✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

Chapter 488: Paternal Responsibility

Here's an extra chapter, dedicated to my newest Patreon supporter Santoro. I've picked a story at random to give your bonus chapter, as you didn't let me know which one you would prefer. But if you want to drop me a message before next month, you can choose whichever story you like. Thank you!

Nyx walked into her house, and the first thing she did was check the phone for new messages. She didn't know if she expected to get any, now that Adi had said she was happy with being a baby. But it had become a routine, and she could only hope that there was some new clue on the way, something that would help them to find her. If she stopped checking for messages, if she stopped opening every unexpected mail with hope in her heart, that would mean she'd already given up on finding her daughter. She hoped that day would never come, no matter how long they had to wait to find her. And even more, she hoped that Adi would be home again before too long.

Whether Adi was back to her usual self, or if the worst had happened and she was stuck as a baby forever. Or more likely she was stuck as a child, and it would take a few weeks to get her back to her usual self before they could ask what she really wanted. What her final answer would be, Nyx had no idea. But out of all the possibilities, the only thing Nyx really cared about was having her daughter home again.

Garfield was back home, stomping around in his room. She didn't want to bother him yet. She had a new kind of routine now, one that involved going over all the facts they had in her mind. If there was some incongruity, something they hadn't seen that could point her to Adi, then sooner or later she was sure she would see it.

The facts were sparse. They always were, but Nyx wouldn't let herself abandon hope. She had to keep on trying. Put the pieces together in every possible way, until one day they made a new shape. But this time she barely had five minutes of looking over the few documents they had regarding the trips to Kolechia – the visa receipts that Dean had left at Belle's home – before her phone rang again.

"Hello?" she answered slightly breathless, hoping against hope that it might be some kind of clue, or even Adi herself checking in, rather than one of her employers asking about the shifts she was free for.

"Nyxoriña!" a jovial voice almost laughed down the line. "It always makes my day to hear your voice. I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"Of course not," she forced herself to hide the telltale signs of annoyance in her voice. To her, his inability to notice when he was bothering someone was one of Aiden Boone's least admirable qualities. But she felt she owed him a little politeness, after the amount of money he'd spent to ensure Adi would be comfortable when she got to university, and antagonising him would only cause problems later. "I just got home from work. Did you want something?"

"Is Adelaide there?" he asked. "I'd like to speak to my daughter occasionally. It seems I've barely heard from her since you started doing this baby thing."

"She has a girlfriend now, Aiden." It wasn't technically a lie, though Nyx had no idea why that seemed important to her. She didn't want him to worry, and she was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to help them find Adi in any case. Certainly not throwing money at the problem and hoping that might help. "You can't expect her to spend as much time with us now that she has a life of her own."

"Has she moved in?"

"Not yet. But they want to spend time together. Whenever they can. Weren't we like that at their age?"

She blanked out most of what he was saying. It was meaningless small talk, that would have seemed so important once upon a time. She only started paying attention again when he got onto what seemed to be the purpose of this call: "There was a charge on my credit card this week."

"Oh?" It was the only response that made sense without more data.

"To Moistville University. I'm not sure why they're billing me now, because this isn't on the payment schedule you forwarded me. Can you check if that's an error?"

"Sure, sure," Nyx suddenly gave him her full attention. She had to keep on hoping that Adi would be going to university as planned, even if it seemed less likely by the day. Any kind of error in the application could have an impact on that, as well as her former husband's bank balance. "I'll need the full details of the payment, probably. Like the reference, date, and amount. It's probably just a clerical error."

"It's listed as 'Advance Administration Fee' and 'Advanced Registration Surcharge'," he said. "Whatever that means. Seventy-three ninety-nine. August twenty-eighth. No invoice, no more information. I called them up to check, figured it's a clerical error. I mean, what's advanced? Some of that stuff we're getting for her room I guess would count as beyond the ordinary. But I'm damn sure I already paid all that."

"You already called them?"

"Yeah. They said that where payment is authorised on a student's account, they only speak to the student. Like, I can contest it by saying Adelaide never told me about it, in which case she gets a fine and can't graduate until it's paid off. But apart from cutting her off, all communication about the account has to go through her."

"Typical bureaucracy," Nyx sighed. "They'll have to talk to me about it, I set everything up for her. Or I'll get her to call them when she gets home. Don't worry, it won't be a big deal. They'll probably send you a refund, or knock it off the outstanding balance for the room."

"It's not a problem, I just want to know. And can you ask her to call me as well? I want her to feel like a part of the family, and her girlfriend too. You sound busy, so I won't push any longer. But I want her to now that I'm waiting for a call."

Nyx didn't say anything. She wished she could tell him the truth, or that there was a better chance of him getting that call. But for that to happen, she thought, he should have tried being so attentive when he was still a part of the family himself.