Pascal

Chapter 54 - Pascal

“Tina.”

Hearing the name from Alisha left Torin momentarily stunned. His fingers tightened around the coffee cup as his mind went back to what Kelly had told him before everything had fallen apart. Tina had been missing, along with the money, and now her name had appeared in the conversation again. He looked at Alisha carefully, trying to understand what she knew and, more importantly, how much of it was connected to what had happened.

“Is Tina with you?”

Alisha immediately shook her head. “No, no. She isn't with me. I haven't seen her since about a week ago. I happened to run into her around Blazing Tower, and she was with her boyfriend. We talked for a little while, and I asked her how things were going because I hadn't seen her in some time.”

Torin's expression remained serious. “What did she say?”

“She told me she had moved out of Blazing Tower. She said she was staying somewhere else with her boyfriend because things had become unsafe after what happened to you.”

“When was this?” Torin asked.

“About a week ago. Maybe six or seven days. I'm not completely sure.”

Torin slowly leaned back against the pillow, thinking about the timing. Alisha had seen Tina around a week ago, but that had nothing to do with the call she had received two days ago telling her about Torin's condition. The two events were separate, and Alisha had not spoken to Tina since that meeting.

“And the call you mentioned?” Torin asked. “You said Tina told you about me.”

Alisha nodded. “Yes, but that was two days ago. I didn't speak to Tina directly then. I was simply told that you were in the hospital, so I came as soon as I could.”

Torin's eyes narrowed slightly. “So you haven't spoken to Tina since you saw her at Blazing Tower?”

“No.”

“And you don't know where she is now?”

Alisha shook her head.

Torin lowered his gaze toward the coffee in his hands. His mind began working through the information piece by piece.. Now he was learning that Tina had already moved out of Blazing Tower before everything happened, claiming that it had become unsafe.

Then an old memory surfaced.

He remembered overhearing Tina once, speaking quietly to someone on the phone. She had mentioned Money during the conversation, and there had been something secretive about the way she had spoken. Torin had noticed it at the time, but he had dismissed it as none of his business. Now the memory felt different. With everything that had happened, it seemed less like an insignificant conversation and more like a piece of a puzzle he had failed to recognize.

His thoughts began to move faster.

If Tina was involved with the money, her disappearance suddenly made more sense. Perhaps she had known something about it from the beginning. Perhaps she had taken it herself or had helped someone else take it. But if that was true, another question immediately followed.

Why would she help kidnap her own mother?

Torin looked at Alisha again.

“Did Tina seem strange when you saw her?”

Alisha's expression changed as she thought back to their meeting. “Actually, yes. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that you ask...” She paused, searching for the right words. “She looked scared. Not just because of what had happened to you. Back then she also seemed timid around her boyfriend.”

Torin's attention sharpened.

“What do you mean?”

“Whenever he spoke, she became quiet,” Alisha said, her voice lowering as she tried to recall the details. “She kept looking at him before answering me, almost as if she was worried about saying something wrong. At first, I thought maybe they had argued about something, or perhaps she was simply nervous because of everything that had happened around Blazing Tower. But now that I think about it, it felt different. She didn't seem comfortable around him.”

Torin's attention sharpened. “Did you ask her anything about him?”

“Not much. I knew she was dating someone, but I had never really spoken to him. She only told me that they had moved in together and were staying somewhere else because Blazing Tower wasn't safe anymore.”

“Do you know where they moved?”

A faint smile appeared on Alisha's face, almost as if Torin had asked a question whose answer should have been obvious. “You know that, Torin.”

Torin stared at her for a moment, confused by the certainty in her voice. “I do?”

“Yes. You know her boyfriend too.”

He searched his memory, going through the people he knew, but no one immediately came to mind. “Who is he?”

Alisha watched his face for a few seconds before finally giving him the name.

“Pascal.”

Torin's fingers slowly loosened around the coffee cup.

For a moment, he simply stared at her.

“Pascal?”

Alisha nodded, seemingly unaware of how deeply the name had struck him. “Yes. Your best friend, Pascal.”

The room seemed to grow strangely quiet.

Torin's mind went completely still for a few seconds before a dozen thoughts began crashing into it at once. Pascal was not some stranger who had appeared in Tina's life. He was someone Torin trusted, someone who knew him well, someone who knew about his life and the people around him.

And now Tina was living with him.

Torin's expression hardened as everything he had heard began taking on a different meaning.

"Best Friend, Pascal."

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