Only Us
Chapter Twenty-One
Mark stumbled out of his bedroom in his boxer shorts to the sound of someone bashing down his front door. He looked at the clock in his kitchen - 6.50am. Ugh Mark had only been home half an hour and had about 15 minutes of sleep after his night shift as a cop. He'd woken up like he'd taken the worst nap of his life.
Opening the front door Mark groaned, "What?!"
Immediately seeing Elly standing there he barked at her, "Go away Elly!" and slammed the door in her face.
Elly continued pounding her fist against the door until Mark gave in opening it a second time, blurting out before he could say anything, "It's about Chloe!"
"Definitely not!" Mark screeched, slamming the door again in Elly's face.
Elly persisted slamming both her fists against the door, "I'm not bloody leaving Mark, let me in, it's important. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't!"
After two minutes, Mark groaned at the sound that was doing his head in, Elly had not stopped bashing at his door. Eventually he relented realizing he was never going to get back to sleep until he got rid of Elly and what she wanted from him.
This time when Mark opened the front door, he was caught off guard when Elly slammed the door into him and when he lost his balance for a brief second, Elly stormed past him into the house. Turning around to him, Elly had her hands on her hips, "Chloe's missing, she didn't come home last night!"
Mark grunted, "Chloe's an adult, Elly, she doesn't need to come home if she's gone out for the night. Now could you please get your lying ass out of my-"
"Did you not bloody hear me? Chloe is missing!" Elly screeched.
Mark grimaced at the volume of Elly's voice, "I heard you. I'm well aware that Chloe has a new girlfriend and it doesn't take a genius to work out she spent the night with her."
"No, she didn't!" Elly yelled at her ex-husband, "Chloe ended things with Hales last night."
Mark shrugged, "So what? If Chloe broke things off then she probably just went out got drunk and hooked up with some random. You know a little about hooking up with randoms, don't you, Elly? We can only hope Chloe doesn't get herself pregnant. Oh, but wait, Chloe doesn't have a husband at home, does she?"
Elly waved off Mark's insults, "Mark, you can be pissed at me all you like but I am telling you Chloe is missing! Aaron is beside himself with worry but he's staying put at our place in case she does come home whilst I do whatever it takes to bring her home. Chloe's your sister! You need to care about this!"
Mark fobbed her off, "Like Chloe cared about me when she was screwing you behind my back before our wedding!? I'm done with the both of you. Go home, Elly!"
Elly stood firm, "Get your ass out of your head, Mark! Chloe didn't come home last night and she is missing. Of all the nights in the past few months for Chloe to not come home and for it to mean something is wrong...it was last night...there is no way in the world Chloe wouldn't have come home last night unless she couldn't come home!"
Mark stood there impatiently, "What was so darn special about last night?"
Elly breathed deeply, "Did Chloe come and see you last night before you started work?"
Mark shook his head, "Chloe didn't come and see me. I didn't know she was planning to until I got your message an hour after I started work."
Elly nodded, "Okay so Chloe went missing sometime after I saw her at the lake and in between her dinner at the Waterhole and coming back to Ramsay Street to tell you..."
Mark's eyes expressively urged Elly to continue.
Elly looked down at the floor before regaining Mark's gaze, "Chloe and I are together. I'm in love with her, Mark. We're in love and Chloe was coming here last night to tell you in person because you have a right to know."
Mark shook his head, "I don't want to know this."
"I told my family about Chloe and I last night at a family BBQ and then Chloe was going to the Waterhole to break things off with Hales before coming here to tell you about us. You're still her family, Mark, she had to tell you herself before you found out another way," Elly stated calmly.
"What? You mean like this?" Mark scoffed.
"We didn't plan for this," Elly explained.
"You didn't plan to fall in love with my sister or you didn't plan on been the one to drop this bombshell on me this morning?" Mark questioned.
"Mark I still care about you, I do, and I know that you are going to need some time with this but right now the only thing I can think about is Chloe," Elly admitted, "You know Chloe has been in love with me since Christmas. I've been dating Chloe for the past 10 weeks. I held her at a distance because I didn't want people to know I was in love with a woman but I finally accepted that I am. Can you honestly tell me that the night that Chloe and I told both our families about us...or were going to...and that we were officially going to be a couple that Chloe would just not come home to me?"
Mark breathed deeply, struggling to accept his ex-wife was in love with his sister, before he finally asked, "When did you see Chloe last?"
"Down by the lake just after 7pm, I went to tell her that my family support us been together before she was meant to go to the Waterhole for dinner with Haley to break things off with her," Elly informed him, relieved that maybe Mark believed that Chloe was missing.
Mark nodded then walked past Elly to the kitchen and put the kettle on, "It has to be 24 hours before I can report it to the station so we can't access her phone records, bank records or get the cops involved looking for her until then."
Elly was getting pissed off at her ex-husband again, "So what? I'm expected to wait another 12 hours until you do anything but make a frigging coffee? I love her, Mark, I'm not just going to sit at home for 12 hours! Do something, you're her brother!"
"I'm not on duty, I just came off the night shift, I've had 15 minutes sleep," Mark explained yawning, "Are you sure she didn't come home and curl up in her room and then leave early this morning for a work thing?"
Elly held her hands together, "Chloe and I share a bedroom together at Aaron and David's."
"Ugh," Mark groaned at the image of Elly sharing a bed with his sister. He knew Elly had moved into the household but it had never occurred to him that his ex-wife was now bedding his little sister.
Attempting to move past the image, Mark threw out, "What about Susan and Karl's? Could she be there? Mixed up signals thought you were back at Susan & Karl's BBQ?"
Elly sighed, "Why would Chloe be at Susan and Karl's? Even if she did go there, why on earth would she stay when she realized I wasn't there? There was no miscommunication about our plans last night. Chloe was supposed to text me when she left the Waterhole and was on her way to come here to talk to you, I didn't hear from her. I sent Chloe dozens of texts and calls; she didn't answer any of them."
Mark gave in, "Fine...we'll start there. The Waterhole isn't open yet but we can go to Lassiters to track down Haley to see if Chloe made it to dinner with her."
"Great, let's go!" Elly motioned immediately walking to the front door.
"Elly, I'm in my boxers...and you haven't even noticed...maybe you really are...never mind," Mark shook his head, "Can you give me ten minutes to get changed and have a coffee?"
"Five minutes to get changed, no coffee!" Elly challenged, "I'll be at Susan and Karl's, meet me there in 5 minutes. Do not be late or I'll go without you! I have spent far too long waiting to find the love of my life...I'm going to do anything in the world to find Chloe!"
Mark stared in the distance as Elly rushed out of his house, gritting his teeth at the knowledge his ex-wife had found the love of her life with his sister.
Elly went over to her aunt and uncle's house and was glad to see Susan in her pajamas in the kitchen. Susan was surprised to see her niece, "Elly, what are you doing here, love? You certainly make a loud entrance. Finn snuck into the house last night when we were all out in the backyard. I almost thought he didn't even come home until I heard him leave early this morning. I guess it's been a while since I've had someone living here who-"
Elly burst into tears as she walked over to her aunt, interrupting Susan, and immediately hugged Susan, "What's wrong, love?"
Elly sobbed for a minute against Susan's shoulder, "Chloe didn't come home to me last night. Chloe's missing."
"Missing?" Susan asked in shock.
Elly nodded, using her free hand to wipe away the tears from her eyes, "Chloe has to be missing, after everything we've been through there's no way she wouldn't have come home to me last night. Either that or something has happened to her. Aaron's at home waiting to see if she turns up, I'm going with Mark to track her down, find her, and bring her home to me. Can you stay here and call me if she shows up?"
Susan agreed immediately, "Of course, Elly, please call me the second you find her."
"Thanks, Susan. I'm not going to lose her now after just finding her, I'll go to the end of the world to bring her home to me," Elly declared as she started composing herself, knowing she needed to be strong and couldn't fall apart any more than she had.
Mark walked up to the front door hesitating as he overheard Elly's words about going to the end of the world to find Chloe. Breathing deeply, Mark knocked on the door lightly, wearing a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt since he wasn't on duty and couldn't just pull on his uniform and even if he was, searching for his sister would not be a task assigned to him, "You ready to go?"
Elly nodded and immediately brushed past him heading to his car.