Chapter 10
CHARLIE
Staring down at my phone on the table, I blink as the first rays of sunshine hit my face. It’s enough to break the trance I’ve apparently fallen into since we ended the call with Mia and sat down.
Jace jumps to his feet and takes his mug to the counter. Spinning on his feet, his mouth opens and closes before he shakes his head and turns back around. Flicking the jug on, he starts pulling out the sugar and coffee whilst the water boils.
Still not saying a word, he walks over to the table and grabs my mug that still has a few mouthfuls of forgotten coffee inside. He tips it into the sink, giving the mug a quick rinse before setting it down beside his.
I know I should say something, anything, but I don’t know what.
I don’t think he does either. I'm pretty sure that's why he's focusing on making us both fresh coffees. When he’s done, he sets both mugs down in front of me, then runs to the frige to grab the bottle of millk.
His hands shake as he takes the lid off, causing him to miss and spill it onto the table.
Unable to take it anymore, I reach out and take his hand in both of mine. With one hand, I take the bottle of milk from him, and with the other I pull him into my lap, resting my chin on his shoulder as I take over the task of pouring milk into our mugs.
“So,” my voice trails off once I’ve finished, tapping the spoon against the top of the mug and dropping it onto the table.
“So,” he repeats, sinking back into my lap until his back is pressed against my chest. Neither of us moves to grab our drinks and I rest my forehead against the back of his neck, closing my eyes before starting the conversation.
“Do we read them, or do we let Mia handle this?” I ask, my stomach sinking at the idea of waiting who knows how long for Mia to finish with her case before we get answers.
“I don’t know,” he answers quietly, sighing before he turns enough that we can look each other in the eye. “This could be another dead end and…I meant when I said I don’t think either of us can go through that again,” his voice cracks and he closes his eyes, resting his forehead on mine. “But…”
But how can we not?
Jace wasn’t wrong earlier, we’ve chased more promising leads than this one and they’ve all had the same result.
But this is the first time Mia has given her opinion on whether or not she believes a lead will actually lead to Bonnie.
She’s always been very careful not to get our hopes up, always reminding us it wasn’t guaranteed to lead us to her.
“I don’t think I could live with myself if I don’t read them only to find out later that it was her and we could have found her sooner…I already made that mistake once.
“If I had just called Mia the second Ari gave me her number then we would have found her. We could have gotten her out of there and she never would have had to-” Never would have had to kill her husband.
Never would have had to fight for her child’s life, never would have had to run.
“She could be here with us right now. Safe. Both of them.”
My admission leaves Jace speechless, looking at me with surprise. Until now, I haven’t voiced my own struggles with guilt over what happened to Bonnie. Jace has had a hard enough time with his own, he didn’t need the burden of mine on top of his.
“Charlie…you don’t know that. This isn’t your fault.” I give him a sad smile at his words and chuckle. There’s nothing funny about what he said but it is ironic.
“It isn’t your fault either. Hasn’t stopped you from feeling guilty though, has it?” He doesn’t answer, and I don’t push him to, picking my mug up and taking a mouthful whilst he thinks my words over. “This feels like a way to make it right,” I finally say, and he lets out a huff through his nose.
“By reading a bunch of articles online that might not even be real?” His words sound sceptical, but his tone tells a different story.
“They’re real. It’s her, Jace. I can feel it and so can you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be scared right now. Because that’s what this is. You’re scared.”
“Don’t tell me how I feel, Charlie.”
“I’m not wrong though, am I? You’re just as scared as I am.”
“Of course I am!” He launches out of my lap, standing and turning to face me, chest heaving and voice rising as he lets it all out. “We have both felt like this so many times before. How many times have we felt like this was it? How many times were we so sure that this was Bonnie?
“Yes, I’m fucking scared because it will hurt like hell if it’s not her and if it is? What then? What difference will it make? We will be exactly where we are right now, with no way to find her!” Deflating, he sinks into the nearest chair, his head falling in his hands.
I’m out of my seat in an instant, wrapping my arms around him and running my hands through his hair as I fight the lump in my throat.
Tears fill my eyes as he continues. “I’m scared this won’t make a difference.
We’re running out of time. You and I both know those arseholes are counting the days until they can have her declared dead.
This isn’t enough to stop that, not unless we find her. ”
I hold him tighter, pressing my lips to the top of his head. He doesn’t need to say who he’s referring to, we both know Bonnie’s ex husband’s parents have been trying to dispute their son’s Will from the second the lawyer read it and they learned he left everything to his wife.
His exact words were if Bonnie ‘managed to outlive him' then she could have it all. The money, his house, the house he bought for his parents to live in, everything.
His parents were so sure they could easily contest it; too bad they didn’t count on their son’s lawyer dying and the one his firm assigned to the case being a huge advocate against spousal and child abuse. He has advocated for Bonnie every step of the way.
His parents didn’t even blink an eye when they found out their son was an abusive piece of shit. They didn’t give a fuck about Bonnie or their grandchild; they only wanted the money and have made every effort to have his Will voided.
First, they argued that because Bonnie was the one who ended his life, she forfeited her right to be his beneficiary. However, whatever they found in that basement was enough for the police to not hold her criminally responsible for his death.
When that failed, they tried to have both Bonnie, and her baby declared dead because the police mentioned she was injured in one of the press conferences urging Bonnie to come forward, stating that they just wanted to know that they were both okay.
Their reasoning? If they were both dead then they’d revert to being the beneficiaries because Bonnie’s father was in prison.
Unfortunately for them, Grant wasn’t her only next of kin.
Jace is too, and even if he wasn't, being incarcerated doesn’t void your property.
You can still receive an inheritance; the government just control it until you’re released.
Not that that would have mattered given he died in prison, but still.
Either way, it was a moot point given the bastard recorded what he was doing in that basement. We haven't seen them, but I know they showed her walked out of that basement alive. Both of them.
Safe to say the ruling was made pretty fast that there was insufficient evidence to ascertain a presumption of death.
You’d think they’d give up there, but no.
They went after their grandchild next. Tried to claim there wasn’t any proof that their son was the biological father.
That one wasn’t even entertained by a judge. The assumption of paternity in Family Law stands. The bastard faked her death and kept her captive in a cage for fuck's sake, and you want to claim she stepped out and had an affair? Yeah, right.
Honest to God, his parents are the biggest fucking idiots on this planet. It’s a wonder their son had any sort of brain with parents like that. They have no compassion whatsover for what their son did to his wife and baby. It's no wonder he turned out to be a monster.
Each attempt has failed miserably for them; all they’ve succeeded in doing was fuelling the lawyer’s decision to ensure they couldn’t get their hands on anything.
It's all sequestered in a reserved fund for Bonnie until she's either found alive, or the courts declare her legally dead.
The only thing their parents have access to is the house Michael bought for them to live in. Something they are not happy about.
A few weeks ago, Mia reached out to inform us that they had hired a private investigator of their own to look for signs of Bonnie.
We knew this was coming, the lawyer warned us that if after seven years, Bonnie and her baby were still missing persons with no signs of life, then they could petition the Supreme Court to have her declared dead.
If that happened, there was nothing he could do.
I don't believe for one second they hired a PI to actually find Bonnie. That's the last thing they want. They did it to help their case. To show that all efforts have been made on both our part, and theirs, to find signs of life. They want to fail.
“I just want to find her,” Jace’s voice cracks and I nod in agreement.
“I know…me too.” A tear falling down my face and landing in his hair.
I don’t care about anything else, the money, houses, any of it.
If it were up to me, they could have it all.
But it isn’t up to me, and it shouldn’t be anymore than it should be up to them.
After everything she’s been through, Bonnie deserves a say in what happens to everything.
“Do you think…do you think your dads could trace them? I know Mia said she already tried but she was limited in time, and it can’t hurt, right?”