Chapter 6

Michael's POV

Small hands aggressively hit my face, causing me to jump up from bed.

"God, Nicolas! That hurt" I rubbed my cheek while hearing him giggle.

"Buddy, gentle hands!" I reminded him.

His big brown eyes looked up at me while my eyes scanned the bed for my wife. Normally Maeve would take Nicolas to get breakfast before he wakes me up. But she wasn't in bed.

"Where is mommy?" I asked, knowing exactly I won't get an useful answer from a one year old.

"Mama"

"Yes, mama, where is she?" I tried again.

Nicolas nodded and started to climb out of bed. He than ran across the room, grabbed a random toy, that laid on the floor and ran back to me to hand it to me, it was a ball.

"Thanks buddy... let's go look for mommy, maybe she's already in the kitchen" I grabbed his hand and together we walked to the kitchen.

To my disappointment, it was empty.

"Go sit down, I'm going to make you some breakfast" I told my son before walking to the fridge to get him some juice.

When I was about to open the fridge, I noticed a small piece of paper hanging on the door of the fridge. It had my name written on it, I recognized it to be Maeve's handwriting.

My hand ripped it off the fridge quickly to read it.

Should be back by noon, don't worry. I love you- Maeve

*****

"What do you mean you don't know where she is?" Bill looked at me confused. I called him to see if he knew anything about Maeve's whereabouts.

So while Nicolas was enjoying his breakfast, not knowing that his mother disappeared, I tried to find out where she could be.

"Why would she leave me a note when she's at home?"

"Michael, it's been more than a year since she left Neverland! Are you sure she's not here somewhere?"

"Yes, I'm 100% sure she left. Can you check if any cars left this morning?" I asked him.

"Yes, sure. Give me a minute" he walked out to call one of his colleagues.

"You're enjoying your breakfast, Nick?" I asked Nicolas who seemed pretty content having cereals for a change. Although he tried his best with feeding himself, most of his breakfast landed on the floor or on his clothes.

"Do you need help?" I laughed at him, he shook his head but then eventually decided to let me help him. He handed me the spoon and I started feeding him.

"One car left this morning. It was a black SUV with tinted windows in the back" Bill informed me while walking back into the kitchen.

"And who was the driver?"

"Jared."

"Jared?!" I practically yelled at Bill.

"Yes, Jared. Michael, what's wrong?"

"Maeve and him were talking a few days ago."

"And? Maeve stops by every now and then, especially when you're out of town. I think she gets a little lonely here."

My gaze stayed at Bill. "They were talking in the middle of the night at the patio while drinking tea..." I stared at Bill but before he could say anything else, I spoke again.

"Is there a way of contacting him?"

*****

Maeve's POV

Was it a lot to ask for Jared to take me to the church to see my father one last time before his body will be buried for ever? No, I don't think so.

Was it too much to ask him to keep it a secret from his boss, my husband? Probably yes. But it's not like I had another choice.

Cars were passing by as I stared out the window on the way back to Neverland Ranch and although we left the parking lot a while ago, I could still feel my mother's eyes on me.

"Jared!" I suddenly yelled. "Stopp the car" I instructed.

Our eyes met through the back mirror as he gave me a confused expression.

"Why?"

"Just pull over" I yelled, holding my spinning head with one of my hands while the other held on to the seat in front of me.

"Maeve, I can't just pull over here!"

"Jared! Now, this is an order!!" I tried again, this time it worked and as soon as I felt the car came to a halt, I jumped out.

My hand immediately gripped the guard railing for support as I bent down and started puking. Jared was quick on my side, making sure my hair wasn't in the way. When my stomach was empty, he carefully helped me up again.

"Are you ok?"

My weak body leaned against the guard railing as I caught my breath. I was about to answer when Jared's phone started ringing.

"It's Bill" he informed me after checking the display before he looked at me, unsure what to do. I simply nodded and he took the call.

While Jared was on the phone, he walked a few steps away from me but I knew Michael was probably worried about my disappearance.

"We'll be back soon, sir" I heard Jared say and with that he hung up.

"We are in trouble" he opened the door of the car for me to get in.

"Tell me something I don't know."

Shortly after I was seated I heard the driver's door open and close as Jared got into the car. He quickly started the engine and pulled away.

"Please stop at the next drug store" I told him.

"Mr. Jackson was very clear when he-"

"Mr. Jackson isn't here, is he?" I was looking at him angrily, knowing he noticed through the mirror.

"Maeve" he sighed.

"Jared, I'm not feeling well, please!" I begged which happened way too often these days.

"Ok, but we'll make it quick!"

*****

The bell rang as we entered the drug store. Jared insisted in following me, since he was already afraid of loosing his job, he couldn't risk me getting hurt. I couldn't remember drug stores to be dangerous but anyways.

As I walked through the aisles I abruptly stopped when my eyes met the product I was looking for.

Jared was busy checking out the store that's why he didn't noticed me standing there and bumped right into me.

"Sorry" he apologized before he realized where we stopped, he started shifting nervously.

My hands quickly grabbed one and walked in the direction of the register where I laid the product on the counter and searched my pockets for money.

Clumsy me must have forgotten to bring any and I started biting my lip while looking questioningly at Jared.

"You cannot be serious" he murmured before pulling out a 10 dollar bill from his wallet.

"Can I use your toilet?" I asked the cashier, a woman in her mid 20s, who seemed to be more interested in the book she was reading than in doing her job.

"Sure" she answered without even looking at me. "It's in the back, here" I grabbed my purchase and walked towards the toilets with Jared following me close behind. He even followed me into the restrooms.

"Jared?!"

"What?"

"Can you give me some privacy?"

"Hmm, no" he answered and held the door of one out of three toilet cabins open for me.

"This must be enough privacy for now" he told me as I walked inside.

While trying hard to forget Jared waiting outside for me, I did what I had to do and when I walked out Jared was leaning against the wall.

His strong gaze was carefully watching me as I walked to the sink and started washing my hands thoroughly while I got lost in my thoughts. My reflection was starring back at me and I noticed, I was looking a little pale today.

"And?" Jared asked.

"And what?"

"What does it say?"

"I didn't know curiosity was part of your job description" I said before walking past him, out of the store and back to the car.

The way back to Neverland was spent in silence although I could feel Jared's eyes on me every now and then.

He was desperate to know wether the pregnancy test he bought for me was positive or not but to be honest, I haven't checked yet.

My hands slowly gripped the little plastic stick I kept in my pocket. I finally decided to take a quick glance before shoving it back into the pockets of my jeans.

As we reached the main house where Jared waited for me to get out first, I looked at him through the mirror and said "It's positive."