Broken Hearts

★★Chapter 31★★

10:00am

Marlena rose from her bed, her head hurting. She didn't want to get up today due to how tired she was from working so much yesterday, but she had to. She constrained herself from sleeping longer than 10:00am.

She never knew such thing was going to happen in her life. If she did know, she would have prepared for it. Having her two daughters be in the hands of two kidnappers scared her. Those kidnappers had coerced her to work hard to get that €75 million.

Her phone rang, and she was almost afraid to pick it up. She looked over at it with fright as if someone or something was going to jump out of the screen and get on her face.

Seeing that it was an unknown number didn't help her either. She picked up the phone and pressed it against her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello. It's us!"

Marlena clenched her fists at the voice. "What do you want now?! I swear we're working hard to get the money!"

"Awe, don't worry. Your daughter are still safe and sound. Here, I'll even prove it to you! Come on, Ella, Etta. Say something to your mother."

Marlena waited, wanting to so bad hear the voices she had been longing to hear. Finally they came.

"Mommy, where are you? We're so scared..." Ella's voice was cracked, but Marlena could still make out the sentence. She covered her mouth, as if constraining herself from speaking. The tears threatened to fall.

"Yeah. Mommy, where are we? Do you know where we are?" Next came Etta's voice, making Marlena break down again.

"I'm sorry, lovelies. Mommy is trying her hardest."

"Well, whatever you do, we love you, Mommy. We want to see you- hey!"

It sounded like the phone was being snatched away from them. The kidnapper's voice came up again, this time even a bit more snarky than it had been before.

"We're desperate, so we are changing the amount of money again. This time, you have to bring us €100 million. Don't worry. I did hear that your other daughter was close to Marinette. Just get some millions from Marinette and pay us. We expect the money to be over next week Tuesday. Understand?"

"U-understand..."

"And just so you know... If you even tell anyone you're not supposed to, don't expect your daughters to be as okay as they are now. I'm hanging up!"

The phone beeped, showing that the call had ended. Marlena dropped her phone on the table, her face welling up with tears.

There was no way they could get €100 million by next Tuesday. They didn't even have €100 thousand yet.

Walking out of her room, she walked downstairs, where she saw Otis making breakfast like he usually did.

"Nora is already off to school, and Alya is at her Survival Week thing. It's just the two of us," Otis said, turning to her. "I will head to work early today, and come back late."

"Wait, before you go, I have...something to tell you," Marlena stopped him. She tried not to break down again.

"What is it?"

"The kidnappers... They're so desperate for money so they increased the amount of money we have to pay to €100 million."

Otis slammed a fist on the table. "Those damn bastards should just make up their minds instead of changing it every single time!"