Double Life

24

Patrick

Pulling up into my driveway I find Marie going back and forth with multiple boxes and bin bags making me extremely confused, we didn't agree to move away our plan was to say here.

"What's going on?" I say "We're moving" Marie grumbles making me even more confused. " Where's Riley?" I ask not seeing any of her stuff anywhere "She's gone back to her mum" Marie mumbles. Surely Riley would of told me if she was leaving, right?

Marie gets more and more frustrated with every question I ask so I decide it's best to be quiet and do whatever she wants. I check Riley's room to see what she had taken and it was completely empty, I guess Marie was telling the truth.

The new house is only a town over so I'm hoping I can still see my two little girls. I absolutely hate that we've drifted apart but that's mainly my own fault so I can't blame Riley or Emily. The new house is also smaller the the last, there was no extra bedrooms just mine and Marie's.

"Where will Emily and Riley stay when they come round?" I ask Marie only gaining an eye roll "are you gonna answer me?" I continue getting more and more frustrated. Marie huffs and snarls "like I'd allow them to come over" which left me gob smacked "they're MY children, it's MY decision when they come round not yours" I say raising my voice the longer I spoke causing Marie to stop what she's doing and freeze. I've never spoken to her like that but her shit is really driving me up the wall now.

—

I send multiple messages to Riley to check in on her however she doesn't reply which isn't like her at all. I message Emily so she could give me an update as to how Riley is settling in which results in Emily calling me.

"Hey Dad, Riley never came back here" Emily starts "Did she tell you she was moving back with us?" Emily continues. "No Riley didn't but Marie did tell me" I inform Emily "I'll see if I can get a hold of Riley and figure out what's going on" Emily sighs "Alright talk soon, love you" I reply "love you too dad" Emily says ending the phone call.

It doesn't even take Emily 15 minutes to text me saying no one's heard or seen Riley for almost two days now. The same day we moved house, without telling Marie I grab my keys and leave going to the main places Riley could be.

The first place was James' house which he lets me know that Marie also lied to him about Riley's whereabouts, James also told me that they have this special spot they go too and he toke me there. We searched for almost 2 hours before giving up and heading elsewhere. The next stop was The Next Step, we find Miss Kate inside who tells us that she hasn't seen Riley since the first dance practice since regionals so that's yet another dead end.

It's pitch black outside so we almost completely give up our search for today however one of Riley's friends, I think it was Sasha suggested we try and track where Riley's phone is  which should lead us right to my daughter.

Riley location isn't even far from here it's two towns over in a town I'm not familiar with. I get a wave of relief over my body, we're a step closer to finding Riley.

Why didn't we think of this sooner.

"First thing tomorrow morning we're going to the police, they can help us find Riley safely and quickly" I tell everybody. "We can all meet there at around 8am but don't tell anyone about this I don't want Riley getting hurt" I continue making everybody agree with me.