Valerie Ritter

POV: Jared

This was getting to be too much for me to handle. I was not a perfect man, but my life never brought Leah any danger. The only thing we were guilty of was being young, dumb, and letting what we thought was love blind us from seeing reality.

In the last 6 hours, my mind has been blown and my eyes opened to a world far greater than the small town I grew up in. My jaw had become sore because I was tense from trying to keep my mouth closed. This one family was beyond fucked up and that’s saying a lot coming from me.

Leah’s life has been full of trauma and heartache. I am surprised she hadn’t been committed to an asylum. She was the strongest woman I know because of her will to live and her heart trying to see the best in people.

I doubt she would be so gullible once all of the truth comes out. The bigger question is do I tell her or let her find out? Either way she will be pissed at me because I found out first and she was blindsided.

Sitting her rubbing my face with both hands, “You guys have seriously fucked me over.”.

At this point I couldn’t sit here and hear another word. I walked off and let the maid show me to my room. It was going to be a long night.

**********

POV: Cameron

My whole life has been a lie and I don’t know what to believe anymore. Not only has my mom been living a double life, but she also had a son before me. I wasn’t an only child and she deprived me of that.

“You need to calm down Adrian”, he was walking around yelling at everyone.

“Don’t fucking tell me what to do kid.”, he was full of anger.

I get it, his mom was abducted. He found her though and that should count for something. The bigger elephant in the room was him being undercover in the FBI.

That cat was out of the bag, and he was after Uncle Donny. I can’t let him take away the only man who had shown any interest in my life. Sure, they hid a lot from me… but it’s their life to live, not mine.

I know they think I am stupid or involved in the scandal, but I just want out of this life. I wanted to take my money and move away from it all, but I would trade it all for Leah. I was surprised Adrian wasn’t talking about her.

She was the only good thing in my life. The only thing that I looked forward too. Leah was the only person I have ever met who didn’t want something from me or jump at the chance to control me.

I couldn’t get a word in between mom and Adrian, so I decided to head to my room. They didn’t even notice me leaving, no one usually does. Here’s to hoping I can sleep, knowing this would all be over tomorrow.

**********

POV: Adrian

The anger deep inside of me was out of control. I spent my whole life watching my father search for her, only to die with a broken heart. Then I spent my whole career trying to fulfill his dying wish.

She was right under our nose this whole time and living like a queen. Her fancy house, clothes, and cars. It pissed me off that she had another son to replace me.

Pacing back and forth, I finally came to terms with the news.

Looking around, I noticed that everyone had left.

“Adrian, dear. Please sit and let me explain.”, she spoke as if she hadn’t been missing for over 15 years.

“You have a lot to explain, like what the fuck is Cooper doing here?”, she was helping her abductor.

“Please, sit.”, she patted the couch next to her.

I wasn’t ready to sit by her, so I took a seat across from her. Here I was able to watch her body language. With my temper, it was probably safer for her to stay away while I listened to her story.

She was working as waitress at an Italian restaurant near the Daybreak hotel when she met Cooper. At first, he was just a regular customer who would request her and only come in when she was working. The only thing inappropriate were the compliments that he would give her.

When she realized that he had started to obsess over her, she went to her boss. Her concerns ignored because of his social status and the fact he was a big spender. It was common for businesses in the city to use their staff and exploit them.

Taking her worries home, my father wrote her off. Explaining that her beauty was enough to make models jealous. Her tips getting them out of debt, left her feeling helpless.

The man had never laid a hand on her or stalked her outside of the restaurant. This went on for months and she tried her best to ignore it while looking for another job. That is when her life took a turn for the worst.

She didn’t tell anyone that she was leaving the job, so when she didn’t show up the next day it started a chain reaction. One that she wasn’t expecting and that would change her life forever. That was the day she was taken…

“I will never be able to forget the day I was taken.”, she grabbed her tissue.

On her way to her new job, she noticed that two men had followed her. Taking a detour to try and lose them, but they cornered her in an ally. Grabbing her while she yelled and fought became taxing, so they had hit her over the head with the butt of a gun.

It didn’t take long for her to lose consciousness. Occasionally waking up during transport she was able to see they had carried her body to a car and then put her on a boat. She was an ocean away from civilization when she had fully come to.

The rocking of the ocean had made her sick, but the other women had flocked to her. Helping her heal and recover, but she was still confused. Her words so vivid that I felt as if I had lived through the experience.

Cooper is not the man who had taken her. It was a man who was far worse, it was Cameron’s father. He had lived under the criminal radar so well that he was able to avoid my detection while I was inside Cooper’s empire.

She later found out that he would use his men to sneak women and drugs into Copper’s shipment. If the shipment were compromised, the blame would fall back on Cooper. Wishing she were taken by Cooper because her treatment was far worse than being sold.

“So why is he here? And why the hell are you taking care of him?”, I asked.

Explaining to me that when Cooper found out what happened to her, he had taken her. Changed her name to hide her and Cameron far away from that resort. This explains why she was trained like a criminal.

To avoid a criminal, you have to act like one. She kept tabs on Cameron's father and took money from Cooper. They told Cameron that it was from his father and made up a story that his father was too busy to be with them.

She had gone to visit Cooper to tell him that the old man was dying and when he did, she wanted to go back home. That’s when she walked in on Monica hitting him over the head. Describing Monica as an angry woman with a personal vendetta.

“That’s the day I saw her coming out of his office.”, I thought out loud.

“Yes. Security had alerted us that you entered the building.”, she replied.

That’s when she confessed to me that she was willing to drug the old man if Cooper would help her. And I foiled that when I came to Mexico unannounced. She wanted to protect me from Monica and the world she had learned to live in.

Giving Monica the drug she was going to use on the old man, then using that free time to get Cooper out before Monica could hurt him even more. Valerie had played everyone, and no one was expecting it.

“I knew who you were the first time I saw you walk into the office. It was your first day and you looked so handsome. I had been keeping a close eye on you to keep you safe.”, she spoke, but I couldn’t look her in the eye.

She could have come to me, and she didn’t.

“How could you do this to dad? He died trying to find you.”, I asked.

“No son, he knew where I was. I contacted him and told him to stay away to keep you safe.”, unsure if she were lying.

“I watched him search for you.”, yelling at this point and raising my hands.

“He was looking for a way to get me out.”, she corrected me.

“Do you love him?”, I had to know if I was taking a man down that she loved.

I just got her back and there was a chance I could lose her again.

“No. I want justice and I have a plan.”, this I had to hear.

“Where is he?”, I could cuff him now with her testimony.

“He is recovering from a brain bleed. The doctors are unsure if he will make it.”, that would fuck everything up.

Trying to wrap my head around all of the information that I had received, there was still one thing that had me stuck.

“Who is Cameron because I know he’s not your son.”, I could do the math.

“I was hoping you didn’t notice.”, she paused.

I am almost 30, she was abducted when I was 11 and he is 23, there was no way he was my brother. There were so many lies holding her life together and she knew her life was about to crumble. Yet, she still tried to keep her secrets from me.

She explained that when Cooper found her, she was a slave to the resort. Cameron’s father had rented her and several other women out to the highest paying customers. There were five women, and they were held against their will.

Their families being threatened, their life being hung in the balance, and seeing firsthand what that monster was capable of. He had gotten one of the slaves pregnant and then when she tried to take her son and leave, she was murdered. My mother took in her son and had raised him as her own.

This world that she looked so comfortable in had many secrets, but I wasn’t going to stop until I found the answers, I need to take all of them down. I was close to getting that black book, but now I needed the help of my mom. Thanks to Valerie Ritter’s story, my journey to justice was closer than I thought.

-To be continued-