Chapter 270: Sorry, I Can’t Come
Todd could see that Wendy was so anxious that she was beginning to walk around in circles. He looked worriedly at her and tried to console her, "I’m sure Mr. Lucas couldn’t have lost the two children, right? Maybe his phone is broken, or it’s run out of battery. Let’s wait for a while more, alright?"
"I just called Zess, and she said that they left the house early, so she doesn’t know what’s happened to them either." Wendy began to walk about in circles again. "Why can’t I get in contact with them at all?"
"Let me ask my friends if they know anyone working for Lake City Airport," Todd offered. "I’ll check if they boarded the plane."
He quickly made a bunch of phone calls before getting back to Wendy. "I managed to contact a friend who could help. He’s checking the records for us now, so we’ll find out in a while if they boarded the plane or not."
"Thank you." Wendy nodded gratefully.
She wondered if she ought to call Mrs. Lucas, but she was afraid that the old lady would be worried if she found out.
Michael probably decided on this trip at the last minute, so Mrs. Lucas might not even know about it in the first place.
If she called and Mrs. Lucas pressed her for details, she would get worried for sure.
Besides, if Mrs. Lucas knew that something had cropped up, she would call her first.
Todd soon received a call from his friend.
After he hung up, he said to Wendy, "My friend said that Michael, Jake, and Leah’s names aren’t among the passengers who checked in to that flight. They didn’t board the plane."
"They didn’t board the plane?"
Wendy had thought of this possibility before. They hadn’t boarded the plane, and she couldn’t get in contact with them. There were so many possible scenarios now.
The most likely scenario was that they had gotten into an accident, so they were unable to board the plane.
Thinking about that possibility made Wendy so frightened that she broke out in cold sweats.
She had barely survived an accident herself.
’What if the three of them had run into an accident on their way to the airport?’
She didn’t dare to imagine any further.
"No!" She shook her head violently and said, "I want to book the earliest flight to Lake City now."
"Why don’t we wait and see?" Todd suggested. "Maybe his phone is dead, and he’ll contact you in a while?"
"I can’t wait," she said anxiously. "I really can’t wait even a minute longer."
"I’ll go to Lake City with you then." He didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go to Lake City alone when she was this frantic. "I doubt you have your passport with you, right? I don’t either. Let’s book the tickets first, then run home to get our passports."
She wanted to tell him that she’d be fine by herself, but he was already dragging her out of the airport, as if he was determined to accompany her to Lake City.
So she thanked him instead.
He then replied, "We’ve been friends for so long, so you really don’t have to be formal around me."
She took his car back instead of driving. On the way back, she sat in the passenger seat and quickly booked two tickets on the earliest flight to Lake City on her phone.
When she’s done, she looked out of the window and clutched her phone tightly.
He drove very quickly because he knew that every minute that passed without knowing what happened to the three of them was torture to her.
"We’re here, Corrine," he said as he unbuckled his seat belt and was about to get out of the car.
He turned and realized that Wendy wasn’t responding to him at all.
"Corrine?" He nudged her anxiously.
"Corrine, wake up! Wake up!" Todd initially thought that Wendy had just fallen asleep, but she refused to wake up even after he nudged her several times.
He immediately buckled up again and drove the car to the nearest hospital.
When they arrived, he carried her into the emergency room.
He took a deep breath as he watched the staff wheel her in.
Wendy was never in good health in the first place, and she had been working exceptionally long hours recently.
The last time she fainted, it was because she had been too tired. Now, she had fainted again.
Suddenly, Wendy’s phone started to ring. He looked at the screen and saw that it was from an unknown number.
Wendy was still being treated, so he hesitated as he contemplated if it was appropriate for him to pick up a call for her.
However, this wasn’t the time to worry about that. It could be a call about Michael.
Once he picked up the phone, he heard Michael’s voice. "Wendy, I’m sorry, but I can’t come today."
"You’ve finally called." Todd quietly breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Michael’s voice, but felt worried again as he looked at the drawn curtains of the emergency room.
"Mr. Lewis?" Michael was surprised that Todd was the one who picked up the call. "Where’s Wendy?"
"She..." Todd glanced at the curtains again.
Should he tell Michael what happened to Wendy? But he didn’t know if her situation was serious or not. Besides, she wouldn’t want him to tell Michael about this either.
Since Michael was fine, Todd decided that he would wait for Wendy to regain consciousness and decide on her own if she wanted to tell Michael or not.
"Something’s cropped up on our side, you can ask Corrine about it yourself later."
Todd sighed and asked, "Mr. Lucas, didn’t you say you were coming over today to celebrate Corrine’s birthday with her? Why are you suddenly unable to come over? And even if you couldn’t make it, you really should have called earlier. It’s past noon now. Corrine was waiting at the airport this morning, and when she didn’t see you guys after waiting there for a long time, she was even worried that you might have gotten into an accident. Also, she couldn’t get through to your phone at all. Do you know how worried she was?"
"I’m really sorry." Michael’s voice sounded terribly exhausted even over the phone.
He massaged his temples and explained, "My phone is broken. I meant to call her earlier, but it was nighttime there, and I didn’t want to wake her up. But later I got too busy and couldn’t get hold of a phone to call her."
Todd was in no position to reprimand Michael, but he started feeling angry on Wendy’s behalf when he thought about how worried and panicky she looked earlier.
So he said sternly, "Mr. Lucas, you’re a very busy man. If you’re not 100 percent certain, don’t make such promises. You told Corrine that you were coming over to celebrate her birthday and she was looking forward to it so much. But she didn’t get to see any of you in the end!"
"Where’s Wendy?" Michael asked. "Pass the phone to her. I’ll explain things to her."
"She can’t take your call now. You can call back later," Todd said before hanging up on Michael abruptly. He was still feeling upset on Wendy’s behalf.
Michael’s frown deepened when he heard the dead dial tone from the other party.
It was daytime in Rheinsville, so he didn’t think it was strange that Todd had helped to answer Wendy’s phone for her.
Besides, he could hear quite some noise on the other end, which meant that Todd had taken his call in a public place.
So why did he say that Wendy couldn’t take the call? Michael couldn’t figure it out, so he tried calling again.
However, because Todd was annoyed, he rejected the call without even picking it up.
Since Michael had made Wendy worry for so long, it was time Michael got worried.
