“W… where did you get that news from?” she drew her brows together as she turned properly to look at her children. Nathan and Natalie exchanged glances before Natalie chose to answer. “Actually… we asked Daddy why you did not like him, and he said he has wronged you before.” “Why I did not like him? I have never told you I hated him, have I?” “Mummy, it’s very obvious you hate him. You get angry when you see him. Your mood changes whenever we talk about him. That gave you away already,” Nathan said. “What are you…” she started before she heard the honks behind her, turned to look at the traffic light that had turned red, and then resumed driving. “So, why did you hate him? What has he done to you? Is it that serious? Don’t you wanna talk it out?” “Nathan,” she sizzled. “You promised not to talk about him again,” she snapped. “Me? When? We only said we would stop asking you if he is our father, right, Natalie?” He turned to look at his sister who nodded her head in agreement.
Elena stopped on her track as she entered the living room and met with her parents, Ariana, and Ramon which made her face pull a frown. “What is going… on?” She tilted her head. “We should be asking you that!” Her father snapped. “Grandma!” The twins rushed to Karina and the woman bent down to hug them. “Flynn said they were missing!” Ariana exclaimed. Flynn was their driver. “Oh…” her mouth formed an O. No wonder Ariana was home when she was supposed to be at work. “Oh?” Her father breathed out. “Where did you find them? He returned and said he didn’t meet them in school. We were so worried!” “Dad,” Elena swallowed and shook her head. “You were not picking up our calls either. What happened? Where did they go?” She had placed her phone on ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ before she went to Zeke’s house. She glanced at her children who ascended the stairs carefully while Karina watched them. Elena hesitated and then breathed out. If she told them they were with Zeke, it would cause more
“What are you guys talking about? You…” “We heard you, mama,” Nathan interrupted her, proving her doubts. She sniffed, returned to her knees, and then picked up their hands again. “Were you eavesdropping?” She sniffed so hard to suppress the tears that were threatening to fall. “Something like that,” Natalie shrugged her shoulders off. She pressed her lips together, nodded her head, and then forced a smile. “I am sorry.” “He is our daddy?” She stared at them, her blue eyes laced with tears and then swallowed. It was so hard for her to admit this to them. Who knows the tantrum they would pull if they were certain? “We want to hear it from you, Mommy,” Natalie said and then raised her head to look at Ariana who entered the room with them. “We need to talk, Elena,” not aware of the situation in the room, she said. Instead, Elena released her grip from their hands, covered her face, and then nodded her head. “Talk to us, mama,” Nathan mumbled. She raised her head to look at
Ariana grabbed her car keys, walked out through the door, and then stopped when her mother called her name. She turned to look at the woman who walked gently out of the door and then smiled gently at her. The woman who raised them was lovely. Now, she’s still as lovely, the white strands of age highlighting the hues in her dark hair. Her deep blue eyes are still as intelligent and all-knowing. But fragility has crept up on her over the years, leaving her thin but beautiful still. “Mother.” “Where are you going?” Karina asked, locked arms with her daughter, and slowly started walking with her. “Office,” she answered shortly and Karina chucked. “What?” “You know I can see through you… and your sister. When you picked up that car key, you looked like you were going to cause chaos. So, the office is not where you are headed, my beloved.” Ariana smiled, stopped walking, and then dropped her eyes on her mother. “Oh, what a woman you are!” “So, tell me.” “Zeke.” They resumed walki
“So, tell us, mummy, are we going to live with daddy?” “Will he come to stay here with us?” “Are we going to move in with him?” “I especially like his house. I think we should move there.” “Would that be better? We can start over in another house.” “That is better too, as long as the house is as big as that one.” That was the conversation between Nathaniel and Natalie as they sat in the middle of her bed in her room while she applied her skincare products on her face. She spared them no glance while they kept talking and only concentrated on herself. When she returned from work about a couple of hours ago, they were already waiting for her in her room, and forcefully, she had persuaded them to come have dinner before they returned to her room to resume talking. She applied the moisturizer which was the last of her routine, and then stood up. “It is late. You should go to bed.” “You promised you were going to talk about Daddy, mama,” Natalie pouted. She settled on the edge
“Are you ready to do this?” Ryan asked Zeke who breathed out rather dramatically from the other end. “You have asked more than a thousand times if I am not mistaken.” “Because that woman is meticulous and you know it too. Say nonsense to her and then you’ll have that tape leaked to the world.” “I literally have no wish to patronize her but I have no choice and I know, I will be careful.” “Don’t forget to insert the device I gave you to her laptops, and then stay by because you’d need to verify some things from it.” “I have heard you.” “Where are you?” “In front of her house,” he answered and glanced at the gate again before he pressed the honk of the car. “Alright. Don’t do anything stupid and don’t…” he was still saying when Zeke ended the call when the gate opened and then he drove in. === “Where is she?” Zeke asked the housekeeper who followed him as he ascended the stairs. “I am sorry, sir. She has not been in a good situation and I don’t think it is very advisable to s
Zeke pushed the door open, barged in, and then walked closer to his friend whose head was buried on his computer. “Hey, what were you saying?” Ryan sat upright, leaned in his chair comfortably, and then placed his index finger on his lips. He tugged his lips into a smile and exhaled. “Talk clearly, don’t laugh!” Zeke warned with all seriousness that he could muster. “My friend,” Ryan swallowed, tilted his head, and then burst into laughter. “Talk!” “How… How did we become friends again?” Ryan asked amidst laughter and Zeke hissed, resting his weight on his left leg. “Oh, Ryan…” “Dude, you fucking got blackmailed by something you were not sure of! Are you a baby?!” “You mean to say the video is a fake?” “Guy!” Ryan laughed again. Zeke exhaled, pushed out a chair across him then settled on it. “I thought…” “You really thought it was you? Really?” “Ryan, she looked so sure!” “That is because she wanted to get you back! I can’t believe you fell for that.” “Me too…” “You
A little taken aback, Ryan kissed back skeptically. Chloe noticed and pulled away from him, her face a few inches away from his. “You don’t want me? I thought you’ve always wanted this to happen,” Her eyes carried uncertainty in them “Not like that, Chloe. I want you,” He began placing his hands on both sides of her waist since she was atop him “I’ve always wanted you and I want this to happen but I don’t want to rush you. I don’t want to rush things. I want to be gentle with you all the way.” “Oh, spare me this ‘not wanting to rush me things.” Chloe flipped her hair, frowning a little as she placed her hands on his shoulders, leaned in, and kissed him hard. Still wondering where Chloe seemed to have gotten her sudden dominance from but having understood the message all the same, Ryan kissed back with so much fervor, his tongue fighting for dominance in her mouth. Her lips were softer than anything he had ever known, soft like a first snowball. It felt like biting into cotto
“It is dangerous to go in alone, sir,” the leader of the swat team said to him and he nodded his head.“That is why you guys will be around. Don’t stay far away,” he answered and then leaned down as the man wore the bulletproof vest around him.“Take this,” he handed over a gun to him.Zeke twitched his lips upward and then nodded his head.“I doubt I would be needing this, but okay,” he collected it and then scanned it.“Call for backup immediately if you’re in any trouble but we will be around regardless.”Zeke nodded his head, looked up at the building, and then entered gently.As he began to ascend the stairs, his phone beeped from his pocket and he removed it immediately.“I’ve got them!”Said the message from his brother with a picture attached to it.His lips tugged into a wide smile and then he returned the phone in his pocket before he increased the pace at which he ascended the stairs._____“Enough of this madness, Mateo!”“Madness?” Mateo drew his brows together and stood
“Shit…” Ramon stuttered, dropped the cigar in his hand, and took a step back.“If I were you, I wouldn’t move an inch, you get? This shit is completely loaded, a bullet could kill you, you know?”Jeremy said as he covered the space between them.He grabbed the man by the collar instantly and then smiled mischievously.“You look like you just saw a ghost.”“Fuck you,” Ramon spatted instead.“Now, we’re gonna play a little game,” Jeremy said as he pointed the piston at Ramon’s temple.“You tell me where the kids are. I go get them and then leave. What do you say?”“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ramon frowned.“No, you do. And you’re going to do exactly as I have said. Where are they, the kids?” He asked again.“I don’t know what…”He was still saying when Jeremy hit the butt of the gun on his head and then the man screamed.“Now… let’s start over,” he ignored the blood that was starting to gush out of his head and then sniffed.“Where… are they?”Ramon cried out in pain, y
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