Chapter 1 - The Kidnapping

ARIELLE.

Arielle wiped her forehead as she continued to dust the tables clean. A broom leaned against her right hip as she wiped the table clean. A bucket of dirty water was at the other end of the bar, with a mop in it.

She had just finished her midnight shift waiting at the bar and her manager, Adrian, had instructed her to clean the bar. The miserly man couldn't get a cleaner.

She rushed on with her work in hopes of catching a little sleep and then getting on with her morning routine before going out to her next shift. She also had the hospital visit on her to-do list, she had to take her daughter for the next check-up.

Arielle swallowed the tears building up in her throat and nose, blinked back the one burning her eyes. She continued to work meticulously.

Worn to her bone, her manager finally peeked into the very empty, barely lit room. "Oh, you are done. Good, you can leave now. Make sure you are early tomorrow."

Arielle rushed toward the bald, chain-smoking surprisingly fit French man, she wiped her hand on her apron as she came to a stop in front of him. "Adrian, I wanted to ask if you have considered my loan request."

Adrian sighed dramatically, face-palming himself. "Mon dieu, Bella. I don't remember telling you we run a charity here, yes?"

He stopped like he needed an answer, Arielle indulged him with a nod "Yes."

"Then why are you bothering me with this nonsense, huh? You work for your money, and I've told you exactly how." Adrian's thick accent boomed through the vast room.

"I can't do what you ask of me. I need this money, it's a matter of life and death." Arielle pleaded.

"Well, then. That's pretty much all. You can leave and get ready for your shift tomorrow." Adrian said turning back to his office.

"Please! I have no other way." She shouted after him, her voice trembling.

"You have diverse ways, my dear. You are a beautiful woman and I don't rape women. If you don't find your way out of this place this minute, not only will you be loanless, you will also be jobless." He left Arielle standing and disappeared through a side door.

Arielle's feet refused to carry her and she collapsed on the floor. "What am I going to do now?"

Arielle reached for her bag, searching for her phone in case there was a message from her mother. There, in fact, we’re about twenty messages and forty missed calls in the last twenty minutes. Arielle's fear might have come true.

She couldn't afford it if her daughter had another crisis at that point. She dialed the number.

"Mummy, tell me she is okay. Tell me nothing happened to her, please."

Her mother cleared her throat on the other line, "Lily is fine but..."

"But what, Mummy?"

"Tomaso, I can't find him. Someone took him." She replied.

The floor seemed to slip under Arielle's feet.

"No, no, no, no. This can't happen to me. This can't happen to me."

"And I said you should leave this place, young lady! In fact, you are fired!" Adrian roared from his office.

Arielle didn't care that she was fired, she raced out of the club like she was being chased, all the way to her house.

She sold her car months ago when she needed it to pay her bills. People were gathered around her apartment complex, with police interviewing her mother. Arielle approached her mother.

"Mummy!" The little girl next to Arielle's mother, Emily, shouted. She raised her hand above her head so that she could be lifted.

"Lily." Arielle raised her daughter, hugging her closely.

She turned to her mother, "Where is he, mother? Who took my son?"

"Calm down, Madam." A cop said to her. "The kidnapper left a note." He continued, producing a piece of paper for her to read.

The words on it were simple and short, "Your baby daddy knows me as we are quite acquainted. I want ownership of an estate deal and if he doesn’t release it to me…consider your son dead”.

A little squeak left her throat as she stumbled back, she caught herself and hugged her daughter harder to herself.

She met her twins' father in a club and it was only a drunken mistake. It took time to realize that he was the CEO of a global company, Midas' conglomerate. She didn't waste her time going after him because she didn't want her children to be taken from her.

" We will get your son back for you." The cop assured her…

Arielle waited for a whole week without a proper answer from the police, she stuck to her daughter everywhere she went and waited in another restaurant she worked in by day.

Day after day, she went to Midas' conglomerate to find her baby's father. It was in vain.

"Arielle. Someone left a message for you." Grace, her co-worker said.

Arielle retrieved the letter from her co-worker and opened it. She was expecting some threat but not what she saw, her son was looking beaten and battered in the picture left in the letter.

She shook visibly grabbing her phone.

"Mum. I'm not going to wait for the police any longer. They will kill my son."

"Well, do what you are supposed to do." Her mother replied.

Arielle swallowed, looking up. "It's going to be hard. He is hard to see."

"Fight hard and bring my grandson back home" was her mother’s response.

"How is the doctor's appointment with Lily?" Arielle asked.

Her mother stopped for a bit. "We need money, and we need it soon."

Arielle felt tears roll down her cheek, "The universe just wants me to lose my children. I can't live without them."

"Then bring their father on board. And let's hope he is not a deadbeat." Emily said.

"I will try, I will try hard” was Arielle’s response.

She started by doing proper research about her baby's father.

Arielle walked into Midas' Conglomerate, she continued to the elevator because she didn't want to be stopped but she was stopped at the reception.

"Hello, ma'am. How can I help you today?"

Arielle swallowed, if she said she wanted to see the CEO of Midas' conglomerate, she would be shown out immediately.

She forced a smile, "Hello, I am Arielle. I'm here for the interview... Er... The cleaner interview."

The female receptionist who flagged her said. "Oh. But you're late today, the interview is long over."

"Please, if you will allow me to see the interviewer." She pleaded.

Another female receptionist said something in the first one's ear.

"Please, you may proceed to the HR's office on the fourteenth floor."

"Thank you!" She replied and entered the elevator with three other people dressed in cooperate clothing.

She quickly tapped on the sixteenth floor according to her research and waited till the elevator door closed.

"Do you have business with the CEO." A woman in red lipstick asked.

Arielle's smile was sarcastic but she didn't dignify her question with an answer. Seeing the lack of answer, the red-lipped lady approached her, "I was talking to you."

"I'm so sorry, what were you saying?" Arielle replied.

She might be her answer to seeing the CEO or she might be the end of her trip to the CEO's office.

"Leave her, Daisy. You have work to do." A voice boomed behind them.

Arielle could guess it was her lucky day. She alighted the elevator last, walking to the secretary she found there.

"I would like to see Mr Levi Moretti."

The Secretary stopped chewing her gum for a while, then she raised her brow, taking in her dressing …”And you are?"

“Who was she?” Arielle could only wonder.

"I'm sorry, you can't see him. This is not a charity center."

"You don't understand. This is a matter of life and death” Arielle said.

"Oh, and this is a hospital? Leave before I call security." The lady yelled.

Arielle would rather die than let such happen again.

"No!"

She turned and ran towards the CEO's office.

She wouldn't be giving up without a fight…