"But we would have seen him if he tried to leave the house. Maybe he's in another room. It's his first time here, he probably just wants to explore a little bit." Hannah replied to her husband with a look of disbelief.
"The guest room is empty, I checked it. I checked the other rooms too before coming here. He didn't leave through the door, he must have left through an open window.. I should have known he would go no matter what we said to him. Zac is stubborn. I should have stayed by his side no matter what." Thomas said with an exasperated sigh because there was no way to reach Zac at that point.
The phone he had been incarcerated with that was returned hadn't even been turned on before Zac decided to vanish. The least he could have done was leave a way to contact him. Now Hannah would just spend the whole day worrying.
" I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. He may not even be able to get there before the wedding is over. He'll probably get lost, he doesn't even know the venue."
"Zac is smart. He probably saw the venue in the videos. He may find it. Where there's a will, there's definitely a way. I wish we could help him more, but what if we get arrested? He just found out that he has lost almost everything that was important to him. That's a lot to take in. I just hope whatever he does today doesn't end too badly."
He knew he was betraying Thomas and Hannah's trust with what he planned to do, but he just couldn't stay with them and pretend like everything was fine. He felt guilty after taking some money he found, but promised himself that he would pay them back every dime. He just needed enough cash for transportation. From the tags in the video he watched, he had a vague sense of direction of the venue.
He wandered around after taking a cab, and he was so damn angry that it was making him mix up the directions he thought was sure. He probably looked like a homeless person, and made sure to avoid people. He didn't need anyone to misunderstand his anxiety or anger, and assume he was trying to rob or harm them. He was technically homeless though. Thomas and Hannah had been generous enough to let him stay with them, but their home wasn't his.
It took a few extra minutes of wandering, but eventually he found the place because there were a lot of people outside. The main hall was reserved for only close family members of the bride and groom, business associates and other important people. The security was tight and he knew that he wouldn't be able to get in without being apprehended.
He looked around and spotted a server wearing a black and white uniform. He followed to the side of the main hall. He figured that since the entrance to the main hall was closed, there had to be a way for the servers to bring food and drinks from the inside to the outside. He had a white T-shirt on, so he just stole a suit jacket from one of the chairs outside. He picked up empty glasses and pretended like he was also employed to work at the wedding. The employee side entrance had just one guard and he didn't pay much attention as Zac followed behind the server with the empty wine glasses. The disguise wasn't perfect, but the guard was just occupied with watching the guests.
He stepped inside and moved through the kitchen area that was crowded with servers and chefs running around. The door to the main hall was by the right and the first thing he saw when he stepped through it was Justin and Gaby, dancing while holding each other. His anger multiplied tenfold.
Here they were, enjoying their lives after ruining him. They deserved as much revenge as the Hansen family.
"Congratulations. You must be so happy that your plans to get rid of me worked." He spoke so loud that the music was turned off, and shocked guests turned to face him.
As Gaby saw the reason for the interruption, her face paled.
"Z..zac?
Everyone turned to look at him, but he didn't give a damn. But seeing the look on her face, he began to wonder. What if this was all a big misunderstanding? Gaby loved him, right? Justin must have forced her into this.
"Let her go!" He said as he walked towards them.
He could see two of the security guards moving towards him, probably to throw him out. But they also looked wary, like they weren't sure they were to act rashly and cause a scene. They moved with caution, waiting for Justin's orders.
Gaby looked scared as he got closer to them, but Justin just smirked. He realised why Justin was so calm when he was tackled to the ground after a brief signal from Justin. The old Zac they knew would have been subdued by guards, but not this prison hardened Zac that spent months with nothing to do but work out, and learn to fight to stay alive. He punched the first guard on his face and it felt so good to hear his bones crunch because of the force of the punch.
He kicked the second one that was crouched close to his legs and had been trying to cuff his hands. People screamed, and hearing how afraid they were of him filled me with immense satisfaction. They wouldn't dare mock him now.
"How could you betray me like this, Justin? You were my best friend. You have so much, why take the little I had, huh?"
"Peasants like you don't deserve more than crumbs, Zac. You should have just agreed to work in my father's company like I offered you back then, now you have nothing. Did you really think you could compete with us?" Justin said with a smirk.
"You lied to me, you took from me, you sent me to jail. If you were so sure that my company could never be a strong rival to yours, why work so hard to take it down? That shows that you were afraid of my potential. So you had to play dirty. Did you ever care about me as a friend at all? Or was it all a lie from the start?"