"Your brother has been missing for over three days now."
These words brought back a recent memory to Nita's mind.
Just last night, Nita was out with her friends, enjoying the beautiful nightlife when she received a call she had not been expecting, to say the least.
Surprised to see that her father had given her a call out of nowhere, she excused herself from the group and stepped out onto the balcony to answer his call.
The pair of father and daughter had not spoken for nine years, so it took Nita a while to find the right words to interact with her him.
However, she was not given the chance to get too involved in her nostalgic emotions as her father had dropped a huge bomb on her.
Her elder brother had disappeared and no one in the entire family had any clue about his whereabouts.
The Valken family was working with the police force to figure out what could have happened to him.
Media outlets had gotten hold of this news and now the entire city was baffled by his disappearance.
Detrim Valken, the present CEO and heir of the Valken family business, was someone who most did not mess with.
Not only was he the son of a business tycoon, but he had also made a name for himself after entering the industry.
He was respected by many and admired by all because he always wore a pleasant smile on his face, unlike the other cold and rigid-faced CEOs out there.
He was kind to his employees and friendly with everyone he met.
His amicable nature had brought him into the limelight of the media as the 'Prince Charming' of the business world.
Always with a smile and never being rude to anyone, this was the image Detrim Valken, her elder brother, had among the masses.
Due to the popularity he had amassed over the years, the outrage over his disappearance was especially severe once the public had heard about it.
Uri Valken had reached out to his daughter as he wanted her to hear this news from him before anyone else broke it to her.
Hence, he had contacted her, breaking the nine year long silence between the father and child.
Nita's thoughts were racing at the speed of light after she received the information her father had shared over the phone call.
Unlike her father, who never reached out to her, her elder brother would make it a point to contact her and check in with her every now and then.
Though the siblings were in different countries, they were in touch and were often aware of what the other was up to.
While the frequency of their interaction varied between weeks and months, Detrim would always find some time to speak to her whenever he found the chance.
It had been a few weeks since they had last spoken to each other and Nita had assumed it was due to his busy schedule he had thanks to being the CEO of a big company.
She believed that once he had some leisure time, he would reach out to her like he always did.
However, never in her wildest dreams would she have thought that he would go missing, nor that her reason to return to Teluson, the country she had left years ago, would be related to her elder brother's sudden disappearance.
__
Back to the present,
Uri Valken was ignorant of his daughter's reminiscent thoughts as he continued revealing the details of the issue at hand.
Three days ago, Detrim had a meeting scheduled in a different city in Teluson, Metro V, where he would discuss the advancement of a new project with a big conglomerate there.
Since there was a huge amount of pending tasks, the assistant, Milo Gavin, could not accompany his Boss and was forced to stay back and monitor these tasks in the absence of the CEO.
On Gavin's advice, a liaison from the conglomerate would be responsible for escorting the CEO of Valken Industries while he was in Metro V.
The date and time were set and Detrim was supposed to board a flight in the morning, reaching Metro V in a couple of hours.
This would give him enough time to freshen up and then meet the CEO of the other company at lunch.
Whenever Detrim went on such trips or was focused on his task, he would not attend to any calls during this period until he had completed his work.
Everyone close to him knew of this quirk of his and would often try not to disturb him when he was busy.
The morning that he had left for the airport, his assistant and the rest did the same.
He would be on the flight for a couple of hours, then rest at the hotel before meeting the other CEO at lunch.
There was no time or requirement for them to call and disturb him while he was dealing with this matter.
Thus, they had all given him his space, as they were sure that he would be the first to contact them, since this was something he preferred.
Only then would they know the outcome of the CEO's meeting, whether it was good or bad news concerning the progress of their latest project.
"But he never checked back in with his assistant even after the entire day had come to an end." Uri Valken grimaced while rubbing the wrinkled space between his brows.
Nita knew bits and pieces of what had taken place due to the sudden and urgent phone call she had received last evening so she nodded, asking him to continue.
Uri did not stop and went on to narrate the remaining events that had taken place.
After receiving no news from his Boss, Milo Gavin had finally attempted to contact him first.
The CEO should have called them after lunch or even after dinner, but nothing of that sort had happened, which made the assistant anxious to hear of the progress of their project.
However, no matter how many times he tried to call his Boss, the call never connected.
This lack of communication prompted Milo to get in touch with the liaison from the other company in order to inquire what might have taken place.
Sadly, he met another dead end as the liaison's phone too was unreachable.
It was only the next morning that he was successful in contacting the liaison.
"That was when we realized that Detrim never reached Metro V." Uri sighed while recounting what they had discovered after this phone call with the liaison.
The previous day, the liaison had arrived at the airport to pick up CEO Valken but even after waiting for hours, no one appeared.
The man then informed his superior, who asked him to return to the Office and wait there for him, as they had assumed that CEO Valken had decided to board another flight.
However, the CEO of the other company and the liaison waited for the entire day but there was no sign of Detrim Valken showing up.
This made the CEO furious as the Valken Industries had been the one to extend their hand first to initiate this talk of a new collaborative project.
Yet their CEO had been so disrespectful and had not even informed them in advance that he would not be coming to Metro V to meet them for the deal.
Neither did CEO Valken appear, nor did his assistant try to contact them and explain the reason for this inconvenience they had caused them.
With an entire day wasted in waiting for someone who never appeared, the frustrated men had gone back home without caring for the CEO who might have come by later on.
The next day, they forgot about this incident and went on with their daily routine.
It was then that Assistant Milo Gavin had called the liaison with the request to contact CEO Valken for him.
"Imagine the surprise Milo got when he heard that Detrim never showed up." The old patriarch of the Valken family was disgruntled at how late they had realized that something had gone wrong.