“Jesus, dad, you’re like Professor Dumbledore. You know the complete story and every fucken move before anyone even makes it. Only you jumped us all to year seven without the buildup. Fuck.” Sebastian is shaking his head in stunned silence now, and Christopher slaps him on the back of it.
“For fuck sakes, Sebastian, stop with the Harry Potter shit, would you? This is serious. Do you need me to get started,because I’ve got the guys waiting in the hall and we’re ready?”
My father nods. “The sooner the better. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted every one of those compartments filled. I want them all. He killed my best friend and, if I’m right, kidnapped his own daughter. He’s trying to kill me and my sons. Show no mercy.”
Christopher and Sebastian get up and leave. Danny finally clears his throat, making me jump. Fuck, I almost forgot the guy was there. He was so quiet.
“I’m going to switch out with Sasha now. If you need me, just text. I’m going to watch her door all night. For what it’s worth, I owe her an apology. I treated her like shit today.”
He walks to the door, and we all watch him. He turns back to us; the door half open in his hand.
“Did you know she left a chair in the hallway for Sasha to sit on during her night shifts? She was still concerned about her guard’s comfort despite being treated like a prisoner."
He simply shakes his head and exits the room. When I look at Carlos, he can see it on my face just as much as I can see it on his. I’m not sure how I’m going to fix this.
I look at my father and man-up. “I fucked up so badly. I have treated her both physically and emotionally like shit since before we were married. I’ve had her caged in that room like an animal. Taking pretty much everything away from her and leaving her with nothing. She will never forgive me now, not after the other night. Not after I convinced everyone she was working with Robert. I left her alone in every sense. She won’t even talk to me most of the time, and that was before the other night. She will never speak to me now.”
My father slides the letter and the Will at me. “Show her this. Tell her the truth, especially your truth, and wait.”
Shocked, I snapped. “Wait? What does that mean, wait?”
“She reminds me of Angelo.” He smiles widely. “He was quiet, watched and listened. He was never one for words, unless you were his friend, and then he never shut up. But he was calm and could read a person at a glance, and he was not wrong in his assessment. She will need time to process this. She will need you to back off and give her space. Let her go back to work once it’s safe and give her what she needs to feel whole, even if that means you have to watch from a distance. Protect her, Alexander, even if it’s from yourself. She will come around, and when she finally does, be honest. Angelo could spot a liar a mile away, and so can she.”
I can do that. I can protect her; that’s the one thing I know I can do for sure. In the morning, I’ll bring her coffee, and I’ll just set the papers on the table and tell her the truth; let her read them, and if she wants to talk to me, I’m there. I’ll call Professor Daniels in the morning as well and see if I can get her job back. She said that if she didn’t go back to work soon, she was going to lose her job. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen. Everything I fucked up; I’m going to work hard to put right again. She will hate me for a long time, maybe forever. But she has to be alive to hate me, and I’m okay with that.
The door bursts open, Danny comes sliding into the room. His face is red, and he’s got his phone in his hand.
I stand up and look, “What’s going on, Danny?”
He looks at my father, then at Carlos, and back at me, then he looks back at my father again as if afraid to say anything in front of him.
He sucks in some air and then spills it so fast it doesn’t register with me at first.
“Sasha and I went to check on Isabella. She’s not in her room.She’s not in the house. I’ve got all the remaining security guards running around the yard searching. But she isn’t here, boss. I think she's gone.”
My father immediately stands and goes to stand by my desk to pull out his phone. He dials and at once starts to bark out orders.
“James. I need the team, every single one of them. Assemble them and tell them I’ll be there in 20 minutes. Pull the car around, I’ll be there in five.”
I can only stand there in stunned silence. How the fuck did she escape? She was in her room all day. She can’t even talk so how could she ask for help? I know that no one broke in and kidnapped her. There’s no way. That means she ran.
I sit back down in my chair and look at Carlos. He shakes his head, his jaw ticking in anger. He knew I was the one who had driven her to this point, and I deserved his censure.
I’m a dick, as Anna would say.
My father comes to the table and points in our faces. “You two can deal with your guilt later. Right now, your wife is on the loose with a man who wants to kill her. And she does not know that it’s her father. So, pull your shit together, get out there, and start looking. I’ve got my team assembling. Half of them are going to be dispersed to get Robert and the rest of his shitbags. Christopher’s will grab the other half. I’ll send the remaining men to get on her trail. She had, what...” He looks at his watch and then back at me. “Less than 4 hours ahead of us? Your job for now is to find her, protect her, and tell her the truth once you find her. Got it?”
I can’t even talk. Carlos stands up, agrees with my father, pulls out his phone, and starts talking, I’m assuming to one of his guys.
“Alexander!” My father yells and I snap out of my head and look at him.
“Get up off your fucking ass and go look for the woman you love before her father finds her.”
My father walks out and slams the door. Carlos is in the corner talking on the phone, and I’m still too stunned. How would she get out of here? Where would she even go? I have to think like Isabella. If I had no money and no phone, where would I go to feel safe?
There are only two places that I know where she would feel safe, and that is with Anna or in the library with Helen.
Oh, my sweet, sweet bunny. I have so much to make up for, and I will. But right now, I need to make you hate me a little more for chasing you down and bringing you home.
