Wayne who was equally restless and could not just keep watching the girls cry over and over. He picked his phone and dialed Jace's phone number although he doubts that Jace will pick his call.

To his astonishment, the great young master Jace picked his call for the first time in a long time. He gulped and prayed he won't mess up this opportunity he got.

"Hi, Jace. It is me Wayne. We used to be friends in high school," he said trying to sound as respectful as he could knowing fully well unlike his friends that Jace was older than him and the power he welded was beyond him.

"I remember," he heard Jace answer with a deep cold voice he found unable to recognize. He could not find the usual jovial Jace in that voice.

"I . . . I . . .," he began but found himself stuttering. "Rose . . . She is missing. The police have been trying to find her and it seems she was hurt badly," Wayne narrated glad he finally stopped stuttering.

"Ok," was the cold answer Jace gave him.

"She was your friend. Please, could you help us find her? I know you have the means to find her," Wayne begged with a shaky voice.

"Hmm."

Was that an acceptance or rejection? Wayne was unaware. He could only remain silent unsure of what to say next. He opened his mouth to try begging but Jace hung up before he could construct the sentence properly.

He exhaled frustrated and ran his fingers through his hair. This was really annoying he regretted the fact that he was not a very good hacker, good enough to hack the security cameras around for find Rose and even if he could, it might take forever.

Noah walked into the room with her red and swollen and her face so pale someone could argue that she had no blood at all in her veins.

He stood up from where he sat and walked to her. He spread his hand to her and she hugged him almost immediately and began another session of crying.

***

"Who is your friend and why do you think the boss has enough time to go around helping people save their friends?" Gray asked coldly.

"I will do anything you want me to do. I will work for you for the rest of my life if you save her," Eric vowed.

"What makes you think the boss needs someone like you to work for him. If he wanted you to work for him, you would have been invited long ago but I guess you don't have anything the boss needs," Charlie told the boy the plain truth.

Eric remembered that all he had was his fashion designing skill and that was nothing the boss needed when he was already one of the major shareholders of almost all the world best fashion brands.

"Please, I will leave fashion designing, I will do anything the boss needs me to do. I will give my life to him if he asks me to," Eric said truthfully. The boss was his only source of hope. He had no one else to turn to.

Charlie shook his head. The boy was willing to give his all and he saw sincerity and determination in what the boy said. It won't be good if the boss finds out Eric was willing to do this much for Rose who should be just a friend to Eric and nothing more.

He glanced at Gray and shook his head once again.

"Tell us how your friend got into trouble," Gray said after a short period of silence.

Eric was ready and immediately he began narrating all that happened. He knew the Whitfred family was under the protection of the Hart family and they should possibly know Rose since they were also once under the Hart family.

"We will deliver your message to the boss. Don't try to come to this floor again next time. The door won't always open," Charlie said when Eric was done with his narration. He needed something from the boy or he will never have let him in.

Eric turned back and glanced at them. He prayed and hoped that they will put effort into finding Rose and not dismiss his plea. "Rose stay strong till you are found," he whispered under his breath when the door of the elevator closed.

"Who does that for a friend?" Charlie murmured. There was something strange yet familiar about the boy's plea.historical

"His narration is the same with the rest we got," Gray said sitting down with a deep frown. The reason they let him into the penthouse so easily was because they needed to find something in his narration.

They could not seem to find it because the guy was not observant enough and his statement was no different the rest they had.

###

Noah leaned on the wall of the room she stayed in with her boyfriend and sighed for the hundredth time that day. She was in the middle of making a very important decision that could make a lot of differences but she was scared.

The penthouse was occupied by the Liam she saw during the fashion show who she assumed was the Liam who sent Rose that message. She wanted to tell them all she took note of.

She did not miss the smile she saw the teacher wore which made Rose uneasy and made leave for the restroom. She did not want to conclude but she could not ignore what she saw. Rose did not appear comfortable at all in the teacher's presence that could be an important clue.

"What are you doing?" Wayne asked standing in front his girlfriend.

"Nothing. I was just thinking," she replied with a sigh. "Are the girls still angry with me?"

"No, you told them what you saw and I believe you. This whole thing is way more than it appears to be," Wayne said thoughtfully as he rubbed the arms of his girlfriend. "You should take a shower and I will drop you off at the airport. You refused to answer your mother's call she is worried."

"No, how can I leave when Rose haven't been found?" Noah asked shaking her head furiously and brushed his hands off her arms.

"There is nothing you can do about that fact. Her parents are trying to find her and your mother is worried sick. She saw the news and she knows you were at the scene when the fire broke out," Wayne explained frustrated by everything that he was becoming impatient with her.

"No, I will call her myself. My phone's went off. I am charging it now. I will call her later," Noah refused to agree to leave.

"No, it is best you leave. The girls are still angry with you and even if I believe you, it won't make any difference," he tried another method to persuade her.

"Do you even believe me at all?" Noah asked angrily as she hit his chest with her weak tired hand. She glared at him as tears ran down her cheeks. "I swear I saw someone leave in her clothes. It might not be Rose but shouldn't that be a very important clue?"

"Everyone says you are imagining things. Rose designed the dress herself. Do you think someone else wore her clothes out of the restaurant?"

"I thought you said you believe me."

"I do because you are my girlfriend but they don't. Anna said the cloth could not have been worn by anyone else except Rose and she gets more angry the more you say that."

"Does she want me out of her house?" Noah asked tiredly as she mopped her tears with the back of her hand.

"Everyone is stressed Noah. She does not want you out of her house but you should go back home. Your mother will report you missing if you don't. Rose's family will worry about her. You barely even know her," Wayne said combing through his hair with his fingers as he suppressed the urge felt to scream out his tiredness.

"Do you think because I haven't spent much time with her, I can't be considered a friend? I will take my bath now," she said weakly.

Looking at his girlfriend as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, Wayne sighed heavily. He almost lost his hearing when Noah's mother called him to scold him to return her daughter or she will have him arrested for kidnapping her daughter who was a year older than him. Funny, right? But equally annoying.

If it was a normal day, he would have laughed it off as a joke but he was too tired with the fact that one of his friends might have died or was locked up somewhere by kidnappers that he immediately made the decision to send Noah back home.

###

Noah sighed in relief when she stepped out of the bathroom and Wayne was not in the room. She was going home but there was something she has to do before she leaves.