Ending the conversation with a worried mood, Hailey dialed Mia's number. It went straight to voicemail. She dialed the number again and it gave the same response.
Sighing, Hailey scrolled through her contact list in search of Tessie's number. She dialed it immediately.
"Pick up the phone, Tess." She whispered after the fourth ring as she walked up and down her living room.
After what felt like forever, Tessie answered. "Hi. Tessie. Is Mia with you or do you by any chance know where the hell she is?" She asked with a hand on her forehead.
"Yeah, She's with me," Tessie answered.
Hailey heaved a sigh of relief.
"Anything the matter, you sound worried?" Tessie said.
"Please, can you pass the phone to her?"
"Sure," Tessie answered, passing the phone to her younger sister.
"Hey." Mia's calm voice came through.
"What the hell, Mia? we've all been worried about you."
"We? Why?"
"For heaven's sake, what do you mean by 'Why?' Your number isn't going through and you are not even in your apartment. Colton is going crazy. He's scared that something might have happened to you. You refused to answer his calls and then he tried calling but it went to voicemail. He's currently at your apartment."
"I'm sorry, Hailey. I didn't mean to make you worried. We do talk almost every night before we both go to sleep so I was hoping to give you a call later on and inform you that I'm at Tessie's."
"So Colton called you?"
"Yes, he did. How else would I have known that you aren't in your apartment?"
Mia sighed. "Let Colton be. If he calls you again, tell him you don't know where I am."
"Are you kidding me? He sounded really worried. I wouldn't even be surprised if he had already called the police to dig you out from wherever you're hiding."
"Is there something I don't know about? Did you both get into a fight? We spoke this morning and you still sounded so in love with him. What's up with you, Mia?"
Mia sighed. "I changed my mind about the whole thing. I don't want to be with Colton anymore."
"What? Why? Did he do anything to offend you?" Hailey asked, surprised and shocked.
"It doesn't matter if he offended me or not. I just thought things through once again and made my final decision."
"You should know your lies won't work for me, Mia. I don't mind driving down to Tessie's place right now to force words out of your mouth."
Mia sighed. "Natasha came to see me at work today."
"Natasha? Who bears that name?" Hailey asked, trying to recall if she knew anyone by that name.
"Colton's ex. The one his parents wanted him to marry."
"Holy, Shit! Don't tell me she came to threaten you?"
"Unfortunately, She did," Mia mumbled.
"Mia, this is something you should have seen coming. Crazy bitches like her would want to scare you away. You should have called Colton to inform him rather than ignoring him and making him worried as hell."
"Unfortunately, associating yourself with Colton will mean preparing yourself for things like this. He's an amazing guy and to top it all, he's a famous billionaire. Him choosing you over all the girls in the world will surely make them jealous." Hailey said.
"I was silly not to think about all of these before. You know how much I love my peace of mind and Natasha's presence made me realize that I wouldn't have that while being with Colton."
"Of course you know I can't stand rude people so I talked back at her and she threatened to come after me for being disrespectful to her. She also promised to ruin me if I ever get married to Colt."
"But babe, you should know it's just a mere threat. Colton wouldn't allow her to do anything to harm you."
"It didn't sound like a mere threat,
Hailey. In situations like this, it's not healthy to doubt obsessed people. They can even kill for the ones they claim they are obsessed with."
"Someone like Natasha will surely go scot-free if she hurts anyone because her parents are influential people. There will be no justice for me. If things ended up working out for Colton and me, and we have a child, I can't bear to live in fear of what would happen to him or her because of some insane person who's jealous of the fact that Colton chose me over them. It's just too much for me, Hailey. I don't think I'd be able to survive it."
"So that's it? You're giving up just like that? Without a fight? Without a valid explanation to Colt? Mia, how much of a coward can you be?"
"What's there to fight for, Hailey? Is there anything wrong with putting me first? I'm putting myself first by protecting myself from any future danger that comes with being associated with Colton."
"Are you seriously going to let Natasha win? Babe, this is not about protecting yourself. It's about fighting for your man. Colton likes you and I'm sure he will do all it takes to protect you."
"You're not going to say anything?" Hailey asked after a few seconds of silence. "Fine, I give up too. Do whatever the hell you like!" Hailey ended the call. She knew Mia was bound to experience something like this while being associated with Colt but she was very pissed that her friend was giving up without a fight.
Colton's call came through on Hailey's phone. She picked up after two rings. "Been trying to reach you for the past few minutes. Any news?" His worried voice came through.
"Sorry about that. The conversation took longer than expected. Mia is at her Sister's place."
She heard Colton heave a deep sigh. "Then why wasn't she picking up my calls? I was worried sick."
"She said she doesn't want to see you."
There was a few seconds of silence between the duo before Colton spoke. "I don't understand." He whispered. "Why would she say that? I don't remember doing anything to offend her. She still replied to my text messages this morning."
Hailey sighed. "Your ex went to her office this afternoon to threaten her so she chickened out, giving me a million and one reasons why it wasn't proper to be with you. "
"What the hell? You mean Natasha?" Colton asked, already getting angry. Out of all the people he had dated, she was the only crazy one so it made sense that he guessed right."
"Yes, she threatened to deal with Mia if she got married to you. Mia talked back at her at some point and Natasha threatened that she wasn't going to let that slide. If she could locate Mia's office then she could locate her home. I guess that's why she decided to spend the night at her Sister's place, where she feels safe."
"I've known Mia all my life and she's something that doesn't toy with her peace of mind. She can't stand any form of violence and that being said, I understand her reason to want to give up without any fight. Natasha is so obsessed with you and an obsessed person is capable of doing anything to make sure they get what they want."
"My best friend is scared for her safety and the safety of you all's future children. She doesn't want to live in fear of something bad happening."
"Even though Christoph hurt her differently, I'm sure she's scared of going into any relationship that would hurt her in any way," Hailey explained.
Colton ran his fingers through his messy hair as Hailey explained everything to him.
"Natasha is a maniac. She's going to regret messing with me and my woman."
A small smile crept to Hailey's lips when he referred to Mia as his woman. She couldn't be happier hearing that he was going to put Natasha in her place.
"Please, can you give me Mia's sister's address? I need to go get my girl back."
"Sure! I'll text it to you now."
"Thank you so much, Hailey."
"You're welcome."
Once they ended the conversation, Hailey sent Tessie's address to Colton.
................
After Hailey ended the call on her, Mia defeatedly passed her sister's phone back to her.
"What did She say?" Tessie couldn't help but ask.
"She's pissed that I'm giving up without a fight," Mia whispered.
"See! I told you that before She even called. Everything is all about sacrifice, Sis. And the sacrifice includes fighting for the one you love."
"No relationship is perfect too, Mia. You're definitely going to come across so many challenges but once the couple love themselves so much, there's nothing they can't overcome together."
"I would be very tense if I were you, but you should have called Colton to inform him about what happened."
"Trust is very fundamental to every relationship. It's time to start trusting him enough to discuss everything with him rather than pushing him away." Tessie spoke.
Mia sighed. "I just needed space to think. He called me a couple of minutes after that psycho left and I didn't know what to say to him."
"I guess I'm foolish for chickening out. I just thought that staying on my own was the best way to protect myself from any future harm. Besides, I didn't know he was going to go to my apartment to look for me. I came here to spend the night because I needed to clear my head."
Tessie intertwined her hand with her sister's own and gave it a light squeeze. "I understand you, babe and I don't blame you for being scared. Bitter past experiences make us doubt our future."
"It's a great deal being with someone like Colton so you've got to be prepared. You got the man of almost every woman's dream."
Mia sighed. "I hope I survive it all."
"I hope so too, sweetheart. This evening has been a long one. I guess if Miss psycho hadn't come to confront you at the office, I would still be blank about you and Colton being together. Even Dad knows and I don't know."
"It's not like that Tess. There has been so much going on. I didn't even get enough break to totally forget about Christoph's deceit before Colton came into the picture. I also didn't tell Dad on purpose. Everything just happened so fast."
"It's okay Baby. Let's go tuck the kids to bed and we will talk about the way forward once we are done. You will be a mommy soon so practice makes perfect." Tessie smirked at her sister.
Mia rolled her eyes, trying to hide her blush.
..........
After tucking the children in, Mia and Tessie were on their way to the living room when the sound of the doorbell came through.
"Are you expecting someone?" Mia asked her elder sister.
Tessie shook her head. "James got a night shift at the hospital. It must be one of our neighbors." Tessie left for the door.
She opened it and came face to face with a freaking handsome individual. He was still in his office attire, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, his hair was quite messy which was evident that he had run his hand through them severally and his face looked pretty tired. She sort of had an idea of who he was.