THE TAKEN

I'm afraid of all I am
My mind feels like a foreign land
Sirens ringing inside my head
Please carry me, carry me, carry me home

***

CHAPTER XLIX

*****

“HELLO,” I GREETED the familiar receptionist standing at the front desk with a small smile on my face to which she returned. “I'm here to pick up Mateo.”

“Um...” she said as the smile slowly slipped down her face. I watched her wordlessly as she began typing something into her computer which hadn't been unusual since I assumed she was just signing him out before she gave him to me. She then looked back up at me, but now with a small, confused smile on her face. “Mateo had already been signed out today,” she said, making the smile fall off my face at her words. “It's says here that he was picked up at one by a Mister Daniel Reyes,” she said, making me purse my lips because it was entirely feasible that Daniel would pick Mateo up. I had put his name down as someone who could do that afterall, but why would he do that without telling me?

It sounded weird but picking Teo up was usually a job left for me to do. He could pick Teo up but he just had never did that because it made more sense for me to do it. Plus, Teo only went to daycare on the days I had him when we were separated so they didn't even know what Daniel looked like at all.

”Could you describe him to me?“ I asked, making her confused smile morph fully into a frown once she read that there probably was a problem with the situation right now. I didn't want to worry her primarily because I didn't want to worry myself. Most likely, Daniel did have Mateo becaude it wasn't unlike him to just randomly go off with our child but at least he would tell me. I knew that for a fact.

This situation was weird and I was only panicking because I didn't tolerate weird situations when it came to the wellbeing of my child. I needed to be sure he was alright.

”He has brown curly hair,“ she said, making me nod to which she slowly became more and more relieved with herself. ”He's tall, tan skin. Brown eyes.“ Her description matched Daniel, but that was the problem. It matched many other men too and it didn't take much for anyone to easily replicate that look. ”Is something wrong?“ she asked me as I began to rummage through my handbag for my phone.

”That's what I'm trying to find out,“ I answered her vaguely before stepping to the side so other parents could speak to her while I quickly dialed Daniel's number. I hadn't taken note of how long it rang but eventually he had picked up the call and not even the sound of his soothing voice could calm me down this time. ”Daniel?“

”Amor?“ he said, sounding concerned immediately. I suppose he could tell that I wad distressed even when I tried to hide it. ”What's wrong?“

”Did you pick up Mateo at daycare today?“ I asked, cutting straight to the point.

”No, why would I pick him up and not tell you?“ he asked, making me almost burst out in tears right there and then but I held myself together and maintained my composure. In my head, I continued to tell myself that Mateo was alright somewhere. I just needed to know where. ”Araceli, talk to me. What's going on? Where's Mateo?“

”I don't know,“ I said in a quiet voice, making him stay silent on the other side of the phone for a second before he spoke again.

”What do you mean you don't know?“

”I came to the daycare to pick him up and they said you picked him up so I called you but you obviously you don't have him, do you?“ I said to him all in one breath before stepping further away from the parents who littered the foyer so they didn't hear me as I teetered on the edge of a breakdown. Mateo was something I didn't play about. ”Which makes sense but the problem is I don't have him and you don't have him and they surely don't have him so who the hell has him, Daniel? Where's my son?“

The sound of moving objects came from the call before loud footsteps filled my ear, making me take note of the fact that he was most likely now moving. I didn't need to be a genius to figure out where he was going.

”Call Pablo and Guillermo and see if either of them have him,“ he said but even I knew that wouldn't be the case. Still, I decided not to argue with him. ”I'll be there in the next five minutes, okay? Wait for me, amor. I'll be with you.“

”Okay,“ I said, hiding the way my voice faltered before I ended the call and quickly dialled Pablo's number. I was not in the mood to delay anything. I needed to know my son was safe and then I need to find him wherever he was.

”Araceli?“ Pablo said into the call as soon as he picked up.

”Do you have Teo?“ I asked, skipping passed the greetings and jumping straight into the question I had on my mind, yet the answer, once again had been a negative one like I had expected.

”No, why would I have Teo?“ he said, but I wasn't in the mood to have long discussions and start explaining the situation all over again so I only shook my head and turned away so the other parents didn't have to look at a full grown woman crying in the corner. I figured they should know though that a child got kidnapped here, but I decided not to jump straight to that conclusion yet. I continued to tell myself that Teo was okay as I ended the call and dialed Guillermo's number instead.

It didn't take him long to answer too, making me let out a relieved sigh at the sound of his familiar voice over the phone. ”This is the first time you've called me,“ he pointed out, but I ignored that completely and instead asked the question I had been asking almost everybody I knew.

”Is Mateo with you?“

He stayed quiet on the other line for a second as if trying to compute what I had just asked him before slowly answering, ”no, why would I have your child?“

”What about Celeste? Does she have him? Or Emma?“ I asked frantically, now grasping at straws as I hoped for someone — anyone — to have him just to know that he was okay.

”No, she's been with me all day,“ he said slowly like he was trying to figure out what was happening until he finally pieced it together. ”You don't know where he is?“

”No, and I'm so frustrated,“ I said, close to the edge as I finally decided to walk myself out of the daycare before suddenly getting angry and walking myself back in, about ready to tear the whole place down because who had they given my son to? ”Excuse me,“ I said, making my way in front of a heavily pregnant woman and her partner because this was more important than her finding out what food options the establishment had. The receptionist gave me a confused look once she noticed the glare on my face.

”Can I help you?“

”Yes, you can. How about you start by telling me who exactly the stranger was that you handed my son to?“ I asked, making her furrow my eyebrows at me as if confused but there was absolutely nothing to be confused about.

If anything, she needed to be more proactive because for all I knew, she could've participated in trafficking my son and she wanted to sit here and act confused. How was this even allowed to happen? How had Daniel allowed this to happen? Didn't he have men posted around every inch of this town? How had no one seen a strange man taking my son away from the establishment I had trusted to look after him.

”I gave him to Mister Daniel Reyes,“ she said, making the couple behind me and another mom stand back in what I assumed was fear since they seemed to recognise the name. I couldn't blame them. This whole place was going to be torn down in the next few days if I didn't see my son soon. Hell, even if I did, this place would have have an "out of business" sign on their front door by the end of the week and that was that. ”You told me that Mister Reyes was someone who could do pickups. He came, showed me his ID and picked Mateo up.“

”I came?“ Daniel's voice had said from behind me, surprising me at how fast he had been able to come here while simultaneously calming me even just slightly. Had it already been five minutes? I didn't care. At least now he would have my back. ”I picked up Mateo?“ he asked, making the woman's blue eyes widen in confusion as she looked at him, probably seeing the obvious resemblance between Mateo and his father. Why wouldn't I put down Daniel's name to be able to pick his own son up? Why would he, Teo's carbon copy, be less related to his own son compared to the strange man she had given him to?

”You're Daniel Reyes?“ she asked, looking at him as if she really could not believe it. Even she looked like she felt like she had been deceived and lied to. Maybe she had been.

Daniel only produced his ID for her to see, making her eyes widen again, this time in shock as she had probably now realised that she had made a grave mistake. A mistake that was costing my son his safety and if I didn't work fast enough, possibly even his life.

She remained quiet as her lips stayed pursed before she called for her assistant, spoke into her ear very harshly and then they seemed to do some kind of a swap, where her assistant took her place at the front desk, making all kinds of phone calls while she gestured for us to follow her back into her office. I really didn't want to go in with her. All I wanted to do was to go out and start searching for Mateo as fast as possible but I knew that it wasn't a feasible plan because he could be anywhere by now. Between one, when he had been signed out, and now, four hours later, it was enough time to get him out of town and then some. My best bet would be picking up leads from the guaranteed last people that had see him and then working my way from there.

Behind me and Daniel, she had closed the door so nobody could hear our conversation before she went routing through the computer that sat on her desk. During the silence, Daniel had slipped his hand into mine, pulling me close into his body while he silently observed the place, as if looking for some sort of clue himself.

”This is the man that picked him up,“ she sold, turning the monitor around so we could look at the face of the criminal that had stolen my son. Because that was exactly what he was.

He had curly brown hair like she had said he did, but his type of brown was darker then Daniel's and his curls were much looser. His eyes were also brown, but creeping up his neck from the collar of his shirt were tattoos which were different to Daniel's because no one could really tell he had tattoos when he had a suit on unless they were looking hard enough. The ones on his neck were very easily concealed by him.

”He had driven a red car,“ she said, sounding solemn, ”but I didn't get the plate number.“ She let out a small sigh as she shook her head in disappointment. ”I am so sorry that this has happened. It's completely our fault for being so negligent at the expense of your child.“

I only stared at her, unable to formulate words because on one hand, while she had been negligent, I understood. I had told her that Daniel was allowed to pick up Teo and a man named Daniel with a photo ID (that had probably been fake) showed up and picked him up. I could see why she would be careless in that regard but on the other hand, he was my son. I didn't want anything to happen to my son.

It seemed Daniel shared the same sentiment as me because even though he hadn't responded to her and was clearly being cold towards her, he also hadn't called his men to skin her alive yet so that was a win for her.

”I'm filing a missing persons report,“ I said, immediately whipping out my phone to dial the police because I couldn't think of anything else. I didn't think Daniel would like it too much to get the police involved but I needed to use everything to find my son. I was desperate.

Before I could dial nine-one-one, Daniel had taken the phone from me and dialed a different number before handing it back to me. ”Dial that number. When he answers, telling him you're my wife. He'll help.“

I already knew what he meant when he said "help". The man was most likely a cop that had been paid off by him. It was that or he was one of Daniel's men under the alias of a cop. Either way, I dialled his number.

***

The cops came, but they couldn't do anything except make awareness about Teo being missing and asking people to come forward with information if they knew who the man was. They had managed to get his car plate number from security cameras but there were still no leads based on that. They said if we didn't get a ransom call, all we could do was wait. That had been the last thing I wanted to hear.

The gravity of the situation had really dawned on me once I realised that Mateo was nowhere. We had searched everywhere. Every friend that we had in this city and nobody had Mateo. Not even Lucien knew where Mateo was or that he was even missing and Lucien had been our most likely suspect. He was nowhere. My son was nowhere and for all I knew, he could've even been dead.

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” I said as I paced up and down the living room, trying to think of something we could possibly do. It felt like I had tried everything already, but in my mind I convinced myself that there must've been something else that I had missed. Some friend that I had forgotten about that saw him and took care of him and was just waiting for me to come and pick him up. Anything to help me believe that Mateo was safe and I would see him soon.

The door swung open, revealing Daniel who walked in with Pablo followed behind him. I immediately jumped to the two of them. “Did you find anything?” I asked, but Daniel only shook his head in minor annoyance.

“We got the license plate of the idiot that took him, but we haven't found a car with the same license plate yet,” he said, getting my hopes up and and immediately dampening it again. “He hasn't left town though. At least not with that car.”

“That does nothing to help!” I exclaimed as I stepped away from them and sat down, my chest rising and falling as I tried to calm the panic inside me. “Where's Mateo? Where is he? I just—”

“Hey, calm down, Araceli. Breathe,” Pablo said, softly placing his hand on my back to try and help me breathe better but it only made me explode with all the emotions I had been trying to keep down.

“How the hell am I supposed to calm down!” I screamed as tears trailed down my cheeks. I couldn't even look any of them in the eyes because they were all so useless. Nobody could do anything, myself included. I just wanted to throw up. “My son is out there somewhere, missing! Hell he could even be dead. They could even kill him. My son!”

Daniel only wrapped his arms around my shoulder and pulled me into his chest as I yelled, unable to comfort me anymore than he was doing. After all, I was sure he needed comfort too. He probably felt the same way I did but could hide it better.

“We'll find him,” Pablo tried to say reassuringly but he didn't understand how hopeless I felt. “He's not dead, Ara. We'll find him.”

“Where do we even start looking?” Emma asked as she looked up at all of us in concern. I was sure she would be able to understand my emotions. She hadn't given birth yet, but I was sure she had a connection with her baby evem at this early stage. “There's just so many places that they could be. It's all so daunting.”

“We'll have to start with the man we know has been to the daycare to collect Mateo,” Guillermo said, seeming to speak the most sense out of all of us. “The best thing to start with is to find him and make him tell us where he brought Mateo to and who he's working for. After that, we gather our alliances and finish them.”

“How do we find him though?” Celeste asked from beside him. “I'm sure, by now he'd be in hiding.”

Cutting her thoughts abruptly, the shrill sound of my ringtone had me pulling my phone out of my pocket and quickly checking the caller ID. To my confusion, it had been an unknown number but I was so desperate that I found myself answering the call anyway.

“Hello?”

“Araceli. Hi,” the familiar voice of Lola had rang through the speaker, making my stomach lurch as I stared straight at the wall in dread. The mystery of who had orchestrated my son's kidnapping seemed no longer to be a mystery anymore. “I was just calling to check up on you during these difficult times.”

“Where is he?” I immediately demanded, making her let out a cackle of a laugh that made my ears want to bleed yet I kept the phone pressed firmly to them to hear every last word she said. It was only Daniel who had gently pried my hand away from my face to access my phone and put it on speaker that made me realise I wasn't alone.

“I'm assuming you're talking about your son,” she said in an amused voice that had me feeling all kinds of violent in that particular moment. “Well, to put your little heart at ease, he's here with me. Well and alive.” A certain level of relief and horror had washed over me at the news that Teo was alive but he was with her. “He's such a bore though. He's been crying for you all morning.”

“I swear to God, if even a hair on his head is out of place, Lola, I'll—”

“You'll what?” she asked, cutting me off from finishing my threat. “You'll kill me? Or skin me alive? Ooh, I know. You're going to break my legs off, won't you?” she laughed at her taunts which only fueled my anger more. “Well, you'll have to find me first,” she said cheerfully. “And don't underestimate how difficult finding me will be, Araceli, because we're constantly on the move and I have back up. A lot of it.”

“What do you want from me?” I asked, finally backing down from threatening her. All I really cared about was getting my son back.

“Oh finally, the negotiations,” she said joyfully. “I'm very willing to give you back your child. All I need from you is one simple thing.”

“What is it?”

“Your life.” Everyone seemed to have gone ghostly quiet at the sound of her request even more so than before. myM breath hitched in my own throat in shock and fear while she only cackled like the witch she was on the other end of the call. “Don't tell me I already killed you with a heart attack and I wasn't even around to watch it?” she asked, feigning sadness while I gritted my teeth in both anger and annoyance. If she wasn't careful, it would be her life I would be taking. “Well, I can see the cat has got your tongue,” she said smugly, “so when you feel ready to talk, I'll give you a call in an hour and let you know where to wait for us to collect you. That is if you do want your son alive.”

Before I could even respond to her, the call had ended and I was left staring at my blank screen in shock. Desperately, I tried to dial the number again, but it only sent me straight to voicemail making me chuck my phone at the sofa beforr collapsing onto it.

”Fuck!“

”Guillermo, track where the last call came from,“ Daniel said, handing him my phone as I buried my head in my hands and tried to calm my thoughts. There seemed to be so many different voices in my head telling to do so many different, conflicting things and I wasn't able to think straight.

”What did you even do to her?“ a voice asked me amidst the chaos, making me look up and meet Emma's curious eyes. ”Why would she hate you this much? As to put an innocent child in danger just to spite you?“

”I—“ I tried to force out, shaking my head from side to side as tears welled in my eyes. If I could go back in time, I would've changed everything just to make sure that this would never have happened to Mateo. Not Mateo. He was too young. ”I ruined her life.“

”Yeah, right,“ Pablo immediately said in a sarcastic tone, making me look up at him in confusion. Did he know what happened? ”The time we're talking about, Ara would've been fifteen and Lola nineteen. How can a fifteen-year-old ruin an adult's life?“ he asked, making me shake my head because he didn't get it. It was entirely possible.

”I made her lose everything,“ I said quietly as I thought about how one small thing that I used to do on a daily basis had had such a big affect on her life. I didn't even find out about it until much later, but it turned out she has been holding in that burning resentment for me for years. ”Carlos and I had an affair. Most of you should know this by now,“ I said and got nods of confirmation from Daniel, Pablo and of course, Guillermo. I didn't expect for Emma or Celeste to even know who Carlos was, but Emma seemed to so I assumed Pablo told her. ”You don't know what happened because of that affair.“

”What happened?“

”At the time, Lola was pregnant for Carlos which was the only thing that made him stay in a relationship with her, but Carlos was a cheating scumbag so he lied to me about being single and coerced me into his bed.“

”She was underage by the way and he was twenty-one,“ Pablo pointed out, making me roll my eyes because he never failed to shame Carlos as much as he could whenever he could. I supposed he deserved it though.

“When Lola found out about the affair, she confronted me with Lucia and Guadeloupe which had broke out into a fight and you know how I fight,” I said, feeling the guilt eat up at me as I remembered that day. “I didn't know that she was pregnant, so I didn't back down. They weren't playing fair and I didn't play fair and long story short, I had accidently pushed Lola down the stairs which had resulted in her losing her pregnancy.” Emma placed her hand lightly over her swollen stomach as I told the story, amplifying the guilt I felt as I continued. “Since Carlos was only with her because she was pregnant, the miscarriage had given him a reason to abandon her and run away. But Lola had been disowned from her family because of her relationship with him so at the end of the day, she ended up with no child, no family and no Carlos.”

Everyone in the room remained silent after I had stopped talking, leaving me to stare down at my hands in shame and embarrassment. I knew I wasn't to blame for the actions of Carlos or Lola's family, but I also knew that if I just maybe had not have fought her that day, maybe she wouldn't have lost the child.

“You didn't cause her miscarriage,” Celeste said, making me look at her in surprise but she only stared down at me and gave me a funny look. “You've been pregnant before, Araceli, you should know this. A fall is only dangerous to a pregnancy if you yourself are severely hurt. Unless she ended up with broken bones and ribs and internal bleeding and all sorts of damage on the inside, falling down the stairs did not cause that miscarriage. Women have been getting knocked up for hundreds of years now and you believe a common fall would interrupt that.”

“Even if,” Emma said, her eyes holding a faraway look as if lost in thought. “If she believes that Araceli had caused the miscarriage, whether or not Araceli had actually caused it, this all makes sense,” she said, now looking directly at me. “It was probably her that orchestrated what happened to you two years ago with the whole trafficking thing,” she pointed out. “She wanted it to make it seem like Daniel abandoned you for miscarrying like Carlos abandoned her.”

“How though?” Celeste asked, seeming as if she didn't believe that it could've been her. “She would need contacts to a trafficking ring but she was only maid. She wouldn't have those contacts,” she said which also seemed to make a lot of sense despite Emma's theory. “Plus, she wasn't even there to slip the rat poison into Ara's pills. She left before that.”

“Someone else could have done it on her behalf. Like wasn't Lucia her sidekick or something?” Emma asked, but Guillermo just shook his head, not believing that.

“Lucia was bad, but she wasn't murder bad,” he said, adequately describing Lucia's character. She liked drama and loved to run her mouth and get into trouble but when things escalated to the point where she could lose her life or end up behind bars, she ran very quickly. “She didn't even mean to hurt Teo that time. She was just stupid. I doubt she would actually have a hand in Ara's attempted murder.”

“But then who else could it have been?” Emma asked, seriously cracking her brain to try and solve the crime that had been left unsolved for two years. Only now. “Lucien,” she said, considering it before shaking her head. “I doubt it was him because he doesn't care enough about Araceli to orchestrate that. He only recently started caring because she made Daniel move away from him. Her only other enemy who had been there to slip the poision into her pills was...” she trailed off before letting her eyes meet Celeste's. “You.”

“Me?” Celeste asked, seeming shocked that the fingers were now slowly being pointed at her. “I—”

“It's true,” Pablo said, agreeing with Emma. “Ara had problems with almost everybody.” He didn't have to say that. That was embarrassing. “But most of them were gone when the attempt happened. Even Emma. Ara made up with her before that but then Emma got sent to the clinic as well,” he said, slowly putting the pieces of the puzzles together in front of us. “Celeste was the only one there that hated her enough to want to kill her.”

“So what? You think it's me now?” Celeste asked, shocked that we were even having this conversation before she waved away her concerns and instead almost accepted their conclusion as if to possibly keep the peace. “Okay, fine whatever,” she relented. “So it's either Lucia or me.”

“It could be both of you,” Pablo said nonchalantly which made Celeste glare at him for even hinting at a possibility of the two of them working together which I understood. I assumed if Celeste were to be a villian, she would prefer to be one on her own but what do I know? People surprised you. “Wasn't it you and Lucia that endangered Teo's life that one time as well? How do we know you aren't working together?” he asked, ignoring the death glare he was receiving from her. “I mean, you did give him to her even though you were supposed to be taking care of him. Why not give him to Anna who actually knew how to take care of him and was trusted by Araceli?”

“I just wasn't thinking,” she tried to say but it was clear that Pablo wasn't believing her.

“Right,” he said sarcastically like had had done so earlier. “Or you were working with the other team.”

“Celeste,” Guilermo said, letting a sigh slip past his lips as he turned to face her, “tell me the truth. Are you—”

Before Guillermo could even finish asking his question, Celeste had slapped him right across the face, making him bite down on his cheek to withstand the pain and contain his anger.
“Fuck each and every one of you except for Araceli,” she said, glaring at everyone but letting her eyes skim over me as I only looked up at her with my tearstaind face in surprise. “I've never been anything but honest, but you know what, since you've all conspired against me, I may as well just stay out of this.”

She picked up her handbag and started heading towards the door, making Guillermo call after her. “Celeste, where are you going?”

“Home!” she called back out to him, her anger barely contained in her voice. “Since I'm the snitch. I may as well stay out of this bullshit so I don't give away valuable information to the bad guys,” she said in a mocking voice before letting her eyes meet mine. “Good luck, Araceli,” she said to me before turning her fierce gaze to Guillermo. “And you can pick your ring up off the fucking table. Marry your ballsack.”

“Celeste!” Guillermo quickly called out to her as he followed her out, making Emma huff and get up out of the chair with a lot of effort. I supposed being seven months pregnant wasn't easy. Pablo let out a small sigh and followed after Emma, probably wanting to make sure she stayed alright while I remained seated on the floor wifh the tears now trailing down my face again.

“I don't care about this,” I said, almost as if talking to myself even though Daniel was right there beside me. “I don't care about any of this. I just want my baby back.”

“I do too,” he said, gently rubbing up and down my back. “We'll get him back.”

*****

I warned you...