what use was her good intentions now when she was the one suffering the consequence of their wrong decision all alone. She knew that even Miley would feel sorry and regretful if she knew all that was going on.
She didn't know how long she sat there, but she raised her head when she heard a sound outside the door as though someone was trying to open the door with a key, and her first thought was that Malone had followed her there, but she shook her head.
It wasn't Malone. She knew he had not chased after her and he definitely wouldn't know she was at Lucy's place.
Perhaps it was Lucy coming to check on her? She mused as she rose and quietly listened since she could hear voices. Male voices.
"I thought you said he said she isn't here? Why does it seem like someone is inside? The light is on inside and it seems like the door is locked from inside," Amy heard someone say, and her heart skipped a beat.
Burglars? Did she come to Lucy's house on the night her house was to be broken into? Amy mused, cussing her bad luck, and without thinking she switched off the light.
"Let's leave then," Amy heard the other person say.
"Leave? No way! We are here already. Let's just make our presence known and go in before she goes to bed. She just turned off the lights," the first person said, and by now Amy's heart was beating loud enough for her to ear.
It seemed like the burglars were determined to break in. Well, it wasn't going to be on her watch. She might have run away from Malone leaving her house unprotected, she couldn't do the same to Lucy's house.
Amy quickly dimmed her eyes as she tried to find her way to the kitchen in the darkness since she remembered her way around the apartment from the time she had brought Lucy home and prepared breakfast for her.
Her heart was beating very first as she turned on the front torchlight of her phone and used her hands to cover it so they wouldn't see the light but it would be enough for her to look around the kitchen.
The first weapon she saw was Lucy's nonstick frying pan and she picked it up and turned off the flashlight as she returned to the living room.
She almost jumped out of her skin when they men standing outside suddenly began to knock violently.
"Who is in there? Open up!" The first burglar said, and Amy rolled her eyes as she held the pan up.
Why would a burglar in his right senses expect her to open up? If he couldn't break in, shouldn't he just leave? She mused.
"Don't scare her. Lucy, we know you are in there, open up," the second burglar said and Amy cocked her head to the side at the familiar voice.
"Now you are ruining the surprise. You are no fun," the first burglar said and Amy frowned.
Surprise? What was going on.
"Maybe she has gone to bed. We should call her," Lucas suggested, and this time Amy realized whose voice it was and her heart skipped a beat.