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“What? Were we hacked?”
“No. Valentina and Ava cannot be reached. I don’t know what to do. My pilot says that I can’t fly back today because of bad weather.”
“Ok, calm down. Calm down. Let me add Lucian to the call.” He added Lucian, while I added Miguel. After talking for a few minutes, they told me that they’ll pull all their resources to find them. They pleaded with me to try and remain calm, as panicking doesn’t help anyone.
My next thought was to call Vivian but I didn’t want to scare her. On the other hand, she was alone and it could be dangerous for her. I dialed her number multiple times, but she didn’t pick up, so I called Kyle to ask him where she was. He said she was at her boyfriend’s house.
VALENTINA
A shooting pain in my arm made me open my eyes as I tried to stretch. It felt like I was just waking up from a long nap. I tried moving my arm but it didn’t budge, that was when I looked around me. My hands and legs were bound to a chair with a tight rope.
My eyes darted to my surroundings. This wasn’t my house, or my gallery. I was in a strange living room that had pictures of me and Ava lined up on the walls. My heart jumped in my chest as the memories of how I got here flooded in.
I woke up early that morning to do some cardio workout since I decided not to run anymore. After my workout, Ava woke up and I freshened her up with a shower and then breakfast before going on to prepare for work.
Ava’s babysitter was running late, so I dialed her number. She answered and told me that she had personal engagements and would be unable to come to work today. I couldn’t leave Ava on her own and I also couldn’t stay home with her as there was a lot to be done at the gallery today. My only option was to bring her to work with me.
While I was getting her ready, my phone rang. It was Leon. We spoke about plans for the day and I told him how I was taking Ava to work. I ended the call, promising to call him when I was less busy. Kyle drove us to the gallery and I kept Ava in my office, occupying her with toys while I worked.
At noon, Kyle and the other security person, James, took their lunch breaks and someone came to deliver an artwork. I carried Ava up into my arms and went to the storage room at the back where we received and stored paintings. The delivery man put the painting in the storage room and I signed for it before he drove away.
I kept Ava down and used both my hands to lock up the storage room. Before I turned, someone’s hand that had a white cloth wrapped around it covered my face and it was lights out for me.
The sound of someone’s footsteps approaching me brought me back to this strange sitting room. The man that approached me was barefoot and had on red basketball shorts and a plain t-shirt. I looked at his face and gasped in shock.
“Gerald?”
“Hello, Valentina.”
Chapter32
Leon
As early as 6 a.m., I was at the airport and my flight took off almost immediately. Valentina and Ava were still unreachable and my fear had blown into full-fledged panic. I kept pacing and couldn’t get myself to eat or drink anything. Immediately after we landed, I descended the plane and Ramon took me home.
Paula was at my house and as soon as I came in, she gave me a hug.
“I am sorry about your child. Why didn’t you tell me about all of this?” she asked and I shook my head.
“Paula, this is not the time please. Let’s focus on finding them first. I’ll explain everything later.” I felt a little bad for my tone towards her, but it was how I felt. I needed to find the two most important people in my life.
A few minutes later, Vivian came to my house. She told me that she was unable to reach Valentina and Ava since the day before and I carefully explained what was going on to her. She became mad and started screaming at me for not telling her. I apologized and told her that I didn’t want her to panic.
Lucian called and told me that he had already called the police and informed Dad. Everyone was calling and pulling contacts to find them but the person who took them did a very clean job. I called Kyle to explain to me what exactly happened.
He told me that he and James left to take their lunch break and when they returned, Valentina and Ava were nowhere to be found. They only found her keys on the floor in front of the storage room behind the main gallery.
Two policemen came to the house to ask questions. They told us that they’d been looking at security cameras in the vicinity and the culprit successfully avoided every one of them. It was like the person knew the layout of her gallery really well. They asked if anyone had reached out to us for a ransom and we answered in the negative. We were told to inform the police if anyone did.
I couldn’t sit still. The thought of not ever seeing them again gave me a gut-wrenching pain in my chest. I knew they were important to me; this was just showing how much right now. Paula tried to get me to eat something but I couldn’t stomach anything. I felt terribly sick. Vivian was trying to be strong but I could see the fear in her face. We were all scared. Towards the evening, my brothers came over to the house to join us. Lucian promised me that we would get back my family and at the sound of that, I realized that they had become so important to me that I could not live without them anymore.
VALENTINA
“Where’s Ava?”
Gerald’s bruised eyebrows raised up at my question. “That cutie.”
“Where is she?” I screamed. He frowned and looked irritated at the high pitch of my voice.
