Andrew sits in his study and stares at the blue glow of his computer screen. A video of Leilani plays over and over: he watches her walking through the streets and getting into a Land Rover. A drone flies over the Land Rover, and he watches the black car pull up outside an elaborate metal gate. The car drives in, and a bodyguard looks up and points at the drone. The drone rises in the air and flies away, and the video goes black.
Andrew sighs and pours more amber liquid into his cup. He swirls it and inhales deeply—enjoying the spiced vanilla smell of the rum. He rubs his chest and feels the frantic beat of his heart. Even a video of Leilani has his heart rate out of control. If I get her back, I’ll never let go of her again, he thinks.
A bodyguard knocks at the door and enters. The man looks confused, and he keeps looking down at his feet.
“Mr. Clifford, Mr. Bamford sent a gift to you,” the guard says. “If you look out the window, you’ll be able to see it.”
Andrew jumps to his feet and jerks the heavy curtains open. The dim evening light fills the room and cast strange shadows in the dark corners. Andrew looks out the window and sees a large metal cage. A black chimpanzee wraps her arms around the steel bars and bares her yellowed teeth. The animal looks up and locks eyes with Andrew, and then pouts her hairy lips into a kiss. She beats her chest and makes an obscene gesture with her hand.
Andrew smiles at the animal. He’s not sure why Waylen has sent him a chimp, but he’s amused by the animal’s strange behavior. I wonder if Waylen trained her to act that way, Andrew thinks. Honestly, I wouldn’t put that sort of trick past him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Clifford,” the bodyguard says. “Mr. Bamford also sent you an email.”
Andrew grabs his phone and opens his emails. Immediately he sees a strange apelike face with his eyes in it. Waylen has a captioned photo, “your baby.” Andrew scrolls down and sees a picture of a cute smiling baby. The caption reads, “my baby.”
Andrew laughs and tosses the phone to his bodyguard. “Send Mr. Bamford a photo of Leilani’s baby and me,” he says.
“How about the chimpanzee?” the guard asks, “What should we do with it?”
Andrew shrugs. “Let it loose or send it to a zoo, whatever you think is best,” he says. “Anyway, how’s the forest reconstruction project going?”
“It will be finished in less than a week,” the guard says.
Andrew has been carefully studying the forests and mountains surrounding Misty Mansion. He wants to make it even harder to get to, and he’s devised a series of secret passages and traps. Ever since Leilani escaped, Andrew’s men have been out in the woods working to make the mansion a true fortress.
“What’s my grandfather up to these days?” Andrew asks.
“He’s currently in Monaco with Mr. Francis Bamford,” the guard says.
“Francis Bamford?” Andrew groans, but he’s not surprised.
His grandfather is a direct descendant of one of the country’s founding fathers. The Clifford and Bamford family go back a long way. In fact, the Cliffords, Bamford, and Olivers are considered to be the three most powerful and influential families.
Francis Bamford is an ambitious man, and rumors suggest he wants to run for political office soon. If we want to succeed as a leader of the country, he’ll need the support of the Cliffords and Olivers. But if he manages to gain power, Waylen will become even more unbeatable than he already is.
“Mr. Oliver doesn’t know Charles is missing, does he?” Andrew asks.
Mr. Oliver is Charles’ godfather. Many people seem to think that Mr. Oliver prefers Charles to his own son—Jackson Oliver. According to the rumor mill, Mr. Oliver thinks that Jackson is too young and irresponsible to take over the family legacy.
“Break the news to Mr. Oliver,” Andrew commands. “I want to see how long it takes him to figure out what happened to his precious godson—and who did it.”
Once Mr. Oliver knows that his beloved grandson is missing, he should soon be able to figure out who did it. If Mr. Oliver blames Waylen, Francis Bamford’s political ambitions will crumble, and he’ll surely punish Waylen. Andrew smiles to himself and sips his rum.
The bodyguard hesitates. “Your grandfather is really angry that Jackson has run away again,” the guard says. “He’s especially upset about the shame it’s brought on his wife, Jessica. If he knows that you are in contact with the Oliver family, he won’t be happy at all.
“Well, be careful,” Andrew says confidently. “There’s no reason my grandfather has to find out.”
A loud horn blares outside the window, and Andrew looks down. A beautiful woman sits in an open-topped red Jeep and leans on the horn. The chimpanzee goes crazy with the sound and jumps from side to side in her cage. The woman laughs.
“Andrew, good to see you,” Jessica Clifford says, waving up at the window.
“Who let her in?” Andrew asks, rubbing his temple.
“Your mother, sir,” the guard replies. “She’s really worried about your health, apparently.”
Andrew pours himself another glass of rum and chugs it down. Jessica is always a headache. He hears her high heels clicking on the stairs, and he rubbed his temples.
“My dear brother, why didn’t you come down to welcome me?” Jessica asks.
“I don’t feel well,” Andrew says.
“Oh, I know, and it’s just terrible,” Jessica says. “But where are your servants? Why aren’t they here caring for you right now? Mom was right. You definitely should not be living out in this godforsaken forest, in this horrible gloomy house all by yourself. What will we do if something happens to you?”
Andrew shakes his head and reaches for the bottle of rum, but Jessica slaps his hands away.
“Sit down, Andrew,” she says. “Let me look at your wound. I just took a course on all that, and I’m like an expert bandage now.”
Jessica pulls Andrew to the sofa and forces him to sit down. He closes his eyes and silently curses his mother. How can I make her go away right now? He wonders. A servant rushes into the room with a medical kit, and Jessica rips his shirt open.
Andrew opens his eyes in time to see his doctor rushing in, but Jessica waves the middle-aged man away.
“I’ll handle it,” she says. “I know what I’m doing.”
She carefully unwraps the gauze from his chest and looks at the surgical site.
“This really isn’t healing the way it should be,” she says.
Jessica puffs her lips out and frowns in a childish pout. She looks at the stained gauze and the stitches on Andrew’s chest. The surgical site is still red and swollen, and a light yellow liquid seeps from the wound. Andrew sighs.
“You have to sterilize it first,” Andrew says, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “I thought you said you knew how to do this.”
“I do,” Jessica says.
She clumsily pours the sterilizing solution onto a cotton pad and dabs it on his chest. She squeezes the cotton too hard, and the cold liquid soaks the wound and trickles down his chest to his stomach. He flinches and glares up at her.
“Andrew, stop moving around,” Jessica says, pressing the cotton even harder. “I’m almost done.”
Andrew looks down at his stinging chest and sees that fresh blood has mixed with the sterilizing solution making a strange watery red color. Jessica reaches for another cotton pad, and Andrew grabs her arm.
“You’re making it worse,” he complains.
“Andrew, just deal with this for another minute,” she says. “I trained with the family doctor before coming here. I know what I’m doing. Sometimes these sorts of things are messy as they heal.”
“Jess, it’s already been like twenty minutes, and you shouldn’t be making me bleed,” Andrew says.
“No, no, it’s fine,” she insists, wriggling her wrist free from his grip. “Now let me see, the next step is…” She trails off, clearly confused about the next step.
“The next step is applying the ointment,” Andrew says with a sigh. “Really, I’d rather just have the doctor do it.”
“Oh yes, right, of course,” Jessica says.
She blots his chest dry and smears a huge blob of ointment onto the wound. She slowly rubs it in, getting it everywhere. The greasy ointment leaves dark stains on his silk shirt and his groans. He makes eye contact with a bodyguard laughing silently in the corner.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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