ADRIAN'S POVAs soon as I got back home, I knew I was coming back to trouble. Natalie's car was in the garage, and I could hear her teaching Nancy something while the reduced sound of the television was humming in the background.I opened the door, then smiled as Nancy immediately abandoned what she had been doing to come and greet me. “Daddy!”She flew into my arms, her hair falling over her face. I wondered why Natalie kept it long and would've talked about cutting it, but what right did I have when she was the one doing the feeding and the clothing? Even the shelter belonged to her, and I didn't have a say in family matters any longer because I wasn't doing my job which was to provide.“How are you?”I asked her, giving her a cheerful smile. “I'm good, Dad, you? I like your haircut. Mummy says you stay in the house way too much, and that is why I didn't have any milk to use with my cereal after I came back from school. Hope you're going to buy another bottle of milk, Dad? I'll ne
CIARA'S POVFor the past week, I had watched Kayla Smith and her son. Not only did I know his school's closing hours, I knew practically everything that had to do with Kayla Smith's schedule. I was perfecting my plan, putting everything in place to make sure that on that D-day, no stone would be left unturned. We were going to execute our plans perfectly, and that was why I was watching her, I was rounding up my plans. Getting out of bed, I poured water on my face, then brushed my teeth. I sent a text message to Adrian, informing him about the abduction. Today was the day, and once he was in, there was no going back. I donned on a shirt and trousers, then slipped into my car. I spent about five minutes waiting for Adrian to arrive. He arrived, carrying a bag that contained the ski mask and other tools we were going to use to carry out our plans. Biding our time, we sipped beer together while time flew. I smoked a cigarette, then we exited the restaurant together. By the time it wa
KAYLA'S POVMy head was spinning, I was perspiring furiously and my heart was hammering in my chest. Images of Liam flashed across my mind time and time again, and for a moment, I wanted to fall out of exhaustion and fatigue. Why kidnap my son? Why not kidnap me instead? Why not torment me and let my son go free? The questions popped up in my mind, all of them without answers. They were like rhetorical questions, rhetorical questions that hurt me, that made me question my existence and how badly I had performed as a mother. “Ma'am, please calm down. I've just called the headmaster, he'll be here in a few minutes. Please, I'm pretty sure we can sort this out.”But I wasn't listening. All my mind could do was manufacture images of Liam suffering, images of him being tortured or worse, being beaten. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Was it a prank?It wasn't a prank. It was happening before my eyes, my son was missing. By the time the headmaster emerged from the building in his shir
TRISTAN'S POVWhen I got Kayla's text, I was about to enter a meeting with a company that consisted of Europeans hustling for a good place to boost their business and build one of their branches. Ignoring the prospects and the potential that the meeting could provide, I stepped out of my office, my world seeming to come to a halt. Despite the fact that Liam wasn't confirmed to be my son yet, I treated him like my son. Hell, he was one of the reasons I had even stayed true to Kayla in the first place. He was the one that had me going there, his cheerfulness and his free spiritedness was just what I had always wanted.He was me ten years ago, he was the teenager I used to be. He was a lovely child, and when I heard the news, I wondered why anyone would do such a thing. What did one even want to achieve by kidnapping such a child? What wrong had he done? What had he done apart from bring more love and more cheerfulness to the world? As I plowed the roads, navigating my way to the poli
CIARA'S POVWhen Liam came to, I was ready. With a bottle of orange juice and some waffles, I knew that he was already starving. For the past few hours, I had been pacing, suspecting that I had used too much chloroform. He hadn't been breathing properly, and that was what I was afraid of. When I checked his pulse and found out that it was beating faintly, I finally calmed down enough to run to a grocery store and get the snacks that were in my hand. Adrian sat down, playing games on the television with a console. It was a house that I had managed to rent last minute in order for it to fit with our plans. I had stocked it enough to make a child comfortable.The aim was not to make the child suffer, but to make his parents afraid. As far as I was concerned, I wasn't going to touch a hair on Liam Smith's head. He was going to go back home safe and sound, but first of all, our plans had to be achieved, the aim of him being in the house and enjoying the expenses he was plunging us into w
TRISTIAN'S POVI waited in the silence with Kayla until she was ready to leave the station. So far, no woman in a yellow blouse and a black skirt had been found, and it was already getting late. I glanced at my watch, then glanced at her pitiful frame and her red rimmed eyes swollen from too much crying.I had been trying my best, but she was pushing me away. And for the umpteenth time, I wondered where and what I had done wrong. By the time she stood up and was ready to go, I accompanied her, careful not to touch her before she unleashed the pent up anger and frustration boiling inside of her onto me. I waved the officer goodbye, and we exited his office.The officer with a baton and a sandwich was on one of the chairs now, his eyes reddened in exhaustion and weariness. He waved at me, and I guided Kayla to my car who refused to enter, advancing instead to the side of the road to probably do what I thought she was about to do, hail a taxi. I watched her, my mind racing and my head
TRISTAN'S POVThe morning sun filtered through the blinds, blinding me momentarily. My head aching, I stood up, acknowledging the aroma of fried eggs and bacon that seemed to be wafting around the room. Staring around the house, I discovered that I wasn't at home.I was at Kayla's, and the events of the previous day like a movie played through my mind and my memory. I was tired, my back felt as if it would shatter at the moment, but I knew that I had signed up for this when I had asked her to choose me a few days ago.It was my responsibility to make sure she was okay. She was my responsibility now, my obligation.I stood up, finding my way to the bathroom where I urinated, then splashed some water on my face. The headache was gradually reducing, but my neck was on fire. I attributed it to the fact that I had spent the night on a couch. It made me remember the days I had spent on Ciara's couch. Now things were better, I slept in a king sized bed everyday and even trying to sleep on a
KAYLA'S POVI left my house, wiping the tears that stung my eyes and was now flowing freely down my cheeks. The pent up frustration and anger that I had inside of me had now been released. I didn't know what to feel, if to feel good or to feel bad.Good because letting all those emotions bottled up inside of me was actually doing more harm than good. Bad because in the process of letting out all that pent up frustration and anger, I had hurt my boyfriend and the father of my child. It was clear that he knew that Liam was his child, but he was too afraid to express it. It was there in his eyes. How come I was accusing him of kidnapping his own child? How come I was accusing him of abducting a boy that he clearly loved so much? But at that moment, I didn't know what to believe anymore. The frustration and the anger was messing with my mind, and I allowed it to as it pleased. I allowed it to control me, to let me say those evil things to someone who had clearly tried his best for me. W