Chapter 21

Chapter 21
A week has passed since the incident in the restaurant and our wives are still in the hospital. Shaye suffered a concussion and has a bump on the back of her head where she was hit, but thankfully there was no major damage to her brain or spinal cord. According to the surgeon, if the assailant had hit her just an inch lower, she could have been paralyzed. We are all very thankful for that miracle. She is stable but she can’t stay up for long periods of time just yet. We were all worried, but the doctor said that it was to be expected. Her brain is healing and she will require plenty of rest for that to happen. Now as for my own wife, she still has not woken up yet and we have no idea why. The doctor assures me that she is physically okay and that she will wake up when she is ready. He figures that after everything she has been through, her body is just taking some time to heal and fully recuperate from the trauma that she’s gone through. I really wish that she would wake up so that I can talk to her and see for myself that she is okay. We have all just been talking to her to let her know that we are all here for her.

“I don’t know how much longer I can deal with her being like this, plus I don’t think our son believes that she is just sleeping anymore.”
“We have to be strong and have faith that she will wake up when she’s ready.” Her mother tries to soothe me with her words, and for a moment they work, but after a few more hours of just sitting around the hospital they begin to fade from my mind.
“I’m going back to the house. I need to meet with the security team and Mr. Fontenot about what he’s found. You all will have guards here watching you and a car downstairs that will take you anywhere you want to go. Please do not go anywhere without your security guards. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
I kiss my mother-in-law on the cheek and ruffle my son’s hair before getting ready to leave; I have a thought and turn around.
“Nicholas will come with me. He can play at the house while I have my meeting. I just feel like with our daughter missing and my wife in the hospital, I need to keep him close.”
They all nod their approval, not that I needed it, and I headed for the elevator with my son. We picked him up a kids’ meal from a local fast food restaurant and then headed back to the house. Once inside, he went into the den to play and I went into the conference room. There’s a big oak table that has about ten chairs and papers are strewn from the head to the foot of the table. It looks as though they have been hard at work and now it is time to see what they have found.
“Alright everyone, tell me everything that you have found.”
“Well, we know that whoever this person is, they somehow managed to find you even with all the precautions you took. After some extensive investigating, we found that there was someone working for you that fed the information to the kidnapper.” My eyes grow large and I can feel my fists balling up at my sides.

“Who is it?! Do you know where this person is at the moment?”
“We know who it is and they are being brought here as we speak.”
“Good. Now, what else do we know about the kidnapper?”
“That information is still a bit sketchy. We’ve been going off of what you and your wife came up with and every one of your exes are accounted for, except for one. Now that doesn’t mean that she is the one behind this, but until we get a hold of your mole, I don’t think we’ll know for sure until we can find her.”
“What did you find out about the rest?”
“For the most part, they are all living great lives. Most of them are married with children and the others all have lucrative careers and seem to be happy. Members of my team have thoroughly interviewed each of them, and they all said the same thing which is that basically they don’t mean you any harm. Most said that you parted on great terms.”
“That’s true. Okay, where are we at finding my little girl?”
“We know that she is still in New York, but we have pinpointed an exact location just yet. We thought we had a location, but when we checked it out, there was nothing there. I’m starting to believe that whoever took your daughter lives in New York and did everything from here, but whoever it is they had to have moved here recently.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because none of the exes we tracked down were from here or had ever been here, and the one that we still can’t find has nothing in her past of ever living or even visiting any part of New York. I believe this was all planned somehow. Almost like this person knew that you would run here to hide. Is there anyone that you ever told you would come here if anything were to happen?”


“No, none that I can recall right at the moment, but I’ll keep thinking and let you know. None of this is making any sense to me. I mean why go after my daughter and my wife if this is really about me? Is it about hurting me or just getting my money? If it is about my money they can have it if it means keeping my family safe. Money can be replaced, but my family can’t and I’ll choose them over money any day. I feel like there is more to this for some reason, like there is something that we’re missing. She demanded that I hand over my company, and I would get my daughter back. Even though she asked for my company, it seems awfully personal to me. I don’t think that after she has my company she’ll stop there.”
“I agree. I honestly don’t think that she would give your daughter back even after you give up the company. Your daughter is a great bargaining chip for her. She knows that you’ll do anything she says as long as she has her. We need to get your daughter back and keep your company from falling into this person’s grasp. When we find her, how do you want to proceed?”
“Normally, I would say we would hand over her and all the evidence to the cops, but this case is very different. She hurt my wife and sister-in-law, and not to mention she kidnapped my daughter. I’m thinking of killing her, but that would be too swift and an easy way out. I’ll think about it and let you know, but first I just want to focus on catching her and getting my daughter back.”
“I understand.”
“Okay well keep up the good work. Let me know when you the mole gets here so I can be here for the interrogation. I am going to go play with my son for a while and get him ready for bed before everyone else gets back home.”