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Unfortunately, my relationship with my father is the least of my worries. Coming home to find my wife gone and nowhere to be found has my world collapsing. She’s just vanished without a trace. When I question the security guards at the front of the community we live in, no one can give me any answers. Nobody saw anything. Ryan is just—gone. Without any answers, it feels like all is hopeless, and I soon realize that it's only the beginning of what's coming.
Two
I've packed our apartment up and loaded it all onto the U-Haul. Our very first place together, where most of my favorite memories of us are, has been boxed up and moved back East. It's the last thing I wanted to do, but this way, Ryan is close by, even if I can't get to her just yet. The D'Angelo brothers send me their threats every day, right along with the videos of them doing my wife. Well, we aren't married on paper, but Ryan will always be my wife.
They tell me to stay away, and if they catch wind that I'm trying to find help to get Ryan out of their stronghold, they will either kill her after they pass her around to their friends, or they will sell her to some sick fuck overseas. I've done enough digging to know that they will not hesitate to do as they say. However, it's the conversation with my father that has me scared shitless for Ryan. I know Ryan, and I know she won't take shit sitting down. She has self-preservation, and I'm counting on her using it to keep herself alive.
I tell my father this now, but he sighs hesitantly. "Beau, you don't understand who we are dealing with."
"Yeah, I do! The D'Angelos are the local Mafia family that deal in drugs and trafficking. I've done my homework, Bain," I tell him. I'm irritated that he would think I'm that careless.
"It's so much more than that, Beau! If they are threatening you with Ryan's life, take heed!"
"Don't you think I know this? But I know there has got to be a way to get her back. Why? I need to know why Ryan?" I glare at my father.
He's hiding something from me, and I will get it out of him even if it's the last thing I do. He keeps telling me that I won't understand yet he doesn't even try to explain anything. When he remains silent, I start pulling at my hair, and God bless Lacey for speaking up, even if it wasn't to say much.
"Babe, you need to tell him about Chloe." My stepmother's stare penetrates my father's, and finally, he nods.
My mother's name has my full attention. That is something else that I plan on doing once I have Ryan back. I had always planned on looking for her once I was able to. I need to hear her side of the story. After everything my father has done, I don't trust him. I think there is more to her leaving us, until I hear my father's next words.
"Fine." My father turns back to me, and what he says has my head spinning. "Your mother never left us, Beau. She was killed…"
I stare staggeringly as if I just heard something so far-fetched. In fact, I begin to laugh. "Mom? You're telling me that Mom was killed and didn't run out on us?"
"Yes…"
I scoff and shake my head. "Un-fucking-believable! Sorry if I don't believe a word you are saying…"
"Ryan found the pictures of your mother that I had received in the mail all those years ago and confronted me after I found her snooping," he says with a fond smile. "That girl has guts, that's for sure."
I can't stand here and reminisce about how great my wife is, not after hearing what is being said. "How was she killed?" My voice is low and full of pent-up rage. "Who killed her?"
Raising his voice to me, my father says, "It doesn't matter how. The point is that your mother was killed by the same fuckers who have Ryan!"
My chest tightens, and I grab at it, clawing and scratching because I can't breathe in any air. I drop to my knees, and it isn't until someone starts beating on my back that I finally cough and suck in much-needed air. I take a few minutes to catch my breath before trying to stand up.
When I do, I look my father straight in the eye. "Why was Mom with them?"
Another question that I can tell my father doesn't want to answer, but pinching the bridge of his nose momentarily, he walks over and grabs a glass to fill with his precious liquid courage. Storming over to him, I swing, knocking the glass from his hand, letting it shatter when it hits a nearby wall.
Clenching my jaw, I order my father to tell me. "Start fucking talking right now or else…"
"I don't know the exact details, Beau! Somehow Uncle Liam fucked up."
I furrow my brow. "Your dead uncle Liam? How convenient that you can place blame on a dead man who can't defend himself."
"It's the truth, Beau." Dad sighs. "He had an affair with D'Angelo's wife and got her pregnant. When her husband found out, he kicked her out, and your uncle turned her away, too. She shot herself in front of her three sons. The same boys who killed your mother and now have Ryan."
"Wait, so you're telling me that teenagers killed Mom?"
"No. From what I was told, they waited until they had to prove themselves worthy in front of their dying father, so they decided to continue with the revenge that their father had started. You see, Liam was engaged, so he had no choice but to turn his mistress away. After she shot herself, D'Angelo made Liam come and get her body and take care of it himself. When he did, D'Angelo went after Liam's fiancé and then shot her in the head in front of your uncle.
When the boys needed to prove themselves, he made them vow that whenever a male Huntley fell in love, they needed to take her from them. No male Huntley heir was safe. I hadn't known any of this," my father states. "So, when they came and gave your mother a choice to go with them, she refused. I'm not sure why they took so long to come get her."
I take it all in. Every little detail that my father is telling me, I'm filing it away. There is something that I have to be able to use…anything. My great-uncle died years ago. From what? I couldn't tell you. It was just after my mother had left. I was never close to him, nor was my father, so I've never thought much about it.
"They killed Mom because she refused to leave you?"
