“We miss you!”
“Sweetie, I’ve got great news.”
“You do?” She pulled her robe together and sat back down.
“I’m coming home in a few days.”
“Really?” Leah couldn’t stop herself from crying, but they were happy tears so hopefully he wouldn’t mind.
“Yes, just a few more days.” He looked happy and upset at the same time. “Oh, baby, don’t cry. I’ll be back soon. I promise.”
“Okay.” Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to stop, knowing that she’d only be able to hold out for a minute.
“I have to go. I’ll call you again tonight.”
“Take care of yourself.” She choked on the words, determined to stay strong until they disconnected.
“See you soon, baby.” They smiled at each other and she quickly turned off the camera.
Ramira approached her as she lay with her head against the desk, sobbing uncontrollably. Leah regained her composure as well as her appetite and headed into the kitchen to eat. She knew that she should be happy; he was coming home soon. For some reason, she had a feeling that it would still be a while before she saw him again and told herself not to get her hopes up. Despite having slept well the night before, Leah felt exhausted immediately after breakfast. She dragged herself up the stairs and fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke up, it was well after sunset. Something was wrong. Adam insisted that she eat 3 times a day so Ramira always woke her up for lunch. Leah went out to the balcony to look out over the property. None of the cabana’s lights were on, as if the doctor and all of the bodyguards were already asleep. She heard the sound of the bedroom door closing while she was still on the deck. Maybe Ramira had come to get her after all. Her jaw dropped as she turned around and looked at an unfamiliar face.
He was of medium height and build, with dark blond hair and blue eyes that blazed with rage. Leah had never seen him before. He stood silently with his hands at his sides, clenched into fists. For a moment Leah considered running down the stairs off of the balcony, but she was too scared. It was dark, she was barefoot and it seemed like the security would not be available to help her. The intruder stepped further into the room, a crooked grin on his menacing face. Her heart started to pound as she tried to scream, but nothing came out.
“Hello, Leah,” he hissed at her as he stepped onto the balcony. “Adam will be calling soon, won’t he? We don’t want to be late.”
Leah said nothing, her mind swirling in confusion and fear. The intruder stepped forward and grabbed a handful of her hair, dragging her back into the bedroom. She struggled against his grip as he led her down the hallway but he was very strong. When they reached the top of the stairs, he thrust her forward like he was going to push her down and laughed cruelly.
“No, I can’t let you fall now can I?” He began to drag her down the stairs roughly as she struggled to stay on her feet. “We don’t want to damage that precious cargo.”
She shrieked when they got into the great room and saw that Ramira was laying face down on the floor. Was she dead? Leah began to panic and kicked the intruder in the shin, but he merely growled at her, not letting go of her hair. He pushed her into the chair at the in front of the computer.
“Let me guess, you can’t call him. You have to wait until he calls you.” Leah said nothing back to him, but he seemed to take her silence as confirmation.
The intruder placed a closed manila file folder in front of her and then took a seat on the desk beside her. Leah wasn’t sure what time it was or how long they would wait until Adam called. The silence was unbearable as the minutes slowly ticked by. Obviously irritated, the intruder let out a sigh, rising from the desk and glancing towards Ramira. She knew how to get in touch with Adam. If he was looking at her, he was probably thinking about trying to wake her up, which would mean that she wasn’t dead.
Just then, Leah heard the telltale beeping that she was receiving a video message. The intruder gestured to her to take the call while he stood outside of the viewing range of the camera.
“Hi, baby, sorry I’m late.” Leah stared at him blankly and swallowed air. “Leah? What’s wrong?” She looked to her side where the intruder stood over her.
“Hello, Adam,” he said in a cold voice as he stepped behind her chair and leaned down so that his face was next to hers.
“What the…” Adam’s eyes widened in horror as a look of recognition crossed his face. “Thomas!”
“It’s a very nice place you have here, Adam.” Thomas smugly looked around the room. “And you know, it wasn’t that hard to find.”
“I am going to fucking kill you.” Adam’s jaw was clenched, his eyes raging in fear and hate.
“And look what we have here.” Thomas traced his fingers along Leah’s neck, making her stiffen. “She is really beautiful, isn’t she?”
“Don’t you fucking touch her.” His eyes locked with Leah’s as she whimpered. “Leah, it’s-”
“I want you to see this, Adam.” Thomas flipped open the file and gripped Leah’s hair. “I want you to see her face.”
He held her head so that it was slightly forward, but still upright enough that her expression could be seen in the camera and she had to use her eyes to look down at the desk. Her brow furrowed as she spotted a picture of a younger Adam standing next to a blonde woman in a wedding dress. Thomas spread more pictures out on the desk. There was one of Adam with his arm draped across the shoulder of a teenage boy that looked remarkably like him, and another picture with both of them and the blonde woman along with a teenage girl.
“A handsome family, don’t you think?” Thomas snarled into Leah’s ear.
“Adam?” Her voice quaked and he couldn’t look at her.
“Do you think your baby will look like his other son, his legitimate son?”
Leah felt sick and lightheaded as Thomas brought the picture of the two of them closer to her face, turning it around for a few seconds to show Adam. Her lip began to quiver as she looked at Adam’s guilty face through the screen.
“I’ve got to say, you’re a lot better looking than his wife.” Thomas showed Adam the wedding photo before turning it around and holding it a few inches below her chin as he pushed her closer to the camera.
“You’re married?” A teardrop rolled down Leah’s chin and splattered across the picture of the smiling couple.
“Leah, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” He brought his hands up to his face and closed his eyes for a moment.
“Oh, isn’t that sweet. He’s sorry!” Thomas teased her, his breath on her ear. “Do you think that you and your bastard would fit into this picture?” He held up the one of the happy family to the camera.
“Leah, I’ll explain everything.” His voice was apologetic and she started to cry harder. “It’s not what you think.”
“Yea, don’t worry Leah, he’ll explain everything later,” Thomas snarled. “And I’m sure he’ll get around to explaining this too.”
He reached over her shoulder and pulled a small stack of papers out from under the photographs of Adam’s smiling family. It looked like a personnel file of some sort with a picture of her clipped to it. She saw that it listed her name, birthday, employers, and other basic information on the first page. Fumbling through the rest of the document, she read all sort of details about her personal life, things that would have been very difficult to find out. There was a list of all of her closest friends going back to grammar school and every hobby she’d ever taken an interest in. She glanced up at Adam with her mouth gaping open. His face was confused.
“Oh, I’m just showing her the file.” He grabbed the first page on turned it toward the camera. Adam’s face dropped. “You know, the one you paid Madam Carlyle for. When you bought the rights to Leah.”
“What?” Leah looked at him, desperate for some kind of explanation, but his eyes were down.
“The last page is really interesting. Leah, you should look at that one closely.”