Beautiful Rose (Elixir Billionaires #1)

50. Zander

50

ZANDER

I reach Beast’s house. As I park my car, there’s another text from Kristy.

Kristy : How is she? It’s killing me to stay away. Did she tell you what triggered the panic attack?

Me : She’s better. I’ll call you in a few hours. Please don’t visit her until then.

Me: And don’t stress too much.

I put my phone back inside my jacket. I know Kristy is worried, but I have more serious issues to deal with.

“Zander, what’s the matter?” Beast asks in an exhausted voice as I enter his office. “What is so urgent that I had to miss my flight?”

“I need your help.” I place the file Lukas gave Zach on the study table.

“What is this?” His gaze moves between the file and me.

“It’s Rose’s case file from back then.” My body tenses at the thought of its contents.

“How did you get it?” Beast eyes me curiously, making no effort to pick it up from the desk.

“Lukas arranged it for me.” I swallow back the anxiety. I just hope he didn’t break any laws while doing so .

“You asked for Lukas’s help?” Beast’s eyebrows rise in surprise.

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Lukas Spencer, Zane’s friend. But these are desperate times. I’ll do everything in my power, no matter how hard that may be, to get my girl out of the fear that has paralyzed her for her entire life.

After staring at me for another moment, Beast grabs the file. He sifts through the first few pages until his eyes and hands halt on one page.

“What is it?” I circle his table and find him staring at a grainy picture from police records. It shows the wounds on Rose’s small back.

He runs his fingers over the picture, pausing in between as if he can feel them. “She has these?”

I hum around my pounding heart, my eyes fixed on the angry wounds. The current marks on my girl are just a whisper of these horrible, angry gashes and burns.

“Fuck!” Beast stands in a fury, forcing me to step back. All the papers fall down, littering the floor.

“You said she was found by someone. Where?” Beast suddenly grabs my shoulders. His grip is tight, filled with anxiety and eagerness, taking me by surprise. “Somewhere close?”

“No, not even close,” I rush to answer. I wasn’t expecting such an angry outburst from him. “She was found in another part of the country. She had never even stepped foot into this area before she took a job in Cherrywood.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. But why do you ask?” Watching his reaction, a flush of adrenaline tingles through my body.

“Because I’ve seen those exact same marks before.” His wide, horrified eyes elevate my pulse. I’ve never seen Beast like this. He almost looks scared.

His hands shake as he opens the top drawer of his desk, withdrawing an envelope .

How many times have I seen it in his hands?

On several occasions, I’ve walked in on him with this yellow envelope on his table or the old sepia pages that reside inside it, close to his face. He’d carefully fold the papers, place them into the envelope, and then lock it away before looking up at me.

But today, he empties all its contents in a rush, not caring what lands where. He fumbles through the mess of pages until his hands find whatever he’s looking for, and he plants a picture on the table.

It’s a similar grainy shot of someone’s back bearing the exact same wounds as Rose’s. The only difference in this picture is it’s the body of a woman, not a child.

“I don’t understand. Who is she?” I hold the photograph to take a closer look.

“My wife.” He slams his fists on the table.

His words take me by surprise, and the photo falls from my hand.

Beast lights a cigarette, walking back and forth anxiously. “Tell me everything you know.”

I rehash the events Rose told me this morning and wait for Beast to say something. Finally, he does. A lot.

“My wife and I met by chance in a café. She was there on some kind of blind date, and I was dared by my friends to kiss a stranger. She slapped me at our first meeting. She hated me so much.” His eyes are transfixed on the photograph as he takes back his seat.

“But I fell in love with her, there and then. I chased her, following her everywhere until she agreed to go on a date with me.” A pained smile emerges on his face. I try to imagine a younger version of Beast roaming around the streets following a woman.

“Long story short, we fell in love and got married. When she got pregnant, we decided to make St. Peppers our home. My darling Chloe was born, and I was living a dream. A beautiful dream.” He runs his hands over his face as if imagining those days. “But in all the happiness, I forgot that dreams break when the night is over, and so did mine.”

Holding my breath, I wait for him to continue.

“My wife was a teacher, and one day, while she was returning from school, she was abducted on her way home. I moved heaven and earth to find her.” He gets up from his chair and walks to the window, looking outside at nothing in particular. “I was devastated. I went through hell during that week.”

“But you found her?” I can’t stop myself from asking.

He looks at me over his shoulder. “Yes, but it wasn’t me who found her. I tried everything to get to her. I spent days and nights holed up in my office or at the police station. I didn’t sleep a minute those seven days. But I couldn’t find her.”

Beast slams his fist against the window sash. For a moment, I worry he’ll break his wrist, but he continues before my mind wanders more.

“It was Roxanne. She found my wife. That day, I was put in a lifelong debt to her. I can never forget what she did for me, my family. She found my wife, heavily sedated and left to die on the highway, hands and feet tied together. Roxanne gave me back my life that day, or so I thought.”

He gets back in his chair. “But she’d changed. Gone were her laughs that filled my house. Gone were her smiles that made my heart stop. She was lost and depressed. I got her the best doctors, and everybody told me it was the trauma, and it would go away with time. I just had to be patient.”

He rests his head against the headrest, looking at the ceiling. I never thought there’d be a day when Beast would be so vulnerable. At this moment, he doesn’t look like the giant, strong man from my childhood.

“She never spoke about what happened in those seven days, but she was shaken. She was terrified. And that’s not how she was before.” He looks me in the eye before slamming his hands on his desk, and the pens go flying around. “ My girl made men cry at the shooting range. She fucking knew her place in the world, and she knew how to fight for it. But after that week, my brave girl was nowhere to be found. And there was always this lost expression on her face. I couldn’t bear it.”

My throat constricts, remembering how I found Rose in the shower stall last night and how fucking helpless I felt. I can undoubtedly feel Beast’s pain.

“She wasn’t sexually violated, thank God for that, but she had these burn marks on her back. That fucker possibly used a hot double hook to imprint her skin.”

Sweat trickles down my spine as I imagine Rose being hurt in a similar way. “Rose said something about feeling hot on her back.”

He nods. “I tracked the case, partly with the police and partly by myself, for several more months, but all our leads ran cold. I also had to focus on my wife. She was slipping away from me day by day. She started getting distant, not only from me but Chloe too.”

Beast crushes his eyes with his palms as if trying to get rid of the bitter past images.

“It was a year after the kidnapping. We were invited to a friend’s party out of town. I decided to take her, hoping it would be a good change, and it was. For the first time in a very long while, we had a normal evening. She smiled after almost a year. Gradually, my wife was coming back to me, and we found out she was pregnant again. I was walking on air as we rekindled our lost love. But then she went into premature labor, and our baby girl was born dead.”

Beast’s bloodshot eyes focus on me, and I suck in a breath. I never thought I’d see this man so helpless and lost. I always thought nothing in this world could shake him. But I guess when the storm of life hits, it doesn’t matter how strong you are; it can still blow you away.

“I lost everything that day. A week later, my wife left me, leaving behind a fucking letter. She wrote that she couldn’t bear the pain of living in a loveless marriage. Living with me reminded her of everything she’d suffered.” He finds the letter among several other things that fell from the envelope and hands it to me. The white paper, now yellow with age, is wrinkled as though it’s been folded and unfolded several times over the years.

While I’m busy reading the letter, Beast is staring at a photograph.

“Is it her?” I ask, and he turns it around. The ground beneath my feet slips away as a familiar face in black and white smiles back at me. “What did you say your wife’s name was?” I try to keep my voice light, masking the tension that’s surging through my veins.

“Sophia.”

“Can I see the picture of Chloe again?”

Lost in sorrow, Beast mechanically draws out the photograph of his daughter from his wallet. I fix my eyes on the picture, and this time, I recognize the shapes and lines on the little girl’s face, which has become very familiar to me in past months.

I return the photo and place Rose’s file back on his table, rearranging all the papers. “I need to be somewhere, but I’m leaving this with you.”

He nods, and before I’m out of his study, Beast calls out, “Zander, I have a feeling that your Rose is the key to my Sophia.”

I nod without saying a word. I don’t know if Rose is a key to finding his wife or if his wife is the key to the missing part of my Rose’s life.

“I want to meet you. Now,” I shout into my phone after parking my car on the secluded road. I pinch the bridge of my nose to hold on to the thin sliver of control I have left.

“Zander—”

“Don’t even try to make an excuse or else I won’t come alone, but with a fucking party of Rose, Kristy, and Ashcroft.” I can hear her loud gasp through the speaker. “I need answers, Sophia, and I need them now. Give me your address.”

“I can’t give you my address, Zander.”

There’s an unusual quiver in her voice, but anger courses through my veins with one aim—to know the truth. “Are you fucking kidding me? You realize I know your secret, or whatever the fuck this is.” Heat flushes through my body, and I grab the door handle, almost ripping it out.

“I’ll meet you at a café in St. Peppers in an hour. I’ll text you the address,” Sophia says and ends the call before I can respond.

I can’t fucking believe this coincidence.

Kristy is Beast’s daughter. She is his Chloe.

Sophia is his wife.

Where does my Rose fit in all this?

This question haunts me throughout the entire ride.

Sophia sits across from me at the back table of this cozy café. I met her for first time at Kristy’s wedding. I can’t help but imagine her with Beast, trying to fit her into the story he told me.

“How did you get here so fast? From what I’ve heard, you live nowhere near.”

She flinches at my words but then squares her shoulders, a hint of the woman Beast spoke about. The woman who takes shit from no one. But not today.

“So, this is another lie you’ve told your daughter. ”

Sophia purses her lips, and I know she doesn’t like my tone.

“How do you know Ashcroft?” she asks me instead. Her voice trembles as she says his name.

“He adopted me and my brothers and raised us in his home.”

If she’s surprised by the coincidence, she doesn’t show it. “How long have you known?”

“Since an hour ago. I took Rose’s file to Beast. That’s when he showed me pictures of your case and you.”

A sad smile pulls on Sophia’s lips. “You call him Beast.”

But I don’t entertain her distraction. “Does Kristy know?”

Sophia shakes her head before taking a deep breath. “I took her away in hopes to never return to this place. But fate plays out in strange ways. Of all the places in the world, Kristy took up a job offer in Cherrywood. I try to maintain my distance from her and Rose so that they are safe.” Her confusing words and resigned voice don’t help my restlessness.

Keep them safe? From whom?

My questions remain unspoken as the waiter appears and places two cups of coffee on the table.

Once he leaves, Sophia asks, “Why are you looking into Rose’s case? It’s been closed for years.”

“She had a panic attack yesterday after learning about Kristy’s pregnancy. She’s petrified Kristy’s girl will be born with the same blue eyes.” My eyes narrow on her face. If Sophia and Rose suffered the same trauma, this piece of news would’ve affected her too.

And my thoughts turn out to be true when Sophia’s hands tremble around the cup handle. “We don’t even know if it’s a girl.” Her voice quivers.

“Is that fucking thought keeping you sane?” My anger and confusion meld together, and my words come out in a hiss. “ Otherwise, you too would be scared shitless of Kristy’s pregnancy.”

“I don’t understand.” She shifts in her chair nervously, avoiding any eye contact. Her chest rises and falls as she takes heavy breaths. Her hands clutch the cup tight, and I fear it will crack at any minute.

“Really? Rose told me there were two people who kidnapped her.” I try to get something out of her—anything to learn if there’s a connection between her and Rose.

“She remembered?” Sophia’s mouth falls open, and her trembling fingers touch her parted lips.

“She never forgot. She has a photographic memory, for fuck’s sake. But you know all of this, much better than me. You were kidnapped by the same people, weren’t you?”

“I—I don’t know, Zander. I don’t know why you think I have answers to these questions, when even the police have no clue.” Sophia grabs her purse on the table. I know she’s ready to bolt out of here and go back to hiding from reality.

“Don’t play games with me, Sophia. Just tell me if Rose is your daughter. Is she Beast’s?” My fists clench under the table, imagining how many lives have been turned upside down. And I don’t know who’s to blame.

Tears roll down her cheeks, and in this moment, I feel sorry for her. She’s lost so much, but isn’t it her doing?

“How is that even fucking possible?” I ask.

“We never saw our second baby,” Sophia whispers, averting her gaze from mine.

And that’s when I remember the premature stillborn baby.

My Rose.

My heart jackknifes against my chest as Sophia continues. “When I met Rose at Kindred Hearts, I was struck by how much she looked like me. I called the hospital, and…they checked the records. There was no stillborn baby listed on the day of my delivery. ”

I can’t believe it.

Innumerable questions run through my mind.

How is it such a small fucking world?

Is this fucking fate?

But out of all those, only one escapes my mouth. “You know her birthday?” The enormity of this doesn’t go unnoticed by both of us as our eyes meet. “We have to tell everyone,” I say with finality, getting up from my chair.

“Zander! No, we can’t,” she rushes out, grabbing my hand and halting my movements.

“Are you not seeing what this lie has done to your family? There is a man, whom I’ve never seen as broken as I did today, who carries the photo of his daughter, his Chloe, everywhere. He thinks it’s his fault that you left him. He doesn’t even know he has another daughter. Your daughters don’t know they’re sisters.”

I can’t believe how many lives will be stirred by this revelation.

“Why did you run away, Sophia? What’s scaring you?”

She shakes her head, not saying anything, her face wet with tears. She reminds me so much of my girl.

No.

She and Rose just look the same. They are, otherwise, different.

My girl is fighting to be found, while Sophia is trying everything to stay lost.

“If you don’t want to answer me, then don’t. But tomorrow, I’m going to tell them your secret. This might be your only chance to get your life back, Sophia. To get your family back.”

I place a card on the table next to her trembling hands.

“This is the address of a hotel in Cherrywood. I’ll have a room reserved for you. I hope to see you tomorrow at Rose’s place at nine. I’ll have everyone there.” Before leaving, I add, “I hope you make the right decision.”