Yet those two found out a considerable amount.
Like the fact that Gian had not only given up the sex trafficking business his adoptive father had made so lucrative. Santino’s business partner in the trade had taken over the business fully. But apparently the same day Monroe and I were taken, the bastard caught one straight to the forehead. The Feds were writing it up as a business deal gone wrong, but I was convinced Gian had taken the man out.
That theory was all the more believable when Braxton explained he’d found out that the two men who’d taken us and had talked about selling our babies worked for the dead motherfucker. Yeah, Gian took that sick fuck out, and the world was going to be a better place for it.
But that wasn’t all the cousins found out. They uncovered things I doubted even Gian knew about himself.
Like the fact that DNA tests had been done on both Gian and Enzo Fontana. But before Enzo could get the results back, he’d died. From what Braxton discovered, no one had ever contacted the lab after the test was done, so no one knew to tell Gian he wasn’t actually the spawn of Enzo Fontana.
That little piece of news had unsettled everyone, but especially Lexa. She’d left the house in tears, with Ben right behind her. But she hadn’t made it to her car before she started full-on sobbing. Her guilt over making Monroe choose between her and Gian was sitting hard on her now that she knew the man our sweet Monroe was in love with wasn’t the monster Lexa had imagined him to be.
All the parents had seemed relieved about the discovery of Gian’s parentage as well, although it was unclear who his father actually was. Mom and Dad both breathed a sigh of relief knowing the truth, but I hadn’t been scared of what Gian would do to my sister.
After I calmed down and began to think clearly again, I knew he wouldn’t do anything to harm Monroe. He’d dedicated years of his life to keeping her safe. She would be fine with him watching over her.
What I was scared of was never seeing my other half again. Now that he had her, it was hard to tell where the hell he’d taken her. With the money that the bastard had, he could have easily hidden her away on a private island, and no one would ever see Monroe again.
I felt like I was suffocating without her. There had been no communication with her, and I’d never gone more than a day without being in touch with her in some shape or form. Not knowing if she was okay, worried about her and the baby, was causing a weight to press down on my chest that made it impossible to breathe.
As I sat on the couch in the living room at home, I stared sightlessly at the muted television. Beside me, Lyric sat with my feet in his lap, massaging my toes. The only time I felt as if I wasn’t going to panic was when he was touching me. Something as little as his thigh pressed up against mine calmed me when everything began to feel like it was too much.
He was my rock, my only anchor that I could hold on to, who wouldn’t judge me for acting so out of character. No one but Lyric understood why I couldn’t stop crying or fighting panic attacks.
“Mila is supposed to be the strong twin
. The one everyone knows won’t break down. Yet that is exactly what she’s been doing for days,” I’d overheard Aunt Flick say the night before.
I wanted to scream at her and everyone else in my house that I was pregnant and missing the other part of my soul. They couldn’t possibly understand what I was feeling, so they didn’t have any right to assume how I was going to react.
But instead, I’d kept my mouth shut and then cried in the shower until my throat was raw.
That was where Lyric had found me. Wet, naked, and curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor. Still crying as if my heart were broken. Because it was. It was broken yet still beating, and I felt so fucking lost.
All I wanted was to hear Monroe’s voice. To know she was okay. That she and the baby were fine. Tell her how much I love her and hear her say it back to me.
That was all I needed.
Then maybe I would be able to get back to the Mila everyone said I’d lost.
“Are you hungry, babe?” Lyric asked as he continued to squeeze my toes.
“No,” I said with a shake of my head, my voice raspy from disuse.
“Mila—”
My phone ringing stopped him from telling me all the reasons why I should try to eat. Looking at the screen, I saw the number and my breath caught. It was obviously from another country, but I had no idea which one.
Lyric took one look at my face and then snatched the phone from my hand. “Hello?” he demanded, his hypnotic eyes narrowing. He listened for a moment and then offered me the phone back.
I was already crying before I heard Monroe’s voice. “Are you okay?” I demanded, my voice cracking. “Tell me you’re okay, Mon.”
“Don’t cry,” she soothed in her sweet voice. I never could understand how we sounded exactly alike, yet her voice was always so much sweeter to my ears. “I’m okay. The babies are okay too, I promise.”
My breath hitched again. “Babies? But they only saw one on the ultrasound at the hospital the other night.”
“I know,” she said with a soft laugh. “But Gian found this super-expensive OB-GYN expert who is taking care of me. I’m still cramping, and it scared me to death. But it’s only from my uterus expanding. Then he found the second heartbeat.”
“Where are you?” I asked when I could finally swallow again. Lyric jumped to his feet and ran upstairs. Barrick and Braxton had worked all night, calling leads and trying to find every digital footprint Gian had ever left.