Page 130 of Vows In Corruption

When I hear that Marisela popped up the first time, it came with a lot of questions. The main on being, where the hell was Robert?

I know for a fact that my brother went back to the home that he and his wife built. What I don’t know is what happened when he got there. There is something deep in me that tells me that I already know what happened. He got caught in the middle of a cross fire while looking for Marisela and he is buried deep in the ground and that’s why I haven’t been able to find him.

But I’m not going to accept that until I get confirmation. Hard, solid conformation that I see with my own fucking eyes. Marisela is alive, so can he.

“What happen to Marisela after the shooting?”

“She disappeared again. Her and her family all basically fell off the face of the earth for about two years.”

Ella’s eyebrows bunch up in confusion. “Two years? You mean they showed up again after two years? Did Robert find her? Did they come back for the kids?”

A bit of anger rolls through me as I remember all the details of how I became the kids legal guardian.

My jaw ticks as I speak. “Only she came back. According to her, she hadn’t seen or heard from my brother in years and had no idea where he was, which I called bullshit.”

She knows. I know she fucking knows and if I ever get in the same room with her again, I will torture her until I find out.

“What happened when she showed up?”

I let out a sigh and relieve a memory that I tried so hard to bury.

“She went to the manor and I took pity on her. I knew what it was like to not have my mother around, and I didn’t want the kids to go through that any longer, so I let her in their lives. Which was one the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.”

I see the question in Ella’s eyes before she speaks it.“Why?”

“Because she didn’t want anything to do with the kids. I don’t know how much my brother told her about our family, but she knew we had money. So she came here, pretended to miss her children and want to give them a better life, but in reality, she was just here trying to figure out how to get her hands on the Lane family fortune. In a period of two weeks, she stole anything she could get her hands on. Turns out my brother’s wife is a greedy bitch that is only after two things. Money and power. After I realized what she was doing, that she wasn’t telling me the truth about Robert, I threatened her, and she signed over her parental rights.”

I can still see the anger on Elliot’s face when his mother told him that I was forcing her to leave. I was twenty five and I was looking out for my family. He hated me for it, and to this day still holds some resentment towards me because of it.

He’s realizing why I did it, though. Its taken a few years, but he’s seeing that when it comes to him and his siblings I would do anything to protect them. Including keeping them away from their mother.

She is as toxic as they come and they don’t need to be exposed to that.

“Why did you think she was dead?”

“Because much like my brother, she fell of the face of the earth when I made her leave. I had no confirmation that said otherwise.”

“Why do you think she decided to pop up now, after all these years?” She asks, her eyes bouncing from me and Dante once more.

“That’s the fucking question of the night.” Dante mutters out.

“I don’t know why she’s here, or why now, but she’s here for a reason and I will find out what it is.” I don’t give a shit if I have to be in the same room as her, I will find out why she is here.

Ella gives me a a nod, like she is silently telling me that she’s with me on this.

I wonder if she would still be with me if I tell her that if it gets to it, I won’t stop until Marisela is in the ground.

A phone rings somewhere in the penthouse, and Ella quickly goes to go answer it, leaving Dante and me in the same place as before, with more questions than answers.

“What do you want to do? Be on the lookout and hope she pops up somewhere else?” Dante throws the suggestion out and as much as I want to tell him that we aren’t going to be doing that, I can’t.

We have no information to go off on. All we know is that Marisela is somewhere in the city. We don’t know where she is going to go next, if she is working with someone, or if she will make another appearance anytime soon.

“That’s the only thing we can do.” I can’t believe that I’m just going to leave shit up to chance, but what more can I do? “I’ll increase security. Here, the manor, the office. Hell, even at the kids’ schools. She’s going to pop out again, if she wants something so desperately, and when she does, she’s not going to have any place to run.”

Dante nods in agreement. “I’ll have men ready for whenever you need them.”

“Thank you.”

---