Despite the threat, Alex heaved a sigh of relief. It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
“I’ll send him back right now.”
Chapter 22
Chapter 22
The next morning, Gabriella woke up and reached for her phone to check the time, just as she always did.
The moment she unlocked the screen, a flood of missed calls poured in at once. There were so many that her phone froze for a moment.
1/1
Her first thought was that something had gone wrong at the research institute. Panic gripped her as she bolted upright.
Gabriella quickly freshened up and threw on a change of clothes. Just as she was about to rush out the door, Stephen walked out of the kitchen, still wearing his “What’s going on? Why are you in such a hurry?” he asked.
He looked puzzled by her frantic state but still handed her a glass of warm milk. “Drink this. You can’t start the day on an empty stomach.”
apron.
Gabriella took the glass and downed a quick sip. “I just got a bunch of missed calls. I think something happened at the institute. I need to check it out,” she explained between hurried gulps. But the moment the words left her mouth, something felt off.
Her apartment was close to the research institute. If there had been a real emergency urgent enough to warrant so many missed calls, they wouldn’t have just let her sleep through it.
She knew her colleagues would have been banging on her door by now. They wouldn’t have stopped after a few failed attempts.
The realization allowed Gabriella to relax slightly. She let out a long sigh of relief and was finally calm enough to check who had been calling.
Seeing the shift in her demeanor, Stephen couldn’t help but chuckle. He pressed a hand to her shoulder and guided her to sit at the dining table before heading back into the kitchen.
A moment later, he returned with a plate of sunny–side–up eggs. “Since it’s not about the institute, have something to eat while you figure it out.”
As Gabriella scrolled the list, she realized the missed calls weren’t from the same number. However, every caller had tried multiple times. Was it a prank? Or had something actually happened?
She opened her messages next. A long chain of unread texts filled the screen, each one short–just a single sentence.
“Lucas is missing!”
Almost immediately, her mind went blank.
Lucas was missing? What did that even mean?
Gabriella knew at once who had been calling her. It was Alex.
With that, she scrolled to the earliest missed call and redialed. As soon as the line connected, she cut straight to the point. “What on earth happened?”
On the other end, a wave of bitterness welled up in Alex’s chest. Even so, he didn’t dare delay and explained everything.
“Grandpa told me to send Lucas back. I put him on the plane, but A–Alfred said he waited for hours and never saw him. Then the bodyguards who were supposed to escort him came running out, saying he had been kidnapped. Gabby, I… I’m sorry. I failed to protect our son.”
At that moment, Alex’s emotions were a whirlwind, caught between fury and devastation.
Who had the audacity to kidnap Lucas right under his and Theodore’s noses?
But beneath the anger, a deeper ache settled in. In the end, it took Lucas‘ abduction for Gabriella to reach out to him.
Gabriella frowned upon hearing that, irritation creeping in.
“Someone kidnapped Lucas?”
While Alex explained, Stephen brought over his breakfast. He had just set down his own plate when he overheard Alex’s voice.
After a moment’s hesitation, he asked again, “Is it in Tramont? Do you need my help?”
It wasn’t that he had any interest in meddling in the Palmer family’s affairs. But he understood that, at the end of the day, Lucas was Gabriella’s son.
ver
She migh: 1esent Lucas for his past mistakes and wouldn’t forgive him just because he apologized. However, she wouldn’t just stand by and do nothing when it came to his life being at stake. Gabriella was human, after all. There was no way she could be that heartless.
“Thank you,” she replied
But before Stephen could even start investigating, Alex received a text from an unknown number.
The message was brief. It simply read, “Lucas is with me. If you want him alive, meet me at Bluewater Port tomorrow at noon. It you dare call the police, he will die with me!”
One text was all it took to send a chill down Gabriella’s spine.
The kidnappers hadn’t asked for a ransom. So, what did they want?
