Page 14 of Her Submission (Monica & Henry #2)

Ghosts

She was somewhere over the Great Plains in Ethan’s plane with a staff she no longer recognized. All they knew was that she was flying to Phuket and it was private business. The NDAs she piled on them before boarding were par for the course, but this time with an extra sense of urgency. If you tell anyone – anyone – it’s possible it will get back to the Beaumonts. Monica couldn’t afford Isabella discovering that someone was directly on her tail, let alone that her husband had sold her out.

Keeping Eva back at Warren Manor was the hard part, but Monica’s points had stood. Someone needed to mind the place in case Abigail suddenly came home or the police had news. It was bad enough that Henry was currently in France meeting a dead end. What if Monica was also about to face her own wasted time and sanity?

“Would you like anything else to drink, ma’am?”

The single flight attendant, whose name Monica never remembered, checked in on her as the cabin lights dimmed.

“I’m about to go on break for the evening if it’s all right with you.”

She had almost forgotten that Ethan intentionally employed more casual employees for his private plane. Such candidness was unheard of on the Warren plane.

“That’s fine. No, I’m more than perfectly prepped for the evening, thank you.”

The flight attendant disappeared into the front portion of the plane while Monica remained hunched over a table, massaging the back of her neck. Eventually, she gave in to the notion that she should try to get some sleep. This plane wasn’t too dissimilar to the Warrens’ Gulfstream – if Monica wanted to rest, she should hit up the queen bed in the back. No matter how decadent such a thing felt right now.

But what else could she do? She had run out of people to call. She had exhausted her books on Thailand she had brought with her. Nothing on her phone brought her comfort or joy. Quite the contrary. The fact that she hadn’t heard from Henry in hours wasn’t settling well with her, either. There was wi-fi in this plane. If nothing else, he could call her through an app.

Only Ethan and Eva had communicated with her since she took off. Ethan promised to look into a few things on her behalf and asked that he be informed if something was wrong with the flight crew. Eva claimed there were no updates, but would pass along info if Gerald remembered anything else. She then went quiet, and Monica assumed her sister-in-law finally passed out for the night.

How long have I been up? Monica dressed down to a single nightgown she had thought to pack. Without her underwear, especially her bra, she felt dangerously exposed to the world. It didn’t matter that soft cotton covered her body and the covers of the bed devoured her petite form. She was on display. Everyone she flew over in Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho… they saw all of her faults as a wife and mother.

“How could you let that witch take your child?”

“What do you even think you’re doing? What are you accomplishing?”

“Do you really think you can touch down in Thailand and simply find your daughter?”

“Henry…”

Monica pitifully said her husband’s name into her hands, the same ones covering her face in the darkened airplane bedroom. She knew that when they crossed the Rocky Mountains there would be turbulence and busied her hands with securing all of the caps on her water bottles. Yet it wasn’t enough to make her weary enough to sleep.

She was tired, though. Bone tired.

Monica nearly leaped out of her skin when her phone rang.

“Henry?”

The only reason she thought she must have finally fallen asleep was because she heard her husband’s voice in her dreams.

“Monica. Finally. I was worried about you.”

She held her other hand to her forehead as her phone shook against her ear.

“I’ve been worried about you! You only checked in when you landed. What’s happened?”

“Forget that for a moment. Is it true Ethan gave you his plane to fly to Thailand?”

Catching up to speed wasn’t as easy as it should have been, considering Monica had been there for every development. And considering she completely skipped the part where she and Eva went to Jackson’s to get information from him… it was easier to say that she got the info from Ethan, who had already agreed to corroborate her story if anyone asked.

I don’t deserve these people. What right did she have to be surrounded by men and women who only thought of her best interests?

“It’s true that Jean-Pierre has taken over his family’s holiday compound in Thailand. I didn’t even consider…”

“Tell me what’s going on there in Nice, Henry. Any leads? Did you see Abigail?”

“No. I’m sorry. They were already gone by the time I got here.”

“Henry…”

“I’ve been quiet because I immediately got the police involved. It’s been a whole ordeal, Monica. I’m only now in my hotel room. I did my best to get answers out of them, but they were so cagey. I even tried speaking French only to be met with more than the usual Francophone scorn. They really didn’t want to tell me what was going on. About my own daughter!”

“But they were there?”

Monica asked.

“Abigail and Isabella.”

“Yes. I know they were. They knew exactly what was going on. The local police searched once they confirmed the missing children’s report. They discovered a scarf Abigail accidentally left behind. I know it was hers. The same one she wore on our ski trip last month.”

“God…”

The Easter purple one with yellow polka dots. Abigail was big into garish pastels and Monica did her best to accommodate her daughter’s tastes with what meshed in their society. The ski trip was one instance where Abigail could dress however she wanted, and that included the purple and yellow scarf.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Isabella made her leave it behind. She must hate that…”

“Monica.”

His prompting to get her back on track did not go unnoticed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you sure they’ve moved on to Thailand?”

“It has to be Thailand. Where else could they hide out while Isabella plots her next move? The Beaumonts are clearly collaborating with her!”

“If she knows we’re on her tail, she might run again once she’s settled in there. My mother was a master at squirreling away money for herself. I guarantee she’ll head to Russia if she thinks she can hide there and stretch her dollar. She has connections to an oligarch named Peter Stanovich. He might even be an ex-lover of hers, for all I know.”

“Russia!”

That was worse than Thailand! At least I know how to get to her there.“We have connections in Russia, too, Monica. So does Ethan. We’ll find her. I promise.”

“At this point, it’s not just finding her. It’s bringing her home.”

Monica refused to cry, a vow that was disturbingly easy to maintain now that she was exhausted.

“I want her home before something unspeakable happens to her. It’s only been two days. She might still be having fun, you know?”

Monica sniffed.

“Having fun with her grandma…”

“Seeing new and exciting places…”

“Be introduced to people…”

“Hearing new languages and learning new cultures…”

It was everything they wanted for their daughter, who was destined to be a worldly woman of intelligence and class. On our terms, though… What Isabella did was more unconscionable than taking her on a romp through Europe while school was in session. She doesn’t intend to bring Abigail back at all…

At least Monica knew she wasn’t crazy. Eva believed her. Henry believed her. Hell, even Ethan believed her. And Jackson…

I can’t think about him right now. Not while on the phone with her husband, her protector.

“I love you.”

Henry’s voice cut through the shit and hit Monica right in the fragile heart.

“I love our girl. We’ll be whole again soon. I promise.”

She whimpered beneath the covers.

“I’m flying to Thailand as soon as it’s feasible. I’m exhausted. But I’ll meet you there.”

“I’ve hired a group to take me where we need to go. They swore they knew the exact place we were talking about. Somewhere called ‘Mercy’s Grove’ south of Phuket. It’s near the beach. I bet Abigail is having a lot of fun…”

“I bet she is, too.”

They were silent for a moment, Monica living through the image of her daughter running barefoot on a Thai beach as she picked up shells and shrieked at the water touching her toes. It was bad enough that she couldn’t be there. The thought of what might happen next…

“Your mother trafficked our daughter,” she said.

Henry was still silent. Then, “I know.”

“This is the point of no return, Henry. Your mother is banned from our home. I want her arrested. I want her gone.”

“I understand.”

“Tell me you feel the same way. Say you agree that Isabella is a danger to our daughter.”

She didn’t think he would say it at first. After all, Henry was still Isabella’s son. He had been her golden child until he grew a personality of his own and pursued love outside of their class. But Isabella had held onto hope for years that Henry would lose interest in his wife and move on with someone else. Someone more his station. She wanted blonde-haired, blue-eyed babies from someone not named Monica.

What if Henry still wasn’t ready to banish his mother from their lives? Would they come back from that as a family?

“She absolutely is.”

His voice was low. Dark.

“I knew she was capable of some foul and unbelievable things, but this? Endangering her only grandchild because of some archaic vision of what families are supposed to look like.”

His tone shook as if he warbled between anger and fear. A deadly combination that threatened to turn him upside down.

“The things she did to Eva when we were younger have only set the stage for this. As long as Abigail obeys, my mother will dote on her. The moment our Abby steps out of line, though…”

“We have long planned for the day when we had to explain to her why Grandma is suddenly a monster. We just didn’t think it would be like this.”

“No. I daresay we didn’t. Who knew she had it in her?”

“Something’s going on with that woman. I keep thinking that this is horrendous even for her. She must know that she’s legally in big trouble. That she’ll be kept from us for the rest of her life over these actions. So… what’s happened? What’s the trigger, Henry?”

“I wish I knew. She’s been acting more erratic over the years, but she also seemed to have come around on a few things. She even spent a whole week in Malibu with Eva, Nadia, and Abby a couple of years ago…”

“Trust me, there were plenty of reports about what she said during that time.”

“But it wasn’t anything close to this.”

“No. I keep thinking that there must have been signs. There had to be a way to have prevented this before it happened.”

“You can’t think like that, Monica. Don’t beat yourself up because we trusted my mother with our daughter.”

“I can’t help it. This whole time, I was so worried about her influence that I didn’t think about her potential actions. We were at the Chateau being absorbed in one another, and…”

“Don’t blame either of us. We had no way of knowing.”

But that wasn’t good enough for Monica, who knew she’d be suffering the repercussions of this for years. Even if Abigail was returned safe, sound, and untraumatized, Monica would still know. There would be a day when she would have to explain to her daughter what this had done to their family. Why she was never allowed to see Grandma again. Why a piece of her childhood that day…

Anything terrible could happen at any time. One of the hardest parts of becoming a mother was realizing that she couldn’t protect her daughter from everything. Not even money built a barrier against nefarious actors and abusers. Sometimes, it makes it worse. Most of Monica’s nightmares about kidnappings concerned ransoms, though. Not selling her daughter to a powerful French family who were interested in he.

“breeding.”

The repercussions would reverberate through a dozen families for generations.

“Are you there, Monica?”

“Yes,”

she softly said.

“I’m sorry, Henry. A million things are racing through my mind right now. I can’t stop thinking about what this is going to do to us as a family.”

“This will do nothing,”

he replied.

“other than make us stronger.”

Monica didn’t know how that was possible.

“I’m not feeling very strong right now.”

“You’re one of the strongest women I know. Why do you think I knew you were the perfect mother for my children? Why I admire you so much? Monica, you have been through so much. You are going through so much still. Every time I see you tackle something everyone else would consider insurmountable, I remain amazed. And in love. Because you’re an amazing woman that makes this family stronger than ever before. I don’t know where we would be if you and I never met.”

“God, listen to you. I’m somewhere over Colorado, on my way to Thailand, and…”

“Exactly. You’re not taking this shit. You’re taking our destiny as a family into your hands. You’re doing what I physically cannot do right now. I trust no one more than you to get this done. My only regret is that I can’t be there with you to be the rock I know you need.”

“My rock, huh?”

“I know you, Princess. You fight so hard and for so long that sometimes you start to float away. If nobody catches you in time, you might end up somewhere halfway across the Atlantic.”

“Or the Pacific, in this case.”

“I’m serious. I worry about you. Tell me you’ll get some rest while you’re in the air.”

“I’m trying.

I’m lying in bed right now trying to sleep, but every time I close my eyes I’m transported back to what Abby must be feeling right now.

Oh, she must miss us terribly.

It’s not like her to be away from both of us for so long, Henry. Do you think she’s okay? Do you think they’re taking care of her?”

She knew how pitiful she sounded. She knew that Henry was one of the only people on Earth could hear her like this.

The only person I can be so vulnerable before. Other men had almost ruined her vulnerability. Like Jackson, who had demanded more of it from her that night.

Eventually, she would tell Henry…

“I think she’s having the time of her life.”

Henry was almost convincing when he said that.

“Having an adventure that we’ll soon join as soon as we find her. She’s going to be so excited to tell us all about it. We won’t be able to shut her up for weeks.”

He said it with such loving conviction that even Monica believed him. For the first time in forty-eight hours, she relaxed, imagining that this was “just”

another adventure to get through before they resumed their lives as a happy family.

“I also need to know…”

She choked on her words as she pushed her bangs out of her eyes, staring into the vibrating darkness of the airplane’s small bedroom.

“That no matter what happens, we’re still together, Henry. If the unthinkable happens to our Abby… if we somehow can’t get her and this is dragged through international courts for years…”

“That won’t happen, Monica. We’ll bring her home, safe and sound.”

“I just need to know that it won’t drive us apart. I love her with more of my heart than I knew I had.”

Monica felt it blossom in her chest the day her daughter was born. As if Abigail ripping herself free from her mother’s womb had left behind that blessed space for a mother’s heart to grow.

“But I won’t make it if I lose you both. I could barely survive the loss of one of you. Losing you would turn me into the biggest helicopter parent Abby ever dreamed up in her sleep. Losing Abby…”

Monica could barely bring herself to admit it.

“I’d be a shell of my former self. Absolutely incorrigible for you as a husband. Even if we had another child, it would never… they would never…”

“Monica.”

His terse but commanding tone brought her back down to her body, where Monica wiped her forehead and refocused her breaths on function, not anxious form.

She needed to hear him sound more domineering, more in control of a situation he could not be physically present for.

I need you, Henry.

More than ever.

Both Monica the mother and Monica the wife needed the man who made both possible.

My daughter is my heart, but my husband is my soul.

Their family unit had already defied the dirty looks and derisive words that haunted their social sphere.

Monica now looked at potentially giving up her business, the thing that defined her mind, so she could protect her family, especially her daughter.

Abigail is reaching that age where I have to divorce her from my business.

Entirely.

Until Abigail was old enough to understand.

“I’m not going anywhere,”

Henry interjected.

“No matter what happens to our daughter, it’s you and me, Princess. We will do everything in our power to bring her home. And, may I remind you, we have a lot of power. I am not above going straight to the government and greasing whatever fucking palms I need to bring her home. I’ll burn every business connection I have in this world if it means Abigail is safe. I’ll give up our home, my parents if it means the three of us survive. Don’t mistake me, Monica. I am my mother’s son – and when she goes scorched earth on us, it means I can go scorched earth on her.”

Monica held her breath. There was no way Henry was finished.

“I will sacrifice everything if it means saving my daughter. Don’t underestimate me. This time next week, we’ll all be home, and she won’t know a thing happened.”

He made claims that couldn’t be sure. Yet I needed to hear it… Monica released that breath right into her phone, on the verge of tears.

“Are you alone?”

Her body ached for him. Her half of their shared soul missed him in ways no other man could complement. Monica felt no shame about it, either. There was a reason this man was also her Dom.

Until death do us part… They had taken two sets of vows. Their wedding vows, the ones they made public to the government and the world, were taken over a year before their vows as Dom and sub. In Monica’s heart, one superseded the other.

“I’m alone,”

he said.