Chapter 67
Chapter 67
Dante’s POV.
“Mr. Crawford.” | grumbled at being called and turned my face away from the direction the voice had beening from but
groaned when | felt a pain in my n*eck.
“M- Mr Crawford.” Again that voice had called me and | muttered some thing that | even | couldn’t care to make out
Again, the voice said my name but this time it had been apanied by a shake of my shoulder that was impatient and none
too gentle.
| jerked awake and instantly got hit right in the eyes by the damn sun striking me through the open curtains. Cupping my n*eck
with my palm, | sat up straight and tried to make sense of where the hell | had been.
| couldn''t recall how and when | had fallen asleep on the couch in the living but some point between trying to figure out this
mess, | might have dozed off.
“Good morning, Mr Crawford. | brought you some coffee.” Nancy said politely but | had felt like she had addressed me formally
far too many times in the span of a minute.
Nancy rested the small tray that held a coffee mug and a few sugar cookies on to the table in front of me before straightening her
posture and turning to leave.
“Thank you, Nancy, you really didn’t have to.” | grumbled but she smiled and left the room.
| turned my head from side to side trying to case the tension in my n*eck before reaching for the coffee and taking a sip of the
hot, ck liquid. It was good and just what | needed since some thing alcoholic would be questionable at this part of the morning.
As | reached for a cookie, | wondered what Sophia would say to me eating in her living room but the thought of Sophia had me
drop the cookie back on to the saucer.
F***. | needed to get going.C0pyright ? 2024 N?v)(elDrama.Org.
| walked with the coffee mug over to the kitchen and tried to drink as much of it as possible. Hayley had been waiting patiently for
breakfast as Nancy prepared it for her trying to speak to her as if nothing were amiss when we both knew otherwise.
“Has mama left you. kitchen.
message of when she''ll be home?” She asked Nancy just as | entered the
| saw Nancy freeze over the toast she had been buterring. “No, but I’m sure we''ll hear from her soon. Hayley sighed in frustration
but when she saw me her eyes lit up in the way they always did.
“Did you speak to mama? Is sheing home soon?” Her round eyes looked up at me with so much of hope that my response
would defer from Nancy''s.
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Chapter 67
| deposited my cup on to the counter before cing a single k*ss on her head. “She left me a message.” | said vaguely hoping it
would be enough to ease her little mind.
She pursed her I*ps and | could literally see her thinking. “Well, what did she say?” She pressed and | sighed.
“She will be back before you know it.” | ruffled her hair and she squealed moving her head away from my reach.
“| will see youter, little one. If you need any thing just tell Nancy to give me a call.” | looked at Nancy letting her know that | was
dead serious about that.
As much as | did not want to leave her and escape | kind of felt like | had to before she began. asking me a sequence of
questions that | did not have any of the answers to.
| headed back to my ce to take a shower and get some clean clothes on while | waited to hear back from Frederick. It was
nearly noon by the time | had lost patience and called up Frederick only for him to say that couldn''t find any lead on where that
damn van had been headed to.
He sounded exhausted so | believed him when he said that he stayed up all night trying to find me some thing but to no avail.
With each passing second | was beginning to lose my mind. | despised being so helpless. It felt nearly blinding that | had not a
clue or sense of direction.
It was just before | was heading over to the parking lot of Sophia’s work building in hopes of finding some clue that would give
any ideas of how to track her down when my phone buzzed on my breast pocket.
| was hoping it would be a message from Frederick but as | fished out my phone and brought the screen to life, | was surprised
to see a text message from a number that | had not seen let alonemunicated with before.
| opened the text and attached had been a rather lengthy video. For a fraction of a second, | considered not even watching it
since | had more pressing things at present to worry about but another text came through which read ‘If you want her alive, you
have to proceed carefully!
My thumb pressed y on the video and what | saw nearly had me wanting to rip every one in to
shreds.
Astripped down Sophia suspended with metal bondageO
her head. She begged for mercy, she looked terrified but | couldn’t understand of what until | saw it. A de had been pressed to
her skin right before it dragged across illiciting a shrieking scream of pain from Sophia but the bastard didn’t stop. He went ina
created more cuts on her.
| did not want to watch the rest of that video but | forced myself to. | needed to see it, to recall it when the time hade for me
to deal with this fucked myself. | was ready to end them with my bare hands. The fury that boiled within me like an inferno was
one that I never ever thought myself capable of.
| was willing to do whatever it took if it meant that it would lead me to Demetri and Pheobe so |
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could make sure they suffered for what they had done. | would take revenge for every scar on Sophia’s b*dy and every plea of
mercy that was denied.
It wasn’t rocket science to figure out what these two had wanted in return for Sophia but they had gone too f**king far. Pheobe
was a lunatic for even orchestrating such an act but she knew well how to take things too far. And she did.
The video hade to an end and my phone began to ring immediately after. | stared at the the number that had been different
to the one that had sent me a text before cing it to my ear.
“$150 Million. All in cash. You have until 5 p.m. to make arrangements. A location pin will be sent to you closer to the time. You
either show up with the money or the mother of your child gets it.” The ent thick voice grated over the phone before it had cut
Of course, this was all for money and nothing else. Pheobe needed it as did Demetri especially with a child on the way. Her
father’s recent bad hand at the gambling scene had seen him lose even the little that he had to sustain his family, Pheobe’s
grand mastern to marry then divorce me shortly after had failed and this the only way for her to extort money from me.
It was no difficult feit to make the arrangements for the money, in fact, it could be done in the next half an hour. There was no
time to be wasted especially with what | had in mind.
| brought the engine of the car roaring to life before | sped off back to the house. There were a few necessary calls | needed to
make. One to arrange for the money and another to a good friend of mine that | hadn’t contacted in a while.
Since Demetri and Pheobe had made such extensive ns of their own. | saw it only fitting that | made ns of my own. It was
going to be a treat which was well over due. It was exactly what | should have done the first time when | had learnt the truth
about those two.
It was a half an hour before 5 pm and I had just one more call to make and that was to Nancy. | needed her to stay with Hayley
until | got back. It was a quick phone call. After exining that the
situation was dire and she would hated, she agreed happily to stay back with Hayley until
I had returned.
With every thing all set and in ce, all | had to do was wait until an address was sent to me and then it was show time.
| tapped my foot impatiently against the paving and when my phone buzzed, | snapped it up to take a look and there it was an
address leading me a good distance away from the city. | made one more call before getting on my way driving a lot faster than
was necessary. Once | had gotten away from the city and the roads were not nearly as busy, | sped up.
The images of Sophia shed across my mind like a slideshow and my hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. | would make
sure that they both paid for what they did gravely. | wouldn’t rest until | saw those two rotting for life in jail for what they had done
to Pheobe.
That, too, was even mild of a punishmentpared to what they had had deserved.
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| tried to imagine my life going forward with out Sophia and the thought alone did not sit right with me at all. It had done some
thing to my inner self that | refused to confront. Trying to think of her not being around to challenge me, to oppose me at every
turn, to toy with me, was just hell on earth.
| didn’t know when it was that | had fallen for her but | knew that it was some time during the period that we had been married. |
just didn’t acknowledge it back then and, when Pheobe had arrived, | felt like | had owed her so much for saving my life when of
course that was a lie.
It had been Sophia all along. It had been my own stupidity that had me paying for it gravely. If only | hadn’t taken Pheobe back to
eagerly when she had shown up at my office that dreadful morning. | should have listened to Sophia and not made such a hasty
decision.
It was unlike me to be so rash but | faulted it down to rarely ever being wrong about any decision | had made but man, was this
such a p in the face. It will always be the one decision that | would regret for the rest of my existence.
| knew now | that | loved her. | had known it for a while now and | vowed to take care of her once this ordeal was put to rest and
she was back in her rightful ce. | already had a ring purchased and kept in my safe. Arger one than the one she had worn, a
ring free from bad memories and ready to be work for a new beginning where we could live out life together with Hayley.
That was the thought I had chosen to focus on for the rest of the long drive to the off road location. It was the only hope that kept
me sane at this very moment. | stretched out that thought to include more children between Sophia and I. It was rediculous,
really, that | was fantasizing about such things with Sophia but | was never ever so close to losing her in such a way before.
Perhaps it was an over correction being done by my own conscience. To deal with hee absence, my brain was creating an even
longersting storyline with her to cope. What ever it had been, | was not opposed to it.
| was going to save her and she was going to be mine once again and for the rest as we both shall live.
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