His substitute mate.

Chapter one

'where is the bride?'

'Where is Elena?'

'no one knows where she is'

Where could she have gone?'

'Timothy, try calling her friends'

'dont you think we should call the police?'

Sheena could faintly hear the voices in her subconscious as she slept. She was a light sleeper, but today, for some unknown reason, she found it difficult to get out of bed.

The persistent knocking on her door forced her to open her eyes.

"Yes, who's there?" She asked, her eyes still heavy with sleep.

"It's me. Come and open the door quickly." Came her aunt Helen's response from the other side of the door. "Elena's missing"

"What?" Sheena mumbled sleepily.

It took a minute for her aunt's words to register in, and when it did, she scrambled out of bed and rushed to open the door, kicking over the water can at the foot of her bed on the way.

"s**t!" She cursed, taking a mental note to clean up the mess later.

"You're still sleeping at this time, huh?" Asked her aunt Helen with disdain as soon as Sheena opened the door.

"Put something decent on and come downstairs now. We can't find Elena anywhere" she added while eyeing her from head to toe. She didn't wait for a reply from Sheena before hurriedly turning to leave, leaving Sheena with a barrage of unanswered questions.

Sheena noticed her aunt looked distraught while she walked away, which was very unlike her. She had her phone in her hands frantically punching away on the buttons as she walked down the passage towards her room.

"What does she mean by 'Elena is missing'?" Sheena asked no one in particular. " I mean, who goes missing on their wedding day?" She thought.

Getting back into the room, she got out of her pyjamas and hurriedly freshened up, before putting on a black baggy Jean trouser with an equally big blue sweatshirt to match.

She was half way down the stairs when she paused at the sight of how many people were in the living room. While they all looked anxious and apprehensive, she could make out some of the faces as the family relatives and friends, the rest though were unfamiliar faces. She concluded they probably included the photographer, make up artist and crew, because she could see some of their equipments placed in strategic corners of the room. Plus she knew just how elaborate Elena had planned today to be. She realized then why she heard so many voices while she slept.

Walking down the remaining steps, she noticed Timothy, her cousin, at the dining table talking to someone on the phone. He had an open diary in front of him which looked like Elena's. She was about to go to him when she heard someone call her name.

Sheena turned towards where the voice came from and saw her uncle Tom seated at the his favourite chair - the only one sitter sofa in the living room. He gestured for her to come over.

"Hi Dad, what's going on? Mother says Elena is missing." She asked, as soon as she got to him.

She has always called him dad for as long as she can remember. She was only 2 years old when she lost her parents and he had taken her in and raised her as his own. He was her father's younger brother, but has literally been the only father she ever knew and had.

"Yes, it seems. We can't find her anywhere along with some of her belongings," he said, concern lacing his voice. " We have tried calling some of her friends, but they don't know anything," he continued. "Your mom wants me to call the police, but I think it's still too early. I'm sure they'll say it's not been up to 24 hours yet. Plus, we aren't sure for now if she's missing or if she left of her own accord."

" That makes sense." Sheena agreed.

" Weren't you together last night for the bachelorette party?" Uncle Tom quizzed after pausing to think.

" No dad, we weren't. I was at the venue with some of our friends but she didn't show up". She answered, replaying the events of last night in her mind.

"I found it strange, because it is unlike Elena to miss a party especially one in honor of her. So I called her and she said she was with Dom and that we would meet at home, so I let it go. Didn't she come back home last night? She asked.

"She did, but it was really late at night, and she didn't say a word to me when I called out to her. She went straight upstairs." Uncle Tom answered.

Sheena recalled the conversation she had with Elena on the phone.

She and Elena's friends had been waiting for close to two hours for the bride-to-be but she hadn't shown up. Whilst Elena's friends were having fun at the club, she was apprehensive and worried. She felt out of place there. As the chief bride's maid, she had reluctantly agreed to come to the club for the bachelorette party at Elena's behest ,and now it was close to two hours but there was no Elena anywhere. So she decided to call her. Elena picked after the third ring.

"Hel.....hello" She had whispered like she was afraid to speak out loud. Like something terrified her.

"Hello, Elena. Where are you? And why do you sound that way? We've been here since 7 waiting on you. It's almost 9 now. What's going on?" Sheena asked.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm absolutely fine. I'm sorry I couldn't make it. I'm with Dom. You should go home, I'll meet you there." Elena had hurriedly replied. She sounded scared and shaken which was strange but since she said she was with Dom, Sheena didn't inquire further. If Elena was with Dom, her fiance, it meant she was safe, right?

Now though, she wondered why Elena sounded really scared and if it had anything to do with her missing or perhaps running away. "I mean that is a possibility since some of her belongings are missing too, right? Could it be Elena ran away?." She thought.

Coming back to reality, she asked her visibly concerned uncle.

"Have you tried calling Dom already?"

"No, I haven't. I was just about to do so when I saw you coming down the stairs." He answered. Picking up his phone from the stool beside his chair, he scrolled through his contact list before putting a call through to Dom.