Redamancy | Elena Gilbert

Chapter 5

She figured her father had been kidnapped.

Maybe Kathy wanted more than just the moonstone. Maybe she had lied to him. Maybe, just as Rosalind and the Pack members suspected, she was up to no good.

Her aunt understood that she wasn't feeling up for attending the Masquerade Ball. As soon as Rosalind was told she didn't have to go, she went to her father's room and spent the night searching through it, trying to find anything she could use to contact Kathy, or see where she was the night Mason spent with her. When nothing came up, she started to look for other devices of his that she might use to contact Kathy. It seemed her number had only been saved in his phone, which the kidnapper obviously had with them.

"Damn it," she muttered, when she was standing on a pile of clothes, and all the drawers were about to fall off their hinges. The floor was no longer visible because she'd just dumped everything out where she could easily look through it. When her father returned, he'd have to forgive her for it. No way was she going to clean this now.

She made for the police station in the middle of the night, and put in a missing person's report. Additionally, she had the officers set up a BOLO for Mason's truck, which she hadn't seen since before her father vanished.

"You ought to eat something," said Sheriff Forbes while she sat by the front desk, typing away on her laptop and trying to figure out what other steps she needed to take to find him. She couldn't exactly tell the police that she suspected a vampire had abducted her father. What could they possibly do against Kathy?

"I'm not hungry," said Rosalind, showing her a poster she'd put together. "I was thinking I could print these and put them up around town."

"Of course, if you'd like," said the Sheriff quietly.

"Do you not believe me?" asked Rosalind, noticing the look on her face. "Do you think I'm being dramatic, and making it up?"

"No, I just think maybe he might not be missing, and actually did go back to Florida. Why would he lie to your aunt?"

"The kidnappers probably sent that message! If he had to go back to Florida, he would tell me. I've been wanting to go home ever since we got here."

"Rosalind, take a deep breath—"

"Don't tell me to breathe!" she snapped, getting to her feet. "Don't tell me to breathe and calm down, because I can't be calm knowing something has happened to him! My mother left me, Sheriff Forbes. She left me with no explanation. I don't know what the hell was the point of her having me if she was just going to leave afterwards—"

"I understand that, however—"

"No, you don't!" she shrieked, ignoring the fact everyone was watching them. "My dad was the one who stayed. He had a choice, he could have done what many other people have done, and left me with his brother. He could have let Carol and Richard raise me. I could have grown up as Tyler's sister, not his cousin. He could have left me there and started a new life. I would have been cared for either way. But he stayed. He stayed and he learned to take care of me, he fought tooth and nail to have money to provide for me, and he has helped me manage every issue I've ever had in my life. He was the parent that stayed and it makes no sense that after nearly nineteen years, he'd just leave without telling me. My dad tells me everything. Every emergency. I have family in Florida. Maybe they're not biologically related to me, but they are family, so if anything happened to them, he would have told me. He would have at least said goodbye! I am telling you, something worse has happened to my father. He was kidnapped. He wouldn't leave me. He wouldn't."

The Sheriff sighed. "I am sorry, Rosalind. But we have nothing that suggests he was kidnapped. His truck is gone as well. He still replied to messages after you said he disappeared from the mansion. We will put out the announcements, but maybe the reason he hasn't called is because he's driving, and he shouldn't be driving and calling at the same time. Maybe he will contact you as soon as he's in Florida."