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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
An undeserved second chance The arrival
Preparations were underway for Emma’s seventh birthday and she was beside herself with excitement because all of her friends had been invited. She was a bit sad because her other ‘best friend’ Taylor was not going to be there, but that sadness was overshadowed by the excitement that she felt at the fact that she was going to have a party. Alex did not get what all the excitement was about and told her so, but Emma dismissed him with a flick of her finger, calling him a silly little boy who did not know any better. Dan and Becca found her excitement funny, especially knowing that it was going to quadruple the minute she found out that Taylor was coming, but Taylor’s dad wanted it to be a surprise, so they were keeping it from her.The party was to hold in a skating rink event room and everything had been prepared for it. Dan was communicating with Taylor’s father, whom Becca hadn’t spoken to yet, and neither did she see any need to talk to him over the phone. She would meet him at the
An undeserved second chance Blissful ignorance
The next day, which was Taylor’s friend’s birthday, dawned bright and early. The presents for Taylor’s friend, which Ryan had arranged for to be delivered to the hotel that morning arrived, all boxed and wrapped in pretty pink gift wrappers. Taylor had insisted that the gifts be wrapped in pink wrappers because pink was Emma’s favorite color. Taylor was still asleep when they were delivered, so Ryan had them stuffed in the trunk of the car that he had rented, hardly able to believe that he was actually pulling all this off. He guessed having more money than you knew what to do with was not bad at all. Finally, he had to wake Taylor up to have breakfast and take her bath, if not, she would probably have slept till noon, and he didn’t want her to be late for her friend’s party.“Good morning, dad. Are we going to grandpa’s house today?” She asked as soon as she woke up.“Yes, honey. Come on, we have to bathe and dress you up so we won’t be late. They’re waiting for us. I’ll call for bre
An undeserved second chance Utter shock
“It’s nice to meet you too. I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding this place.” Dan said after he and Ryan had shaken hands. Two staff had appeared and were taking away the presents.“It was easier to find than I thought.”“Where’s Emma and Alex? I want to go see them.” Taylor said impatiently, bouncing on her feet.“Ah, that’s right. I would like to meet the much talked about celebrant and 'big head Alex.’” Ryan quipped, and all of them burst out laughing.“Sure thing. Thanks a lot for those presents. Emma and Alex are going to be beside themselves with excitement. Emma’s mom is not around, now. She went home to freshen up, but she will be back in no time, I reckon.” Dan said.“That’s okay. I’ll say hi to her when I come back to pick up Taylor.”“No way! Taylor? Is that you?!” A boy’s voice exclaimed from the doorway to where the party was holding. It was Alex.“Alex!” Taylor shrieked in turn, and they rushed straight to hug each other happily. The commotion drew other kids,
An undeserved second chance Threat
Ryan arrived promptly at the venue of the birthday party to pick his daughter up at the time Dan had told him to come back. Now that the party was over, it was time for them to head home, as he had an important meeting to attend the following day. The place was not as packed as it had been earlier, and even as Ryan climbed out of the rental car, more parents arrived to pick up their wards. He spied Taylor and her crew, who immediately ran over to greet him. Sandra, Alex’s mother, saw him and came over to engage him in conversation, which he was actually enjoying. Ryan had been in enough relationships and had been around enough women to realize that Sandra was interested in him, so he casually mentioned the fact that he was in a relationship. Her brother also came over to inform him that he was going to get Emma’s mom so she could say hi, much to Ryan’s relief. He did not want to appear rude, but he was ready to leave already. Not long after Dan left, Ryan and Sandra heard him callin
An undeserved second chance A brief farewell
Ryan stalked away from Becca, unable to stand looking at her any longer. He was mad … madder than he had ever been in his entire life, but despite his anger, he felt a little sorry for her. She had looked so scared and small as she tried to defend her actions and it had taken all he had not to take her in his arms and kiss her forehead, but his anger had been his shield. Becca did not follow him, which was just as well. He went into the event room and sank into the closest chair that he could find, and then held his head in his hands, trying to come to terms with what he had just learned. He was a father, a father to that beautiful and incredibly sweet child that he had met earlier today. He now had two daughters, not just one. He was extremely happy about it of course, but he did not know how on earth to react. Was he supposed to say something about who he was to Emma and Taylor? He had no idea. He guessed it was better to take things a step at a time. First, he would take Taylor t
An undeserved second chance Decisions
For days after what he had come to term ‘the revelation,’ Ryan could still not believe what he had discovered. He had left in shock the day he found out what Becca was hiding from him, so he hadn’t collected her contact number, but that was no problem at all. He knew how to reach Dan, and if Becca prevailed upon Dan to try any funny business, Ryan would go to the ends of the earth to find his daughter. He had needed this time to plan what his next course of action would be because one thing was sure. He had missed out on this much of Emma’s life, but now that he knew about her existence, he wanted to reclaim and make up for the time he had lost. Finally, he made up his mind on what to do. It was a no-brainer actually. He could not uproot Emma from her life, obviously, but he could move to where she lived with Becca, after all, he could live in whatever city he wanted on the planet. It was a win-win for both he and Taylor because Ryan knew that she would give anything to go to the sa
An undeserved second chance A not so pleasant surprise
Becca did not hear a peep from Ryan since that day that he left in a huff, after giving an ominous promise, but she had no doubt that she would hear from him again. Ryan was not one to abandon his flesh and blood, as she had known all the while she kept his daughter a secret from him, but she had been making excuses for her behavior because she didn’t want him to take her daughter away from her. Becca was at a loss as to what to do, whether to tell Emma about him now or wait until he showed up or contacted her. She had no doubts that he was going to do one of the above. Each night, she kept having nightmares in which Ryan took Emma away from her, never allowing her to visit. In these nightmares, her daughter hated her and wanted nothing to do with her because she had lied to her about her father. Becca was aware that it was just her subconscious playing tricks on her. Ryan wouldn’t take Emma away from her, she knew, or rather, hoped. Still, she was troubled. To worsen matters, Sand
An undeserved second chance Reprimand
“What on earth were you thinking?” Becca thundered at her daughter in anger. “Thinking about what?” Emma replied casually, dumping her school bag on the floor, a move that Becca had warned her against doing several times to no avail. “Why on earth would you get in the car with a stranger and even go get ice cream with him?” “But Mr. Ryan is not a stranger! He came to my birthday party.” “I know. That doesn’t justify you getting in the car with him instead of getting on the bus.” “Relax, mom,” Emma said, ignoring her mother and moving away to her room, clearly not getting what all the fuss was about. “Emma Harris. You come back here this minute. You don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you. That’s very rude and I didn’t raise you to be rude.” Becca said sternly, her tone brooking no argument. Emma sighed and trailed back into the room, her small mouth set in a pout. “Listen to me very carefully. You will go nowhere with Mr. Ryan unless I ask you to do so, or else you will
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An undeserved second chance Promises
It felt as though large bags of cement were holding down Ryan’s eyelids, and try as he might, he could not force them open. He could hear his daughters’ voices as they talked over themselves about something that he did not have the energy to follow. Then he heard Becca’s low voice asking them to keep it down so as not to wake daddy.“But daddy won’t wake up. He never does. I want him to wake up.” Taylor said, banging on the table and chanting ‘wake up, daddy’ several times. Within seconds, Emma took up the chanting too, while Becca tried in vain to get them to quieten.“Your dad is unconscious, but we have to hope that he will wake up soon. If you don’t behave yourselves, I won’t let you come visit him again. The doctors think that he might be able to hear you. He wouldn’t like it if you both were being stubborn and disturbing him, would he?” Becca asked.“No. I just miss him so much. I’m glad that those bad men are gone.” Emma’s voice said, and then Ryan felt a small hand patting his
An undeserved second chance A broken heart
Becca watched in horror as Sam and Ryan collapsed to the ground, almost as though in slow motion. They fell gracefully, as though they were doing a dance, and then both remained unmoving. By the time all this happened, Ben had gotten to the car and opened the door to the backseat in which the children were, the remaining cash from the ten thousand that Ryan brought firmly clutched in his hand. He opened the car door, produced a knife from seemingly nowhere, and although it took great effort because of his busted shoulder, he managed to cut off the ropes binding them and told them to make a run for it. Then as the shots rang out, he somehow managed to get himself into the driver's seat and drove recklessly away from the scene. The children ran towards Becca, crying and shivering, and after hugging them all briefly, she ordered them not to move from where they were. Ryan’s head of security was combing the bushes, trying to find a sign of any other person there, after he called for help
An undeserved second chance Confusion
“He’s clean.” The man who was watching Ryan and who had searched him said at last after he was satisfied that there was nothing incriminating on him.“Where’s the other car?”“Travis is bringing it.”“Good. He'll leave with this one.” The man said. Ryan’s heart sank further. There was yet another of them, making them four, and those were the ones he knew about. Ryan wondered which of them was Sandra’s ex-husband.“I’ve fulfilled my own end of the bargain. Release my children.” Ryan said.“The man in the car will take them back to town, where they’ll easily be found.” The man who had been giving commands told him, staring at him in a way that made him extremely uncomfortable. Ryan had already dubbed him ‘commander’ in his mind.They stood there waiting for the person called Travis to bring the car that they were waiting for. Ryan was on edge the whole time, wondering if at any moment now, all hell was going to break loose. If only the children were already out of there. The Travis guy
An undeserved second chance The meeting
The night air was cold, and the streets deserted, which was not a surprise, considering how late, or early it was. Ryan hurried through the streets, his head down, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible as he hurried through the night with the bag in his hands, even though there was nobody around. He had been warned not to take his phone along with him, so he left it in his room, along with a note for Becca in her room, explaining what he had done. Even though everything in him pushed him to look back to see if he would notice his head of security following him, he resisted the urge to look back.The kidnappers might be watching him and the last thing he needed was to look suspicious. He trusted his people's ability to do the job. The other man had once been a private investigator before coming into Ryan’s employ, so Ryan was confident in their abilities to blend in with the shadows. Finally, he got to the place where he had been told to come and saw the car that had been provide
An undeserved second chance A walk in the night
Sleep was a long time coming for Ryan, as it had been since he got the news of his children’s kidnap got to him. Tonight, he was sleeping in his room as against the previous night, when he had spent the night comforting Becca. She was sleeping in the guest room again, with Sandra this time around. Ryan was trying his best to be strong for her, but he was getting to the end of his endurance. The thought of his sick daughter and her sister holed up somewhere with some bloody kidnappers was enough to make him go insane.He got up from his bed, pacing to and fro the wide length of his room, his mind in turmoil. The money was in the process of being sent, but since it was such a large sum, it would be days before the kidnappers would get it in the account details they sent. Were the children supposed to remain with the kidnappers till then? The thought of that sickened and scared him to no end. He was operating on autopilot, having not had more up to five hours of sleep in two days, but ea
An undeserved second chance New plans
“Ben has to go.” Sam thought to himself, as he sat with the children, watching them. It wasn’t as though they had anywhere to go, or that they could escape, considering that one of them was sick. If they even managed to escape, the chances were that they would die of starvation in the dense forest, that was if some animal did not get to them first, as he had told them. None of it mattered to him anyway, because they were going to die one way or the other. What mattered was that the millions that he was expecting became his before they died. He had thought and thought of the best way to dispose of them, and he had finally come up with a smart plan to dump them in a river some distance away from here. it would be ages before they would be found, if they were ever found, that is.One thing was sure, however, and that was the fact that he was not going to let them get back to their parents and let them know that he was the one who had kidnapped them. For all his tough talk while they were
An undeserved second chance Not to be trusted
Becca awoke with a start, immediately realizing that she was not in her own bed. The events of the previous day came rushing back to her in a jiffy. Ryan was not in the room any longer and her phone was ringing. That was the sound that had woken her up. She dived for it, hoping that it was the kidnappers who were calling. They were to send the account details in which they wanted the ransom to be paid today, and also let Becca and Ryan talk to the kids today. Becca had sent the names of the drugs that Emma was supposed to be using, to the kidnappers, but she didn’t know if they received them. It wasn’t the kidnappers who were calling though, but Trevor. “Becca? Where are you? I was at your house last night, and I’m here now. I’m just coming from your school and was told you hadn’t come in today.”“I’m at Ryan’s place.” There was a short silence, which was filled with disapproval from Trevor’s end.“What are you doing there?”“Emma, Alex, and Taylor were kidnapped yesterday.” Becca in
An undeserved second chance Feverish
Sleep was a long time coming for Becca and when it finally came, it was filled with nightmares. Never in her life had she been so frightened. Her daughter and other kids whom she saw as hers were out there somewhere in the hands of a maniac and she was here lying in a very large and comfortable in one of the guest rooms in Ryan’s house. Maybe she had been wrong in asking Ryan not to involve the police. Maybe by now, the police would have found them, or at least, would be close to doing so. She sure as hell did not trust Sam to take care of three children for as long as it took them to send him the money.She tossed and turned on the bed, her mind drawing up different scenarios, none of them good. Finally, she fell into an unrestful sleep and dreamt that for some reason, Sam had gotten pissed, and had sent Emma’s two feet, and all ten of Taylor’s fingers in the mail, with a note that said Alex’s head would follow suit. In the dream, as soon as she opened the bag containing the gruesome
An undeserved second chance Captives
“Damn! I can’t believe how far we’ve come. We’re going to be bloody millionaires before long.” Ben told Sam enthusiastically, as he wolfed down a large bowl of pasta that he had prepared himself. “Yeah, me too. I hope the account into which we’re sending the money is legit.” Sam said in turn. He was also eating a plate of pasta, but he was eating his food more slowly than Ben was.“You’ve asked me this several times, and I’ve told you several times that you have nothing to fear. I’ve done stuff like this numerous times before, just not with such a large amount, and I have the right connections. Or don’t you trust me? The only thing is that we’re going to give a commission to the person helping us, but we will still have a lot of cash when we’re done. That’s for sure.”“Okay. I trust you. Are you sure they’re not dead yet or going to die? Why aren’t they awake? It’s been hours. I’m starting to get worried. That Ryan guy seems like he might pose a problem. He would not give us the money
