I paced the living room, my phone in my hands. I have been making calls, trying to find out where Elara was. She didn't return last night.
Her absence without a phone call got me worried. Twenty four hours since I last saw Elara, and the unease had grown into something I couldn’t ignore. She has never been away without my knowledge.
She didn't have friends because she wasn't comfortable with them.
Where could she be?
I glanced at the door to her room upstairs, praying that she’d come home any moment now.
Elara's mother's words echoed in my mind, a painful reminder of the responsibility I’d taken on. “Please, look after her,” she’d said, her voice trembling. “She is not safe with me. She needs someone to guide her now I can’t.”
I have tried to protect her for the past eighteen ye
