POV: Raphael
“Boss, we found them at the hotel. What do you suggest we do? How do we fish out the mole from the guards? Should we take drastic measures?” Shaun asked me when they arrived at the hotel, my hotel. It’s a good thing that the penthouse apartments in all our establishments are reserved for VIP guests. I use them to host my guests sometimes, and today, Dad and Mom are using the one in the hotel that is a few miles away from home.
I asked Shaun to take a break from his vacation and come back home to handle Mom and Dad’s affairs. He is the only one I trust to be with my parents right now. He has been my friend all our lives, his dad was my father’s chief of security. And after the death of his dad, he took over as my chief of security.
He is on a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii; I had to get him on a private plane and bring him back home to protect my parents. I don’t trust my manager, Harry, right now; I don’t think I’ll ever trust him again, not after he lied to my face. I guess he thought that my parents would never tell me that the businesses in Santiago were still running.
I asked him about it because Dominic and I had a deal, and I needed to meet my end of the bargain if I ever wanted to work with him again. But he lied to my fucking face and told me everything was sold by my parents. And now my parents claim that they left everything for the managers to handle and report back to them.
Harry’s father is my father’s lawyer and my legal consultant too. He has been with us for as long as I can remember, and that is why I trusted him with my business in my absence. I knew he had three brothers, but I had no idea that they were all working for my father all this while. They are in charge of our businesses here in Santiago, while Harry handled the businesses in Havana.
Not in my wildest dreams would I have let them manage all our companies together. Now that Dad sent me the files about our businesses in Havana, I’m finally beginning to understand how Harry did it. He is not working alone; his brother and probably his father are in on it, too. This is how he is able to carry out his shady businesses without my knowledge.
But that’s okay, I’ll handle them later. Right now I need to deal with this issue with my parents. I instructed Shaun to move my parents out of there and take them to another hotel while he locked the guards and maids who followed them into the penthouse.
“Seize their phone and lock them up in the penthouse. Place some boys in that penthouse and make sure they don’t make any move or send out a message to anyone.” I instructed.
I do to know if the mole is there, but I’m pretty sure that he or she will not be sending any message to Eloise Kendall until all this is over. The plan is to move Mom and Dad to another hotel, but before they leave, I want to get some information from me. I need to know a few details about her friendship with Eloise.
“How did you communicate with her, Mom, do you have a number you can use to reach her whenever you want to speak with her?” I asked Mom as I engaged her in another long video call that would be our last for now. Shaun will seize every device from them and make sure they are not being followed. Then he will escort them to the airport and bring them down here to meet me before I leave for this dangerous mission.
Mom nodded her head sadly, her eyes still filled with tears. She has been crying for so long and I am sure she will have a terrible migraine after this. I’m sure she is not just crying because I’m asking her all these questions about the woman who stole her daughter. She is still crying so hard because she knows Eloise; she has been her friend for a while; she even bought the company from Eloise some days back when she claimed I wasn’t taking my call.
So she should know how she thinks and how quickly she can be triggered into doing something so crazy that could take my life or my sister’s life. If this goes according to plan, we will be coming back together, me and Marisol. She could end up getting her two children back or end up losing both her kids and that’s what scares her the most.
I will have to see her before leaving; I need to pull her into my arms for a warm hug and a peck on both her chins. I need to assure her that no matter what happens, I will always love and adore her. Even if our safety is not guaranteed, I will promise to stay alive and come back to her in one piece, together with my sister. She needs to be reassured of our love and support, and I need her blessings to come back alive.
I’ve dealt with tough guys in my life, but I have never dealt with a psychopath before. Eloise still talks to Mom because she knows that Mom hasn’t found out the truth about her yet. She claims that she is sending someone over with documents, but that is far from the truth. I’m pretty sure that she is sending hired assassins over to kill my parents and anyone else who knows the truth.
The window is closing, if I wait any longer, she could begin to suspect something. I need the tech guy here before my parents leave the penthouse. I want to try to get Mom to call Eloise so we can trace the call. This may be the only chance we have to trace her cellphone and pinpoint her location before she finds out that Mom already knows the truth. If she discovers that Mom is on to her, she will turn off her phone for good.
“Are you really going to do this?” Raphael ass me, his voice sounding unsure.
“Would you prefer if we go there and find no one?” I retorted.
“You do know that if you do this, she will know that your Mom knows about her and she will come for her hard and fast. Your mom’s ignorance might be the only thing keeping her alive all these years. Are you really going to risk it?” he asks me once more, sounding it like a warning. But I’m way past this stage, I want to trace Eloise and find out if she is on that island.
“Mom will be fine, I have it under control.” I told him sternly before turning to the guys,
“Do it!” I instructed the tech guy and Carl as they stood by and waited for my instructions. They nodded in approval, and I instructed Mom to make the call and try as much as she could to sound casual and pretend as if everything was okay.
“We have one shot at this; we have to make it count; we have to give it our best,” I told everyone as we heard the phone ringing from over here. The guys have connected Mom’s phone to his device, and now everything Mom and Eloise are saying can be heard by us.
“I can’t wait to see you, Juliette. It’s been my greatest desire to look into your eyes and tell you how I feel about you.” Eloise told her, sounding so cheerful and happy. Now I can understand why my Mom fell for her tricks. She sounds so genuine and excited. If I didn’t know her too well, I would think that she is a true friend. She asked Mom about me and Mom lied that I have not been taking my calls for some days now.
“How could that be, did you two have a fight?
Do you need me to speak with him on your behalf?” Eloise asked her, sounding so caring. I know this must be how she has been talking to Mom all these years, making her feel loved. For the past twenty-four years, Mom took comfort in the knowledge that she has a friend who cares for her.
But today was different; today, she knew that her best friend was a green snake in green grass, a disaster waiting to happen. I was hoping she could keep up her pretense, but she couldn’t keep it up for long. Just when I thought that we were getting there, she broke down and sobbed on the phone, crying so hard that I felt my heart wrenching over here.
“No, Lois, we didn’t have a fight. I just couldn’t reach him for days and I thought he was upset with me. But today we got a call that he was in a car accident. My son is hurt and it’s just a few days to his birthday, Lois. I don’t know what to do, I’m so broken.” Mom sobbed on the phone, sounding a bit Convincing.
I know what she did there; she was just about to break character, but she quickly switched and made it sound like she was sobbing for me. She lied to Eloise just as I instructed her to, and I was proud of her. I thought we would get Eloise for sure, but suddenly an alarm went off on her end and she started talking so fast to my mother,
“Hold on, Julie, I need to attend to something so important. I’ll call you right back.” She let out in one breath, talking so fast.
“But wait, I need you, I need my therapist!” Mom called out to her. But she was no longer there; she had hung up already. My heart started beating so fast because I thought the alarm that went off had something to do with the girls.
What if they are hurt? What if someone needs medical attention? A lot was going on in my mind and I had no one to talk to because everyone had the same fear on their faces. But we were all wrong because she called back at exactly ten minutes after she hung up.
She waited long enough for our trace to be disrupted, and then she called her back and apologized for going off, Claiming that she had an emergency. But that’s a lie, she did it on purpose.