On the other hand, as Lance navigated the road, he kept glancing at his girlfriend Kitty, who was silently staring at her cellphone. She had been quiet for a while now, as if something was bothering her.
"Are you okay?" Lance asked, concern evident in his voice.
Kitty shook her head, not looking away from the screen. "I don't know. I can't explain it, but I feel like something's off. I've been feeling anxious since this afternoon."
Since they left school earlier, Kitty had been unusually quiet, which was different from the usual. Lance had gone to pick her up so they could have dinner together, just like they planned. Tomorrow they'd both be busy, so they decided to spend time together tonight.
"You're acting weird, babe," Lance remarked, trying to lighten the mood, though his concern was clear in his eyes.
Kitty suddenly turned to look at him as if she had remembered something. "Wait. Are Papa D and Gel okay?"
Lance raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I guess? Insan didn't mention anything to me. Why do you ask?"
"It's been two days now and I haven't gotten a text from Gel," Kitty replied, worry evident in her voice. "No matter how busy she is, she never forgets to check in with me, even if it's just a simple 'hi.'"
Lance paused for a moment, glancing at the dashboard as if searching for an answer. "Hmm, maybe she's just really occupied. Insan didn't even come home to the condo. He said he stayed overnight at his groupmate's house. Maybe Gel's doing the same?"
Kitty nodded, but it didn't calm her at all. Her chest felt tighter.
"I called her earlier, but her phone's off. That's not like her, especially with her parents being abroad. She's always reachable."
What they didn't know was that Angela's parents had unexpectedly returned from abroad because of her mother's deteriorating health. However, instead of resting, Angela's mother collapsed as soon as they arrived home.
Everything happened quickly. Angela had just received a call from her father while she was on her way to the library to study for a quiz later that afternoon. But before she could reach the library, she overheard Darius's voice—along with Jenna's.
The words she overheard felt like a series of tiny needles stabbing at her chest. That's when the questions, pain, and doubts began. She never expected that in a single day, her trust in her boyfriend would shatter, and her entire world would be turned upside down.
She didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to her friends. Everything happened so fast—from discovering the truth about her boyfriend, receiving the call from her father, to Clark arriving to drive her to the hospital, and even Clark's parents helping with the emergency airlift of her mother to the U.S.
Clark—her classmate who she had been avoiding for so long. He had once been the cause of a major rift between her and Darius after someone mentioned that Clark liked her. Since then, Angela had been avoiding him to prevent further jealousy from Darius. But now, when he suddenly appeared in front of her with a concerned look in his eyes, she had no choice but to accept his help.
"Thank you so much for your help. If I had driven myself earlier, I don't know what would have happened to me," Angela whispered as they waited in the emergency room. For the first time after everything, she chose to draw strength from the person she had tried to forget.
Meanwhile, Lance couldn't stand the quiet unease from Kitty any longer. "Do you want us to call Insan?" he offered. "Maybe he has an idea where Gel is."
Kitty immediately grabbed her phone and called Darius. Several rings... no answer.
"Voicemail," Kitty muttered, closing her eyes in frustration. "Lance, something's really wrong."
It didn't take long before Darius called back. His voice was low, as if he, too, was carrying something heavy. "I haven't heard from Angela in two days. Not a single text. I was actually planning to visit her tomorrow at the condo."
Saturday, 8:00 AM
Darius woke up early the next day. Despite lacking sleep, he forced himself to get up. He headed to Angela's favorite fast food place to buy breakfast—something he had gotten used to whenever he visited her condo.
When he arrived, the unit was eerily quiet. No sign of anyone. He knocked gently, several times, but no one answered. He tried using the spare key Gel had given him, but it wouldn't open the door. He called Angela—her phone was still off.
"She's not like this," he whispered to himself, holding his phone.
He sat in the hallway, drinking his coffee, trying to calm himself. But as time passed, his anxiety only deepened.
10:00 AM
Darius drove to Angela's house. His anxiety intensified when he saw the empty garage. No cars. No response to his calls.
In his last attempt, he went to their family-owned pharmacy to ask about her, but the employees' answer shocked him.
"They haven't returned from abroad yet, sir. We haven't heard anything from Ma'am and Sir."
"Impossible," Darius whispered, his palm tightening into a fist. Something cold ran through him.
He immediately called Kitty and Lance to share what he had found out.
Monday, 2:00 PM
Still no news. They began asking Angela's classmates. According to them, she was last seen on Wednesday morning. She attended her first class, but they didn't see her in the afternoon.
No goodbyes. No trace. Like she disappeared into thin air.
They tried talking to some professors. No one reported Angela absent. No drop, no email, nothing.
Darius, despite the pain, began to blame himself. "If only I had talked to Angela sooner... if only I had been honest with her..."
But there was nothing left for him to do except sit in silence.
That evening, at a bar.
Night after night, he drowned himself in alcohol. He silently sat at the bar, waiting for an answer from the silence. But one night, in his drunken state, he didn't notice he had bumped into a table of men.
"Hey, what's your problem?" one of them shouted, as two other guys, both smelling of alcohol, approached.
In an instant, Darius was on the floor, bleeding.
Early Tuesday morning
He was hospitalized with a sprained left arm and bruises all over his face. His parents were furious. They didn't wait for an explanation—they immediately pressed charges against those involved. But more than that, they moved quietly behind the scenes.
Systematically, they tried to track down Angela's family. But even they failed.
It seemed as though Angela's entire family had vanished without a trace.
And at this point, one thing was clear:
Something had happened to Angela.
And none of them knew when or how they would find her.