The Secret Obsession of the CEO
Chapter 159: Missing

Chapter 159: Missing

Julia hugged Skyla and picked her up. She was pretty shaken already because she couldn’t find her mother, and Derick’s screaming only scared the child. Claire ran out of the bathroom wiping her face.

"What happened?" She asked Julia as she didn’t want to ask Derick. He looked frighteningly mad.

"Sidney...Do you know where she is?" Julia asked. "That’s enough, Derick!" she shouted at Derick who was still mumbling curses under his breath.

"I don’t know. But...I’ll have a look around the house. She might be in the garden," Claire said. She kind of had an understanding seeing how angry Derick was and considering the secret they learned the previous day.

She hoped that Sidney didn’t leave.

Derick, getting told off by Julia, calmed down considerably. He went around the house looking for Sidney. With Rory also missing, he got more anxious. He didn’t want to look for Sidney. He wanted to find Rory first.

Sidney was not in the house. He went to her room to check and saw that she had packed her bags. Except for one unusable high heels, and some formal dresses, he couldn’t find any other stuff belonging to her.

She had left!

He called Lennon to ask if he knows anything. He knew they were talking the night before. He wondered if Lennon took Sidney with him which was highly unlikely. Also, it is necessary to inform the husband when the wife is missing.

Lennon was shocked when Derick informed him that Sidney might have left him. It was tough for Derick to bear the silence from the other end.

"She’s gone, Lennon. Sidney is gone. She packed her bag and left."

"So..." Lennon sighed after a very uncomfortably long silence.

"She didn’t tell you where she might be? Or left an email, perhaps?" Derick asked. It was not an unusual thing in his field. It is the basic question any officer would be asked.

"I didn’t mean to..." Derick didn’t want Lennon to think that he is being nosy. "I am asking this because... You should file a missing person report so that... It would be better that way."

If he doesn’t file a missing person’s report immediately, that would cause unnecessary drama and people might talk otherwise. The Roberts family does not need another drama right now.

"I should, right?" Lennon sounded so tired. "But..."

Derick waited for his reasoning.

"Can’t I wait for some more days...Two days? Maybe she will change her mind and return for her daughter."

Derick sighed. He knew what Lennon was meaning. He does not want to make it public that his wife left him. And he thinks that somehow, if he waits, everything will get better.

But it never will.

Sidney planned for leaving her husband and she didn’t even bother to take her child with her. There is no way she is going to return.

And Lennon should file a complaint. In this case, it is the right thing to do. And, who knows? It might protect him.

"I already am busy with my work and now she... I don’t even want her back..." Lennon sounded angry. As it is his right. He should be feeling all sorts of emotions. Betrayal does that to humans.

"But Skyla..." he sighed. His voice shook and he sounded like he was choking. There was silence for some time and then the composed voice of Lennon continued. "Isn’t there a rule that one cannot file a missing person report unless they are missing for 48 hours?" Lennon asked.

Derick cleared his doubt. "Actually, that is a myth. You can file a missing person’s report whenever you feel the need to it. In some cases, minutes make a difference and so~"

"Is that so?" Lennon sounded surprised. "Then..."

Derick heard another phone ringing on the other end.

"Ah, Derick... I have to answer this call. I’ll call you afterward," Lennon ended the call.

Derick with a sigh sat on the couch. The earlier Lennon files a complaint the better. Julia gave a bowl of ice cream to Skyla and that somehow composed that little girl. Even then, she didn’t look very enthusiastic. Derick could only imagine the plight that little girl is in.

Julia sat beside him. "What did he say?" she asked.

"I told him to file a complaint... She cannot just disappear," Derick said.

"What did he say? How did he sound?" Julia asked the next question.

Derick did not find her question very acceptable. "He sounded like a man who was already in a lot of stress because of his nephew getting told that his wife had eloped with her lover."

He glared at Julia. Julia smiled seeing Derick very angry.

"What did he say about Skyla?" she asked.

Derick’s heart skipped a beat. As a father, he should have been more worried about his daughter, right? He didn’t even ask about Skyla, and he didn’t want to talk to his daughter and assure her.

"I didn’t mention her and... He knows our family will take good care of her," he said only to make Julia silent.

He found something to be not right somewhere.

"In one night, Lennon, his wife, and Rory have left the house..." Julia shrugged and stood up.

"What are you implying?" Derick asked. He could not believe that Julia thinks that Lennon has something to do with the disappearance of Rory and Sidney.

"Just saying... Lennon and Sidney had a fight and now she went missing...? Isn’t that timing a bit suspicious? And there are reporters by our gates. No one saw three of them leaving?" Julia raised her brows. She then walked to the kitchen waving her hands as if she didn’t want to talk to him more.

Derick sank into his thoughts. He didn’t want to accept it, but Julia made sense. And it was then he remembered the commotion the dog caused in the middle of the night. There must have been something more going on.

Ah, Rory!

He might have appeared to be oblivious to what is happening around him, but he knew that Rory was getting very close with the guy who was staying in her grandma’s house.

Robert Milroy.

He knew about him and his boss. His boss is married to Jonathan Sinclair’s great-granddaughter. And that gives him the most powerful connection there is.

For Robert Milroy to stay in Agnes Roberts’ house and for Rory to get closer to him... There should be more to it. Rory must have asked his help to evade the reporters and leave the town.

Derick decided to talk to Robert Milroy, but he heard a knock at the door. He walked to the door to see the local sheriff.

"We have to question Aurora Roberts. Is she here?" the sheriff asked.

Derick could only sigh. "Is this about the bodies found?" he asked.

The sheriff shrugged. There is an enmity between the cops and the Roberts family. And that, along with the age-old enmity between the cops and the feds should have contributed to how the sheriff ignored him.

"She is missing," Derick said and that alerted the Sheriff. He obviously was not planning on believing him.

"Is she in her grandmother’s house?" the sheriff turned to leave.

"No, sheriff. She is missing with her baby. In the morning when we looked for her, she was not in the house. She might have left in the middle of the night."

Although Derick didn’t want to waste time, he did his due diligence. Rory’s disappearance should be reported too.

"She didn’t tell you where she is leaving?" the sheriff asked. "And do you have any clue where she might be?"

"Probably to LA?" Derick poured a glass of whiskey and offered it to the sheriff.

The sheriff shook his head. "I’m on duty. So you are saying Rory went to LA? How do you know? Did she call you?" he asked.

"No, I am not sure where she is. But she should be there. It’s my guess." Derick gulped down the glass of whiskey in one gulp.

The sheriff rubbed his belly in deep thoughts and then he left fixing his trousers. Derick could see that the sheriff was not convinced by his words that Rory left the town. But that is the truth if anyone believed it or not.

Derick called his partner to have a look out for all the vehicles owned by Lennon Roberts and report to him immediately.

It is possible that Rory left with Lennon if Lennon left for LA. But why didn’t he mention Rory?

Ah, right? I informed him of much more devastating news.

Derick still leaned towards trusting Lennon more.

-----

Rory stood in front of that big building that was just a rectangle with many glass windows on it. She couldn’t understand why government buildings are so boring looking. A little more effect could be put to make it look visually appealing.

She fiddled with her fingers. She should not be thinking about the looks of a building when she is here for a much more important thing.

She is currently in front of the building where they are holding Liam. Liam’s lawyer said that he is near and she was waiting for his arrival.

She wanted to meet Liam and talk to him.

She saw Laura Brown’s entire family standing on the stairs of the building surrounded by reporters. She knew that if she went there, she would be bombarded with questions.

She was afraid to face them.