Chapter 681: Adam's Residence
Monday, March 13th, Afternoon
She carefully pulled her car into her driveway and put it into park. Sitting in the driver's seat, she took a deep breath and readied herself for what she was possibly about to face. Getting out of the car, she grabbed her bag and headed towards the front door. Unlocking the door, Kristen Adams stepped into the house. She walked down the hall and looked in on her husband.
Chase was lying in bed, sleeping. Kristen looked over to the nursing aide that filled in when she was at work. The nursing aide looked over to Kristen.
"He's been sleeping," the nursing aide said.
"Has he eaten?" Kristen asked.
"Before he went to sleep," the nursing aide said.
Kristen nodded, "I'm going to shower and come down. Have you seen Noah?" she asked.
"No, I haven't," the nursing aide said.
"He's probably in his room or out skating?" Kristen asked.
"Okay," the nursing aide said.
Kristen moved past the dining room and upstairs. The door of Noah's bedroom was closed. Kristen went to her bedroom and got out of her work clothes. She slipped a robe on and went to the shower. Once she finished showering, she returned to her room dressed in yoga pants and a baggy t-shirt. Kristen left her room and walked down the hall.
She stopped at the door to Noah's room. Kristen checked the door and found it unlocked. She opened the door and stepped into her son's room. Looking around the room, and found it clean, too clean, Kristen noted.
Slowly, she looked over her son's walls. Noah had a specific taste in decor. Several posters were on the wall, and many were framed. They were ancient; many were straight out of Thrasher Magazine. Kristen remembered the number of hours Noah spent searching online for these posters. Kristen remembered bringing Noah to get some of them framed.
Kristen walked over to one of the posters. She had never looked hard at them. Kristen sighed and looked it over. In the corner was a name; Chasi Adams.
She sighed; Kristen looked at the picture. Chasi Adams, also known now as Chase Burke, Kristen's oldest stepdaughter, someone she barely knew. Kristen was only six years younger than Chase, so they didn't see eye to eye in Kristen's mind.
They met once, a long time ago, and before Chase's parent's marriage imploded. Kristen was eighteen, which means Chase was only twelve. It was the first time Kristen got behind the scenes at the competition. From the beginning of the competition, Kristen watched the amateur girls, and this one girl stood out, Chasi Adams. She was poetry in motion.
When Kristen met Chase, she was friendly, if not a bit awkward. A few years later, Kristen was following the games instead of going to college. She got to know the pro-skater Chase Adams, Chasi Adams, aka Chase Burke's dad, and Kristen's relationship with Chase, the dad, and things happened.
Kristen looked down at her left hand and looked at her wedding set. The two rings were simple, and the stone was small. Chase, the dad, hadn't had much money when they married. Kristen didn't care that she didn't live in a big house as long as they were sheltered, happy, and fed. They mostly had that.
Noah was a toddler when Chase fell at a competition. The injury was bad, it was so severe that Chase, the dad, was in a coma, and he now had a traumatic brain injury that caused personality issues. After the accident, everything fell upon Kristen to look after Chase, the dad, and Noah.
Turning away from the poster, Kristen went to Noah's dresser. She picked up a framed picture and looked at the image. It was of her, Chase, and Noah as a toddler. Kristen sighed; this was taken barely a year before Chase, the dad's, accident.
That was when a smartphone made noise. Kristen went for her phone in her back pocket. It wasn't her phone that made the noise. It must be Noah's phone, but Noah never leaves it at home. That was when something else binged. Kristen looked at the desk and started trying the desk drawers. They were locked, and that made even less sense.
Being a mom, the first thing she started to do was look through Noah's dresser drawers. There wasn't anything that indicated he had come home from school. Noah consistently got up and left before Kristen got up. Much of it was to avoid Chase, the dad, as he tended to be aggressive in the morning after waking up.
Noah's desk is locked, meaning everything electronic has to be there. Kristen had pinged his phone and found it was at her location. In other words, he didn't want to get tagged or searched for electronically. Dark thoughts filled Kristen's head, and panic started rising inside her. She couldn't lose Noah; she had already lost most of her family when she married Chase, the dad. It was the age difference, Chase, the dad, was in his early fifties, while Kristen was only thirty-nine years old, closer to forty than thirty-eight. Other than Chase, the dad, Shay, and maybe her dad, Noah was the only family she was close to or even talking to.
Kristen started to ransack the room, looking for anything that gave her a hint of what was going on. There had to be a note, something, anything. Every drawer she had access to was tossed, and the closet was tossed. That left the desk, and she didn't know how to get into it. Kristen started to pound on the top of the desk several times. She slid down, turning as she slid, ending up sitting on the floor, leaning against the desk. Kristen started sobbing, and her eyes grew wetter as her sobs deepened. Soon hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
For the longest time, Kristen sat there crying. Once she settled down, she found herself in the middle of the mess; she left Noah's room and was a mess herself. Kristen rubbed the corner of her eyes to wipe away the remaining tears. Taking a deep breath, Kristen pulled herself together.
Reaching for her smartphone, she scrolled through her contacts until she came across the one she was looking for; S. O'Brien. Kristen pressed the call button.
After a few rings, the phone connected. "Hi, Kristen, what's up?" Shay asked.
"Was Noah in school today?" Kristen asked.
"I don't remember seeing him, but I usually don't see him; why, what's wrong?" Shay asked.
"I don't know where Noah is, and his phone is locked in his desk," Kristen said.
"Relax, Kris. Did he leave a note?" Shay asked.
"No, he didn't; I checked his room, and nothing; I checked everywhere except his desk, which is locked, and I don't have a key," Kristen said.
"Kris, don't panic," Shay said.
"Too Late," Kristen said.
"Okay, I'm going to check at the office to see if Noah came in, and then I'll be right over, don't do anything drastic," Shay said.
"Too late," Kristen said.
"Just stay put and don't do anything more to cause drama," Shay said.
"I'll try," Kristen said.
"Okay, good; see you soon, Kris," Shay said and hung up.
Kristen looked at her smartphone and leaned back. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself by using breathing techniques.