Chapter Twenty-Two
Twenty-Two
Noah
A Week Later
The past seven days had been the longest of my life. Every morning felt like wading through concrete, trying to maintain some semblance of routine for the boys while everything inside me screamed that something vital was missing.
I'd burned toast, forgotten pickup times, and caught myself staring at my phone more times than I could count, hoping for a message that never came.
"No, Daddy! That's not the way Aria does it!"
Theo's shrill voice piercing my thoughts caused me to drop the bowl in my hand, sending it sailing to the ground and shattering upon impact. I'd been his father for six years, Aria had been his nanny for two months, yet somehow I was making his cereal wrong.
"Well, Aria's not here, is she?" I snapped. Theo recoiled, and I immediately felt terrible. Tears started to gather in the corners of his eyes, and I crouched down and pulled him into a hug.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I got frustrated. That wasn't fair to yell at you."
What Theo didn't know was that I missed Aria just as much as he did, if not more. I hadn't fully explained her prolonged absence to the twins, or any of the children for that matter.
Whenever they asked about her, I just told them that she was taking some time for herself and would be back soon.
I hated telling them that, not just because they didn't really want to accept it as an answer, but because I had no idea if that was true or not. We had no idea where she had gone, and even once we found her, there was no guarantee that she was going to come back to us.
Ronan had kept some pretty huge secrets, and even if we could convince her that he didn't kill his ex-wife, he had kept his real name from her; that kind of thing wasn't easy to forgive.
I allowed Oliver to hand-hold me through doing some things the way Aria would do it to help the boys adjust, but the truth was that they felt what all of us dads had felt; Aria was the one.
She was the link that was missing in our family, and with her being gone, all of us could feel it.
The kids were less happy, the dads were less happy, and we were taking it out on one another.
Once the kids were off to school, I decided to call an emergency meeting of the dads.
We had to figure something out; we needed our cornerstone back.
Gabriel was walking through my kitchen, opening and closing cabinets when he arrived that afternoon.
"What the hell, Noah?"
"What?" I replied.
"Where's all the booze?" he asked, his frustration evident.
"It's 10 o'clock in the morning," Ethan responded.
Gabriel whipped around on his heel.
"Hey Ethan, look at me." He was pointing a pair of fingers towards his eyes. "Look into my eyes."
"I'm looking at you," Ethan replied, shaking his head.
"I don't give a damn what time of day it is. I want a drink," Gabriel said, then turned his gaze to me.
"Well?"
"Aria has been gone for a week. You think I have booze left?" I responded. "I've been drinking it like water."
It was true. I tried to be careful with my alcohol intake, as both my father and my grandfather had developed alcoholism later in life, but I was missing my woman, I needed something to stifle the pain.
"I've been having it delivered daily," Julian said.
"I can't get over it. I've been with dozens of women. Why does this one hurt so bad?"
"Because she was everything," Ronan added, with a thick sadness to his voice. "She was perfect, and I ruined it." His head drooped low. "I'm so sorry—"
"Stop," Gabriel said firmly, walking over and putting a hand on Ronan's shoulder. "We're not doing this. No more self-pity."
"He's right," I said. "We have to do something. We have to find her, and we have to find out who sent her that package so we can prove to her that it wasn't true. We need her, the kids need her, we have to figure this out. Gabriel, where is Liam? What have you two learned?"
"When I called him, he answered and just said 'I'll be there, but I'll be late,' and hung up on me," Gabriel said.
I crossed my arms, frustrated. Gabriel and Liam were our best hope for a lead, and Liam had told us that he'd paid someone he knew down in Florida to track down the person who sent the package, but we hadn't heard anything additional since then.
We had to be able to do something more. We had to be able to find the woman we loved.
"Can't you do something else?" I asked Gabriel. "Did you run the fingerprints?"
"There were about fifty prints on those photos.
They'd been handled by everyone from the sales clerk at the place they were printed, to random people along the chain.
The prints are no good," Gabriel explained.
"All we were able to learn from the paper is that it was from Florida, which we already knew, and we have nothing to compare the handwriting test to.
We ran it through the system to see if there were any matching samples, but came up totally empty. "
"So, what?" Ethan said, his voice strained. "That's it? We're just at a dead end?"
"Can we go back to the delivery company?" Julian added. "Lean on them a little more?"
"All threads lead back to Florida and the address that we already have.
It's not a residential address, but a police department with over 100 officers.
We can't exactly walk in there and start interrogating cops about a witness protection case," Gabriel said, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
"We're doing everything we can, guys. We want to find Aria just as badly as you do. "
"Damn right we do." I looked over my shoulder and Liam was walking into the kitchen. "And we've finally caught a break."
"You've found her?" Ethan said, jumping up from the stool where he was sitting, looking hopeful.
Liam looked at Ethan and shook his head.
"No, but I did find our blackmailer." He set a folder on the counter and opened it, and everyone gathered around. The top page was a picture of a man with short blond hair, cyan blue eyes, and a severe, cut jaw. "An ex-cop from West Palm Beach, Florida. Nathan Greene."
"The brother?" Julian said, remembering Ronan's story from before. "Running you out of town wasn't enough?"
"Evidently not," Ronan said quietly. "How did he find me? My new name and location were only known to a select few."
"Yeah," Liam said, flipping the top image of Nathan over to reveal a picture of another man with a drill sergeant look to him, with buzz-cut hair. “Recognise him?"
"The FPD captain," Ronan responded. "Cross Jones."
"Apparently, Cross had a thing for your ex.
He was told your identity as a confidant of the FBI to inform them if Nathan tried anything, but he worked with Nathan instead to find you," Liam said, flipping the top page and revealing a distant shot of the two of them clinking whiskey glasses in a bar.
"My contact found them talking about how Nathan had delivered the photos and everything should be falling apart for you."
Gabriel's jaw clenched. "Please tell me they're being dealt with."
"They are," Liam said, his voice taking on a professional tone. "And we did it the right way."
Ronan looked up. "What do you mean?"
"I called the FBI," Liam explained. "I have contacts there from cases I've worked. I told them that their PD captain had violated federal law by compromising your identity in witness protection, and that Nathan used that compromised identity to stalk, blackmail, and harass both you and Aria."
"And?" I asked, leaning forward.
"And they took it very seriously," Liam said.
"Cross Jones violated his oath as a law enforcement officer and broke federal statutes.
Nathan committed multiple felonies—stalking across state lines, blackmail, harassment, interfering with a federal witness.
The FBI arrested them both three days ago. "
The room was silent for a moment as we processed this.
"They're actually in custody?" Gabriel asked. "Federal custody?"
"Yes," Liam confirmed. "And they're being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Cross is looking at prison time for his violations, and Nathan's facing serious charges. The FBI doesn't mess around with witness protection cases."
"How did you pull this off so quickly?" Julian asked.
"I've been working with the FBI for years on various cases," Liam said.
"I know who to call, how to present evidence, how to expedite investigations when there's an active threat.
Gabriel provided all the physical evidence through proper channels—the photos, the envelope, the delivery records. Everything was documented correctly."
Gabriel nodded. "I made sure every piece of evidence was logged and handled by the book. Chain of custody, proper documentation, everything."
"So it's really over?" Ethan asked. "They can't come after Ronan or Aria anymore?"
"It's over," Liam said firmly. "Nathan and Cross are both in federal custody awaiting trial. The FBI has all the evidence they need. And more importantly, they've been made aware that any further harassment or threats will result in additional charges."
I felt something loosen in my chest—a tension I'd been carrying for days. "You did well, Liam. Really well."
"We all did," Liam said, looking around at each of us. "Gabriel handled the evidence properly. I used my legal connections. Ronan was honest about everything. We worked together, and we did it the right way."
Ronan stood up and extended his hand to Liam. "Thank you. For everything. For believing me, for fighting for us."
Liam shook his hand firmly. "That's what family does."
"So what now?" Julian asked. "We still don't know where Aria is."
"Now we find her," I said. "And we tell her that the threat is gone, that we have proof Ronan didn't kill Eva, and that we want her to come home."
"She means too much to all of us," Liam said. "I'm not about to let her go without a fight."
The sentiment was shared by everyone in the room. Liam had taken care of one half of the problem. Now it was time to buckle down and find our girl and get her back home.
"Gabriel," I said, "can you use your resources to help locate her? Legally, of course."
"I can put out some feelers," Gabriel said. "Check with her known associates, see if anyone's heard from her. I'll be discreet."
"I'll reach out to some of my contacts too," Liam added. "See if anyone's seen her or knows where she might have gone."
"What about her friend?" Ethan suggested. "Khloe, right? She might know something."
"Good thinking," I said. "I'll try reaching out to her."
For the first time in a week, I felt like we had a plan. We had eliminated the threat, we had the truth on our side, and now we just needed to find Aria and bring her home.
"One more thing," Ronan said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him. "When we find her... I need to be the one to explain everything. She deserves to hear it from me."
"Agreed," I said. "But we'll all be there to support you. And to support her."
"That's what we do," Gabriel said. "We take care of our own."
And Aria was ours. We just needed to remind her of that.