As Harriet walked through the doors, Damien felt his heart flutter. It did every time he saw her. It marveled him how he was able to live with her for three whole years and not fall in love with her.
He must’ve been bewitched.
“You look tired.” He walked up to her and pressed a kiss to her lips, making Addison and Aiden twist their faces.
“Stop kissing my mummy!” Aiden yelled, jumping from the chair to welcome his mother.
“Kiss me too, mummy.” He pouted his lips and Harriet laughed before placing a kiss on his lips. Knowing that Addison would want hers, she gave her a kiss too.
Damien, who was thinking of letting Harriet handle the twins once she returned, changed his mind. He wasn’t even sure she could take care of herself with how famished she looked.
“I’ll run you a bubble bath to calm you down, okay? Stay there for a bit while I prepare dinner.” He said and helped her out of her shoes.
When Harriet left, he turned to the twins. “Now, mummy is exhausted, so, I’ll need you both to cooperate with me, okay?” He said and they both nodded.
“Good. Sit here and watch some TV while I go run mummy a bath, okay?” He said as they agreed, giving him a toothy grin as they ran to the couch to watch the TV. Damien laughed at them knowing that they were being overly obedient because of his speech.
As soon as he got to his room, he opened his tablet where the security camera in the living room was linked to, and placed it on the table, watching the twins.
He knew that a lot could happen in a few minutes when kids are left all to themselves.
“Come here.” He opened his arms, calling Harriet in. Walking like a child, Harriet came into his arms.
“What happened?” He asked, rubbing her back slowly.
“You know Dad’s secretary, Alexa? She keeps getting on my nerves and Dad isn’t helping. She’s so close to bullying me but, Dad won’t let me fire her because she is good at her job.” She complained.
Damien took her to bed and made her sit before proceeding to help her take her clothes off.
Harriet explained everything to Damien, telling him what her father said about the situation. She expected him to side with her but, she was shocked to hear him take her father’s side.
“Take a bath and come downstairs, my love. We can talk about this later.” He said and kissed her again, longer this time.
*
*
THE NEXT DAY
“If you find him, bring him to me first. I’d like to speak to him.” Thomas Daniels said to Damien over the phone.
He had been silent for a while but, after Damien told him of his plans to find Adrian, he finally decided to speak up.
He wanted to speak to Adrian and find out why he was being a tyrant. As far as he knew, he raised both his sons with love and affection. Neither of them lacked anything. He and his wife were even more lenient with Adrian as he was the younger son, so, he wanted to know what was making him act in such a manner.
Damien ended the call with his father and went to Adrian’s penthouse. When he got there, Eric and the police officers were already waiting.
“Let’s get this thing over with.” Eric said and pulled out his iPad that had the exact location of Adrian’s phone. He had saved it just in case they switched the phone off and, as expected, a few hours after his mother received the phone call, the phone switched off.
Damien and Eric would be the first to go in and try to find the secret hideout while the Police would be tracking them.
From the information on his iPad, Eric could see that they were somewhere on the first floor but, when they got there, all they saw was the receptionist and a lobby. There were no other doors that showed that a hideout could be there.
“It has to be somewhere around here.” Eric said, as they moved to the back of the building which was empty.
The location showed that they had arrived at the location but, they couldn’t see anything.
Damien thought long and hard. Then, he decided to check a part which was filled with grass and when he stood there, he noticed that it felt strange.
“I think I found it.” He called Eric and when he arrived, he concurred. They both discovered that there was a hidden house underground which was being covered by grass to make it look like nothing was there.
They immediately alerted the police, who hurried there, and they all went in together. As they walked, they couldn’t hear any sounds but the place was warm, which meant that someone had visited it recently.
It looked just like a normal house but with no windows. Without the lights, it would be completely dark. There were a few openings which allowed air into the hideout.
They took their time checking all the rooms and when they got to the last one, they were shocked to find medical devices around the bed. That meant that they were certainly there but fled after being notified by someone that they would be coming there.
Damien groaned in annoyance as he realized that there was a spy among them. It wasn’t him or Eric, so, it either had to be one of the police officers or one of his family members.
Was that even possible?
But then again, you know the saying; Blood is thicker than water.
All he could do was hope he was wrong.
They were about to leave when Eric found a note on the bed.
Hand over the company to me if you want to protect your family. This is the last warning.
Beside the note was a picture of the twins at school and Harriet at work. He was trying to tell Damien that he was watching his family and could harm them whenever he wanted.
*
*
The two hired men dropped Adrian’s body on the bed and the hired doctor and nurses started attending to him again.
“He needs to wake up soon, doc. I have no idea what I am doing!” Evelyn screamed.
She was tired of pretending to be Adrian while he was actually fighting for his life as he had been shot very close to his heart by Damien.
If she didn’t get him immediate help, he would have died, and she knew that if Adrian died, it would be the end for her too.