Chapter 30—Missing

~~Geneva~~

I was still reeling from what Axel had said earlier, but I was doing my best to appear normal as we took our seats at the dinner table. Everyone was already seated. Eunice had placed all the fixing for tacos on the table, along with Spanish rice and refried beans. Taco night at the Frontiers’. The kids loved taco nights, and I looked forward to them too. Eunice made killer Spanish rice, and who didn’t love tacos?

I now understood what the saying looking at the world through rose-colored glasses meant. I had mine on right now. Everything was bathed in this warm pink light, and I wallowed in the sensation.

“Where’s Teagan?” Jock looked at the people sitting around the table, and his gaze fell on Teagan’s empty seat.

“She told Anna and Alice she was going to her friend Marnie’s to study for a test. She’ll eat dinner there, and they’ll bring her home. Isn’t that right, girls?” Esme said.

Both girls stared down at their plates and nodded without looking up.

“Girls? Isn’t that right?” Esme pushed them for a response, but they didn’t respond.

Something wasn’t right. Jock narrowed his gaze, so I wasn’t far off on my assessment of the situation.

“Is there something you aren’t telling us? Anna? Alice?” Jock said sternly.

All eyes at the table swiveled to the twins. They were staring at their plates and squirming.

“No. She’s with Marnie,” Anna insisted.

“So, if I call Marnie’s house, she’ll be there?” Jock asked, his expression skeptical.

“Maybe. They might be at the library,” Alice said.

“Okay, let’s eat. I’ll deal with her later,” Jock grumbled. We were all assuming the same thing. Teagan had snuck out to meet with this boy she had a crush on.

Anna looked ready to cry. “She made us promise not to tell,” she blurted out, tears streaming down her face. Alice started crying too.

“Tell what?” Jock was getting exasperated and losing patience quickly. I knew he was not happy with Teagan. She’d been a handful lately, and he struggled with the teenager.

Everyone else at the table was dead silent. We realized the seriousness of this matter and that something was very wrong.

“She’s gone,” Alice blurted out and burst into tears.

“What do you mean, she’s gone?”

“She went with Mom.”

“What the fuck?” Jock rose to his feet and pounded on the table. The twins cringed, and everyone else stared at him wide-eyed. Jock blinked a few times and drew a deep breath, visibly calming himself. “Why don’t you start from the beginning? How long ago was this?”

“When Esme and Eunice left to go to the store, and you had a team meeting. Teagan grabbed a bag and told us she’d be gone for a while. I begged her not to go. Mom didn’t come here to pick her up. Teagan walked down to the end of the block. We thought that was weird. She didn’t come in to say hi to the rest of us.” Anna’s eyes started to fill with tears, and Jock stood immediately and wrapped his arms around the twins.