“What do they want?” I asked my husband and father-in-law again.
“Money… five-million-dollars. I’ve paid it, but they’re silent now.”
“We have to call the police. We have no other option. We cannot let this go on, Mal, she’s out there, and God knows what will happen to her.” I’d been trying to keep it together for the last twenty-four hours, but my child was taken.
“No!” they said in unison. “Let’s give them the time they asked for. Then we’ll call the police if we don’t succeed.”
The three of us sat by the phone, waiting for any kind of news. I wanted to call my family, but they both convinced me that the fewer people who knew about this, the better it would be for Gracie’s return.
“They won’t harm her. I promise you that,” he cooed, making me angrier.
“How can you be so sure, Malcolm?” I insisted.
Just as I said that the phone rang, and I stood, making my way closer. Malcolm pressed the speaker button, and a male voice, obviously disguised, started speaking, “Mr. Morgan, I’m willing to make the exchange in the town square. Come alone, or the deal is off.”
I started to bite my nails. The tension was too much to bear.
“All right,” my husband answered calmly. I didn’t understand how he could be so damn calm.
Despite my insistence, he went alone, and I sat across from my father-in-law, sending well-deserved daggers his way. I had never gotten along with him. The man gave me the creeps. Even the way he was looking at me right now was disgusting. I pulled my blanket tighter around me, counting the seconds.
A burst through the door startled me, and I rushed into the foyer.
“Gracie!” I rushed toward her.
“Hey, Mom.” She smiled at me sweetly without a care in the world, like she’d not been missing for the last day.
“Gracie, where have you been?”
She looked over at her father sheepishly.
“Gracie, look at me, honey. Where were you? I’ve been worried sick.” She looked over at her father again, her face turning red. “I’m not supposed to say—”
“You can tell me anything, sweetheart,” I reminded her. When she looked like she was about to cry, staring at her father to bail her out, I knew. I backed myself against the wall, my eyes widening.
“You were in on this!” I lurched for him, knocking over a vase in the process.
My father-in-law tried to intervene.
“Donottouch me.” I glared at him,my hands wrapped around my husband’s thick neck. “You bastard, you knew where she was, and you didn’t tell me. You let me worry and fret over where she was.”
“Mom, what’s going on?” Gracie said, coming over to us. I released him, and he coughed, sucking in a breath.
“Dad?”
“Gracie, it’s okay, sweetheart. Go on upstairs. I need to talk to your mother.”
I loathed this man for the pain he had put me through. He let me believe my daughter was kidnapped.
What kind of a father does that?
My father-in-law made himself scarce. He was a hateful bastard, and I despised him too.
“Lissy, please listen to me,” he pleaded.
“A business deal went wrong. They needed collateral. They wanted to keep her until I came through. I wouldn’t have sent her if Gregory didn’t trust that they wouldn’t hurt her.”
“What, that pedophilic bastard was in on it too?”
