Page 163 of From Rivals to I Do

will I ever find her. Will she resent me? Will she think I abandoned her; I hate Reece for this.

Don’t worry, Charlee, we will be together soon. Mommy won’t stop until we are back together.

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Chapter twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-Four

It has been a year, and our hopes of finding Charlee seem to have evaporated. Charlee, my little girl, the one that I promised to love and care for as my own

daughter. Rayne and I walk the whole city, posting pictures of Charlee on every wall and building in our view, showing her face to anyone who drives by, hoping someone will recognize her.

It is hard to see Rayne’s sorrow. The woman she used to be and the shine that once lived in her eyes was replaced by dreadful pain and grief. I see how she

tries to smile, to be there for me and little Leonard, but it seems like her soul has gotten lost in the past, reproducing that horrible day over and over again. A

sea of dark waters and a day we will never forget. I feel so guilty for her sorrow and I am determined to love her through the pain. How could all this have

happened? How naive I had been, I saw it in his face that day at the hotel. The look in his eyes was so unsettling and I should have protected Rayne and Charlee

from him. His abuse was the reason Rayne fled LA in the first place. Rayne's courage never ceases to amaze me, she packed up her life to offer Charlee the life she deserved.

One thing is for sure, I refuse to let him win this time. He has done enough damage to Rayne and Charlee and now affecting me and little Leonard.

After a couple of months of Charles’s disappearance, I decided to secretly hire a detective, it would be unfortunate to draw false hopes in Rayne’s heart, so I decided to keep it to myself.

Many nights, I wanted to share it with Rayne, when her tears would flood our bedroom but I would just hold her and assure her “Honey, I will never stop looking for her, as long as there is breathe in my body I will search for Charlee to bring her back to our family”. As broken as Rayne would be, I believed she trusted in these words.

It was two days ago when the phone rang, and I finally received the call that I had been waiting for “Leonard it is Detective Ross, we have located Charlee on

the Mexico border. Reece was spotted on Mexico’s border at a gas station, with a little girl that fit Charlee’s description. The male was wearing sunglasses and

a green army hoodie that covered his head, and apparently, he had started growing a beard.”

Per the cashier at the gas station, “When I first saw him, I did not think much of it, he was buying a beer and getting gas then he lowered his hoody and

remembered that face from the news. I then looked at the little girl and knew for sure, this man was wanted by the police for kidnapping. I was sure not to let

him know I suspected him but hit the emergency button under the counter” I tried to engage him in conversation “Hello, sir how are you? It is another hot one,

where are you traveling from” " His response we short “We are headed north.”

“Oh, north, where about? That is a beautiful little girl, can I get her an ice cream or something”? “Look man, just ring up the gas and my drink, she does not need

ice cream, she is fine” The little girl began to cry “Daddy, I want ice cream.” The man leaned down to whisper in the little girl’s ear “Charlee, stop that, you do

not need ice cream.” He snatched the little girl’s hand, and they headed out of the store, I ran after him “Sir, Sir here is a popsicle for the little one, did you say

her name was Charlee, hi Charlee I have a popsicle for you.” The man appeared very irritated with me, but when I heard him call her name, I knew he was the

guy. “Thank you for the popsicle, have a good one” and he spun off. I memorized the license plate number, ran back into the store, and called the police station, within minutes the local sheriff pulled up at the gas station they had just missed him.

Not much time after that the police found out he was staying in a hotel near the gas station on the Mexico border. They were not sure if he was leaving Mexico

or heading to Mexico.

The police surrounded the hotel and surrounded every corner around the hotel with guns hoping for the best but expecting the worst. The detective expressed

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