Ethan, Jun Sun 28th 2015
It has been seventy-two hours since my boy was abducted, I sigh as I look at the clock showing 2:30pm. How many times has he been raped during that time? I haven't received any new photograph since yesterday night but that doesn't mean the bastard hasn't been abusing Anthony more than what he showed me. Sadly the technical analysis of the pictures' metadata didn't give us any leads. They were taken from a smartphone that was paid for by cash.
Tanner found more clues with the second photo though. Apparently the desk that appears on it is an antique and he is currently trying to see where it was purchased, hoping to find the name of the buyer or the place it was delivered to. I couldn't focus on anything else than the marks on my angel's back. How could someone do that to him? I was relieved though, when I saw there were no new scars between the first and the second picture I received.
It hurts so much to know my boy is in the hands of the man who traumatized him so deeply. I have barely slept in the last three days. Each time sleep found me, I was awaken by a nightmare of Anthony being abused by this son of a bitch which left me nauseated. I have lost count of the number of times I actually threw up. I force myself to eat at regular intervals but I'm never really hungry. The only thing keeping me sane is the financial reports Tanner has me looking at. I'm still not convinced of the usefulness of what I'm doing but it keeps my mind from wandering too much into what torture my angel could be subjected to.
My friend is investigating as discreetly as he can. He doesn't want to raise any suspicions since his boss already made him reclassify the abduction into a runaway. My father probably used his connections to pressure him, which means he is keeping an eye on how the police conducts the inquiry. That's why he is waiting to have all the cards in his hands before playing them right. In the meantime, he is only using Glenn and his men to help on the investigation.
Aiden visited me once again this morning, without Zach this time. I tried to be strong but I still ended crying like a baby on his shoulder. He cooked us a simple brunch of scrambled eggs with bacon that we ate together before he returned to his own Baby. I understand he didn't want to stay away from him for a very long time, given the fact Zach is taking Anthony's disappearance really hard, they had become such good friends in the past few months!
I returned to my work just after he left, not wanting to wander aimlessly in the apartment. It mostly consists in listing all the real estate holdings of Wells Industries and its subsidiaries through all their public and tax records. Tanner wants such a list ready since he thinks my boy is held in one of those properties. When we get some additional clues, he thinks we will be able to determine which one he is held into by elimination. I don't let myself be interrupted by anything except my phone ringing when Tanner calls.
"Did you find him?" I ask like every time he calls.
"Not yet, Ethan but I have some good news. I have identified the desk from yesterday's picture. It's a French antique dating from the eighteenth century. It was sold at an auction fifteen years ago and delivered to one of the properties your father's real estate company owned."
"Great! Which one!" I answer excitedly.
"I said owned. Past tense. It was sold three years ago, but don't worry, you don't transport this kind of furniture carelessly in the back of a trunk. It requires a specialist and I'm contacting all the moving companies who could have done something like that. The expert I saw also told me the desk had recently been renovated. This also requires a professional and I'm looking into that as well."
"So this was another dead-end..." I sigh desperately.
"Not at all! For once we are now certain your father is behind this and then I only have to locate this piece of furniture before we find your boy. With the picture, I will be able to get a search warrant without any trouble. I know you are desperate but please realize that this investigation is moving at a fast pace!"
"I just wish he was safe already," I reply in a soft voice, almost breaking into tears again.
"Me too, and he will be very soon. Try to hold on as you can, I will call you when I have something new!"
"Thanks for all you're doing, Tanner," I conclude before hanging up.
I can't help the tears that begin to flood through my eyes and once again I completely lose it. All the emotions I have felt so strongly these past few days come back in the same order. Guilt at not having been able to protect him better, and at being all nice and cozy while he goes through hell. Despair when I think of how he is abused. Anger against his captor. Then numbness and void because his absence renders everything meaningless.
The landline ringing pulls me out of those thoughts, and I'm surprised to hear the voice of the receptionist.
"There is a Mr. Wells for you, shall I let him come up?" he asks.
"My little brother? Of course you can, there is no need to call me," I reply dismissively.
"Not your brother Mr. Wells, an older Mr. Wells." I freeze. And older Mr. Wells... That could only mean... What would my father be doing here? Has he come to rub what he did in my face?
Cold anger erupts into me in several waves. I can't believe he would be so stupid and come to brag. I will torture the location of my boy out of him. Don't do anything reckless! I remember Tanner's words. This doesn't seem to be too rash thought, but perhaps it's better to call him first? I must act quickly.
"Send him in five minutes, please," I answer, already dialing Tanner's number on my cell.
"What?" he asks exasperatedly.
"My father has decided to pay me a surprise visit," I tell him.
"Fuck!" he answers. "When?"
"He will be here in five minutes."
"Listen to me Ethan," he says very seriously, "you are absolutely not ready for this, but I need you to keep a cool head during the whole time he is here. It is of the utmost importance he completely ignores how far we are in the investigation! If he realizes we are close to find Anthony he will move him, or worse and we will be back to square one! Do you understand me?"
"No, I don't," I exclaim. "Why don't we just get him to talk? I have a soundproofed playroom where I can hold him!"
"Are you stupid enough to think no one is waiting for him? If he has the slightest doubt, Anthony will be killed in the following minute. I know this present situation is not ideal but at least he is alive for now!"
"I hadn't thought..."
"Of course you hadn't!" he interrupts. "Thinking like the bad guy is my job and you have to trust me! Do you realize I have hidden my progress from everyone at work because I know he has ears everywhere? We must only act when we are sure of getting your boy to safety! So you can let slip that you suspect him, but nothing on what I told you of the investigation. Are we one hundred percent clear?"
"Yes!" I answer as someone knocks on the door. "I have to go, he is here now!" I whisper before hanging up. I open the microphone app on my phone and begin recording just in case my old man lets something slip during the conversation then go to open the door.
Even if I knew who was standing on the other side, seeing my genitor in person for the first time in the last sixteen years is a bit of a shock. He has aged a bit, his face showing more wrinkles and his hair is now completely white, but he still has the same face full of authority. For an instant, I am once again the fifteen-year-old teenager, scared of his father's beatings.
Then I remind myself what he did to Luke or Anthony and rage fills me. I will not be afraid of you old man, I say to myself. Remembering Tanner's words, I try to channel my anger into something cold and measured. I cannot afford any slip-up. This will be hard as hell, but it's for my boy I'm doing this.
"Ethan! So nice to see you again," he says in a false sweet voice, the one I hate so much. Even when he was angry, it never faltered from this velvet tone.
"I can't really say the same," I answer icily. "What are you doing here?"
"Is a father not allowed to visit his son?" he asks.
"I remember vividly you telling me I was no son of yours."
"If only you hadn't been so stubborn," he sighs. "May I come in?"
You may die on the doorstep, I think to myself. But he may let something slip about the whereabouts of my boy, and I am actually extremely curious as to why he is here, so I let him in. "Sure!" I reply, leading him into the living room.
"I love what you have done with the place," he says. It's true the last time he was there, the apartment was still my grandmother's but are we really going to do small talk?
"Why are you here?" I ask again coldly.
"To reconnect with my son, like I said before," he answers in his falsely kind voice. The same one he used when he was striking me with his belt. "Did you really think that just because I let you live your life like you intended for a while, I was done with you?"
"I know I am done with you," I respond, insisting on the second I.
"That," he replies, "is irrelevant. I gave you your life, your education, I molded you into the person you are today and I will be damned if you don't live your life like I intend you to!" The controlling asshole is back apparently. Well if he thinks he can impress me the same way he did when I was a kid, he is sadly mistaken.
"I haven't needed you for the last sixteen years, I don't see any reason to change that," I say back.
"It is true you did quite well by yourself, and I must say I was mildly impressed by the success of your business. You could have been a bit more ambitious though, but you managed to create a profitable company from barely nothing and that is an achievement in itself." A compliment coming out of my genitor's mouth? That must be a first! "If only you had gotten over your filthy habits..." As I thought, it couldn't last.
"You don't get over being gay!" I growl.
"That is only because you didn't try hard enough," he answers in his silky voice. I see he still is the same homophobic jerk. "Oh! I was willing to look that over as long as you only indulged into your perverted habits in that club of yours – did you really think I didn't know about that? – but of course you had to bring back those slutty boys home..."
How does he know all of this? I know he has his contacts, but the secrecy of the Blue Hedonism is strictly enforced through all the NDAs. Tanner had said there might be a link to the club since the kidnappers knew to take the collar almost immediately, this only proves him right.
"I thought you would soon get tired of them," my father continues, "but no, you had to marry one of them! I thought I had made the person you were supposed to be wed to perfectly clear!"
"Are you seriously still believing I am going to marry the girl you chose for me when I was fifteen?" I ask dumbfounded.
"Extremely. It will seal our merger with her father's company and be enormously profitable to ours. I don't really understand why you are making this so difficult. You would still be able to go fuck whoever you want in that disgusting club of yours, as long as you remain discreet. Do you think I was faithful to your mother? Or that she was to me? Our marriage was also a business arrangement nothing else. You will just have to get her pregnant and with the progress of science it doesn't even require you to sleep with her."
I can't believe what I am hearing. My father orchestrated all of this just so I could marry the girl he had chosen all those years ago? He must be completely insane! This is the twenty-first century not Middle Age!
"There is just a little problem in your perfect plan, I am already married. Very happily, I might add," I tell him defiantly.
"With your spouse running away, a divorce can easily be arranged!" he answers. "And this scandal at the Lycée français? What a shame!" he tsks.
"Anthony was abducted," I growl. I can't believe he would talk so casually about his capture or the photos he arranged to be posted everywhere at the French high school! This makes me boil inside and I'm afraid I might explode at any point.
"Last time I checked, the police was treating this as a runaway, not a kidnapping," he replies with a knowing smile. How can the old bastard be so cold about this when he arranged the whole thing! Calm down, Ethan, I say to myself before imploding. Remember Tanner's words, you won't help Anthony if you reveal too much to him. I take a few deep breaths before answering.
"How convenient that he should disappear just in time for your big plans!" I comment.
"A happy coincidence," he replies with a small smile. At this moment, when I look in his calculating eyes, I see that he is the one who arranged everything. And that he visited me today just to let me know and rub it in my face. This makes me sick! Another wave of rage hits me, and this time I barely keep it in control. I decide to change the subject before I completely lose it and punch the old man.
"I thought Luke was supposed to be my replacement," I say. "So why are you still after me?" This is a safer topic and the question has been burning my lips since he began messing with my boy's life.
"Your brother will make a nice second-in-command when he has grown, but he is no leader. Sadly he doesn't hold a candle to your talent. Believe me I would have preferred he was the one to become my heir. He is much more amenable than you are."
"And straight!" I respond bitterly.
"That as well. But as I said, you being a disgusting fag doesn't have to be a problem, as long as you keep satisfying your... urges, in a safe place, behind closed doors, and that it never gets to the press. You can keep on going to that club of yours, I can compromise on that."
"And if I refuse?" There is, of course, absolutely no way I am going to accept his crazy proposition. Marrying a woman he chose for me? Is he out of his mind? But I don't want to alienate him yet. Perhaps by stalling a bit I will be able to learn more.
"Well, I can always make your life way more difficult than it already is," he answers in his velvet voice that only makes me want to strangle him. "I have let you create and run your business like you wanted, to see if you would succeed on your own or not, but I can also begin to... interfere. And it usually has a tendency to bankrupt companies when I do that."
Does he really think that becoming broke would be worse than losing my boy? To his rapist nonetheless? If I needed more proof that my father is a sick emotionless greedy son of bitch, I don't need to look further! I can't believe I am related to this monster!
"Think about it, Ethan! I know you are considering selling your company. You could come directly work at Wells Fashion and Design, learning the ropes under me. I will retire in a few years and you would take my place. You would be back on the top. I know you have it in you to be a good CEO, a wedding is such a small price for all of this, don't you think?"
Does he really think he is going to tempt me with a position like this? That it even remotely compares to having my angel safely in my arms? That I would seriously consider this? On top of being a heartless bastard, he is completely insane, I decide. But I don't say any of this. I don't want to upset him and discover my angel's body somewhere. I'm now pretty sure he would do that, if he knew how much it would hurt me.
"Can I take a bit of time to think about it?" I say instead, trying to keep a business tone.
"You can, but make your decision quickly," he replies, standing up. "And don't try to cross me, Ethan. I wouldn't appreciate that. You know how I get when you do something I don't appreciate." I certainly do!
I manage to contain myself until he leaves, but as soon as I see the elevator doors closing in the peephole, I let all the anger I felt during this conversation flood through me. Fuck! I can't believe he went as far as that just to get me to accept his plans! It takes me a while to calm down – and a few broken plates – but when I finally do, I stop the recording on my phone and call back Tanner.
"How did it go?" he asks.
"My father is crazy!" I reply angrily. "He wants me to marry some girl who is the heir of another company so that they accept a merger with Wells Fashion and Design. That's why he arranged for Antony to disappear! Then he wants me to become his heir once again. He promised me that things would get worse if I didn't comply."
"What did you say?"
"I said I needed to think about it," I answer. "Fuck Tanner! You need to find Anthony, and fast! I'm afraid he will do even worse to him if I don't agree to his insane demands soon."
"I agree..." he responds. "Did you restrain yourself from biting his head off and revealing too much about the investigation?"
"Yes I didn't screw up," I say bitterly.
"Can you relate in detail all the exchanges you had while they are fresh in your memory?" he asks.
"I can do better than that, I recorded the whole thing."
"Smart thinking! Forward this to me, then," he answers. "Stay strong Ethan! I promise you I'll find your boy soon!" he concludes before hanging up. I certainly hope he will. I shudder at the thought of what my crazy old man could do next! I don't fear him scaring investors away from my company, but he could decide to take things up a notch with my sweet boy and decide to torture or kill him. Please be okay! I pray for the rest of the afternoon.
Published on August 16th 2017
So now you understand a bit better why Ethan's father did what he did. Of course he is completely insane. I put his picture in the header if you want a representation of the devil!
Next chapter is back in Anthony's PoV! He is keeping on resisting and I promise he will be safe soon.