Sonia looks me dead in the eyes. “No, I don’t know where she is.”

There was something in her expression. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Silence.

“Sonia. Please she is my wife. I don’t… I love her…” I plead.

“I have a phone number.” Hope flares through me.

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“What do you mean you can’t tell me?”

“She made me promise. I’m sorry.”

I growl in frustration. “What good are you to me then?”

“You know, when I first met Brooke, I asked her why she let you treat her the way you did. Do you know what she said to me? She said you were kind and gentle, that you were an honorable man with a good heart. Women don’t use words like kind, gentle, and honorable to describe someone unless they have experienced the opposite. Cruel, rough, and deceitful.”

Her father. Could she be running from him? Afraid of what he would do know that the contract is broken. Did she think he would come for her? That I would let him take her?

“Thank you for the coffee, Sonia, but I have to go pay a visit to my father-in-law.”

*****

Stepping foot on Connor Robinson’s residence was something I have promised myself I will never do again. His study is a cold place where blackmail happens more often than actual business.

“You ready for this?” Jared asks me.

I pick him up on my way here, needing someone to keep me from bashing his face in. “No,” I say as I open my car door.

A staff member opens the door and asks us to wait in the living room while they went to get Connor. I glance around at the stiff, expensive look of the manor. I try to imagine how it was for Brooke to grow up here. Cold and lonely.

“Ah, Mr. Campbell,” Connor says as he strolls into the room. “Sorry I kept you waiting. I was on a business call, you understand, being a businessman yourself,” he says as he takes a seat across from us.

I ball my hands into fists, my whole body coiled tight. “Easy,” Jared whispers so only I can hear.

“I hear congratulations are in order. Shall we toast a glass? Brenda, drinks!” he bellows.

“I’m not hear for drinks, Connor,” I practically growl.

“Oh? Well then would it be correct in my assumption that you hear about the fulfillment to the contract. Indeed, I imagine your quite ready for a divorce. Of course, you will need someplace to dump the girl. I suppose I could take her in and your little brat but don’t expect me to finance his upbringing.”

“My wife has a name, and I would rather die than let my son be subjected to you,” I sneer.