"I think I remember the name of the man,"

Samuel hesitated before knocking on the door for the second time. The door finally opened, revealing the same woman he had rejected.

"You came back," she said to him and he frowned.

"Trust me it wasn't my intention," he muttered to himself and she raised a brow in curiosity. "Well can I come in?"

Her reply was to leave the door ajar and walk in. She folded her hands under her breast as her fingers tapped on her elbow, nervously.

"Why did you come back? Didn't you find out who it was?" She forced a smile.

He seemed to notice this nervousness. He planted his hands into his pocket and gave her a reply. "No, I didn't. That's why I'm here." He said to her.

She nodded in understanding. "Is that the only reason why you came?" She asked with the little hope.

"Should there be any other reason?" He asked with his brow raised in confusion. She sucked in a breath before clearing her throat.

"Dawn-"

"Zachary Phillips" She said to him. "His name is Zachary, as I told you before." Samuel walked closer to her now, eyes watching her as he thought.

He asked, "What did she tell you in particular?"

"She didn't say much that day, she just said that someone she really liked and haven't seen for quite a while came back asking after her, and she said his name was Zachary."

"What else?"

"She said something about her affection towards him since college but he was out of the city the minute she told him of this brewing affection." Dawn shrugged. "Later he was back asking after her and then, they become a thing."

Samuel nodded. This meant two things. One being that, Samson was the other man and the other, this Zachary must have had something to do with her disappearing.

"Does-"

"That's all I know, I need you to leave now, I have somewhere to be." Her eyes darted to the floor when she said this. He nodded and retreated in his steps slowly.

"Thank you so much, Dawn." He said before finally turning and walking out of the door.

When the door closed, she sat down stealthily, hands under her chin for some seconds before turning to stare at the door.

What was she even thinking, that he would visiting with the intention of seeing her?

"Dawn you're so stupid!" She hushed to herself.

---

"Thank you for the ride." Thea said. "Oh my gosh I got your chair all soaked."

"It's not problem actually," he said to Thea.

"Thank you once again, I'm sorry for the inconveniences." Thea said to him.

"Not at all, you should be bothered about yourself, you might come down with a cold and that's only because you didn't think to buy an umbrella when you saw it was about raining." He said.

"About that, I just got so occupied with things at the hospital that I didn't even see the weather change." He forced a smile.

"Fine then..."

"Thea," she replied. "Thea Kennedy,"

He thought for a moment. "Wait a minute," Thea almost rolled her eyes. "'The' Thea Kennedy?" The man asked in curiosity.

"Yes,"

"I'm sorry for whatever happened that day." He said sincerely.

"No need to be," she mustered a smile. "Those days are gone now, I have better ones ahead." She told him and he nodded in agreement.

"That's good to know, I'm Zachary Phillips by the way."

---

The manager sat before Ashton who inturn, leaned into the table.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yes," Ashton said. "I'm here in respect to the ongoing case. I need to know everything that happened that night."

"Why are you involved? You are not the police," he told Ashton.

"No, I'm not. But the lady whom this is concerned about is my sister. I am sorry that I didn't introduce myself properly, I am Ashton Ryder."

"I- I'm sorry, I should have thought before speaking. I was a fool to not match the last name properly." He stuttered.

Ashton waved it off. "I need to know what happened that night. I need to know everything you saw, I need you to help me." Ashton said.

"Fine. The lady was here for only a short time. Every minute, she kept checking her time as if she was in a hurry. When I came out after a while, she was on the phone. Then she suddenly stood up and left."

Ashton cursed silently. "That's what you said before. I need something that'll help me out here, didn't you see anything or hear anything?"

"That's all I know. She was unease Mr Ryder, as if she had somewhere to go or someone she wanted to-" he paused and Ashton raised a brow in curiosity.

"When I saw her stand, she was looking outside the door, staring at her something,"

"Or someone," Ashton added.

"I mean there was a guy standing outside. Now that you mentioned it, i think she was going to meet him but I'm not too sure."

Ashton bit his lower lips in hesitation. "And this guy, did you see him clearly?"

"It was night time Mr. Ryder, I've told you what I know about it and that's all."

"Please just give me something, anything I can work with. Like the color of his hair, is he tall or average heightened. Is he-"

"He isn't a Blondie for sure. With the color of the night, I can tell but I can guess it's a dark colored hair. Perhaps-"

"Do you still have the recordings of that night? Perhaps your security camera caught something." Ashton asked hopefully.

"Sure, you can come have a look if you want." The manager told him.

---

"I've told you to stay away from me. Why do you keep coming back anyways?" The brunette snapped.

"Alicia, I'm sorry. I just need us to sit and talk about this calmly." Austin said.

"There is nothing more to talk about Austin," the woman said to him. "I can't afford people knowing about what happened that night," she said to him before turning to leave.

"Wait!" His voice as cool as ice said to him making her still immediately. "If you do not listen to what I have to say, I'll let everyone know what really happened Alicia. I'll be here tomorrow, be here too. We have a lot to discuss!" He told her before turning around and walking away.

She turned too, slowly only to see his figure slipping away to the corner of the hall way and disappearing from sight. She gulped, resisting the tears that threatened to slip from her eyes. It was then she came to make a proper decision. Before tomorrow's night, she would be gone from this city. She didn't even know why she never did anyways.

---

It was the second time that her fingers froze when she wanted to ring Ash. She wanted to get the courage and say something to him. Maybe make him understand what really happened that day but she couldn't find any courage. Her fingers just seem to freeze anytime she got near his name.
Her mother wanted so badly for her to get back with Ashton and for goodness sake, she wanted it too. She wanted it, probably more than her mother even did.

She thought of trying for the third time but her phone rang instead. Her mother's doctor was calling.

"Good evening doctor," she said. "Did something go wrong?"

The next words she heard weren't comforting at all. Her fingers went limp allowing the phone to drop from her hands and crash into the floor.

"Miss Kennedy?" The voice rang at the other end of the phone frantically, urging her to say something. The lady rather curled herself into a ball and wept.