“Get them out of there,” I say into the speaker.
“On it,” Matvei replies.
Then I turn my full attention to Selene.
They are still chatting until her father’s phone rings.
“What?” he snaps as he answers. “Are you… No… No… It seems we have a problem.”
“Father? What’s going on?” Selene asks, as innocently as she possibly can.
“I believe you know exactly what’s going on,” he snarls.
I hear movement. “Please tell me. Is it the children? What is going on?” she demands with panic in her voice.
“Stay here,” Alek snarls at her. I hear a door slam closed.
“Are you alone?” I whisper.
“Yes.” Her voice is so soft I can barely hear her.
“We have the children. You need to get out of there now!”
There is a long pause. My heart is beating loudly in my ears. “Selene… you need…”
“I can’t just get up and leave. I have to wait for the right moment. He already knows something is happening,” she whispers.
Her father has been gone for a long time, leaving her alone in his office. I keep talking to her, trying to reassure her that it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. I know I am trying to reassure myself as well.
“The children are almost home with me,” I tell her. “They’ll be here in two minutes. And my team has been dispatched to your father’s property to wait for you when you get out.”
“Tell them to keep a distance. If he catches wind of that at all, I will be as good as gone,” she says.
There is tense silence between us. I hear shouting, but it sounds far in the distance.
“Selene?” I whisper.
“Simon, he’s coming back. He knows. He…”
“Selene, get out of there!” I shout.
“Simon, tell the children I love them. Tell them I always have, I always will. I’m so sorry,” she says. “I wish I…”
The line goes dead.
“Selene!” I yell at the laptop despite seeing that the connection has been severed. “Selene!”
My heart is in full panic mode when Adrian walks into the room.
“The kids are on their way up,” he says with a smile. “Raya is with them. They are all okay.”
I grab his arm. “Adrian, she’s with her father, and he knows. The line just went dead.”
“Fuck!” he snaps.
“We need to move!”
“Simon, wait, we need a plan!”
