Darrin
It's been three days. Ivy is out of her mind. Mike has to keep an eye on her so that she doesn't leave the house to go and scream at the neighbors, demanding to know what 'they' did with her boy. He assures me he's fine, but I'm not buying it. He's only a step above functional.
Today, I have Uncle Alex over there to help Mike 'keep an eye on Ivy' when he's also there to watch Mike.
As for me, I go to work. I have to DO something.
Speaking of Marco, he's heading a team trying to unscramble the cameras from that day in the park. This, again, leads us to believe it's Drake. It fits his MO.
I'm currently analyzing some hair fibers found at the scene of Marco's robbery. They're black and too long to be his... or matching any of his recent 'guests.'
I quickly hide my beaming smile and close the screen. Careful.
Higgins comes in and hands me a plastic baggie. "They found these as well." More hairs from the scene. I tell him I'll get right on it after lying and saying the other ones were inconclusive.
'Lying?' my inner voice asks. 'What happened to your morals?'
I swallow hard and tell my inner voice to shove it.
I immediately put out an APB.
Emily
Poor Brent has been missing for four days now. Alex and I have been taking turns helping Mike and Ivy. Even though Ivy isn't my favorite person, she still needs emotional support. I also can't help but worry about Darrin, too, but he never acts like he needs or wants help.
My phone rings.
"Answer anything," Alex had told me, both of us knowing that there's a strong likelihood that Drake would contact ME to discuss his terms. We all suspect that's what happened to Brent.
I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I push the accept button.
"Well, what did you expect? All you've ever done is hurt me."
"Hello?" Please don't be-
"Hello, my love." -Drake. His greeting interrupts my wishing in vain that it wasn't him.
I do my best to focus on my breathing. The first thing I want to do is tell him off for calling me 'my love' as if he's not the person who repeatedly abused me, but I hold my tongue on that count.
"You're supposed... to be in jail." I can't help myself. I don't want him to become combative, but I also don't want him to think I'm happy to hear from him.
To try and control my shaking, I have a seat on one of the sofas.
"You don't sound very happy to be hearing from me."
I tense as he pauses. "To some extent, that's true, and I'm eternally sorry. I want... I want things to go back to the way they were, to how it was before I stupidly broke up with you all those years ago."
"You weren't nice to me then, either."
"Of course I was! Don't you remember operation 'what the hell?' We were a team, united against the audacity that my dad was in love with your mom." He's talking about when the two of us worked to find out why Dad hated Alex so much.
"Which made Alex and Laura divorce, which started your mean streak, not that it wasn't there plenty enough already."
That will never happen! I scream in my head, but I also want him to admit he has Brent. "A-and how do you propose that's going to happen?" I don't want to know!
He takes a deep breath, and I'm jealous because I can barely breathe at all. "By the three of us going away together, somewhere completely new, where we can get a fresh start."
He said the 'three of us.'
I can hear the wicked smile in his voice. "I think you know exactly who I mean, Emily." He sighs. "We lost a son. I got us one."
My heart starts pounding. "Drake, no. He's not our son."
"He is now." His voice sounds so final.
"Please let him go! That's Mikey's baby boy."
"Drake, no!"
But it's like I said nothing at all. "But then I thought, no. Why not use him instead? I lost a child. Then the man who prevented us from trying again had a child. It seems like a fair trade. Don't you think?" He pauses. "But the picture isn't complete without you in it, Emily. I don't want to raise this boy alone. So, the ball is in your court: come to me and the two of us leave and raise him ourselves, or I finish the job I started." His voice holds such a weight of sincerity that I haven't a doubt he'll follow through with his threat.
"A child who, I guarantee, will not see his second birthday if we can't all be together." He pauses. "I'll do anything to be with you again, my beloved Emily."
"Drake, please don't d-do this."
"Make your choice." I shudder with the fierce underlying tone. To a random listener, it would sound very casual, but I know better.
Plum! If I say no, he'll kill Brent! "What do y-you need me to do?" I'm ready to faint from the terror.
"Yes." I hate myself. And I hate him for giving me no choice.
"That's wonderful, Emily! But listen, you can't tell anyone. NO ONE. Don't even leave a note. Order your bodyguards to leave you alone or simply slip past them. Especially don't tell the police. You don't want to break my heart and make me break his neck, do you? No, of course you don't, but I will even if I so much as smell a cop. I have to know I can trust you again. So, can I?"
"Yes, of course you can." I try to sound convincing.
I have to do it on my own. I firmly believe Drake will kill Brent if I involve anyone else. If I have to kill Drake myself to free Brent, I will. I almost drop the phone from my hands shaking. Perhaps I can convince Drake to leave him somewhere and just take me.
"Good. Now, I want you to follow these directions." He tells me where to go, an area of Eden called Hilldale. I'm to follow a specific set of instructions thanks to the traps he's set. "I'm eagerly awaiting your arrival, and then we can finally begin the lives we were meant to have."
"Yes, I can't wait." I fake a smile. He truly is crazy if he believed that. We hang up, and I get up to leave.
I ignore my knees shaking like the little traitors that they are.
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