Bound by the Red Thread

Nicole turned to look at Paul. He was so handsome sitting beside her. She couldn’t believe the twist things had taken in the last few weeks. First, they’d found out that her stalker had been one of the teenage boys from the homeless shelter she’d been helping at.

He’d fooled them at first, because they didn’t think he could have been the one doing everything by himself. It seemed that he was almost as smart as Paul, and if he had the right support, would be able to compete with Brody and Monty when he was older.

He’d had a crush on her, and when she’d taken Paul to meet everyone the day they delivered the leftovers, it had triggered him, but being as immature as he was, he hadn’t known how to react to his feelings.

He hadn’t been dangerous, just a kid with a crush. She’d been at the safe house for about two weeks before Monty and Darrall had figured it out. Monty had been able to piece together enough videos from the area to figure out the young man was taking the bus, and then grabbed the camera feeds from the transportation company and pieced everything together.

He’d stolen a wallet and used that ID and credit card to rent the car, but had been too scared to try it again. That was when Monty had started suspecting it was someone she knew locally rather than someone Huang had hired.

When they’d confronted Steven, he’d confessed to everything. Nicole had declined to press charges and had spoken to the district attorney and asked her to be lenient with the young man if possible.

Steve’s family had been appalled when they’d found out what he had been doing, and from the sounds of the lectures his mother and father had started before they left the police station, Nicole was pretty sure he’d have second thoughts before trying anything like that again. His mother had also promised Nicole to try and find him some counseling with the help of a social worker who also volunteered at the shelter.

She and Paul were currently sitting on a private plane that was owned by Morgan Clark Elder, the wife of Jason Elder. Jason was one of the founders of the security firm and Morgan had been one of the first clients of Forrest Security. Jason had fallen in love with her after she hired them to find her best friend, a woman who had been kidnapped by human traffickers and would have been lost, if not for her friend pushing to find her.

“Are you nervous?” Paul asked, taking her hand and threading his fingers through hers.

“A little. I can’t believe it’s finally happening. Do you think he’s going to be excited to see me?”

“You know he will be. He practically came through the phone when he heard we were coming to pick him up.”

“I can’t believe Jin gave in so quickly after his father passed away.”

“It’s going to be hard on Cliff. He’s going to need all the support you can give him. We’re going to need to find him a good therapist to help him work through all this.”

Nicole nodded. Huang Peng had passed away from a heart attack almost a month ago. A few days after everything was settled, Nicole had gotten a call from Jin telling her to come and get her son, or he’d place the boy on a plane alone and she could meet him at the airport.

Darrall had stepped in and made arrangements to use Morgan’s plane to transport Paul and Nicole to China to retrieve the boy. They would spend the night and come back the next day, giving the pilot time to rest and be ready for the flight home.

Apparently, Jin had another family in China. A woman who he’d been seeing before he’d met and gotten Nicole pregnant. The two children the woman had conceived had both been females and Huang had insisted Jin marry Nicole when he found out she was carrying what could possibly be his grandson.

Not wanting to disappoint his father, Jin had given in to this pressure and lived a miserable life with Nicole until his father had fallen ill and demanded to be able to spend what days he had left with his only grandson. Jin had been unable to deny the man. Now that his father was gone, Jin no longer wanted the added responsibility of his son. He and his former lover were content to live in her home with their children and had no room for a young boy.

When Huang passed away, everything had been left to his first son, a brother Jin had never known he had. Jin’s brother Jian had been raised by his mother and Jin had never met him.

Jian was the total opposite of his father. Neither Jin nor his brother Jian had any interest in continuing things the way their father had run them and were more than willing to let the authorities take over and no longer be involved in Haung’s business.

The plane landed and Nicole rushed her way through the terminal to the lounge where her son was waiting.

“Mommy!” Cliff ran up to his mom and wrapped his arms around her. “Mommy! I’ve missed you so much!”

Nicole wrapped her arms around him, falling to her knees crying with joy.

“I’ve missed you too, baby. I’ve missed you so much,” she sobbed.

They stayed like that for several long minutes, holding each other and crying.

Finally, Paul walked over and helped Nicole to stand. “Let’s go over here where we can sit.”

He guided them to a large chair where they could all sit together. He sat first pulling Nicole and Clifton in with him.

They sat together for several minutes, Nicole and Cliff both crying. As their emotions settled, Paul felt both of them begin to relax.

He noticed a man standing with a woman and two young girls watching from a distance.

He looked at Nicole and nodded in that direction. She nodded her eyes following his. “Cliff, let’s go say goodbye to your dad.”

She took a deep breath and stood, then took Cliff’s hand and determinedly walked over to where Jin was standing.