~Emma's Perspective~
It's Saturday, the second day of our Miami trip and I have been waiting almost thirty minutes for Hazel to meet me at the mall next to our hotel. I try calling her but her phone is switched off. I don't call Daniel because he had a headache and is sleeping it off. So instead I call Sebastian.
"Hey mom." He says, answering the call.
"Hi, Seb. Is Hazel at the hotel?" I ask him.
"No, she left almost an hour ago to meet you." He replies.
"Okay, she isn't here yet. Let me check with Ben. She must be with him then." I say goodbye to Sebastian and call Ben next.
"Hi Mrs. Aaron." He greets me.
"Hi, Ben. Is Hazel with you?" I ask.
"No, I asked her about lunch but she said that she already had plans with you." He replies.
I frown but don't say anything to Ben, "Okay. I'll try calling her again."
When the call disconnects, my heart is pounding as I call the driver escorting me and ask him to bring the car to the entrance of the mall.
As soon as I get to the hotel, I rush to Daniel and wake him up.
"What's wrong?" He asks, sitting up when he reads the worry on my face.
"No one knows where Hazel is." I gulp as tears leak out and his face mirrors my thoughts.
~Hazel's Perspective~
My head is pounding with a headache. My whole body feels heavy from drowsiness and I can't bring myself to open my eyes because the world is spinning. It feels like hours before I finally manage to open my eyes and survey my surroundings.
I know I'm not safe because I remember someone grabbing me from behind and covering my nose with a cloth which means that I'm drugged.
I'm sprawled on the floor and it's chilly. My light jacket does little to protect me from the cold. There are no lights so I have no idea where I am and I'm still too tipsy to try and stand up to search for a light. My first instinct is to check my pocket for my phone but of course it's gone.
All I can deduce is that I'm no longer in Miami because this jacket was more than sufficient there but here it does very little for me.
Unable to keep myself awake much longer, the heaviness takes over my mind and I fall asleep again.
I'm woken up by the sound of a door opening and a flashlight shines across my face making me cover my face with my arm at the harsh light.
"She's awake." A foreign voice says, walking into whatever room I'm in.
I feel loads better than before already. The headache is still very much there but its intensity has decreased significantly and I'm no longer dizzy. The man switches on a light and I squeeze my eyes shut at the sudden brightness. It takes a few minutes of blinking before my eyes adjust to the new lighting.
My eyes first land on the man who is perched on a window-sill across the room from me as he lights a cigarette. My scared heart is pounding in my chest as I slowly sit up and take in the room. It's made out of wood entirely and there's just one door and the window where the man is sitting. Surprisingly there's no glass or bars in the window which makes me frown. I can't just be allowed to escape.
I'm about to ask the man a question when all my queries are answered on their own.
I feel sick to my stomach when Ben's dad walks into the room. This is all my nightmares summed into one. Unable to hold it in anymore, I throw up on the floor right next to me. When I stop heaving, the man with cigarette has not budged but Ben's father is watching me.
"What do you want?" I cry as I lean back against the room's wall.
Hamish just ignores me and calls out to the other man to follow him out. They leave the room and I hear a lock turn into place as they leave. At once I jump to my feet and almost topple over from the sudden movement which makes my head spin again. I brace myself against the wall and take a few breaths before pushing away and hobbling to the window.
One glance out of it lets me know why there's nothing there to stop me. There's marsh, at least five feet below where the window is. And the marsh stretches into fog. There could be all sorts of snakes and since we're in Florida, even crocodiles in the water. I shudder and back away from the window only to sink down against the wall again and sobs rack my body and I wrap my arms around my knees.
This is exactly what my nightmares look like.
~Ben's Perspective~
"Hamish didn't go in to work today or yesterday." The Police officer informed us last evening.
I had had to bite my tongue to hold back a string of curses at this information. I was right. I didn't want to be but I was.
It's been a whole day that Hazel has been missing. No one told me this until I stopped by the hotel to check on her since she hadn't been answering my calls, only to find her mom in distress with Sebastian while her father met with the Police. In less than ten hours, an entire security detail was put together for the family's protection and lawyers have flown out to Florida from Pasadena to check on my dad's remaining assets.
The Police and private investigators have exhausted all possible leads to track down my father and Hazel so the lawyers are now trying to seize all his remaining assets and hopefully pressurize him into returning Hazel.
We're all assembled in one of the hotel's conference rooms when a Police officer rushes into the room and hands an envelope to Mr. Aaron, "This was dropped off at the front desk."
"Who dropped it off?" The Police chief asks.
"There was no one at the desk at the time." The officer replies.
"Check the surveillance cameras immediately and see if we can identify the person." With this new command the officer hurries off to put it into action.
And the rest of the room comes to life and I can feel all eyes on the envelope in Mr. Aaron's hand. He carefully turns it over and pulls out a typed page. I get up from my seat and walk around the conference table to stand behind him as he begins to read it out loud.
By now you all must be aware that I have Hazel. I have no intentions of harming her. I learnt my lesson the first time. All I ask for is my old life back. I want my old work position back, I want my wife back and I want my son back. These are my conditions.
You have three hours to make up your mind and I'll send my henchman to collect an answer. Don't try anything funny with him because I do have Hazel after all.
Hamish Hamlet
I'm left blinking as the letter ends, sick to my stomach. He's no father to me.
"But we have to arrest this henchman." One of Aaron Limited's lawyers protests.
"No, we're not risking Hazel's safety." I hear myself say.
"What other option do we have?" The lawyer counter argues.
"Sir! The man on the surveillance has been identified." The officer who delivered the envelope returns and announces.
"Who is he?" The chief asks.
"Norbert Collins." The officer replies.
"Another one of Hamish's colleagues who was penalized last time." Jeremy adds to the name. Last time Hazel was kidnapped, I add in my head.
"How do we know it's just these two and not others? If I'm not wrong there were fifteen officials who were penalized." Another lawyer adds.
"We can't know for sure." Jeremy shakes his head.
"There has to be a way." Mr. Aaron groans and shoves his hand into his hair, "Hamish no longer has the influence or power that he did when he worked for Alan and Co."
Everyone is silent for a second before Jeremy speaks up, "I may be going out on a whim but hear me out."
I hate Hamish and always will.
-T