It had been a few hours since the last message Alex had received from his mother, Flora. It was completely unlike her to leave a long string of voicemail messages, each growing more and more panicked as they went on. Alex and Debbie had gone through with their remaining lectures that day, during which all Alex could think about was the messages. Flora had even sent him some text messages.
Alex, the most recent one read. We need to talk. Now. Call me please. ASAP.
As Alex sat in the last lecture of the day, a lecture detailing in excruciating detail the projected rising costs of raw building materials, his heart thudded in his chest. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he gribbed the arm rest of his seat so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. Beside him, Debbie laid a hand on his forearm and leaned in. She spoke in a low whispered, so as not to disturb anyone around them.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Alex looked at her. Her face was scrunched up with concern. Her eyebrows knit together, and her eyes were full of worry for him.
Alex shook his head and whispered back, "I can't stop thinking about Mom."
"Do you need to go?" she asked. "We're sitting on the aisle. You can slip out, then back in if you need to. I'll catch you up later."
Alex shook his head again, and turned his attention back to the speaker. The cost of building materials was something every real estate investor needed to be aware of. If costs rose, you had to adjust your rents and rates in accordance with whatever the materials were priced at. It was a dry, boring topic anyway, and the speaker was droning on in a monotonous voice. Adding the fear that something had happened to Flora only made the situation worse.
Once the lecture had come to a close, Alex rose and rushed out of the lecture hall, turning on his phone and waiting impatiently for it to reboot.
"Damn it!" he hissed.
Now of all times, he thought, my phone chooses to update?
He stared at the screen, trying not to burst out screaming, as iy slowly updated. Silently, he willed it to hurry up. After a few minutes, it reset, and the home screen appeared. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. The tension in his shoulders eased up. Then, he tensed up again as all of the notifications poured in at once. Dozens of text messages and voicemails, all from his mother. A couple wer from his father. Her opened a text from his father. It read:
"Hey Alex, I hope you're enjoying the convention in Paris! Letting you know that there'll be barbecued trout for your welcome back party!"
Despite the situation, Alex couldn't help but smile. Gideon Ambrose was always thinking of everyone else. If he went fishing, he would always try to catch an extra fish so there would be extra, "Just in case anyone wants to join us for dinner!" The relief the text message brought was instant, and distracted Alex from the dozens he had yet to go through from his mother.
He looked away from his phone for a moment, just to get some air and rest his eyes, then he opened up the voicemail, and listened to the first message.
"Hi Alex," said his mother's voice. She sounded worried. "I'm sorry to keep calling you, I know the real estate convention is keeping you busy, so I won't keep you long. It's kind of weird that you went to Europe when the real estate market you work in is in the United States, but I won't nitpick." There was a brief pause as she caught her breath. "Please, call me back. Like I said before, there have been certain developments in an issue we previously discussed relating to a very specific family matter. Please, Alex, call me back!"
The voicemail beeped, and played the next message. In this one, Flora sounded like she was about to start panicking.
"Alexander Ambrose!" She said, her voice unusually alert. "Are you even there? Did something happen to you? Did you fall off a metro train and now you're in a European hospital?" There was a pause as she caught her breath. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just so worried about my little boy. My little boys, I should say. You want me to tell you? Will that make you call me back? Fine. It's about Justin. Somebody has found out some very sensitive information about me, and about Justin, and there is a vry good chance that that very sensitive, very specific, information will be made available to everyone in the family. Please, Alex. You are the only person who will understand. Call. Me. Back!"
The messages continued on in that style, each growing progressively more panicked until the last one, which Alex wasn't even sure contained words. It just sounded like Flora was screaming and crying into her phone. Something had gone terribly wrong, and he wasn't sure how to handle it. Debbie found him just as he finished listening to the last voice message. He was pale, and shaking with fear. They looked at each other, not saying anything.
Alex immediately dialed his mother's number. The phone didn't even ring. It just went straight to voicemail.
"Hola," said his mother's voicemail, "this is Flora Ambrose! If you need me, I'm currently traveling the world with my amazing husband, Gideon, and my precious boy, Justin. I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can. Leave me a message!"
The tone rang, and Alex started to speak.
"Hey Mom," he said with uncertainty. "I got your message. Messages, I should say. To say I'm worried would be an understatement. I understand that the issues we discussed a while ago have developed. Please, call me back."
He hung up and looked at Debbie. "Something's wrong," he said to her. "Mom doesn't just leave insane voice messages like that. She barely even texts me unless it's an emergency." He held up his phone so she could see the long list of messages his mother had sent. "This is bad."
Debbie took Alex's phone and scrolled through the messages, her worried face creasing with concern the longer she read on. Alex felt relieved knowing that he wasn't the only one who was feeling that way.
Handing the phone back to Alex, she said, "Keep trying to reach out. We'll close out the day, it'll give us something to distract ourselves with, and we'll also reach out to Louis, Yvonne, and Christopher."
"What about my dad?" Alex asked.
Debbie shook her head. "He'll panic too much," she said. "What about Mark?"
Alex thought about it for a second. "No," he said. "That's a little too much."
Debbie nodded. "Okay," she said. "You text Louis, I'll reach out to Yvonne and Christopher. We'll get the whole gang involved."
*****
A little while later, Louis was in the living room of Alex's house, facetimeing with Alex.
"That's really weird," Louis said. "Nothing at all?"
"Absolutely nothing," Alex said, shaking his head. "This isn't like her at all."
Louis creased his forehead in worry. "I'm really sorry, dude."
"That's actually why I was calling," Alex said, sounding a little uncomfortable. "I was hoping that maybe you had seen her? Or heard from her?"
Louis shook his head, and Alex's face fell.
"Oh man," Alex said, sounding desperate. "I tried calling dad, but he said he was fishing all day. He won't be back at the house until much later."
Louis leaned forward, swapping the phone into his other hand. His arms and shoulders were beginning to get tired.
"Alex," Louis said, "I'm about to say something you won't like."
"Hit me with it," Alex said confidently. "I can take it."
Louis did the math. It would be early evening in Paris.
"I think you should calm down," Louis said. "Try to put it out of your mind. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet. She's probably just gone shopping. If she comes back, I'll drop you a text, okay?"
Alex's face froze for a moment, then he nodded reluctantly.
"Thank you," he said. "I appreciate it."
"No worries," Louis said. "Take care of yourself."
Just as Louis hung up the phone, there came an urgent knock at the door. He set his phone on the coffee table and went to the front door. Looking through the peephole, he was surprised to see Riley and Todrick standing on the porch. He opened the door.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked. "And how did you know-?"
Riley interrupted him, "We used to work for Lincoln, remember?" he said. "We know everything about this house and the people inside of it."
That makes sense, Louis thought.
"I just didn't expect to see you," he said. "What do you want?"
Riley looked left and right, then asked, "Can we come in? It's rather important."
Louis stepped aside, allowing the two men into the hallway. He shut the door, and Riley rounded on him, clasping his hands.
"We don't have much time," he said. "Lincoln has kidnapped Flora Ambrose. We have no idea where he's taken her, but we have a few really good guesses."
Louis held his breath, waiting for Riley to tell him that this was all a joke.
"I thought you weren't working for Lincoln anymore," he said slowly.
Riley squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. "We're not," he said. "That doesn't mean Lincoln doesn't still have my number! He called me to brag about it and then Stefan threw me out of the dojo!"
Louis blinked rapidly several times, then rubbed his head.
"So why are you here?" he asked. "Wait! Stefan threw you out. Why?"
"Not important," Riley said, waving a dismissive hand.
"We have a plan," Todrick said impatiently, pacing around the tight hallway space. "There's very little we can do to directly influence Lincoln's plans, but we can try to recover Mrs. Ambrose. With me so far?" When Louis nodded, Todrick continued, "Good. As Riley mentioned, we have a few guesses as to where she could be. We need a team to go in, retrieve her, and make it back."
Louis crossed his arms. "So what do you want me to do?"
Riley mimicked Louis's gesture, "We want you on our team!" he declared.
Louis looked between the two men, and he thought of how Stefan had warned him about Riley. After he took a moment too long to answer, Riley threw his arms in the air, exasperated.
"Don't you see?" he asked. "I'm good now, damnit!"
Louis took a moment to really look at Riley. He seemed so genuine, so sincere, about wanting to help Flora. However, with Riley there was always an end to meet, some goal to work towards, and everyone around him was just a pawn. Louis really wanted to trust Riley, and if this guy was willing to help rescue his arch enemy's mother, then could he really be that bad?
Louis sighed. "Fine," he said. "I'll help you."
Riley grinned. "I promise you," he said, "you won't regret it!"