“What?” Reyna asked in a whisper.
“Reyna, you need to stay calm.
There has to be an explanation for this,” Seamus said, holding out both hands towards her as if to soothe her.
His words sounded faint, like she was underwater.
She stared at them, her head trapped in a fog as she felt herself nod at his words.
Jeanette hesitantly said, “I got a call from the school saying that Phoenix didn’t return to class after their break.
They’re currently looking for him right now, but they still haven’t found him yet.
They’ve already contacted the police.” Reyna’s legs buckled, and if Seamus hadn’t been quick on his feet, she would have hit the ground and scraped her knees.
She lay boneless in his arms, unable to believe this was happening, as the couple frantically tried to reassure her that things would be fine.
The man Jeanette had been talking to stood awkwardly on the side, watching.
How could her beloved son just disappear?
She had just seen him earlier that day, right before she went to work.
They had given each other a goodbye kiss before she headed for the docks while he got ready to go to school.
He had even cheerfully promised that he had a surprise for her once she came home.
Reyna had been walking on cloud nine the entire shift, bragging to anyone that asked why she was so happy.
She covered her mouth with one hand as she sobbed.
Tears fell like raindrops while her whole body trembled.
This had to be a nightmare.
There was no way her son was really gone.
Maybe he was just hiding somewhere, caught up playing with his friends and not realizing how late it was.
Or maybe he had gone off somewhere on his own to prepare his surprise for her.
It wouldn’t be the first time he had wandered off when no one was looking, but he was always found in no time.
It had never gotten to the point where police were called.
“Reyna, please.
You need to stay strong for your son,” Jeanette urged, her eyes filled with worry.
Reyna tried to catch her breath to speak, but another sob tore through her throat, and her head felt light.
Suddenly, a shock to her back caused her to straighten up and temporarily stop crying.
Her previous panic was momentarily forgotten as she turned to see what shocked her.
The man from before gave her a sheepish expression as he waved at her.
Did he just shock her with magic?
“Waylon, what do you think you’re doing?” Jeanette snapped, glaring at the man.
“Sorry, Mom, but it looked like Reyna was having a panic attack,” he said, raising both hands above his head and backing away.
In an instant, Reyna recognized the man and stared in disbelief as she mumbled, “Waylon?” “Yup, that’s me.
It’s been awhile, Reyna,” he said, shooting her a beaming smile.
She stared at him, her wide eyes scanning him from top to bottom.
Was this really Waylon?
How did he grow so tall in just four years?
When she last saw him four years ago, he had been shorter and scrawny than her.
Now he easily towered over him and looked like he could lift her up above his head without breaking a sweat.
Were they sure he hadn’t been replaced with a stranger?
The man did have the same golden blonde hair as Seamus and Jeanette tied in a ponytail.
His eyes were also that familiar hazel eyes that Waylon had inherited from one of his ancestors instead of the ruby red eyes of his mother and sapphire eyes of his father.
Seeing the dumbfounded look on her face, Waylon chuckled and said, “Impressed?
I worked hard in college.
I bet I look much better than your ex-husband.” At the mention of her ex-husband, her expression went blank.
His parents gave him equally unimpressed looks before Jeanette reached out to slap his uncovered arm.
He yelped, giving them a mock hurt expression.
“Hey, what was that for?” he whined.
“It seems some things haven’t matured,” Jeanette said dryly, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Hey!
I was able to snap Reyna out of her panic attack, didn’t I?” he said, pouting.
Seeing such a familiar expression, Reyna laughed.
This caused everyone to look at her first with shock before it was replaced with relief.
“So, you okay now?” Waylon asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
Her laughter trailed off, and she said, “Not really, but I will be once we find Phoenix.” “What happened?
How could they lose a five-year-old?
Wasn’t the teacher watching the kids?” Seamus asked.
Jeanette shook her head and said, “They didn’t really share the details.
They only informed me what happened since they couldn’t get in touch with Reyna and asked for Phoenix’s guardian to come to the school right away.” Reyna winced.
She had her phone off while at work, and when she pulled it out of her pocket, she saw that she had indeed missed a call from the school.
As if reading her thoughts, Jeanette said, “Even if you had answered right away, it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference.
The call came in not too long ago.” She took a moment to check the time the call came in and saw that Jeanette was right.
The call from the school arrived around the time she got off work early, but that didn’t stop her from gripping the phone so hard that her knuckles turned white.
Seamus scowled as he placed his hands on his hips and said, “I’ll take Reyna to the school and have a good, stern talk with them.
We paid them a huge fee to enroll Phoenix there so he could have the best of the best.
This is clearly negligence.” “I’ll come with you,” Waylon offered.
This only earned an unimpressed look from his father, who said, “No, you should stay with your mother.
This isn’t the time to goof off.” Waylon bristled and snapped, “I’m not trying to goof off.
I care about Phoenix too.
Besides, I don’t think Mom wants to stay behind either.” Jeanette nodded and said, “We should all go.” Not wanting to argue, Seamus said, “Alright, are we going to go in one car or should we take two cars?”