Elliot frowns at his phone. He was going through the morning news when a message from his assistant popped up, and it was an article confirming the relationship between his son and Chole. As of that moment, the legal team had been trying their best to ensure no more articles of such leaked out until there was a confirmation from Quinn's family. Elliot knew that reporters liked to talk, but what he could not understand about the article was that the journalist in charge was speaking as if they had gotten a confirmation from both parties."How could Chole and Ronan be back together?" he grunted as he swiped the article off his screen. He lifted his eyes to Clara, standing in front of him."What was that?" she asked with wide eyes."There is a strange article that Ronan had gotten back with Chole," Elliot responded, dropping the tablet to the coffee table next to him before pushing himself out of the chair. "You came to call me for breakfast, didn't you?" he asked, taking up her hand and
"I think you should call Mr. Prescott and sort this out before it snowballs into something big. Also, call up Noelle and explain the situation to her. I would not like to get the wrong idea if I were the one," Clara finally put in a word to their conversation. "Also, try to stop all contact with Chole at least for now. I am not saying you should become enemies, but you know that the media always wants to say something about your life, and your marriage would not be an exception, so do whatever you can to wrap this up quickly.""Okay, mom," Ronan said with a nod. He had already decided what he was going to do. He wanted to get breakfast over with her because he knew he would have to explain to her family what happened. He finished the food on his plate and excused himself before his mom could fill it up again.He went into his room and sat on the bed. He called Alfie to talk to him. He wanted to clear the air with him."Son-in-law" Alfie's voice sounded happy, as if he had won the lott
Alfie took the phone off his ears. He knew that he had jumped to a conclusion about Chole and Ronan last night but he had seen the opportunity and wanted to grab it by the neck. If he let it go, how was he supposed to stabilise his company? He marched from downstairs, where he had been drinking his coffee, to Chole's room. He pounded on the door and waited for her to respond.Chole was jolted awake from the pounding. She looked around, and the last thing that she remembered was leaving the hotel and going to a bar. She sat on the bed, trying to ignore her father on the other side of the door. She thought of Ephesus, and her heart began to ache. She did not even think for once that he was ever going to do something so evil to her. He was with her for her father's money? She did not have access to her father's money, and she was willing to leave it all for him, and yet he had his eyes on it.She began to think back on the relationship between them. He said they met by coincidence at the
Ronan took up his phone and called Noelle. He tried multiple times, but still there was no response to his calls. He was worried that she was intentionally ignoring him, and she would put it on that their relationship between them was professional and that she did not need to work on Sunday, so she did not get his calls. He knew sitting there all day trying to reach her on the phone was not going to resolve anything so he moved out of the house to her location. Since she had complained about him showing up with fancy cars before, he picked an ordinary salon car so he could blend into the neighbourhood.He got to the nearest parking lot by her house and decided to park there and walk the rest of the way. He got to her apartment door and knocked on the door. As he stood there, he realised that he should have brought something to apologise with, and now it was too late since he had knocked already. He waited for the door to get attended to; it never came, so he knocked again."Who is the
Noelle made sure that her father was out of the place before she turned to Ronan, clapping her hand gently. "Do you want to come in?" she asked when she realized that they could not stand in the doorway."Sure," he said, stepping into her apartment. He looked around the cosy but tiny apartment, allowing it to take in her. There were two doors facing each other at the end of the room, and he knew that had to be the bedroom and bathroom. The open kitchen was to the right of the door. "Lovely place," he said."You can sit here," she whispered. She felt a bit weird that he was in her house. "Can I offer you anything?" she asked and he shook his head. "Well, I feel a bit weird that you are here and I can't offer you anything," she replied."I will take anything with alcohol in it then," he replied. She nodded and walked to the kitchen, opening up the fridge and taking out a bottle of water after noticing that she might need to restock on a few things."I have this; I guess it should be oka
Noelle had lied to Ronan that she was having a blind date that her friend had set up because she thought that was the way she could get him to leave. Ronan was kinder than she thought he would be about it. He looked disappointed and had a lot of questions for her, but instead of asking her, he stood up and took his leave like a gentleman.Noelle was meeting with her friend Celeste. It had been a while since they had met, and she had a lot to tell her friend, so when the girl called to ask if Noelle would be free, she cleared everything else she had to do and agreed to meet. She still had an hour before Celste came over, and they could go for lunch together.Noelle spent that time cleaning up the house because she had not been able to do anything all morning. When she saw the news circulating, she broke down a bit, feeling sad about the situation. She kept on rethinking all of her choices as she wondered why she had pushed Ronan to go to Chole; she should have held onto him; she did no
"Are you going to stay for dinner tonight or are you going on another date tonight?" Relanda asked as Ezra walked into the kitchen."A date?" Ezra was confused at the sudden question she threw at him. She had barely allowed him to breathe in the scent of the soup boiling on the stove before she threw him that question. "What date?""You think I do not know that you are always out on a date these days?" Relanda asked."I am not going on any dates; I have been so busy trying to meet up with work that I have not had time for that," Ezra lied. He knew that Elara was going to panic if she heard that Relanda had figured it out so easily. He was going to try his best to keep his word to her, though, even though she had cracked the code. He was not going to tell her that it was truly a date and who it was because he was sure that would be her next question."Oh, please, boy, I think you tend to forget that I have known you for too long," she replied. She had been taking care of Ezra since he
A WEEK LATEREverything has returned to normal with the press, as no one was asking for interviews or questions about Ronan and Chole but Chole was continuously blasting Ronan's phones with multiple calls. It was a bit ridiculous to Ronan that things were happening that way. She had been the one to cut off all existing communications lines between them without first thinking about it, and now it seemed like she wanted to weasel her way back into his life.He did not pick up any of her calls or reply to her messages, but that did not stop her from sending multiple in the space of an hour. They were mostly messages apologising and asking to meet up. Even if Ronan had not fallen for Noelle within that time, he would never have given Chole the chance to speak to him. She had said what she wanted, and what he couldn't understand was why she was trying to switch things all of a sudden.A knock from the door drew him from his brood state; he looked up and murmured a come-in. Noelle appeared
"What?" The man looked genuinely concerned that he had missed an opportunity to make so much money."Micah and Cora, the woman who paid you, have come in and confessed, so you do not have to worry about trying to take a deal to save yourself." The man looked fidgety as he realised that if Cora had come in to confess, then there was really no escape for him anymore. He should not have pretended to be too tough, but he was sure that if he had taken the money, he would have been hunted down, and the money would have been returned to Ezra."I see?" the man said in a singsong voice. "But you are yet to find the woman, aren't you?" The man asked, as even Cora did not know where they had hidden Elara. She told them to do everything at their own discretion, as she did not want to be tied to something as terrible as that."What do you mean?""Cora paid us alright to kidnap her but she had no idea where she is and even worse, my partner and I have a plan that if one of us does not show up after
Ronan and Ezra got to the station and saw the man who had helped with the kidnapping of Elara. The policemen said that the man had refused to speak and that they caught him when he was out buying supplies. They asked that they be allowed to see the man, as they could maybe find a way to force him to confess. The police officers agreed because they knew that it was useless for them to disagree, as they would still find a way to have their way. Ronan and Ezra made a plan, hoping that they could both stick to it and that way get him to say something incriminating."I respect a man who works hard for his money," Ronan said as they sat down. The gruff and big man looked up. Ronan could see the realisation on his face before he cleared his throat and tried to act like he did not recognise the two men in front of him. "I am Ronan Quinn; it's nice to meet you." Ronan took out a card from his card holder and slid it across the table to him.The man looked down at the card without touching it.
"Mom?""Wait, I am thinking of what we can do to escape this; this is good for us. You've been free, and now we can leave if we can just find a way." Micah stood in a corner as he watched his mom pace around the room with her hand stroking her chin. He did not need her to speak for him to know that her mind was going in every direction possible. He bit his lower lip as he thought of how he would dissuade her and convince her to accept her fate."They don't know that we are connected to those men; maybe if the men do not confess..." she trailed off as she knew the possibility of that was very low. She was sure that the wealthy family would do all they could to coax the truth from them. "This is all your fault," Cora stopped and put her eyes on her son.Mixah shuddered at the thought of what had happened; he did not like it at all. How could she try to blame him for decisions she made without him? He was locked up in jail and did not know anything about what she was planning, so how was
Cora knew there was no escape for her now; all she could do was hold onto Elara and act as if she knew nothing. There was no way she could escape, and her entire plan seemed ruined."To what do we owe the pleasure of your coming here?" Cora asked; she was trying her best to act mature, but Ronan and Ezra already saw through the facade."We are here to pick up Elara Quinn; just tell us where she is and we won't make a scene and will be on our way without a word," Ronan said gently. He seemed more composed than Ezra, who was shaking with anger. All Ezra thought of doing was beating up the owner, but he knew that it was wrong to do so, and that would make them find Elara quickly; in fact, it might even make it worse for them."You are making a dangerous claim right now," Micah said, standing up, and you, more than anyone, should know that it is wrong to frame someone for something they have not done."Have not done? You know fully well that your mother is the one behind the kidnapping of
Micah sat in shock after hearing all that the lawyer explained to him; he stared at the man hoping that he would begin to laugh at how gullible he was and that none of that had happened. When the lawyer did not look like he was about to laugh, he hoped that he would be rudely shaken from this dream he seemed to be having and every tug in his life would be back to the time before he lost Elara."Why on earth would you allow her to do that?" Micah asked, picking at each word gently. He wanted to scream and pull out the hair of his lawyer, but he knew that was not going to make anything better; it might even make it worse if he did not take care."She is the only one who can sign off for you, and all the documents had your legal signature and stamp." Micah could understand how she got the stamp, but how could she get the signature? It made no sense except that she forged it. Why did she forge his signature? What was she trying to get by forging it to sell off all they had? Has she done th
"Mr. Micah Swanson, you are free to go," the officer said, unlocking the cell door and opening the gate. Micah stood up from the floor where he had been and walked to the gate. It made no sense because just yesterday Ezra had threatened to make sure he spent the rest of his life behind bars since Elara was still missing and Micah did not say a word about it."To go where?" Micah asked with a frown."To go home""Am I free to go home?""Do you need me to get an interpreter for you?" the officer asked angrily. He hated that Ezra and Ronan had walked in there and asked them to let Micah go without allowing them to do their jobs, but there was no way they could say no to them. It was more of an order than a request, and since both families were involved, the officer would rather keep his job than go head-to-head with them."I just won't understand why you would let me go without an explanation," Micah said, still staying inside the cell. He felt some kind of chill fill his entire body; he
"Ezra Are you sure this would work?" Clara asked with tears in her eyes. It had been four days since Elara had gone missing and the media had gotten a whiff of it. No one knew how this happened because they had been careful enough but there was a link to sow who might have leaked it to the media and none of them cared who leaked the information; all they cared about at that moment was finding Elara and making sure she was alive."Ezra, Daddy has enough to pay the ransom and bring her back home," Isla added. Unfortunately, for every six hours that they spent waiting, the ransom kept on going up, and now they were up to one hundred sixty million. The kidnappers had threatened to beat her up in the next six hours, and Ezra had come up with a plan. The viability of the plan was not certain, but they wanted to do anything to make sure that Elara came back to them alive."I have the money and I would pay; I wouldn't ask you for a dime. We know that Cora and Micah are behind this, even thoug
"She is being a bit difficult. What do you want me to do?" one of the men said over the phone before aggressively pushing out a whiff of smoke from his mouth. The other man took the cigarette from his hand and blew on it before returning it to him."Make the ransom call, but make sure that they are not able to trace it to me," Cora said silently over the phone. Remember that you would be the one to take the fall for anything that happens." Cora wanted them to know she had no part in the situation, even though she was the mastermind behind it."We understand.""One hundred million and my son.""What about our payment?" the man asked. This was the most dangerous job that they had ever taken, but they took it because of the risk involved. If they can coax the money from the Quinn family, then they would get to walk away with thirty million without sweating, as they have always done in the past."I told you that after we get the ransom, then you get your payment," Cora said angrily. She d
Micah did not want to believe that his mother would go so low to do something like this. It made no sense because everyone who had a working brain could trace it back to her without any issues. "Can I request a call?" He asked the officer as he dragged him back to the cell he had been."You can't" the man's voice was firm and Micah could tell that bargaining was going to be hard. "Please you have to help me or else I might end up suffering something I never did" Ezra said trying to stop him from dragging but the man was obviously stronger than him. "Please, don't I have the right to a phone call at least" he added in an almost crying tone. He knew it was possible that the Quinn family had cut off his communication line but then considering how things were going he would not blame them if they did. "I can't offer that to you at this time, maybe try later" the man said and pushed him into the cell without a word before walking away his ears deaf to the continuous plea from the man be