Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
A nxiousness swirled through Scarlett as she and Antonio were led to an observation room at the police station. The cops thought they’d caught the guy who tried to snatch Bella, and they wanted Scarlett to pick him out of a lineup.
She’d been a nervous wreck the past week and driving her family crazy. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to let Bella out of her sight, and she couldn’t seem to shake the fear that she had experienced that day at the mall.
So when Monday rolled around, and it was time for Bella to go to school, Scarlett had a panic attack. She freaked out, refusing to let Bella leave the house. If it weren’t for Antonio, their child would never be allowed out of the house again.
Now, the day had finally come when she could gain back some of her power. She was getting ready to come face-to-face with the asshole who had thought it was okay to snatch a kid.
“Right in here,” the police detective said as he escorted her and Antonio to a small dark room. Before he closed the door, Luke entered.
Scarlett hadn’t expected to see him today even though he and Craig had played a large role in catching this guy. Luke had interviewed witnesses who had been in the mall’s parking garage that day and got a lead on the vehicle that was used. While Craig had tapped into some of his connections in various divisions of law enforcement. He’d been able to go through mall security tapes, as well as the city’s video footage in the surrounding areas.
They’d found the vehicle the man was using, but of course the car had been reported stolen days before. Still, they managed to pull a partial fingerprint from the gear shift and learned the perp had been in the system. There was a warrant out for his arrest in West Virginia.
“They’re bringing them in now,” the detective announced just before several men were escorted into the small room on the other side of the one-way glass.
Each man fell into step, then faced forward so Scarlett could see them. All of them held a large, square card with a number on it.
“All right, Mrs. Jenkins. I just need you to look at each man and let me know if anyone looks familiar.”
Scarlett knew immediately as her gaze ran over the guy who she had wrestled with. The one who had backhanded her. He looked younger than he had the other day, and it was clear he was nervous as he shuffled from one foot to the other.
“Stand still,” the police officer in the room with the men barked.
The scumbag she wanted to see behind bars was around five-ten with a slight build. Had he been any bigger, she might not have been able to stop him. The thought terrified her. What if he had gotten away? What if he had taken her child, and she never saw her again?
She wanted his ass locked up for the rest of his life, even though she was told that might not happen.
“Number three,” she said, anger lacing her words as she stood with her fists balled at her sides.
She wanted to leap through the glass and beat the crap out of the asshole for terrorizing her and Bella. Well, mainly her since Bella seemed to have recovered within a day. That first night their daughter had slept with them because of a nightmare. Since then, she’d been fine.
It was a different story with Scarlett and Antonio. Scarlett was still trying to rein in her fear and her anger. Those first few nights, every time she closed her eyes, she saw number three’s face. Or she heard her daughter’s screams. Antonio had suggested she talk to someone, a professional who could help her work through her fear. Scarlett was giving it another week or two, hoping she’d be able to help herself. If not, she’d take his advice.
As for Antonio, he was staying close to her, even working from home. Though he seemed okay with Bella going to school, he was the one taking her and picking her up every day. It was a small private school, and the principal had let him hire a team of three undercover security specialists. They were tasked with being on the school grounds whenever Bella was there and until the threat was over.
Scarlett was confident that their lives would go back to normal soon. At least she hoped.
The detective pushed a button on the side of the wall. “You can escort everyone out except for number three,” he said into a microphone.
“I want to talk to him,” Scarlett said and started for the door, but the detective blocked her path.
“Sorry, that’s not going to happen,” he said apologetically. “We have to do everything by the book to ensure this guy pays for what he did.”
Craig had already explained the guy might get off with a slap on the wrist. He could be charged and fined, but he probably wouldn’t receive any jail time since he hadn’t kidnapped Bella. He only attempted to.
Stupid laws .
If they couldn’t put him behind bars in Cincinnati, she hoped whatever he’d done in West Virginia would land him in prison for the rest of his life.
“We’ll be questioning him,” the detective said. “We’ll get everything we—”
“I should be the one to question him since I’m the one who needs to know why he came after our child.” Scarlett knew she sounded crazy, but she was serious. He hadn’t been working alone and deep down, she really believed Ezra’s parents were behind all of this. “I want to know who sent him, and then I want to beat the—”
“Ma’am, I understand, and I sympathize with what you went through, but we can’t let you near him.”
“Well, let him go, and I’ll meet him outside,” Antonio said with so much steel in his voice Scarlett feared he really would go after the man.
“Which is why I’m here,” Luke said and stepped forward. “As your attorney, I’m here to make sure neither of you do anything stupid, and what you’re suggesting is just that. So, we’ll let the detective do his job, and he’ll get back to us.”
Scarlett growled under her breath, catching all the men off guard. She wanted answers, her own answers, and she wanted that man to pay and to suffer the way she had.
“As a favor to Craig,” the detective continued, “I can let you guys hang out in the observation room, and you can listen in while we interrogate him. But that’s all I can offer.”
“Good. When?” Antonio asked.
A phone buzzed, and they all looked around until they realized it was Luke’s.
He pulled the device from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and glanced at the screen. “Actually, you guys, we need to leave.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Antonio demanded.
“Ben Sr. needs us at the firm ASAP.”
“All of us?” Scarlett asked, wondering what was so important that they had to stop what they were doing and leave. Her father-in-law was one of the busiest people she knew. For him to summon them to his office like this meant it had to be important.
“The two of you,” Luke said simply, as if it was the end of the discussion.
“Did he say why?” Antonio asked, looking as if he had no intention of leaving.
Luke glared at him. “Dude, it’s been my experience that when my boss, your father, tells me to do something, life goes a lot better when I just do it. Hasn’t that been your experience, too?”
Antonio huffed out a breath and slipped his arm around Scarlett. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
* * *
Antonio was still fuming when they arrived at his father’s office. He knew how much Scarlett wanted to sit in on the interrogation at the police station. Hell, he did too. He wanted to know why the guy tried to kidnap Bella. He wanted to know what his endgame was, and he wanted to know if he was working with anyone else.
They’d probably get those answers, but Antonio wanted to hear it from the guy himself.
He had texted his dad before they left the police station asking if they could stop by his office in a couple of hours, instead of now. His father said he wanted them there immediately. It wasn’t like him not to give a reason why, and that concerned Antonio.
“Hi, Antonio, Scarlett,” Claire, his dad’s assistant, said with her usual warm smile. “Mr. Jenkins wants you to meet him in conference room C. I’ll escort you.” She moved from around her desk and started down the hallway with them by her side. “There’s already water in the room, but would either of you like something else to drink?”
Antonio glanced at Scarlett. “Nothing for me, but what about you, sweetheart?”
“No, I’m good. Thank you.”
As they walked with Claire, Antonio nodded and waved at a few of his dad’s staff and attorneys until he reached the conference room. Claire knocked twice on the closed door before pushing it open.
“Right in here,” she said.
They stepped in but they both pulled up short.
“You!” Scarlett roared and started to charge forward, but Antonio stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Tony, that’s her! That’s Cynthia’s daughter, Alberta. She’s probably the one behind what happened to Bella.”
Antonio turned to his father. “Dad, what the heck’s going on?”
“Come in and have a seat,” Ben Sr. said calmly and stood. He pulled out the chair next to him for Scarlett, and Antonio sat on the other side of her. “Let me officially introduce you to Attorney Alberta Upton, Cynthia’s daughter.”
“We know who she is. What we don’t know is why she’s here,” Antonio bit out.
“She’s here because she believes her husband was behind the attempted kidnapping,” Ben Sr. said.
“Your husband and not you?” Scarlett snapped. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you both were behind it. I already know you’re a horrible person because you made it clear the first time I met you.”
“I didn’t know who you were when I saw you at my mother’s home,” Alberta shot back. “If you knew how many people have tried to take advantage of her kindness, you would’ve reacted the same way.”
“No, I wouldn’t have! I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt until I get to know them.”
Alberta nodded. “Fair enough. My apologies. I wasn’t at my best that day.”
Scarlett was vibrating with anger, and Antonio reached under the table and sought out her hand. Holding it, he caressed the back of it with his thumb in hopes it would settle her down.
She didn’t like Alberta for several reasons. One being she hated that the woman hadn’t spent more time with Cynthia. She also couldn’t understand how Alberta could stand by her husband, Senator Theodore Upton, despite all the negative press surrounding him.
Ben Sr. cleared his throat. “Attorney Upton has—”
“Alberta, please,” Cynthia’s daughter said and turned her attention to Scarlett. “Even though I made an ass of myself the last time we met, I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain why I’m here. And whatever you think of me, it’s probably true. I have a lot to repent for, but I also want you to know I had nothing to do with your daughter’s attempted abduction.”
“Alberta reached out to me when she obtained proof that her husband was involved in what happened to Bella.”
“Do you two know each other?” Antonio asked his father. “How did she find you?”
His father shook his head. “No, we’ve never met, but she knew of Scarlett and eventually that led to me.”
“She’s lying. She doesn’t know anything about me!” Scarlett bit out.
“Actually, I do. I had you investigated the day after I met you at my mother’s house.”
Scarlett released a humorless laugh. “Of course you did. Like mother, like daughter. Clearly a person’s privacy means nothing to either of you.”
“Scarlett, after that day at my mother’s house, when you were visiting, I remembered you. I first saw you at Ezra’s college graduation. During that time, he didn’t share anything with us about his life. Not who his friends were. Not his plans for the future, and not who he was dating. The only reason we knew about the graduation was because of my mother. When I saw you and Ezra together there, I assumed you were dating. Then when I saw you again at my mother’s house months ago, and she mentioned you being a friend of Ezra’s, I wanted to know who you really were.”
“I assume that means you know everything about Bella,” Antonio said as anger stirred inside of him.
“I do. I know Bella’s my granddaughter, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to right a few wrongs. First of all, Theodore is my soon-to-be ex-husband. We’re legally separated, but not divorced… yet.”
She stared down at the oak conference table and released a long sigh before continuing.
“Scarlett, I know Ezra and my mother have probably said a lot about me, and unfortunately, I’m sure most of it is true. But let me give you a little history about me and my relationship with Ezra’s father.”
Antonio watched her carefully. She was a lawyer. She was used to putting on a show and trying to make people believe what she wanted them to believe.
“Theodore and I married when we were very young, and I fell crazy in love with him. I loved his drive, his intellect, and he was the most charming man I’d ever met. My mother hated him from day one, and in hindsight, I should’ve listened to her concerns. But she and I had always been on opposites sides of everything. So, I assumed she only hated him because I was in love with him.”
Alberta took a small sip from her glass of water and set it back down on the table.
“I’m only telling you this to give you some insight into my frame of mind in the early years of my marriage.” She met Scarlett’s gaze. “I have two regrets in my life that I’ll never be able to forgive myself for. One: abandoning my son. I was so in love with his father and all that we were trying to build. I didn’t realize how bad things were between us and Ezra until it was too late.”
Antonio stiffened, recognizing some of his own past in her words and how like Ezra, he’d grown up without a mother.
“What’s the other regret?” Scarlett asked.
“I regret not apologizing to my mother before she died. She was right. I was a fool to fall for Theodore’s charm.”
Sadness showed in her eyes, but just as quickly, it disappeared.
“I’ve had someone tracking Theodore for a while. A couple of years ago, I hired a private investigator because I thought he was cheating on me. He was, but he was doing so much more than that. At the time, I didn’t do anything about it publicly because we both had a lot to lose. We had invested so much into our marriage, even though Theodore had stepped out on me, I thought we could get our marriage back on track.
“Then sexual harassment accusations started piling up along with other political indiscretions. It was too much not to think that some of it, if not all of it, was true. But I couldn’t divorce him at the time. Not showing a united front when we were in public would’ve cost me in every area of my life, especially with my career. So though we were sharing a house and looking like the happy couple, we were living two separate lives.
“But after seeing you at my mother’s bedside months ago…” Her voice shook, and her words trailed off as she looked away. Seconds ticked by before she returned her attention to Scarlett. “I knew I had to make some changes, especially when I found out she was dying. Of course, it was too late to try to repair the damage to our relationship, but I tried.”
She sounded like she was telling the truth, but Antonio wanted to hurry her along. He didn’t, though. Mainly because whatever else the woman planned to say might help give Scarlett more closure as it related to Ezra and Cynthia.
“I hated the person who I had become. Years ago, it was all about becoming the best damn lawyer I could be. Then when Theodore decided to go into politics, we were positioning ourselves to be that ‘it’ power couple. Then I got pregnant with Ezra, and that threw us into a tailspin because we never planned to have kids.”
She shook her head.
“I made so many mistakes. I didn’t realize what horrible parents we were until it was too late, and I didn’t know how to fix my relationship with my son. But after he was killed, I thought if I fought to get justice for his death, then I could somehow forgive myself for not being the mother he deserved.
“After that, my marriage slowly started crumbling, and here we are. The main reason I haven’t divorced my husband yet is because he would have the right to half of everything I have. He’s broke, and I’m not giving him a dime. Instead, I’m biding my time because Theodore is being investigated by the FBI for several crimes. I’ve agreed to work with them and help build a case against him.”
Unbelievable. The more Antonio learned about Ezra’s family, the more he disliked them. Well, he disliked this woman. As for Cynthia, he owed her so much for the role she played in getting him and Scarlett together. Her tactic might have been unconventional, but it had worked. He not only got the woman he couldn’t live without, but he also was blessed with Bella.
“What exactly does this have to do with my daughter’s attempted kidnapping?” Antonio asked, his patience thinning.
Alberta stared at him for the longest. Clearly, she didn’t like the way he referred to Bella as his daughter. Too damn bad. She was his, and there wasn’t a damn thing this woman could do about it.
He’d give her credit, though, for showing up, but she’d have to lay out solid proof for him to believe she had nothing to do with what happened the other day. Yes, the cops had arrested the man who snatched Bella, but Antonio knew someone else was behind it all. Someone who’d done their homework and found Scarlett, and someone who knew Bella was Ezra’s biological child.
“Before I started working with the FBI, I had hired a private investigator to keep tabs on Theodore. I’m a true believer that it’s important to keep your enemies close, and that’s how I’ve viewed him for the last couple of years.”
“Wait, you want us to believe you’ve had your husband under surveillance all this time?” Scarlett asked, disbelief coloring her words. “Yet, you and your law firm defend him at every turn whenever he gets into trouble.”
Alberta sighed loudly. “Again, keep your enemies close. Besides, I have to play the role of doting wife. It’s all a front until we gather enough evidence for his numerous crimes and put him in prison for the rest of his life.”
“So what wrongs are you trying to right by being here?” Antonio asked. “And what do you get out of it?”