Raine wanted to argue, but she kept her mouth shut and decided to listen. At least, she needed to know why her precious son was left alone in that god-damned illusion hall.
"I planned to put him in there for 6 hours. You know Ethan; his resilience and determination wouldn’t let the Illusion hall affect him even if he stays there for as much as 8 hours..."
"And what happened to him? Go straight to the point, Chris," Raine demanded.
"I got a call from Liam. All the heads had an urgent eting. Prince Kyle went missing so days ago so our attention was required. I thought I could leave and be back in two hours but we were attacked at the venue."
Raine’s eyes widened in shock. If anyone had dared to attack a place where all heads of the ga families were present, wasn’t that death they were looking for?
Chris continued, "We were supposed to escape easily but Liam brought his daughter along and she was extrely sick. He could not leave her in danger of being shot while fighting for himself, so we had to cover him. It was extrely hard to fight against ard n, especially when their aim was not to kill or harm us. It was sothing more stupid."
He paused for a while and looked up at Raine, guilt vividly expressed in his eyes.
"It was The Donovans, and you do know how much we have been trying to contact them, right?"
Raine nodded, "I can rember that the ga families needed sothing from them. What did they want to request that made them attack all the heads?"
Chris hesitated for a few seconds before answering, "They wanted one of our kids each. For training or sothing like that. You don’t have to worry though; we refused imdiately and had to fight our way out. It was our fault for not bringing enough guards anyway."
"And you did not think at all of your own son that was left in that destructive building? Did you want him to go crazy?!" Raine scread. She had expected Chris to give her a more tangible reason for not being ho for half a month but this was it? She would have been pacified if it ntioned that his life was endangered but then, he was just in a eting with his friends?
"Ethan’s mind is stronger than you think. How did he get ho? Or is the right question, how did he get out of that hall?"
Raine sighed. "You will have to ask him that yourself. If he’s willing to speak to you or take off his mask to see you," she replied.
"What mask?" Chris asked, confused.
Raine filled him in on all that had happened when he was not around. How Ethan had arrived at the large gates ten days ago in dusty clothes and hair, without his backpack; how he had refused to let anyone see him if he was not wearing his mask; and how he refused to leave his room even if it was a single worker left in the mansion. He would only co out when Raine, Mignon, and Enoch were the only one left inside the building, after the workers had retired to their own quarters.
"What’s the aning of that?" Chris questioned, when she was done explaining to him.
"You should ask him that yourself," she hissed, before adding,"And I hope you explain to him, give him a reasonable explanation why you left him there. I don’t want my son to be traumatized his whole life."
Her eyes ran from Chris’ head to his toe in subtle disdain, as if to tell him how dirty he looked, before walking away from the room.
"A minute, Raine," Chris stopped her, standing to his feet.
"What’s the matter?"
"Ethan should be able to brave it, but I won’t take any chances. Let the children pause school for a while and stay at ho."
"Why?" Raine asked.
"The others..." Chris paused,"So of their children have been kidnapped. It’s not The Donovans, we are sure of that. So we should watch out for the Jordans and keep the children at ho in the anti."
★★★
His hands were balled into fists as he listened to his father speak, but Ethan had no expression on his face. The older man had made him remove his mask and that was making him extrely agitated, even though they were alone in the room.
"Are you listening to , Ethan?" Chris asked, his gaze fixed on Ethan’s black hair.
"I am."
"Cool, I know it will be easier to explain things to you since you are wiser than your age. How did you get out of that hall?"
"Why did you leave in that hall?" Ethan asked another question, ignoring Chris’ question.
Instead of the latter to get angry, a part of his heart was sohow pleased with the way Ethan’s tone was challenging him. It looked like the boy had really toughened up after spending days in that place. He searched Ethan’s eyes to see if there was any sign that his long stay had affected his mind or caused any trauma, but he found none.
"It was because of unavoidable circumstances, Ethan. Also, that place was the safest place in the city for you to be at that mont. My only regret is leaving you without telling you and not switching the light on before I left. I should have also allowed you take food and water while we were leaving ho...so I’m sorry, Ethan. What do you say?"
"I don’t care," was Ethan’s emotionless reply, as he snatched the facemask from his father’s hand and wore it, before standing up to leave the room.
Chris was left alone in the room with his head tilted in confusion, wondering if it was just him or Ethan was behaving strangely. However, he shrugged away his thoughts when he realized that Ethan would be okay as long as that long stay in the hall did not make him crazy. No matter what strange habits he would exhibit from now on, it would be alright as long as it was not signs of craziness.
He reclined on the sofa where he was sitting and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep. It felt just like a second ago that he closed his eyes when he woke up to soone shaking him vigorously.
His eyes flashed open imdiately, his brain recognizing the face hovering above his as Raine’s.
"What’s wrong?" he whispered, his eyes roaming around the room to see that the world outside was already dark. Night had fallen.
"It’s Ethan! He’s gone!" Raine inford him, fear written all over her face.
Chris sat up quickly, the drowsiness in his eyes clearing up imdiately. "When was that?"
"I found out just now."
"Did you search all the floors? Did he leave the compound? And who is the stupid person who saw him leaving but didn’t say anything?!" As he talked, Chris was already up from his seat and walking out to the ground floor with Raine trailing after him as she answered his questions.
"We searched all the floors even though we didn’t need to. And Mignon was the one who saw him leaving or should i say she was the reason he left the house? There were no guards at the gate as they have all been shot. Of course, I just realized that now—"
"How were the guards shot without our knowledge? They are elite teams, Raine!"
Raine sighed impatiently, "They aren’t, Chris. I just found out the elite teams are just coming and they haven’t arrived before. Back to what I was saying, Mignon wanted to leave the house for a walk since she has not been allowed to go to school for the past few days. She said she went to ask for Ethan’s permission and he agreed to follow her, as long as so guards ca with them. Those guards were shot too but Mignon was allowed to co ho while Ethan was taken with them. Who do you think took my son, Chris?!" she asked, her tone showing that she would soon explode if Ethan was not found as soon as possible.
Chris understood his wife best and as such, knew she could not live without any of her kids. In fact, he had been a little bit surprised when she let him off so easily about Ethan being left alone in that Illusion hall. But now, this had happened?
Placing his own shaky hands on her shoulder to reassure her, he promised,"I will find him. Rember he’s not the only one who was kidnapped? We will all work together to bring our kids back, so put your mind at rest, Ra—"
"How do I put my mind at rest?! What if he is tortured or—no, what if sothing happens to him while he is being transported?! Can you not just reach the kidnappers and ask if they want a ransom instead—"
"Stop it, Raine! Ethan was trained for all this, right? And you personally consented to training him because you knew situations like this are unavoidable. Then trust him, he will be back with sound health," Chris stated, squeezing her shoulders.
After a short pause, he added,"And a sane mind."
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