Page 134 of Vows In Corruption

Is this how scared she was when she ran form Josiah’s house with a younger Charlie? I fucking hope not.

I place a kiss against her temple and let her go.

All three kids walk into the theater and I let out a a sigh of relief. Four members of my family are safe. But I’m not going to be able to live until all of them are and under my fucking roof.

Leaving the kids, I had back to the living room and see that Elliot has finally arrived and is getting information from Dante.

I don’t have to hear what he is telling him, I can see it all over his face. He knows that his mother is back.

“Do we really think that she took Ella?” Elliot asks moments after getting up to speed.

There’s a small hint of optimism in his voice. Even though he hasn’t seen his mother in years, and thought that she was dead just like I did, he doesn’t want to believe that she is capable of doing this. He has a small bit of hope that she isn’t involved. And I wish I could give him that. I wish that I could tell him that I don’t truly think his mother is involved in this, but all the signs point back to her.

“I don’t want to, but given that she showed up at the office earlier today and now Ella is gone, I have to think that it’s her.”

He gives a nod and for a long minute, I don’t see him for the twenty-year-old that he is. I see the ten-year-old kid that showed up on my doorstep all those years ago, with his sister’s hand in his, looking terrified as he watched his father leave.

Out of all of the kids, Elliot is the one that holds the most on his shoulders. He feels a responsibility that someone his age shouldn’t, and now that Marisela is here, I can see him get angry at himself for not being enough for her. She is here, in the same city as them, and they aren’t her priority. Even after years of them thinking that she might be dead.

Me and him have had our differences, especially when it comes to his mother, but that will never stop me from making sure that she never hurts him again.

I place a hand on his shoulder and try to convey the promise with not a whole lot of words, before moving back to the task at hand. Finding Ella.

Even with dark thoughts still plaguing my mind, I spend the next twenty minutes, going through everything that the security team and Dante’s men have found.

Two men dressed in black, made their way up the elevator to the penthouse from the garage about five minutes before they took Ella. Apparently her phone ringing was a diversion. They figured calling a cell phone would cause enough noice that nobody would hear the elevator ding or the front door opening.

And the fucking kicker? One of Dante’s men found Ella’s found on the floor in the kitchen and took note of the number that called. It was the same number that has been messing with my mind for months. The same number that popped under Robert’s name. The same number that called me.

It must belong to Marisela. That’s the only logical explanation.

Marisela has not only been messing with my head for months, she has been been planning this for just as long if not more.

And I know for sure when my head of security tells me that the men that took Ella have been hanging out around the building for a whole week, acting as window cleaners, but instead of working, they were canvassing the area and getting to know the patterns of the security that is always here.

Since the penthouse is only used on occasion, the two window cleaners were overlocked.

“Where they canvassing the house?” I ask through clenched teeth. The house is a fucking fortress. Nobody could go in or out without at least five people knowing, but something could of slipped through the cracks. Someone could have slipped through without me knowing.

“No, sir. Not as far as we know. We ran their faces against the security system at the manor and nothing came up.”

That should give me relief, but it doesn’t.

“Did they follow us from the office?” I ask, trying to make sense of all of this.

“We checked traffic cameras and there is no sign of that.”

“Then how the fuck did they now that we would be here?”

Was it chance? They couldn’t get to the house, so they decided to just scoop out the penthouse until we showed up? It doesn’t make any fucking sense.

They knew that we were here, but how?

“They must have gotten lucky.” My head of security lets out.

As soon as I hear the words, I think about strangling him to death and firing him for such stupidity.

Thankfully Henry speaks and stops me from storming across the room and murdering someone.

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