“It appears so.”
Exhaling, Alexander ran his hands through his hair, tugging at it in obvious frustration.
“What are we going to do?” Olivia asked, looking up at her panicked husband. It was clear he hadn’t expected her to be this involved. She wouldn’t have expected it if she were in his shoes, either.
He stopped pacing and addressed both Martin and Olivia. “We’ll do the right thing,” he stated. “We’ll tell Moretti everything we know. From the beginning. We’ll get Homeland Security involved. These girls aren’t exactly here legally.”
Olivia shook her head. “It’s not as simple as that, Alex.”
“You know as well as I do it won’t end well,” Martin intervened. “They’ll be in the system. Anyone will be able to track them down.”
“We’ll make sure they get put into protective custody while all of this gets sorted out.”
Martin approached Alexander. “With all due respect, sir, I understand you’re willing to do anything to get your daughter back, but have you lost your mind? Protective custody? People come to us, to your company, because they don’t feel safe in protective custody. A lot of these government agencies are stretched thin and have limited resources. Sure, they may feel safe for a minute, but after a while, there will be more important cases. And that’s assuming Homeland Security doesn’t ship them back at the first opportunity, just for them to meet the same fate Landon, your friend, your teammate, tried to save them from!” He took a breath, steadying his voice. “If you do this, it will all be for nothing. Landon’s death. Mischa’s death. Rayne’s death. All these people you once held dear… Their sacrifice would have been useless.”
“It wouldn’t have been for nothing,” he replied, always stubborn. “If we do this, maybe we’ll get Melanie back.”
“How can we get her back if we have no bargaining chip?” Olivia interjected.
“All this guy wants is to know the location of these women. We turn the information over to the authorities and let them deal with it while we find Melanie. That should be our focus. Nothing else.”
“You’re right,” Olivia responded. “It should be, but it’s not. Does my heart ache from her absence? Of course. Have I wanted to scream and cry and wail every minute since she’s been taken? Yes. She’s my daughter. The love I have for her, the bond I’ve shared with her, no one in this room could possibly understand.”
She looked from Alexander to Martin, then back at her husband. He would never be able to truly comprehend the spectrum of emotions she was going through. Yes, Alexander was a wonderful father, he grew into that role with an excitement she never expected, but he didn’t have that connection to Melanie like she did.
“She grew inside me for nine months,” she continued, placing her hand on her stomach. “I would do anything to get Melanie back, but I can’t, in good conscience, sentence a dozen women to death in doing so.” She grabbed Alexander’s phone off the couch and scrolled through it, landing on a photo of a woman with dark hair, dark skin, and deep chestnut eyes.
“This woman’s name is Hope.” She held up the phone, forcing Alexander to stare into those haunting eyes, wanting him to see the person who would suffer from his plan. “I don’t know what her name used to be, but the name she chose when she came here was Hope. Her uncle raped her. When she reported it to the authorities in her village, instead of arresting her uncle, the town elders came after her for no longer being a chaste woman. She was damaged goods and had brought dishonor on her family. Her mother helped her escape. She believes her father most likely killed her mother when he found out she was missing.”
She scrolled through photo after photo, relaying each woman’s chosen name and story, each one more horrifying than the last. Alexander needed to see the scars of their past on their faces, although some had faded with time. Still, the emotional scars of what these woman had endured would never fade.
“This woman…” She held up the phone. “She goes by the name Selena now. She has a son. A six-month-old little boy she named Landon, after the man who saved her life.” Her fiery gaze bore holes into Alexander. “She was pregnant when she ran away from her abusive husband. Her father was a teacher who was killed by the Taliban. Her brother became the patriarch of the family and sold her to a man fifty years her senior when she was only thirteen! Thirteen! Melanie will be thirteen in a few years. Could you imagine anyone forcing her to marry a man fifty years older than she is? Once Selena turned eighteen, she finally had the courage to run. Now, she works at a daycare where she can spend all day with her son and not live in fear that either one of them will be killed.”
Tears she had held at bay began streaming down her face. “Look at these women. Look into their eyes,” she sobbed. “Look at their scars. Their bruises. The burns on their faces. This is what their future holds if we do what you’re suggesting and get Homeland Security involved.” She took a steadying breath. “I want my daughter back,” she said through her tears. “I want to hold her in my arms. I want to tell her how sorry Mommy is and assure her I’ll always be there for her.” She shook her head, wiping tears from her cheeks. “But not like this. Not knowing I’ve sent a dozen women to their deaths.”
Apart from the ticking of the clock, silence rang in the room as Olivia waited to see how Alexander would react. After a protracted moment of uncertainty, he took a step toward her, his expression softening.
“Olivia, love…,” he soothed, pulling her body against his.
Tilting her head, she looked into his eyes. These were the arms that always provided her comfort after a bad day. They showered her with love and affection on a daily basis. They were her home.
“Have I ever told you how frustrating you can be?”
She allowed a small smile to cross her lips. “Perhaps once or twice.” She’d heard those words out of his mouth at least once a week for the past decade.
Alexander let out a long breath, his irritation and unease with their predicament clear in his rigid stature and distant expression.
Grabbing his cheeks, she forced his eyes back to her. “You’re better than this,” she reminded him. “We’ll find another way to get her back, one we won’t regret for years to come.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
December 20
1:00 PM
AGENT MORETTI RAN HIS hand over his face, weariness etched in the lines around his tired eyes. Alexander had a feeling he had never been lead on as complicated a missing persons case as he had on his hands right now.