Finding Lika

Missing Person

"Are you out of your bloody mind, Henry?"

Henry averted his gaze from his brother, Chris, who was staring at him like he was an idiot. Standing next to him, Morgan was shaking his head.

"You fool. Have you not ever considered that maybe someone was trying to pin that on her?" questioned the military man, "Bruh. Think about it. It's Lika. That girl couldn't even hurt a fly. Do you really think that she is capable of poisoning someone, let alone poisoning her best friend's fiancee?"

"The evidence speaks for itself," Henry argued, his jaw set defensively.

"What evidence? Those are circumstantial," countered Morgan, his expression baffled as he looked at his little brother's face, as if he had grown a set of antlers on his head.

"She never liked Annika and I knew it–"

"–So what? So she went ahead and poison her? Are you even listening to yourself?" Chris wondered, dumbfounded. "Look. I don't even like you right now but I don't try to poison you either now, do I?"

Henry glared at his brothers. "You both are not being objective."

Morgan shook his head, lifting his hands in disbelief.

"Wow, Henry. You know what? Since we're passing judgment around, I think I'll give you a piece of my mind," Chris stood up from the sofa and looked at Henry accusingly, "You've changed ever since being with Annika. Not for the better. Now I don't care who you choose to be with, it's your life, but she has turned you into something you're not. Turning your back on your own best friend?" Chris scoffed, "I don't even know you right now. You've become a royal dick–"

"–Christian Kingsley!" scolded Mel to her son upon hearing the strong word, glaring at him warningly, in which the guilty grown man immediately lifted his hands in surrender and mumbled a 'sorry mum' much like when he was a kid. He sat back down.

Seeing the daggers in his mother's eyes, Henry didn't even have the chance to fight Chris back and chose to look away angrily from his brother.

Morgan, the oldest and probably the wisest of the Kingsley bothers, chose to breach the subject with a different approach. His tone was calm when he uttered his thoughts.

"Henry. Answer this question honestly," Morgan began, "Did you even give Lika a chance to explain or defend herself when you hear from the chef, or did you just explode and send her away?"

The rest of the Kingsleys didn't need the youngest brother to speak his answer. The look on his expression said it all. David Kingsley, their father and the head of the family, adjusted his glasses and rested his elbows on his knees as he folded his hands together.

"Son. A friend whose loyalty is steadfast and tested with time is a treasure. Only one of these three things are possible now," David said in a slow, calm voice that always managed to draw his family's attention to him. The man with the greying hair lifted a finger; a fatherly expression on his aged face as he locked eyes with his youngest son, "Door number one, you could be making a grave mistake by being wrong and violently lose an important friend–the kind you may never find again for the rest of your life. Door number two," he lifted a second finger, "You might be right, that by some weird logic, Lika did poison your fiancee. You could still forgive her, if you want, and keep a really good friend. Or door number three, you don't give her a chance and lose her forever."

Henry was silent as he let his father's words sink in. Somewhere in the background, Jean was shuffling and opened the fridge, looking for a dessert to ease her first trimester cravings. They ignored her, too caught up in Henry's predicament.