“He is not going to get to you or them,” he said to assure her while he watched the woman who settled on the couch away from him. “What is he after?” “Elena, I will handle Ethan.” “How can you handle someone you don’t even know his whereabouts?!” “I am looking for him,” he said and she shook her head. “If he truly sent those pictures to the media then this is not a joke! He could be closer than we imagine. What if someone else is running the errands for him? They managed to follow me to the cafe with them. And then… their school! They know where my children’s school is and…” “Elena…” Zeke called out the woman who was shaking in fear and agitation already. “Ethan cannot do anything to them.” “I do not expect you to be worried, do I?” Her voice shook and his brows pulled together. “What?” “I watched them grow. Only I know the pain that I went through because of them so it is normal that I feel this way for them, but, you… you can’t. You met them just recently and your subcons
Zeke sat in silence all through his journey back to the company, his hands clasped together, head rested against the headrest and then eyes closed tightly. The words from Elena had pierced through his thick skin and had caused him literally nothing but pain since he left her. “You disgust me so much, Zeke. Sometimes, I wonder how I managed to pull up with a disgusting person like you for three whole years,” she had said to him while she looked him dead in the eyes. Shedding tears right in front of her, he had hurriedly wiped it off, moved away from her, and then forced a smile. “I… I should return to the office. I… I have a meeting,” he stuttered while he glanced at his wristwatch. Elena had not said anything and only watched him leave the office. Zeke sighed, opened his eyes, and then took a glance at his driver. The man had been working for him for almost five years and he was a married man too. “Uhm… John.” “Sir.” “How… how should I make a woman forgive me?” He asked, in
Camila returned to her feet and then burst into hysterical laughter which went on for a whole minute. While she displayed that psychotic side of her, Zeke removed his coat, dropped it on the hanger, and then walked to his chair. “How dare you do this to me?” She finally asked, her voice mixed with anger and desperation. “You blocked my number and then refused to pick up any call that came from me. How dare you do that?!” “I thought I made myself clear already. We are done, Camila,” Zeke settled in his chair and switched on his computer. “We are not done,” she shook her head and moved over to him. “We are not over, I told you we are not, and we can never be!” She screamed and then slapped the computer in anger but Zeke was quick to stop it from falling. There was one thing about her when she was angry and that was ruining things. He stood up, moved to the other side and she followed him just as he had expected. He was in no mood to start picking up the things she had shattered
“Maybe sometimes, you forget that I am a busy man and I have a company to oversee too,” Ryan exhaled as he strolled inside Zeke’s office. The man had called him while he was just on his way to work and had told him to come over first. Sighting his friend who paced to and fro his space, he settled on the couch and his phone beeped. He removed it from his pocket and a smile spread across his face as it was a message that came from Chloe, his girlfriend. “I got to work already. How about you?” “I am at Zeke’s. I’ll go to work afterward,” he replied and she viewed it almost immediately which made him smile wider. “Why? Did he figure out about us?” “That early? I don’t think so, babe,” he replied. “Camila has a video of me,” Zeke finally spoke up and Ryan nodded his head while he read the new message from Chloe. “I’m going over to Elena’s today. I’ll talk to you later,” Chloe’s message read. “A video? That is no big deal, is it? I have a video of you too and I…” “A sex video,” Z
“God, I was so worried, Elena!” Chloe exclaimed as she broke the hug and looked at her. “Really?” “Your phone was switched off. I was not sure if you were home or not. I didn't even know if I should come over or not! Yesterday was too complicated!” “I know, right?” Elena smiled and then settled on the couch with her. “I am sorry you had to go through that yesterday. Alone, at that.” “It is fine. I… I am fine.” “You suck at lying. Your face is bloated. I can tell you are not fine.” “I bet you can't,” Elena laughed. After a while, Chloe picked up her hand and then covered her hands with it, “My mother found out too.” Elena nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders off. “Half of the USA probably knows.” “Elena,” Chloe swallowed in hesitation. “What?” “You… do you… do you still want to come back with my brother?” Elena stared blankly at her and removed her hands gently from hers. “Is your family trying to take me back because I have kids?” “What? No!” “I bet your mother
“The installation has no deception. I feel like something is missing,” Elena said as she stared at the projector screen across the room. “It lacks impact. What do you think?” she added and shook her legs. Her staff watched again closely before one of them talked. “How about we make it a 3D shape which has a constant cross-section so that it refracts and absorbs light while it creates different colors?” Elena clapped her hands and nodded her head in agreement. “Like the harmony of a thousand color and ever growing. ” “Exactly, ma'am. The archive will be transformed into a physical space.” “Okay, let’s go with that!” She stood up from her seat. “The meeting has ended.” As she walked down the hall with Marvella closely behind her, she picked up her phone and then dialed a number. “Bring the car to the front,” she said, dropped the call, and then stood from her seat. “Ma’am, it is not very advisable to go out there. The reporters might still be there and…” “It’s been three days,
“I will drive!” Ryan hollered at his friend but the man turned deaf to his words and entered the car before he hurriedly joined him. “You are not going to their school, are you?” Ryan asked as he settled inside beside him. Zeke ignited the engine, and then drove the car out of the parking lot swiftly, “I am going to pick them up.” “You should tell Elena first.” “That is a death wish,” he hissed. “No. I think what you are doing is a death wish.” “I can’t call her to tell her something like that! Are you insane? Ethan is threatening me with them and you want me to tell her right away?” “So you are going to pick them up without telling her?” Ryan asked as he grabbed the hand grab of the car when his friend suddenly took a U-turn without looking around. “Drive carefully, Zeke. I do not plan on dying yet.” Zeke did not answer and only kept his eyes on the road. His mind was clouded at the moment. If it was yesterday or two days ago that he had received this message, he would ha
Zeke pulled the car gently at the parking lot, got down, and then hurried to get the door for the kids. Nathan got down first and then turned to hold Natalie’s hand as she got down which made Zeke smile gently. He did not doubt that his son would grow to be the gentlest man in the world. “Woah…” Natalie exclaimed as she raised her head to look at the tall building they were in. “Where is this, Daddy?” Nathan asked. He leaned down gently and then answered with a smile. “My house.” “Really?!” They both screamed in excitement. “This is your home, daddy?” Natalie asked him and he nodded his head. “Woah. Your house is so big, Daddy,” Natalie wrapped her hand around his finger and they walked towards the entrance. “Did mummy used to leave here with you before?” Nathalie asked, his hands wrapped around his other hand too. Zeke didn’t answer and slowly smiled as he entered the living room with them. As soon as they entered, they let go of his hand and then ran inside as if they wer
Elena dropped her head on the steering after the call ended and then Zeke finally got to her place.“What’s wrong?” He asked, placing his hands on her thighs.“He called… Mateo.”“Don’t let him get to you,okay? I have this under control. I have gotten…”She grabbed his wrist hurriedly, cutting him short.Elena shook her head, moving gently away from the camera that was planted in her car.“What?” He whispered when she dropped her index finger on her lips.She picked up her phone, and then turned on the note application, “My car is bugged too.”He drew his brows together as he read and then nodded his head.Afterward, he collected the phone from her and then typed in it too.“We are going to find the twins soon. There is a way.”“So Mateo called me too,” he said after she read the message he typed.“He did?”“And he made his demands already.”Zeke narrated everything to her and she shook her head.“He is crazy.”“I plan on doing that.”“What?!”“We have to give him what he wants in ord
“D… do you hear that?” Zeke stuttered after the call ended and Ryan raised his brows.“He is a psycho,” Ryan breathed out.“No, no. I heard the sound of a siren in the background. He…”“I got his location!” One of the men hollered.“Where is he?”“He is… nearby,” he drew his brows together and zoomed in properly.“He is around here,” he repeated.Zeke prepared to stand up but Ryan was quick to stop him.“No, wait.”“I have to find him.”“We need to be rational here. Hold on.”“He said the bomb could detonate on its own!”“I heard that, just calm down.”“How is it going so far?” Ray joined them in the car and Zeke breathed out.“He has called, and made his demands,” Zeke answered.“Good. How much? Tell me, and I will raise it right now.”“He wants all of my assets.”“What?”“My assets. Everything down to my shares and buildings.”Ray swallowed hard and then shook his head. “That psycho.”“What are we going to do? Make the call again. I will give him mine. They might not be up to yours,
“I knew it…”When the low, hoarse voice of the little boy came up, Ramon turned around to look at him and then breathed out.“What?”Nathan adjusted in his seat and then glanced at the tiny rope that was used to tie his wrists together.“I knew… something was wrong about you. I have always known that.”“Shut up, you don’t know anything,” he hissed at the boy.Natalie stirred gently from where she sat too and then finally opened her eyes.Looking around at where they were and how they were tied, she whined gently and then burst into tears.“I know you were not a good person,” Nathan said again.“The problem with you is that you act like you know everything.”“I think you are actually pained that I have always been right about you.”Ramon forced a laugh and then shook his head. “Right about me? You don’t know anything, trust me!”“Aside from the fact that you hold grudges against little children like us which actually amuses me, I know for a fact that you have always had this darker sid
The call ended, and Elena shook her head vigorously. There was no way this was going on. She swallowed hard and dialed the number again but it was not going through. Skeptically, she looked around the car while she made sure she sat tightly. What if it was not a lie? What if there was truly a bomb in her car? How could anyone have had access to the car anyway? Finally, her eyes settled on the dash camera in her car and she squinted her brows when her eyes caught the faint red light that was flashing beside it. She leaned closer and when she realized that a camera had been planted in her car. No wonder he knew to call the moment she wanted to leave the car. If truly she was sitting on a bomb as he had said, then she could have died if he had called her a second late. Oh, what a psychopath! Her kids were missing and she has been made to sit forcefully in her car. She browsed through her phone and then clicked the camera application. She began to record the car and then gentl
“K… kids? Whose kids?” Elena stuttered. Zeke dropped the call instantly and palmed his face. “You are not talking about the kids, are you?” The gateman stuttered. “Why…?!” He sniffed and shook his head. “Why did you let them go with him?” “I have seen him before, so I didn’t think to refuse him. Besides, they called him uncle.” Zeke looked around and his phone rang again. He gritted his teeth and then picked up the call gently. “Where are my children?!” She thundered, breathing heavily. “I am going to look…” “You said Ramon has them?!” “The gatekeeper said someone came to pick them up. I believe it was Ramon.” “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Elena screamed from the other side. “Stay back, Elena, I am going to find them,” he said when he heard the sounds of footsteps. “You can’t tell me to sit back while my children are missing!” She yelled and then dropped the call. Zeke looked around and when he saw the CCTV camera, he moved closer to the security man. “Can I see
“B… but… why have you come to pick us?” Nathan stuttered as he reluctantly got out of the gate.“Your daddy sent me to pick you up. He is running late at work.”Zeke had initially thought that they were going to close by 3PM as usual but they had closed by two.“Daddy?” Natalie raised her brows.“Have you forgotten? I am his friend. His only best friend in the world.”The twins exchanged glances again.“I know you two are mad at me about what I said the last time and I am so sorry, okay? Can you forgive me already? I’m taking you to your daddy. Can we leave now?”Nathan moved over to Natalie and then held her hand. “We will wait for Daddy to come.”Ramon gritted his teeth and then forced a smile hurriedly. “Come on, guys.”“Daddy promised to come pick us up.”“But he is not here yet.”“He probably thought we would be closing by three and not two!” Nathan snapped.Oh, this boy was smarter than his age.Ramon hissed,“Actually… I should not be telling you this…” he sighed and bowed his
“Can we not go to school today, Daddy?”Natalie forced a solemn look as she stared at her father who addressed her dress.“What?” “We are not going to tell mummy.”“What?!” He widened his eyes when Nathan added.“We’re going to act as if we went to school and then when it is time, you will take us back home,” Natalie said.“Jesus, when did you two become like this?!” He exclaimed and the twins burst into laughter.“You are being dramatic, papa.”“You want me to join you to lie to your mother!”“You are exaggerating. It’s not gonna be a lie. We’re just gonna tell her that we went to school…”“Whereas you didn’t?” He cut her short and she clasped her hands together.“Exactly.”“How did you two come up with that idea? It is so…”“Perfect? We know,” Nathan smiled.“Not perfect, guys!”Natalie covered the space between her and her father who knelt in front of her and then wrapped her arms around his neck.“That is because we have missed you, daddy. We want to spend the rest of today with
“But Daddy, do you pull your friends' clothes?” Natalie asked after they had watched Ramon out of the compound.“We were only talking. It is nothing serious. Trust me.”“I thought you were fighting. About what he told us.”Zeke sighed and then glanced at Ariana who chuckled. “We have settled everything. He had apologized for saying something like that so we are good now.”“Hmm,” Nathan rolled his eyes.“I am being serious.”He held the door for them and they both entered the car.“Have you told mummy?”He parted his lips and then scratched his forehead. “I forgot.”“Daddy!” They both exclaimed and he rushed back inside.Ariana laughed as they watched him run to the big door and she turned to look at the twins.“Your mummy will agree. Don’t worry.”===“Daddy, do you know our birthday is on Saturday?”He nodded his head as he took a turn out of the street before he glanced at them through the rearview mirror.“I do.”“We will be six years old!” Natalie shrieked and he giggled.“The ‘Ye
By the time Zeke and Elena got to the living room, Ramon was ready to leave. “Oh, I was just going to come to you to say bye!” He exclaimed, smiling. Zeke needed not to be told that the man was wearing the fakest and forced smile ever. “Oh… is that so?” Elena smiled and then moved away from Zeke. “I… sorry about your face,” she pointed her finger at his face and he chuckled. “I probably deserve it.” She nodded her head and he leaned closer to her gently and then hugged her. “I have missed you.” Zeke watched, with his hands curled into a tight ball. “When will I see you again?” She asked him. “When you feel like seeing me… but soon,” he pulled away and then stared at her. “Soon,” he repeated and then glanced at Zeke. He turned to leave the room after bowing at the old couple and then Zeke hurried after him. “Are you going to pick a fight again?!” Ray hollered. Instead, Zeke curled his arm around the man’s neck, turned back, and then smiled. “Not at all, fat