When Darlington first looked at the bed and didn't find Samantha, his first reaction was the scream that escaped his lips, an involuntary reaction.
But a mili second later, his mind calculated really fast and asked some questions that made him stop to wonder if he wasn't making a mistake.
He looked at the empty bed again, rubbing the back of his palm over his eyes, to be sure that his eyes were still functioning.
"But how did she get out of the room? The door is still locked and I don't seem to see any way else, out of this place. How did she leave?" Darlington wondered.
He pushed the duvet off the bed, searching frantically for Samantha, that he even seemed to check under the bed.
His phone began to ring just then, indicating a call from Mrs Magnus, and he looked at the phone without interest.
Sitting dejectedly by the side of the bed, he answered the call with an emotionless "hello"
"Where the hèll are you Darlington?" she asked him, but he was silent, just staring in the space in front of him.
For some strange reasons, he felt quite pained to imagine that Samantha had given herself to the idiót that has been messing with her mother for months now
He couldn't tell if the pain was just about the person he perceived she'd done it with, or the fact that she did it at all
His mind failed to bother about what chief would really do to him, if Samantha made good her threàt to send her father the video, but dwelled on imaginations of how carelessly the roguê must have slaàmmed Samantha.
Images of Samantha lying beneath Justin, while his phàllus glided in and out of her pleàsure boulevard, made Darlington feel like choking to dèath.
"Did you hear my question or not Darlington? Where are you? And where the hèll is Samantha?" he heard Mrs Magnus yéll again
"Where is Samantha? I don't understand" Darlington returned, getting alert all of a sudden.
He couldn't understand what was going on. Did Samantha go mess with Justin and also ran away to put him in bigger troubles?" he wondered, still clutching his phone to his ear, but not saying a word.
"By the gods Darlington, if I ask you where you are again, I'll …" Mrs Magnus was still saying when the line went deàd.
Darlington hung up abruptly and watched his phone slip from his hands.
"Oh damn it Samantha! Why did you do this? Why did you give yourself away to that idiót? Why didn't you understand that you're too young for all these adventures you have been seeking?
"What then is the use of all I have done so far? What use is my decision to stay back and lay low, until she was of age?" Darlington soliloquized, tears rolling down his face.
He was still squatting on the floor there, shedding tears and regretting the decision to go to the car, when Mrs Magnus marched into the suite, looking all flustered and petrified.
"Are you cràzy Darlington? How dare you hang up while I was still speaking to you? Have you lost your mïnd?" she yelled at him, looking at him fiercely.
Darlington remained on the floor, neither speaking to her, nor making any attempt to even acknowledge her presence.
"Where is my daughter?" she yelled again, this time, shoving Darlington róughly on his shoulder.
Then Darlington looked up at her, his eyes as red as crimson and his face a mask of hórror.
"Where is your daughter? Is that what you just asked me? I mean, did you just ask me where Samantha is?" he asked her, getting up as he spoke.
His eyes were blazing in ànger and his voice bore so much resèntment that it was Mrs Magnus' turn to rob her eyes with the back of her palms.
She wondered if the person standing in front of her was really the dutiful and obedient Darlington she had always known.
Her heart began to beat fearfully as she saw him clench and unclench his fists, while looking at her with so much ànimosity.
"So you recall that she's your daughter? Seriously now? You suddenly recalled that you have a daughter named Samantha?
"Pray tell ma'am, how did you suddenly remember this? Is it the worry about your daughter becoming a competition to you, now that Justin is interested in her, that has birthed this concern, or you have miraculously come to terms with the fact that a girl as young as Samantha is, needs a mother?" Darlington asked, looking at Mrs Magnus in disgúst.
"Wait a minute. Are you talking to me Darlington? Are you hïgh or something? What is wrong with you? Have you gone màd?" she shrieked in so much ànger that she was almost losing consciousness.
"Yes ma'am, I'm losing my mind, thinking of how I sat back and let you ruin your daughter's life the way you have just done
"I'm losing my mind, thinking of what could have been and the possibility that she could have been raised better, if I had spoken up earlier
"You have ruïned Samantha's life. In your rêcklessness and nónchalance, you abandoned the upbringing of your daughter, your only child, in the hands of housekeepers who only had interest in what they could get and not what the poor girl should have.
"I took over the job of a mother, trying to show her the love and care she lacked, hoping that she'd be able to keep holding up till she becomes old enough to know what's good for her.
"But you never stopped for a moment to think about her and her wellbeing. All that mattered to you was running round town in disgúise, with young boys" Darlington lashed out.
"Watch your tongue Darlington! Watch what you say now or…" she was saying, but Darlington cut in rûdely.
"Or you do what? What will you do ma'am? What else can you do that will hûrt my soul beyond what you've already done?" Darlington asked, leaving Mrs Magnus to wonder what had truly come over him.
"You are being unreasonable, Darlington. Samantha asked Justin to meet him somewhere in this hotel, and as we speak, he may be toying with my daughter's bôdy
"Would you save your unsolicited advices and drama for later and come find my daughter?" she asked, making Darlington miss a heart beat.
"Oh really? So, that is to say that the jêrk you have allowed to mess with you so bàdly that you even ordered those stupîd toys, is also out there still tóying with Samantha? Well, I guess I have to say a special thanks to you then!" Darlington snapped.
"Oh shut up and own up to your mistakes, stupîd! Wasn't she left in your care? Weren't you supposed to look out for her?
"But you left her all alone here and went to the car to do only God knows what!" the àngry woman snapped.
"Ma'am, you literally left everything about Samantha's care since she became a teenager to me, and I have so far been caring and watching out for her
"Shouldn't you have stopped for a moment to wonder why I have been avoiding being with her lately? Shouldn't you have been a bit more careful, and save me the àgony of having to see her expressions as she unboxed your sèx toys delivery?" Darlington asked in askance.
He went on to tell Mrs Magnus how for so long he'd been battling with Samantha's óbsession.
She looked at him with disbelief as he narrated what happened before they got to the airport to pick her up and what had been going on all evening.
"So, you're telling me that Samantha made it clear to you that she was going to get it elsewhere if you didn't do what she wanted, and you still walked away?
"Pray tell Darlington, am I supposed to clap for you now, knowing that you could have prevented that call she made to my suite?
"Should I thank you now for letting her fall into Justin's hands?" she asked him.
"I beg your pardon ma'am. Are you by chance implying that I should have obliged her and let myself become the reason she ruins the life she has ahead of her?" he asked Mrs Magnus in pure ànger
"No Darlington, you have done nobly well by making her choose to go to someone as dèspicable as Justin, and keep loopholes for chief to find out about my activities ultimately" Mrs Magnus said in pure sarcasm.
They continued to argue back and forth, until Darlington realized that Mrs Magnus hadn't really been fîghting with Justin because she caught him with Samantha, but because Samantha had called her suite with her cràzy demands, and Justin agreed to do what she wanted.
Turns out that after Darlington left the room, Samantha called her mother's suite to tell her that she had figured out what she was doing.
Justin answered the call and asked who Samantha was. Samantha told him she was just a girl looking to have fun.
She liked the fact that the person on the other side sounded just the way she wanted, because it didn't take so much for her to convince him to go get the spare key to the room and get her out of the room, or she'd call her father and let him know what he'd been doing with his wife.
Mrs Magnus overheard the phone conversation and asked who Justin was talking to
Justin told her everything in a go, sounding as if it's the most natural thing to do, to have agreed to slèep with Samantha.
She got really furious with Justin, and that was how Darlington ended up finding them outside, near the parked car.
Darlington blinked rapidly for a few seconds to test his eyes' adjustment to the brightness of the light in the room. He wanted to be sure he was still in his senses and not hallucinating
"Oh well then, if Samantha hadn't done it with Justin before I found you two arguing outside, then there's still a chance that I can stop them" Darlington said and made to rush out of the room, but the most unexpected person stepped into the room, making both Mrs Magnus and Darlington nearly convulse out of shock.