Chapter 2

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The phone rang.

Owen glanced at the clock. 10:44pm. Who the heck is calling at the office at this hour?

"Hello?", he said into the phone.

"Owen. Thank God I got the correct number."

"Who is this?"

"It's Amy. I found Alice. She's at the Central Hospital in St. Johns."

Alerted, Owen sat straight in his chair. The exhaustion he felt ten seconds ago from the long hours at work disappeared at the mentioning of Alice.

"What? What happened?" He couldn't hide the anticipation in his voice.

"I don't know. A nurse who used to work here recognized her and called me but didn't say much expect that they just got her in."

"I'm going there. I'll call when I get something."

And he hung up. Worry, concern and relief washed over his face.

Nineteen months! Nineteen months and no word from her. He had been so consumed in getting the company back on its feet that for a while he had forgotten about Alice's departure from Lily Valley.

Owen pushed back his chair, snitched his coat from the hanger and strode out.

* * * *

Indecisive, Owen paced outside the hospital room where the nurse informed him Alice lied in a bed. He's been going back and forth on along the same tiles for half hour. All the way to St. John's, he wondered what he expected to find. The doctors had told him she was found at the bottom of a staircase in a bar. Most likely she only tumbled a few flights because even if she hit her head she had no injures except for small light bruises. But beyond her little accident, he was still uneasy about facing her. What happened to her? Why did she leave?

He had so many questions. So he did the one thing he could to answer them and opened the door.

"Oh goodness", came the female voice from the bed. "What are you doing here?"

Owen stopped at the door and took in what was in front of him. Did he get the wrong room? This wasn't Alice he last saw at Ethan's funeral. Alice had natural dark brown shoulder length hair. The woman before him had ashy blonde long hair. Alice had green eyes. Then so did the woman. She had Alice's pouty mouth and small nose as well. She even had lice's slender build. But somehow she didn't seem like Alice.

"So?", said the woman with annoyance in her tone. "Did you come all this way to stand there and stay mute?"

Owen steps closer to her bed. Yes, those eyes were definitely Alice's. The same eyes Ethan had.

"Alice. How are you?", he inquired gently.

"How do I look? I look fine, right?" The sarcasm and cynicism she spoke with took Owen by surprise. Alice he knew was always nice in her conversations.

"You're in a hospital. I don't know. Are you fine?"

"I am fine", she assured him definitely.

He was told she was unconscious for hours. She seemed pretty much awake then. And the foreign venom in her voice was definitely working fine.

"Whatever happened to you?" He had to ask. He never saw Alice angry, much less this worked up and annoyed.

"What happened to me?"

"Are you going to keep answering me with a question?"

Alice huffed out a long breathe. "If you came here to lecture me, visitor's hours for you is over."

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