Bound by Tension
72

~ HAMES ~

"You're just returning?"

"Yes, sir." The stupid driver that had driven Imogen had finally arrived but not with her.

"And where is Imogen?"

She made me drive for a really long time then asked me to stop the car in the middle of nowhere, no matter how many times I refused. She said no one should look for her there because she was going to go further away." "And why are you just returning?"

"She said I shouldn't return home until today. I tried to follow her but lost track of her. I promise it isn't my fault. I also have no idea where she is."

"Please send me the address of where you had dropped her off at, I'll send it to the police."

"Okay, sir, I'll try my best to recall the place." He nodded then left my sight.

I returned into the building, and dropped myself on a sofa.

"Won't you at least have something to eat?" Mom asked, her tone was soaked in worry.

I simply shook my head, resting my head on the arm of the couch and the back of my palm on my forehead.

"You have to eat, Hames." Amanda insisted.

"Who knows what's happening to Imogen? It has been a week now but there's no sign of her."

"You've filed a missing report, right?" Amanda asked.

"Of course I have." I didn't mean to sound rude but it came out rudely out of frustration.

"Kade, why aren't you saying anything? Shouldn't you persuade him to eat or make him not act so lifeless?" Mom asked him with furrowed eyebrows.

Kade cast us a glance and returned his gaze to the football match he was watching. "He's facing the consequences of his actions." He spat.

"This isn't the time to be rude or blame anyone for anything. If he continues this way, he might lose his life and we don't want that to happen. You should understand him better and help him out." Amanda frowned. "Understand who? He's an idiot," he rolled his eyes, finally resting his gaze on us. "If only he had taken my advice to discuss this with the person he calls his wife, it might not have turned out to be such a mess.

"He was foolish to have kept the secret from Imogen, didn't bother to let her know the true story behind it and now she's missing, and she's pregnant. It's all his fault."

"I was going to tell her after returning from Canada but I figured out she's pregnant. I didn't want to hurt her feelings and cause any harm to our unborn child—"

"So you didn't think she was ever going to replace out? Now she's more hurt. She might've forgiven you if she knew the truth from you and not some gold-digger."

"I knew she was going to replace out so I wanted to tell her after we had bought stuff for our baby. I planned a nice dinner to make her happy then let her know in the most harmless way but suddenly Samantha, who was supposed to be in Canada, appeared and said total nonsense. Can you believe she made Imogen believe I spent the entire 1 month in Canada just to spend quality time with her?" My face rumpled in irritation. "That's very much expected." He replied.

"She made Imogen think I cheated on her,"

"Uh... if only you had kept it in your pants, you wouldn't have cheated on your 'wife' and wouldn't be in this mess." Amanda rolled her eyes.

"I didn't cheat on her!" I snapped, sitting up straight. "You should all know that I'd rather die than cheat on my woman." I clenched my fists.

"That's coming from the same man who has two children with the same woman." Kade chuckled, returning his gaze to the football match. "Oh yeah, after his marriage with his dream Queen." "It's not funny at all. Samantha is simply cunning."

"The DNA test results proves you're the father."

"I wasn't conscious, I didn't cheat on Imogen. Everything is a misunderstanding." I jerked to my feet.

"Please calm down. Where are you going?" Amanda asked.

"I'm going crazy!" I hollered. "Imogen and our child, missing, how can I ever be calm?"

"I can never cheat on her." Mom scoffed, rising to her feet as well. "I don't like this mess you've put yourself in and I'm definitely mad at Imogen for being so stubborn. How could she just leave?" "Mia, Nikita and Lila don't know where she is either." I threaded a hand through my black hair.

"Exactly! If anything happens to my only legitimate grandchild, you and your silly wife would pay for it really badly. Amanda, are you still coming along to Mr. Briggs?"

"Uh... yeah." She clutched her clutch and rose to her feet as well.

"Kade, please do anything you can to help him out and talk some sense into him so he doesn't do any stupid thing in the future."

"There's nothing to say to him to fix anything. He didn't take my advice so I'll shut my mouth when he's facing the consequences."

Mom gazed at him without a word then sighed and left with Amanda.

***

~ LILA ~

"I promise Imogen isn't here." I said to Kade who was on the other end of the line.

"Are you sure you're not lying to me?"

"I'm not. Please believe me, we're also damn worried about her and it's making Mom sick. I'm so confused."

"So do you have any idea where she can possibly be? Hames is going crazy. He hardly eats anything, he isn't sleeping, he's constantly leaving the house to search for her, he isn't working at all, he's missing out on a lot of things. I pray he doesn't die soon because she's away from him."

"I have absolutely no idea where Imogen is."

I heard him sigh. "Okay. If she comes to you, please promise me you'll let me know."

"I promise I will."

"Thank you so much, you're the best."

"You're welcome."

There was silence between us. I wondered if he ended the call but I could hear him breathing.

"I hope you'll accept my request for a nice and romantic dinner after Imogen returns." He finally broke the silence.

"Uh... I don't think so. Bye." I quickly ended the call before hearing any of his repeated words of how much he wanted me, forgetting that he had a crazy girlfriend.

The doorbell started ringing after I dropped the phone. I wasn't expecting anyone, was I?

I sauntered to the living room and opened the door.

My eyes met with those beautiful electric blue eyes everyone had been praying to see again. "Oh my God, Imogen!" I exclaimed, pulling her into a hug. I wanted to make the hug a very tight one but I could feel a bump on her tummy. I quickly detached myself from her with widened eyes. "You're pregnant?!" I screamed, covering my mouth with my hands.

Her facial expression was as blank as ever.

"Hello?" I waved a hand in front of her face. "Can you hear me at all?"

She still didn't utter a word but walked in without my permission (not like I cared anyway).

"Imogen, where have you been? Everyone has been worried-sick about you." I shut the door, tailing behind her.

She stopped to sit on a couch. I rushed to sit beside her. "Please answer my questions. Why did you leave without letting anyone know where you're going? Everyone has been damn worried about you, especially Hames. He's literally dying." "He deserves it." She said, her voice was very raspy.

My eyes bugged out. "He deserves death? What happened? Please tell me everything in full detail."

She lowered her head, sniffling.

"Gosh..." I rubbed her back.

"Samantha, you know that bitch, right?"

"Yeah, what's with her?"

"She has a child for Hames."

"Hames has a child with another woman?!" I asked rhetorically.

"The most annoying and painful fact is that Samantha is pregnant again with Hames' second child, and it's after our marriage. He cheated on me." She raised her head to me, tears were rolling down her face. "Why must all men be scumbags? What does he want from me? Why did he deceive me?" She wailed.

I wounded my arms around her, placing her head on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry about that, I had no idea. I can't believe Hames would do such a thing. I thought he loved you more than anything in the world." "Everything is a lie! He's an asshole. How could he cheat on me? It's so unfair." She sobbed. "Why did I ever agree to fall in love with him? Now I'm carrying the child of such a cheater. He fooled me."

I was lost of words to say. It was so hard to believe that Hames would have cheated on Imogen. His love seemed perfect. He claimed to have loved her for two years, how could he do this to her? "Please stop crying." I rubbed her head.

She raised her head from my shoulder, aggressively wiping the tears away from her face. "Please promise me you won't let anyone know I'm here. I decided to trust you, that's why I came here." "Uh..." I scratched the back of my head. I had also promised Kade to let him know if Imogen arrived here.

"Lila!" She snapped.

"Okay, fine, fine, I promise." I tucked her blonde hair away from her face. "I'm still so shocked to "

"Can we just stop talking about him? Please say anything else." She cut me off.

"Okay... have you had anything to eat yet?" I asked and she looked heavenwards like she was thinking of the answer to my question. "Nah, I haven't."

"Are you crazy? You're pregnant!"

"Yeah, for an asshole."

"So you'll kill your baby because of something terrible its father did?" I clicked my tongue, shaking my head. "Now that's bad."

"Why would I kill it? Are you crazy?"

"Where have you been and how well have you been eating?"

"I went far away, lodging into different hotels. I ate really well, though I've been having crazy cravings recently. I decided to return home because I can't run away forever."

"You could've at least answered our calls."

"I lost my phone, bro."

"Bro?" I chuckled. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too. Please give me something to eat, I'm damn hungry!" She groaned.

Gosh, Imogen was finally back.

How was I going to keep my promise to Kade and also to Imogen?

Anyway, she looked healthy, nothing to be bothered about.

Kade wanted me to go on a date with him even though I had a boyfriend. Speaking of boyfriend, Dash hadn't called me since I returned from Dubai. I was going to go over to his house to know what the problem was.