Chapter 3

~Nora

Five years later,

"Doctor Nora, a patient was just rushed into the hospital, he is unconscious. He bled profusely before first aid arrived at the scene of the accident; he has lost a lot of blood," one of the nurses rushed to me.

"Take me to the patient," I instructed.

She nodded frantically and darted straight towards one of the wards on the second floor, which I happened to be on. I followed hot on her heels.

When I saw the patient lying on the bed unconscious, he was surrounded by some other nurses and his family. I checked his vitals and noticed the wound he had by the side of his stomach had ruptured his large intestine. That was critical; he needed surgery immediately.

"He needs surgery! Prepare the theater immediately!" I ordered.

"Okay, doctor!" the nurses replied and left swiftly for the theater.

After about an hour, I was done with the surgery. I removed my scrub outfits and left the theater, flexing my muscles and massaging my neck as I headed back to my office. It had been a really long and tiring day.

Just as I was about to make it into my office, I was shoved by someone playfully on the shoulder, but for some reason, it scared the hell out of me as I had been absent-minded. I tilted my head to see who it was.

"Selene! You have got to stop doing that!" I snapped.

"I will stop once you get yourself a man," Selene, my best friend, smiled at me and walked head-on into my office, making herself comfortable on one of the chairs as she bit into the apple she had taken from my desk. I rolled my eyes.

"I don't have time for men right now; I told you, I don't think I can ever love again. Men are the worst; they are cruel beings," I retorted, feeling rage course through my entire being as my mind wandered back to that day.

"Nora, I am sorry about what happened to you in the past, but believe me, you need to give another man a chance. Not all men are like your first love," she sighed and got up from the chair she sat on, placing her hands on the desk and staring intently at me, "you are now recognized as one of the best doctors in the human world; you can get any man you want with a snap of your finger. Besides, your children need a father figure in their lives."

Children! Oh my God! I checked the clock on the wall; it was already past 4.

I hurriedly got up and picked up my bag, stuffing a few things. "Speaking of children, I need to fetch them from school right now."

"You mean the triplets are still in school?" Selene asked, her eyes wide. "You didn't ask Frank to pick them up?"

"Frank is out of town," I replied hastily as I darted out of the office.

"Catch you later, Nora. Drive safe!" Selene called out.

It took me about an extra 30 minutes to get to my children's school due to traffic. As soon as I got into the school premises, I saw about 15 children playing in the small field just beside the school gate. My children usually played there too whenever I come late to pick them up. To my surprise, they weren't there today.

Could it be they just weren't feeling like playing and were perhaps in the classroom with their teacher? I wondered.

I went into the creche section and to their classroom.

The teacher greeted me with a smile as soon as I walked in, "Hello, Dr. Nora, good evening."

I looked around the empty classroom in shock, "Where are my triplets, Ms. Hawthorne?"

"Oh, Mr. Frank didn't call you? He came to pick them up," she smiled.

"That was close," I heaved a sigh of relief and thanked her.

I walked out of the classroom and headed straight for my car. So, Frank was back and he didn't even care to call me, I chuckled. He probably wanted to surprise me. I bet he was at home with the kids waiting as he usually does.

Frank and Selene were my best friends here in New York. I had met them when I started practicing medicine. We got attached to one another due to the fact that we were the same kind of people who were now coexisting with humans. 

Although we were all werewolves, we were from different packs. Frank was an alpha who has had his eyes on me from the onset. He had even asked me to be his girlfriend one time, but I told him I would think about it. I had been brushing him off since then and stayed just friends. He was a very good-looking man, but I have had my fair share of good-looking men after the ordeal I went through at the hands of Klaus, which made me promise myself never to love again.

 Selene, on the other hand, was also an Alpha's daughter who ran away from the werewolf world to the human world so as to neglect her duties.

I drove into my garage and got out of the car, heading straight to the entrance of my duplex. As I got to the door and tried the handle, it was locked.

"Frank must be at one of his pranks again," I smiled. "He probably locked it from the inside." I rang the doorbell, "Frank? Children? I am back home."

No response!

I checked beneath the pot of flower to the left of my doorstep; the spare keys were still there.

They were not home. Did Frank take them out to have fun? I needed to be sure. I brought out my phone and called Frank.

"Hey Nora, how are you and how is New York?" Frank's voice rang out.

My heart sank at his words.

"How is New York? Was he playing with me right now?"

"Stop playing, Frank! Where are my kids? The teacher said you came to pick them up?" My voice was a bit shaky as I clutched my chest that was beginning to tighten, massaging it softly.

"What are you saying, Nora? I am in London," he scoffed. He immediately switched the audio call to a video call.

With trembling hands, I picked and saw Frank in an office. He turned the back camera, and I could see three other persons there with him. He went out of the office and even went out of the building and showed me a signpost that read, "10 Brock St, Kings Cross London."

I sank to my feet. What was happening?

"Nora, are you there? Can you see I am in London?Call Selene, Maybe she picked them up"

I was dumbfounded. Frank was truly in London. If he was, then who went to take my children from school? I was also in the hospital with Selene all day, so it wasn't her.

I immediately dialed Selene's line, my heart thumping heavily against my chest. "Pick!! Pick!! Pick!!" I muttered nervously under my breath.

As soon as the call connected, I stuttered, "Selene, the kids, I can't find the kids, they are not in school."

"Calm down, Nora. Breathe and explain what happened to me," she tried to calm my nerves, but somehow that made me even more agitated.

"I can't find my kids, Selene, Jeremy, Justin and Jasmine! I can't find them!" I screamed, tears falling freely down my eyes.

"Hold on, where are you now?"

"Home! I am home!"

"Wait there for me, I am coming right now!" Selene instructed.

A few minutes later, Selene was in my house. I narrated everything that happened to her.

"Let's go back to the school and check the CCTV camera and find out who took them," Selene persuaded.

We hurriedly got to the school in my car. She drove as I was completely losing my mind and might have gotten us into an accident.

When we arrived at the school, I hurried to the headmistress' office, barging in as soon as I got there, ignoring the security that had tried to stop me.

The woman sitting behind the chair was startled upon seeing me.

"I need to see your CCTV camera this instant!" I commanded.

"Calm down, madam, what is this about?" she asked, confused as she got up from her seat.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" I wailed. Selene held onto me, trying to calm my nerves. "I can't find my children. I want to know who picked them! I want to see the face of the person who has my precious little kids," I cried painfully.

The woman, who was gobsmacked, immediately led us to the CCTV room and ordered the staff to playback the footage from the moment school dismissed and fast forward slowly. The staff obeyed. My keen eyes were glued to the screen as I observed, waiting to catch a glimpse of my kids, my heart pounding heavily against my ribcage.

"Wait!" I shouted as I saw my kids running towards a tall, lean man.

"That is Frank! That is Frank!" I wailed, pointing at the screen.

Selene's eyes were wide with shock. "If Frank is over there in London, then who is this?" she asked, saying the words I was too scared to utter out loud, the words that were eating me up on the inside.

"I need to alert the police immediately! Let's go to the police station!" I clutched my phone with my trembling hands and headed out of the school premises with Selene.

Just as we were about to drive off the school car park, my phone chimed, startling us. I felt dread curl up at the pit of my stomach.

I picked it up with trembling hands and opened the messages that shattered my world, "I have your triplets. Now, if you want them to live, you must do exactly as I say. I have three tasks for you. First, you must go back to your first love Klaus tomorrow, tell him you have forgiven him for what he did to you 5 years ago, treat his ailing father, after which I will tell you the second task. For each of the tasks you complete, one of your children will be released; for each you fail, a child will die!"