Freddie angrily swung his foot at the wall, trying to vent out some of his feelings. But it didn't make him feel any less horrible, and now his entire foot was throbbing in pain.
Though the physical pain he felt was noting compared to what was going on inside of him.
Heather, not used to seeing her father like this, let out a small cry and she got to her feet and hurried into the office with Sam.
How could this have happened? How could he have been so stupid as to think that Lauren wouldn't one day learn the truth? That he wasn't her real…
Freddie swung his foot again, this time aiming his kick at the potted plant by the door, which caused the pot to shatter and dirt to spill onto the carpet.
He should've told Lauren long ago…as much as it would've pained him to admit it, Lauren wouldn't have reacted the way she did just a few minutes ago.
She wouldn't have hated him like she now did.
That thought cut into Freddie the deepest.
No, Freddie told himself firmly. No, I can't let that happen. I've got to find her. I can explain everything to her…Maybe-Maybe there's still a chance I can fix this.
Freddie rushed into the office, clinging onto that small ray of hope.
"Hey, what's going on out there?" Sam frowned when he entered the room. She had Heather on her lap, trying to soothe her. "I heard something break and-"
"Lauren found out," Freddie said, his voice empty and broken. "She-She knows Sam."
Sam didn't have to ask what he was talking about. Her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp.
"Oh my God…How-How did she?"
"She had our hair samples tested," Freddie replied quickly. "I-I'll explain later. But the point is she knows I've lied to her and she hates me now."
"Freddie, I'm sure she doesn't-"
"Yes she does!" Freddie said loudly. "You didn't hear her! You didn't see her! And you know what? She has every right to hate me! I lied to her for the past ten years! And now she's gone and-"
"What do you mean she's gone?" Sam demanded. "She didn't leave, did she?"
"That's exactly what I mean!" Freddie nodded. "She-She took my car and she drove off!"
"Well come on then!" Sam said, making to get up out of bed. "We've got to go look for her! We'll drop Heather off at the neighbors and-"
"What? No, Sam, you stay here," Freddie said. "I'll go out and look for her."
"I'm not going to just sit here in bed while Lauren's out there missing!" Sam snapped.
"Yes, you are," Freddie told her firmly. "You heard what the doctor told you today! The closer you get to the due date, the more important it is for you to get your rest-"
"But Lauren's-"
"Call her cell," Freddie said. "Maybe-Maybe she'll pick up if it's you. And-And call all her friends. And the police department; see what they can do."
Sam opened her mouth to argue, but Freddie had already grabbed her car keys from the desk and was rushing out of the room.
He raced into Sam's car, but as he sat there behind the steering wheel, he realized that he didn't have the slightest idea where she would go.
"Think," Freddie said to himself desperately. "Where would she go? The mall? School? Friend's house?"
She's just found out that the man she has spent her whole life calling dad isn't even related to her, Freddie thought to himself slowly. She realizes that she's lived most of her life with people who she shares no real connection to. Maybe…Maybe she's run off to the one person she knows she at least shares something with…
Freddie pulled out his cellphone as he began to pull out of the drive way and quickly dialed his ex-wife's number.
Sarah didn't pick up, but Freddie pressed the redial button as he continued to press his phone to his ear.
"Come on Sarah," Freddie mumbled as he sped down the road. "Pick up. Pick up!"
"Hello?"
"Sarah!" Freddie said loudly. "Sarah, has Lauren called you?"
"Um, no, not recently," Sarah replied on the other line. "In fact, I was just about to call you about that. What are you doing to her over there? Poisoning her against me?"
"Sarah, Lauren-Lauren ran off," Freddie begrudgingly admitted.
"She ran off?" Sarah repeated. "Why would she-"
"She found out!" Freddie yelled. "She found out that I'm not her dad, okay!"
"You mean all this time you haven't told her that yourself?"
"Spare me, will you?" Freddie snapped. "But I think…I think Lauren's trying to go out there to you."
"Why would she do that?"
"Because!" Freddie said angrily. "Despite the fact that you've been absent most of her life, you are her parent, which is more than she can say for me anymore! Look, will you…will you please just let me know if she calls you? Please? And if you talk to her, tell her I'm worried about her and-and I want to talk to her."
"I-Fine," Sarah agreed.
"Thank you," Freddie said. "Alright, she-she has my car now, but I don't think she'd try to drive to California by herself. She wouldn't know how to get there…She doesn't have enough money on her emergency debit card for a plane ticket but she might try and buy herself a train ticket. I'm on my way to the station now but for all I know, she might've already boarded one by now. I need you to wait down at your station to be there if I'm right about this and she winds up there."
"I have an open house in-"
"Sarah! This is your daughter!" Freddie exclaimed, furious.
"Alright!" Sarah conceded. "I-I'm on my way there now."
"I text you if Sam or I get anymore information," Freddie said bitterly, hanging up the phone.
…..
"Ugh!" Sam groaned as she tossed her phone down on her bed.
She had just finished calling everyone she could think of. She called all of Danielle's friends, every girl on the cheerleading team, the woman she sometimes babysat for…she had even dug up Scott's number, but nobody seemed to know where Lauren was.
Sam had also called the police department, but they were far from helpful. Evidently, unless they were certain Lauren had been abducted or she had been missing for twenty-four hours, there wasn't much they could do.
Sam had never felt so hopeless in her life…She was stuck here in bed while Lauren was lost. Who knew if she was okay? And as angry as Freddie had said she was, Sam was sure Lauren wasn't thinking straight, and she knew from personal experience, you didn't always make the best decision in that state of mind…
"Where could she be?" Sam moaned. "Where would she have gone?"
"Mommy?" Heather said, gently pulling on Sam's sleeve. "Daddy mad?"
"Um…no, just-just don't worry about that now," Sam said quickly. "Just sit here and play quietly."
Alright, you were fifteen once, Sam told herself. If you were in this situation, where would you go? How would you decide where you'd run away to…Maybe she looked up some place on her laptop! Alright, I just need to look on her computer and then maybe I can figure out where she went!
The problem was, Lauren kept her laptop upstairs in her bedroom.
She supposed she could send Heather upstairs to retrieve the computer, but history had shown that Heather wasn't yet old enough to be trusted with such important items (she had nearly shattered Sam's own laptop a few weeks previously trying to bring it to her).
If I wait for Freddie do get home, it might be too late, Sam reasoned. I've just got to get it myself. It will be fine…
So she slowly sat up and carefully got to her feet. "Alright, Heather, you stay downstairs," Sam ordered. "Mommy will be right back."
The trip up the stairs was harder than Sam thought. It had been weeks since she had left the first floor of the home, and by the time she reached the top, nearly ten minutes later, she was panting and out of breath. But she quickly shook off her own discomfort as she started for Lauren's room.
The teen's laptop was sitting on her desk, already powered on. Sam quickly looked on at the screen, pulling up the Internet server, recent files…anything that would maybe give her some clue as to where she would've gone. She was nothing compared to her husband when it came to these sorts of things, but she knew he way around a computer well enough to see the last pages Lauren had visited.
"Nothing…" Sam said, defeated. "There's nothing here!"
Sam felt the tiny spark of hope that had ignited inside her vanish as she ran her hands nervously through her hands, desperately trying to think of another way to figure out where Lauren had gone to.
She shook her head. She wasn't going to get anywhere. But she still couldn't sit by and do nothing.
"I'm calling the police again," Sam mumbled to herself. "And I'm going to make them do something this time."
It took Sam even longer to go down the stairs than it did for her to go up them. But again, she didn't even pause when she reached the bottom. She simply hurried back into the office and grabbed her phone and dialed the police station.
"You've reached the police station," the operator on the voice said after the first ring. "Please state my emergency."
"Yeah, I called here a few minutes ago about my missing daughter," Sam said, pacing back and forth, something she always did when she was nervous. "And you guys totally ignored me! So this time you're going to-"
"Ma'am, it's like we told you," the operator said tiredly. "Unless a person has been missing for twenty-four hours-"
"Hey, this is my daughter you're talking about!" Sam snapped, her temper flaring up. "And she's only fifteen; she's just a kid! She could've gotten herself lost or hurt!"
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but the rules are-"
"Those rules are stupid!" Sam exclaimed. She could feel her blood pressure soaring. "You're telling me you're just going to sit there on your lazy butts while a teenage girl is missing?"
"She's not technically classified as missing until-"
"She is missing!" Sam yelled. "Her dad and I don't know where she is, therefore, she's missing! Look, you have to be able to do something! Let me send you a picture of her or something so you can give it your on duty guys or-"
"We don't have the man power to-"
"To what?" Sam spat. "Do your jobs?"
She was clenching her fists so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.
Just then, though, she heard the front door open. Figuring it was Freddie, Sam decided she would deal with the hopelessly unhelpful police department later. So without even bothering to say another word, Sam hung up her phone and started out into the living room.
"Well did you have any luck?" she asked. "Did you find-Lauren!"
Lauren was standing by the front door, her eyes red and her face tearstained.
"Lauren, where have you been?" Sam demanded, hurrying over to the child and throwing her arms around her. "Do you have any idea how worried we were when you took off like that?"
"Why-Why are you out of bed?" Lauren asked, concerned. "The doctor said-"
"The doctor didn't just have to spend the past hour thinking his daughter was missing!" Sam snapped. "I can't believe you, Lauren! How could you do that to us?"
Lauren looked down at her feet. "Where-Where is he?"
"Your dad is out looking for you!" Sam replied. "He's scared half to death out there!"
"He's not my-"
"Lauren!" Sam said sharply, catching the teen by surprise. In all the years Sam had been in her life, Sam had never yelled at her like that. "How could you say that?"
"I have a test that proves he's not!" Lauren retorted.
"So what? Who cares about some dumb test?" Sam said angrily. "So you don't share DNA with him, big deal! But you ask me this, Lauren, has he not been there for you every second of your life? Has he not done everything in his power to make sure you have the best life possible? Has he not given you unconditional love from the moment you were born?"
Lauren looked away. "I-I think you should go back to bed," she said shakily. "You-You don't look so good Sam. You're really not supposed to be up right now-"
"Has he not done that and so much more?" Sam frowned, ignoring Lauren's comment.
"I-Yes! Okay, yes, he has!" Lauren conceded. "Now can you please lie down so you don't hurt yourself or-"
"You know what I would've given for a dad like you have when I was growing up?" Sam snapped. "Because my dad, the man who I shared fifty percent of my DNA with, didn't care one bit about me! He left me and never bothered to check up on me ever again! You see? DNA doesn't make someone your parent! You should know that! Of the two parents you know, who has done more for you? The one who's biologically related to you? Or the one who you just found out isn't?"
Lauren bit the corner of her lip. "He has…"
"That's right," Sam said, finally lowering her voice. "Look…I-I get that it was a huge shock for you to find out this way and yeah, he-he should've told you sooner, but he-he's still your dad, Lauren. And he loves you."
"I love him too," Lauren whispered.
"Good," Sam said, satisfied. "Now, you two probably have a lot to talk about…so when he gets back-"
"But can you please go lie back down, Sam?" Lauren asked. "You're really making me nervous. I-I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"Fine, fine, yes," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "I'll go back to bed now. I should call your dad too, let him know you're alright. He's probably a wreck right now."
"Do you need help getting back there?" Lauren asked softly. Sam could tell she felt somewhat guilty.
"No," Sam replied. "No, I think I can manage. I just need to-"
She was cut off, though, as, out of nowhere, a sharp pain ripped through her body and she doubled over, clutching the nearby end table for support.
"Sam!" Lauren cried, rushing over to her stepmother's aid. "Sam, are-are you alright?"
"I-No!" Sam winced, suddenly feeling something wet and cold slipping down her leg. "My-My water just broke!"
"Oh my God!" Lauren exclaimed. "I-I'll drive you to the hospital again!"
"No, I-I can't move!" Sam gasped as another pain struck her body. "Call-Call an ambulance. Tell them-Tell them this baby's on its way now!"