MasukChapter 112 Julian Cross ~•~ [ If you want your kids back, meet me at this location.] The text message was followed by a pin of the location. My heart slammed against my ribs and sweat beaded on my forehead despite the air conditioning in the room being on. My fingers tightened around the phone as I stared at the screen, reading the message over and over again as if the words would magically change. Harper was still inside the interrogation room, and if she was the actual culprit, how was someone else texting me with the location of my kids? Before I could process everything, another text message came in. It was a picture. A picture of Isla and Owen. It felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. My kids were sitting on what seemed like a really cold floor. [Don’t ask questions. Don’t show the police either. Or this photo will be the last you see of your kids.] My legs began shaking. It had to be some sort of sick joke. If Harper didn’t take them, who would have taken
Chapter 111Aria Blake~•~ Harper kept screaming and saying she was innocent as the police officer escorted her into the backseat of the car. If I didn’t know about all the other things she had done, I would have believed her. But we all knew she would never admit to taking the kids until there was concrete evidence against her. “Do you think she is telling the truth?” Julian asked after the cars drove away. “I can’t believe you’re asking me this,” I muttered under my breath. “Are you having second thoughts?” He shook his head immediately. “No, I’m not having second thoughts. I just want to be careful,” he answered. “I mean, what if she’s telling the truth and we are looking in the wrong direction? Then someone else is out there with our kids, and god knows what they’re doing.” Julian had a point, but I think Harper was lying to get out of the situation. Who else would want to take our kids, and why would they have to frame Harper? It didn’t make sense. Besides, when the polic
Chapter 110Aria Blake~•~ Julian’s words kept replaying in my head. I felt so stupid because I let Harper play me twice. I was still in a state of denial, but I didn’t want to say it out loud. I didn’t want to believe that Harper would go as low as hurting my kids. There had to be a mistake somewhere. Everything should just turn out to be a coincidence. Julian had been telling me to wipe off my tears for the past five minutes, but I couldn’t control my emotions. I was angry, hurt, and disappointed. The only thing I could do at that moment was cry. He reached for my arms, rubbing me gently. “This isn’t the time to cry, Aria… We need to get to her house before the police get there. Maybe she’ll confess if you confront her.” I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my composure if I got anywhere near Harper. I didn’t want to confront her—I wanted to yank her by the hair and force her to tell me where my kids were.“Okay, let’s go…” Julian started the car and drove over to Harper’s hous
Chapter 109Julian Cross ~•~ I blinked in sheer disbelief. No… that couldn’t be possible. I dragged a hand down my face, hoping I’d seen correctly. Nobody could identify the lady, but I sure as hell identified the car that drove the kids out of the school premises. “Aria…” I whispered to myself. She had gone to the bathroom, so I stood up from the chair. “Thank you for your help. Please send this footage to my email. I’ll take over from here.” The headmaster lifted a brow. “Do you know who took them now?” I nodded, taking multiple deep breaths to steady myself. “Yes, I do. Thank you for your time.” With that, I dashed out of the office. By the time I was half-way close to the bathroom, I saw Aria already walking outside. My jaw clenched. If she was telling the truth about what happened the previous day, then what I saw on the CCTV footage wouldn’t have been possible. “You said you spent the day with Harper, right?” I asked, my eyes locked onto her. She nodded faintly. “Wh
Chapter 108Aria Blake ~•~ The next morning, we went straight to the kids’ school. My eyes were puffy and I was exhausted, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to find my kids. “You look so tired, you should have stayed back at the house,” Julian said as soon as he killed the engine. “Or you can stay in the car while I handle everything.” I was already at the school, what was the point of backing down again? I didn’t get any sleep the previous night because I kept thinking about them.My mind raced with different thoughts. I’d created the worst possible scenarios in my head. After a while, I started thinking positively, and I chose to believe that they were safe. “I can’t stay in the car,” I finally answered. “Let’s go together.” Julian didn’t protest. After he stepped out of the car, he opened the door of the passenger's side so I could get out. “Thank you,” I muttered under my breath. As we walked inside the school, I kept my fingers crossed, praying silently that they would b
Chapter 107Julian Cross ~•~ I should’ve listened to my gut when it was screaming at me to make sure Aria was at home. The school had called me earlier to say that no one had picked up the kids. They tried to reach Aria, but she wasn’t available. When they called, it was already two hours away from closing time. I also tried to contact Aria, but all my calls went straight to voicemail. I was worried, so I decided to pick the kids up before searching for Aria. But when I got there, one of the teachers told me that Aria had already picked them up. A part of me felt relieved. But when I got back home, I tried calling her again and she didn’t answer. I felt like she was just ignoring me because she was upset, so I decided to let her be for a while. And that was my worst mistake. Aria didn’t pick up the kids from school. “Who do you think would have picked them up? I’ve called your entire family and none of them are with the kids,” I said as I started the car engine. “I honestly
Chapter 68Aria Blake~•~ I had no idea when I began laughing. “Come back to where?” I asked; pressing a hand to my forehead. “Please, don’t make me laugh. I don’t want my head to hurt.” His face went slack. “Aria? Really?” I let out a breath. “I’m going outside to wait for my brother, he’s p
Chapter 13Julian Cross ~•~ Aria slapped me. She fucking humiliated me in public. If I could take a guess, it was because Angel showed up at the charity gala. But that wasn’t enough reason for her to embarrass me in front of my guests. What she did was way worse, and I didn’t lay a finger on her
Chapter 12Aria Blake ~•~ His ex. He fucking brought his ex-girlfriend to the charity gala when he knew I would also be present. That disrespect was loud. God. As I looked at her, I was tempted to walk over where she stood and drag her by the hair. What gave her the audacity to show up? Wel
Chapter 5Aria Blake ~•~ Why did Julian say I ruined the marriage? What the hell did I do to warrant such an accusation from him? The only thing I’d done in the past weeks was to fight for us. But what did I get in return? Divorce papers with a baseless accusation. I ran a hand through my hair







