Chapter 7 - The Children Stop Pretending
For the first time since the custody hearing, all three Russo children stood together in front of Isabelle.
Anthony.
Michael.
Sophia.
No court advocate.
No Serena.
No prepared statements.
Anthony spoke first.
“We chose Dad because Serena threatened Michael.”
Michael added:
“And because she showed us fake evidence against you.”
Sophia cried before she could speak.
“I knew the statements were wrong.”
Isabelle listened without interrupting.
Anthony looked ashamed.
“I believed some of it before Serena threatened us.”
“That matters,” Isabelle said.
His face fell.
“I know.”
“But it doesn’t mean I stopped loving you.”
He looked up.
“I accused you of trying to steal our inheritance.”
“You did.”
“I’m sorry.”
Michael stared at the floor.
“I told the evaluator you violated boundaries.”
“I heard.”
“I hate myself for that.”
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“Why not?”
“Because Serena survives by convincing people that one bad choice defines them. I’m not giving her that power over you.”
Michael began crying.
Sophia crossed the room first.
She wrapped both arms around Isabelle.
The baby moved between them.
Sophia laughed through tears.
“He kicked.”
“She,” Isabelle corrected.
Everyone froze.
Luca stood near the doorway.
Anthony blinked.
“You know?”
Isabelle smiled for the first time in days.
“The test came back before everything exploded.”
Sophia’s mouth opened.
“It’s a girl?”
“Yes.”
Michael laughed softly.
Anthony covered his face.
“A sister.”
Their happiness lasted three seconds before the weight of Elena returned.
Sophia’s smile vanished.
“We have to find Mom.”
Luca finally stepped forward.
“We will.”
Anthony turned.
“No.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“We are finding her.”
“You’re staying out of this.”
Anthony laughed bitterly.
“That worked great last time.”
“Anthony.”
“No. Serena used us because we didn’t talk to each other. That ends now.”
Michael nodded.
“So no more secrets.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
Sophia stepped beside her brothers.
“No more decisions for us without us.”
Luca stared at his children.
For years, he had protected them through control.
Security.
Money.
Information restriction.
Now they were telling him the control itself had made them vulnerable.
He looked at Isabelle.
She said nothing.
But he understood.
“Fine.”
Anthony blinked.
“Fine?”
“We work together.”
Sophia crossed her arms.
“And Isabelle?”
Luca looked at her.
“She decides whether she wants any part of this.”
The room went still.
It was a small thing.
But Isabelle noticed.
He had not assumed.
Had not ordered.
Had not positioned her as wife.
He gave her the choice he had denied her repeatedly.
“I’m in,” she said.
Luca nodded.
Nothing more.
Ethan soon discovered the ambulance used to remove Elena from the facility had been stolen.
Traffic cameras tracked it south.
It disappeared near a private airfield.
Then another clue emerged.
Grant Hale’s corporate jet had departed forty minutes later.
Destination filed as Montreal.
But it never landed there.
“Transponder went dark over Vermont,” Ethan said.
Luca leaned over the map.
“He has rural property?”
“Checking.”
Anthony pulled up corporate holdings.
“His company owns timberland near the Canadian border.”
Sophia looked at them.
“Why would Grant Hale help Serena?”
“Money,” Michael said.
Luca shook his head.
“Not only money.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Grant’s father hated mine.”
“Because of business?”
“Because my father destroyed him financially in 1989.”
Anthony frowned.
“Grandpa never mentioned that.”
“My father rarely mentioned enemies after defeating them.”
Isabelle looked at Luca.
“You learned that from him.”
“What?”
“To assume defeated people disappear.”
The comment landed hard.
Because Elena had literally disappeared.
Luca looked down.
“Yes.”
By evening, federal authorities became involved due to cross-state kidnapping.
Luca offered every resource he had.
But Serena stayed ahead.
At 9:12 p.m., Isabelle received a video.
Elena sat in a chair.
Awake.
Confused.
A bruise marked her temple.
Serena stood behind her.
“Hello, Isabelle.”
Luca moved toward the phone.
“No.”
Isabelle stopped him.
Serena continued.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Naomi whispered:
“The drive.”
Serena smiled at the camera.
“You have until tomorrow at noon.”
Elena lifted her head weakly.
Then spoke for the first time.
“Luca?”
His face broke.
The children froze.
Elena looked around.
“My children?”
Sophia covered her mouth.
Serena placed a hand on Elena’s shoulder.
“One drive. One exchange.”
The video ended.
Luca grabbed his coat.
Naomi stepped in front of him.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“That is Elena.”
“And Serena expects you to become irrational.”
“She has the mother of my children.”
“She has bait.”
Sophia looked at her father.
“Dad.”
He stopped.
“If you run after Serena, she wins again.”
His eyes filled.
“What do you want me to do?”
Sophia held out her hand.
“For once?”
Luca stared at it.
“Trust us.”
Slowly, he took his daughter’s hand.
The next morning, they prepared a fake drive.
But Michael had another idea.
“Serena thinks she knows all our signals.”
Isabelle looked at him.
“She knows the two-three.”
“She probably does now.”
Anthony frowned.
“So?”
Michael smiled faintly.
“She doesn’t know the one Dad accidentally invented.”
Luca stared.
“What signal?”
Michael looked at Sophia.
She understood.
Years earlier, Luca had a habit when he wanted the children to leave a room without creating drama.
He would adjust his watch.
Once.
Then touch his collar.
It had never been formalized.
Never written down.
Just family instinct.
Anthony grinned.
“The Dad-is-about-to-get-angry signal.”
For the first time, Isabelle laughed.
Even Luca smiled.
Then Ethan interrupted.
“I found Grant Hale’s property.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
“Not Vermont.”
He enlarged a map.
“Maine.”
A private lodge near Moosehead Lake.
Registered under a conservation subsidiary.
Luca studied it.
“How do you know Elena is there?”
“I don’t.”
Ethan opened satellite records.
“But this helicopter left the Vermont airfield and landed thirty miles from the lodge.”
Naomi grabbed her phone.
“I’m calling the FBI.”
Isabelle stared at the map.
Then another thought struck her.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“If Serena wants the drive at noon…”
“Yes?”
“Why send us to Maine?”
Nobody answered.
Isabelle looked at Luca.
“She doesn’t want us to find Elena.”
“She wants us moving away from something else.”
Luca’s face changed.
“The harbor.”
At exactly 11:45 a.m., Anthony received an emergency notice from Russo Maritime.
A board meeting had been called.
Purpose:
Temporary removal of Luca Russo as chief executive due to family instability and security concerns.
The motion had been submitted by an investment group.
Hale Urban Holdings.
Serena wasn’t merely kidnapping Elena.
May you like
She was using the chaos to take the empire.
And if Luca rushed north after Elena, he would miss the vote that decided who controlled everything.
