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“No recipe could possibly fix the fact that he was missing his father. He didn’t sleep last night.”
Danny’s little body is going limp now. I realize that he’s passed out in Jeff’s arms.
“Let me get his stuff and you can take a nap,” I say, kissing her cheek. “We really appreciate it.”
“Anytime,” she says, covering a yawn with her hand. “He’s cuter when he’s not screaming, though.”
I gather Danny’s supplies, which seriously look like enough to sustain a whole family and not one tiny person who is nowhere near 50 pounds, and we go back to the car. Jeff has settled Danny in a car seat. I wave goodbye to my uncle before the three of us, our little family, are on the road back home.
I feel warm contentment throughout my whole body. Yes, part of it is from the wonderful night I had. But a big part is the satisfaction of sitting in a car with my own family.
Chapter 24
Dismissal
Jeff
As soon as I park the car, Elia is hopping out to get Danny out of the car seat. My home office phone rings. I unlock the door and sprint inside, running into my office and picking it up before it stops.
"Hello?"
"Good news, Jeff." I can hear the smile in my lawyer's voice. "They filed a motion to dismiss their claim. I guess they heard about your wedding."
"Thank you," I say. I sink into my ergonomic office chair. "What a relief."
"Sure," my lawyer says. "Congratulations. I won't oppose the motion and we'll get this done. You have a nice day, now."
The phone buzzes. A weight I didn't even know was pressing on my shoulders is lifted. I run outside so that I can tell Elia the good news.
"No!" she screams. I ditch the phone right there and then and run out to the front to see something out of my worst nightmares.
Elia has just lost the battle for Danny. Danny is screaming his lungs out, trying to squirm back to Elia, but there is a squad of men extracting the baby from my front lawn. I run towards them at full speed, but they're running to a van at the end of our driveway at an easy lope that's somehow at least fifty percent faster than my own sprint. As soon as the last one is in, the car is moving even though the door isn't shut. Those guys are professionals.
"Jeff!" Elia screams. When she begins to run, I catch her hand. "We have to go after them! We have to save Danny!" She's crying, snot dripping from her little nose. I kiss her cheek. "We'll save Danny. Don't worry. I know who it is."
"But what if they're going to hold him for ransom?" she sobs, burying her face in my chest. "I can't bear the idea of something bad happening to our little boy."
I kiss her temple. "They're not trying to hurt him. It's not going to be a conventional ransom demand."
"What do you mean?" she asks, leaning away from my chest. Her eyes are still full of tears.
"It's his grandparents," I tell her. "Danny is going to be fine." "Possession is nine tenths of the law." She steps back from me.
"It isn't, actually, but they just dismissed the case that they had to get custody legally."
"So they decided to kidnap him?"
"This whole thing is about money," I tell Elia. "Danny won't be physically harmed, but they're going to try to get financial custodianship of his inheritance anyway."
"It'll be under duress. You're being coerced."
"I know," I say. "They must be desperate. I need to look into their current financial situation."
***
Two hours later, I have a short answer and it's not pretty. I sit back and sigh.
"What did your investigator find?"
