Chapter 187: Chapter 187

ANGELO

I was standing in the hallway outside the sitting room when my phone rang.

My men had been looking for her for forty minutes. Every call was a dead end, she was not in hospitals. Not in shops. No places she loved to be. Just Nothing.

I just stood there in the hallway, my jaw locked and my heart squeezing hard, I was squeezing my phone so hard my hand hurt, when Don Luca’s name flashed on the screen.

I answered instantly.

"Hello Angelo, Adore was here," Don Luca said. His voice was completely broken and sounding just like a terrified father.

Don Luca afraid? That thought alone made me shake in fear because it's almost impossible to see Don Luca fear in the face of anything.

"She came to the house and she heard Emilio and me in the study talking."

I didn't need to ask what they were talking about or what Adore heard, my chest went completely cold.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"Forty minutes," he said. "Maybe more."

I closed my eyes tight as raw fear pushed through me.

"I'll call you back." I said, stumbling towards my study to get my gun, I was going to bring her back no matter what it takes.

I hung up and kicked the study door open.

Then the horror hit me even harder. The ledger in my study was not the way I left it, it has been moved.

My heart slammed in my chest as it began to sink why she must have left the house, she had come here first, went into my study, saw the ledger, and ran to her parents for answers. And there, she heard the whole truth and had ran out into the city terrified, crying, alone and right where Bryant’s men were waiting.

I was gasping for breath and I grabbed the table to steady my legs.

Something was sitting right in the middle of my desk caught my eyes, it was carefully placed face-up. Right where I couldn't miss it.

I walked over, my knees trembling, and picked it up and my whole world stopped.

It was a pregnancy test. Adore was pregnant?

I stood there in the quiet room, looking at those two little lines, and a wave of pure, overwhelming joy hit me before I could even process it. But right behind it came the most painful heartbreak I had ever felt in my life.

She had gone to a hospital all by herself. She had gotten this news and rushed home, so excited to surprise me. Instead, she found my secrets and now she was missing, and I was standing here holding proof of our baby.

I would never forgive myself if anything bad happens to her.

My hand shook so badly I almost dropped it.

I put the test down carefully and saw the ledger sitting just a little off-center on the desk. Every bad decision I had ever made crashed down on me. Every secret. Every lie. Every single time I chose the empire over the sweet woman who had only loved me all of her life.

I grabbed the gun in my drawer, preparing to leave when my phone rang again but this time, it was an unknown number.

I pressed it to my ear.

"Gelo E." The voice was slow, calm, and sickly smooth. I knew it instantly. I had been hunting this voice for years and the rat has been hiding in a hole but now he's out and I am going to finish up what I ought to have done since.

"We have your wife," Bryant said. "She’s alive. And she’ll stay that way if you do exactly what I tell you."

I stared down at the test on my desk. A hot, blinding rage filled my blood, but I pressed my palm flat against the wood and forced myself to freeze. If I let this rage take over, I would make a mistake. And I couldn't make a single mistake tonight.

"What do you want?" I said coldly.

My voice didn't sound like me. It was totally flat, cold and dead.

He told me what he wanted, he wanted me to come to the location he'll text me and to come alone.

I listened to every single word without breathing. When he finished, I just said, "I'll be in touch," and hung up.

I walked back out into the hallway.

My three guards straightened up the second they saw my eyes.

"Bryant has her," I said. "I want every warehouse. Every safe house. Every contact he has ever spoken to. Find every single spot we've ever linked to him. I want eyes on all of them tonight."

They froze, staring at me in shock for one second.

"NOW!" I roared.

The whole house erupted. Men sprinted down hallways, doors slammed, phones started ringing everywhere.

I stood in the middle of the noise, but inside, I felt a heavy, awful silence. I walked back into the study, picked up the pregnancy test, and gripped it tight. I felt so much love it hurt. So much guilt I could barely breathe. And a burning rage that wanted to tear the world apart.

She was carrying my baby.

Bryant had my wife and my child.

I slipped the test deep into my jacket pocket, feeling its weight right against my ribs. I could hear her voice in my head, soft and sweet, saying, I trust you with my life.

And I had hidden her away. I had kept secrets. I had agreed to take her father's empire to marry her even though I already loved her before her father even proposed that deal.

I had left the ledger right where she could find it and send her running straight into Bryant's hands. It's all my fault.

I dialed Don Luca.

"Bryant has her," I said the second he answered. "I am going to get her back."

Don Luca stopped breathing for a moment. "What do you need?"

"I've got this and I promise I'll bring her back or die trying."