Chapter 29~ Harry’s plan
A few days prior…
“Can we meet for lunch?” Harry asked Delilah on the phone. “For real? Have you finally decided to marry me?” Delilah responded excitedly.
“Let’s meet up and talk. I’ll meet you at the imperial hotel in an hour.” Harry said and cut the call before she could respond.
His eyes narrowed as he glanced at the trending pictures of Tessa and Aaron. Jealousy flared through him and the look that flitted through his eyes could kill an elephant.
‘So these two have decided to mend their relationship? I won’t let them. Not on my watch, he thought to himself and then dialled his underling’s line.
“Boss.” “Cobra, I’m sending you an address and a photo. Send one of your men to that location and have them approach that woman in the photo. He should just make it look like they talked for a while and then leave. The man should be someone we can sacrifice. Offer him a lot of money. I want him to do something for me later on “Ok, boss. Consider it done.”
A wicked smirk crossed Harry’s lips as he cut the call and switched off his phone. He didn’t plan on meeting Delilah at all. This was all part of his plan to get her out of his face.
She was the reason Tessa didn’t want to ask him for help because she claimed to be his fiancée.
He was going to teach her a lesson she will never forget
Harry had been playing nice for too long and it cost him. Tessa didn’t develop feelings for him despite him being the one by her side for five years. She was still in love with Aaron. Even though. she denied it, deep down, Harry knew she had never completely moved on.
It was only a matter of time before she agreed to be with Aaron. This made Harry desperate. His plan was to have something happen to the kids and then swoop in at the last minute and save them. That way, Tessa would feel indebted to him and will finally agree to marry him.
A few days later, he was seated in his swivel chair in his office when his phone rang. “Boss, it’s done. I have the kids,” A man who looked like Enock Hastings said through the phone.
Something sinister flashed through Harry’s eyes and a satisfied, cruel smirk crossed his lips. “Good. Take them to the warehouse. I’ll come for them soon.”
Harry cut the call and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows in his office. His plan was simple. He instructed someone to kidnap Tessa’s kids. The man hired by Cobra had worn a realistic human face mask that looked like Aaron’s assistant to get easy access to the kids.
A dark chuckle left his lips as malice flitted through his eyes. He just had to wait for Tessa to reach out to him and ask for his help. He had been her go-to guy in the past years for almost kitys plan.
everything and Harry was confident she would call him to ask him for help. However, two hours had passed and Harry hadn’t received a call from Tessa. His eyebrows furrowed as he pulled at his tie in frustration. ‘Doesn’t she need all the help she can get to find the kids?”
He was starting to wonder if he had just wasted his time by kidnapping the kids. Perhaps he should have used a more direct method like getting her drunk and sleeping with her. But he knew Tessa would hate him forever if he did that. He was trying to make her love him, not to make her hate him.
Time seemed to pass by agonizingly slowly. However, Harry still held hope that Tessa would think of him and call him.
His phone suddenly rang and his heart skipped a beat. However, he found that it wasn’t Tessa and anger surged through him like a tidal wave.
“What is it?” He snapped when he picked up the call.
“Boss, the kids are restless and won’t stop crying.” It was his underling. Cobra, who had called
“Knock them out or give them something to make them sleep. Don’t disturb me unless 1 call you,’ he ordered curtly and cut the call.
Harry clenched his hands into fists. He knew no one could find the kids because he had taken. them to his secret warehouse so that he could play the hero. He swallowed his pride and dialled Tessa’s number. She picked up after the third call.
“Hey, Tessa. How are you? Why were you not picking up your calls?” He questioned as soon as the call went through. Did Aaron stop her from contacting him? His jaws clenched at the thought.
“The kids are gone, Harry. They are missing,” Tessa’s voice sounded hoarse over the phone as she replied.
Although Harry knew where the kids were, he feigned surprise, exclaiming, “What?! What happened? Where are you? I’ll come over-”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Aaron is handling it. The police and the military are on the case. I’m sure they will find them soon. Thank you for your concern.”
Tessa cut the call before Harry could respond. He clenched his hand around the phone, fury rippling through him.
She brushed him off like he was worthless. How could she be so ungrateful? She used to depend on him for almost everything but forgot about him the moment Aaron came back into the picture. Harry’s eyes flashed dangerously. His jaws clenched and his chest heaved heavily. A vein was almost popping out of his forehead. All his efforts were in vain! He was done being nice!
He called Cobra back and instructed through gritted teeth, “Take those bastards to the ship Make sure I never see them again.”
“B-boss. Aren’t these Mr Wentworth’s kids? Trafficking his kids off would be risky and this might harrys plan cause trouble for our underground business He would use all his power to find them. We’ve managed to keep our business hidden for years”
Cobra’s words of reason were cut off when Harry angrily yelled through the phone. “Didn’t you fucking hear me? Load those bastards on a container and ship them off. The farther the better!”
Harry’s eyes were bloodshot as he threw his phone against the wall, smashing it to pieces. He was involved in several illegal business activities and had managed to stay under the radar for years.
He knew selling off Aaron’s kids was a bad idea. His business could be exposed if anything went wrong But he couldn’t let Tessa reunite with Aaron because of the kids.
The only reason Tessa was giving Aaron the time of day despite how much he hurt her in the past was because they had children together.
Since they were a hindrance, he had decided to get rid of them for good. Those were Harry’s thoughts as he downed a whole bottle of whiskey.
Back on the other side, the mood was sombre as they waited to hear news about the whereabouts of their kids. Tessa’s eyes were swollen from crying too much.
She felt like her life was about to end. As if someone had ripped her heart out and rubbed it against a grater, shredding it to fine pieces.
When she realised the kids had been kidnapped, her stomach twisted violently. She recalled how she felt when she was giving birth to them. The pain she endured… her happiness and relief when she held them to her chest and knew they were safe…
It all came back to her and all energy left her body when she realised they had failed to protect them Losing her kids would be the worst thing that could ever happen to her. The kids were her everything.
It had been hours since they started searching for the kids but to no avail During that time, Aaron had frantically searched for them like he was about to lose his mind. He asked his friend, the military general, Graham, to get involved and he dispatched the tech expert team to work on tracking the car that had picked up the kids.
Tessa’s heart ached as she waited outside the balcony.
They had gone to her former apartment- the one Aaron gave her in the past. She was shocked to find that Aaron used to live there all along but it wasn’t the time to think or talk about that.
Finding the kids was more important
She didn’t want to go to her apartment and alarm her mother so she lied that she and the kids would sleep over at Aaron’s house.
A sigh escaped her lips just as she received a call from her friend. “Hey, hun. How are you holding up?” Michelle asked through the phone.
Tessa felt her chest constrict in pain at the question She took in a shaky breath and replied, “I can never be ok without my kids, Michelle They need to be found, otherwise, I don’t know how I’ll survive
“Don’t say that. Be positive. I’m sure their father will find them. Are you alone? You don’t sound so good Let me come over.
Michelle wanted to go over and comfort her friend, but Tessa refused, saying, “No, it’s ok. I’ll be fine. Aaron is with me.”
When she cut the call, Aaron who had been making calls in the living room followed her out on the balcony, breathing heavily. His eyes were red and they mirrored Tessa’s eyes. They both looked like they had spent a lot of time crying and worrying about their kids.
He looked at Tessa and said with difficulty, “We’ve found the car. It’s been traced to a warehouse a few kilometres from town. It’s dangerous, so stay here while I go.”
Aaron was about to tell her to wait for them at the apartment but she interrupted him.
“I’m coming too. My kids are missing. There’s no way in hell I’ll sit and just wait without doing anything,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Our kids,” Aaron corrected. “I’m worried too but I can’t put you in harm’s way. What if it’s a trap?”
“A trap where my babies are being held! Scared and hungry… This kind of situation is very traumatising for kids I need to be there when we find them so that I can hug them. They won’t feel so scared when they see me.”
Aaron furrowed his eyebrows but ultimately, he agreed “Let’s go.”
Late at night, a convoy of luxurious cars, police cars and military jeeps drove along the streets of Ashford City. Giving the impression that something bad had happened. It looked like a state issue since the military was involved.
However, this convoy was on its way to find three adorable kids that belonged to the most powerful man in the city.
On their way, Tessa and Aaron were anxious. But they chose to stay strong until they found their kids
Aaron could feel that Tessa was trembling and her forehead was coated with beads of sweat. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him.
“Hey, we will find them,” he said comfortingly.
Tessa nodded but she didn’t reply. The only thing she did was rest her head on Aaron’s shoulder as he hugged her because, in all that chaos, he made her feel safe and secure.
They finally arrived an hour later and Tessa bolted out of the car, running towards the warehouse.
“Tessa! We need to be careful-” Aaron yelled, running after her.
However, Tessa wasn’t thinking straight. Finding her kids was the only thing on her mind. She immediately entered the warehouse and the knot in her stomach tightened.
It was… empty.
