Chapter 210

Chapter 210:

A crushing weight settled in his chest. He had been too late. He had been playing games with Charla while Cailin was in danger.

He moved toward the closet, his shoes crunching on broken glass, and looked down.

Lying on the floor near the ventilation grate — which had been pried open — was a small object.

Hilliard crouched and picked it up.

It was a Lego minifigure. A tiny ninja with a red mask.

He stared at it. Small. Plastic. Undeniable.

The call from Amerigo’s man surfaced in his memory — the mention of a “Family Suite,” of children. He had dismissed it as a manipulation, a cruel lie designed to destabilize him. But this was real. This was proof.

She hadn’t lost the baby. She had hidden them.

A boy’s toy. His mind raced. Amerigo’s man had thought he’d seen a little girl — Elia. But this was a ninja. Did Elia have a brother? Was it possible there were more than one?

Read without interruptions on.com

Hilliard closed his hand around the figure, the plastic edges pressing into his palm.

He had stood in this very room and roared, Where are they?! And they had been right here. Hiding. Terrified of him.

His phone rang.

He looked at the screen. Charla.

He nearly threw the phone against the wall. But he answered — if only to tell her to go to hell.

“What?” he snarled.

“Hilliard!” Charla’s voice was different this time. The whiny, manipulative tone was gone, replaced by something shrill and genuinely raw. “Help me! Please! They took me p>

“Who took you?” Hilliard said, his eyes closed. “The aliens p>

“No! Men in masks! I’m in a trunk! I paid a nurse to wheel me down to the lobby to find you — to apologize — and they grabbed me from the pickup lane! They said it was for Cailin p>

Hilliard went still.

“Stop lying, Charla,” he said coldly. “You’re in your hospital bed p>

“I’m not! Please! They have guns! They said — they said, ‘The Vault sends its regards p>

Hilliard looked at the Lego figure in his hand.

“Good luck with that,” he said.

He hung up. He blocked the number.

He didn’t believe her. He couldn’t afford to believe her anymore. She was the girl who cried wolf, and she had cried it one too many times.

He slipped the phone back into his pocket and stood alone in the ruined room, looking at the empty space where her clothes had been.

“I will find you,” he whispered to the silence. “And I will find our children p>

Hilliard stood in the wreckage of the penthouse suite, the silence ringing in his ears. The storm outside had passed, leaving behind a heavy, humid stillness that pressed against the windows like held breath.

He looked at the Lego ninja in his hand. It was warm from his grip.

A child. Children.

The realization struck him like a physical blow, reshaping five years of memory in an instant. The miscarriage. The disappearance. The secrecy. She hadn’t lost the baby. She had hidden them.

Why?

Message from Noa: Have a pretty good Friday dear readers, God loves you and Noa wishes you all the best. (ɔO‿=)ɔ ♥