Chapter Twenty-Three

Caspian

Johnathan met me at the door. "You sounded serious on the phone. Please, come into the living room." Once there, he continued to stand.

"I think you'd better have a seat."

His brow creased, then he took a seat. "This sounds serious."

"I don't know how to say this so that it will make telling you any easier."

"Now, I'm getting worried. Maybe you should tell me what's going on."

"Larissa is alive."

His face lost all color as he jumped to his feet. "That's not funny, Caspian. It's cruel. I don't know what game you're playing, but…"

"Is no game. It's the truth."

"Then who was the woman in the car?" He threw his arms up. "Who the hell did I bury if not my only child?"

"I don't know. That's the truth. Maybe he got the girl from the morgue or she's someone he murdered. I honestly don't know."

He sat heavily on the sofa once again, looking older than I'd ever seen him. "No, it can't be true. What the hell has she been doing for five years? There was no ransom, nothing. It has to be a hoax. Someone is trying to make you believe it's her."

"It isn't a hoax. The only hoax created was when she was in a car accident. He kidnapped her and then set about brainwashing her. She thinks we were going to kill her. He trained her to kill us out of some sort of revenge plot against our father."

"But your father died."

"Apparently, he wants revenge on the whole family."

His hands began to shake and tears filled his eyes. "I want to see her. Right now."

When he came to his feet, I came to mine as well, but I put a hand on his arm. "I need to tell you a little more first. I don't want you going in thinking Larissa is the same."

He shook his head, looking confused. "I don't understand." But he sat on the sofa again.

Fuck, this was harder than I thought it would be. I sat down again, choosing my words carefully, but knowing I wouldn't be able to stop the pain. "Seeing Laissa isn't going to be that easy. For five years, he abused her." I gripped the arms of the chair. "He kept her in a fucking cage. Jude saw her first and thought she was a ghost. Twice, she tried to kill him."

Johnathan was shaking his head. "No, that can't be right. You three and Larissa were the best of friends. No one could come between you."

I pulled the note out of my pocket and gave it to him. "He had one of his men attack Gina. She's a young maid who works for us. He beat her up pretty badly. She's in the hospital right now. Then the man who did this gave her a note to give to us. I think you need to read it as well."

He took the note and began to read. When he finished, he had to swipe away the tears. "No matter what he did to her, she's still my daughter, and I want to see her."

"She might not remember you. Are you willing to accept that?"

"It won't be easy," he admitted.

"We've made some breakthroughs with her. I think if she stays with us, we'll continue to make more progress."

"Whatever it takes."

When he didn't say anything for a moment, I knew he was thinking about something. I only hoped he wouldn't decide to bring her home. "She's safer with us, but you'll also need to take precautions. You'll need a bodyguard, and you should hire more men, just in case."

"I'll do that. I wasn't thinking about my safety, but this man is a monster. You said a lot of her memories are buried. What if I bring a photo album? I started it when she was a baby."

I breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn't try to bring her home this soon. "I think the album is a great idea."

Jonathan came to his feet again. "I'll be right back."

As soon as he left the room I relaxed. Telling him could've gone a lot worse. Jonathan was a good man. I would never know why he'd agreed to do business with my father. But he had, and they'd been friends until our father died. At our father's funeral, he'd wept.

When Jonathan returned, he had the album with him. He hesitated for just a bit, then handed it to me. "This is her whole life," he said. "I think it was the only thing that kept me going after the wreck. I knew she would want me to keep moving forward. Sometimes, it felt like I was walking in a thick fog."

"I know what you mean. We felt the same way. It just wasn't the same after she was gone. We'll catch the man who did this to her. My brothers and I will make sure he never hurts anyone else again."

As we walked to my car, he asked, "Do you know anything about him?"

"Very little. Most of the information we have is in that letter you read. One time, Larissa slipped up and almost said his name. We're pretty sure it starts with an A. We also know Bernard works for him. We've been going through my father's files. We haven't narrowed it down to who it could be, but we will."

"I know you will."

We didn't speak much after that. Both of us were lost in our own thoughts. About Rissa, I was sure. I called Jude to let him know that Jonathan was with me. He told me Rissa was upstairs. It had become a habit of hers to go upstairs after lunch. I think she wanted to escape our company more than anything. That thought hurt like hell. Before all this happened, she was like our shadow. She hated being away from us.

My fervent prayer was that she would run toward her father and throw her arms around him as all her memories came back at once, but I had little hope of that happening. Except for her telling us Bernard worked for the man who kidnapped her, she'd barely spoken at all. So, no, I didn't think there would be a miracle.