Page 43 of Liam (The Valeur Billionaires #4)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

ALERIA

I sit in my darkened apartment, the stillness pressing in around me.

Schrodinger moves across the hardwood, his presence the only thing grounding me.

My cheeks are stiff from dried tears, but it’s my heart that aches as if each beat is a reminder of Liam’s words.

They echo in my mind, over and over, like a wound that won’t heal.

“It’s over, Aleria. I never want to see you again.”

“Merrow?” Schrodinger nudges my leg, his eyes peering up at me.

“I don’t understand it either, buddy,” I murmur, scratching behind his ears. “How could I let myself fall for him again? After everything that happened in college. Why am I so stupid to let myself believe?”

My phone buzzes, Cora’s name flashing on the screen. What the hell could she want? To comfort me after Liam treated me like some piece of garbage? I don’t need her pity.

But something, a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach, pulls me to answer.

“Aleria?” Cora’s voice is tight with worry. “Have you seen Liam? He’s not home, not at the office, and he always answers my calls.”

She doesn’t know. “We broke up a few hours ago,” I say, the words tasting bitter. “He dumped me. I don’t know where he is now.”

“What? That doesn’t make sense. I saw you two at the nightclub. He’s so in love with you.”

“Well, apparently not,” I snap, hurt bubbling up. “He made it pretty clear he doesn’t want to see me anymore. That’s it.”

I drop the phone onto the table, my fingers stiff with tension. The quiet hum of the apartment fills the space where Cora’s voice used to be, but her words won’t fade. They circle back, gnawing at the edges of my thoughts. “ He’s not home. Not at the office. ”

Why isn’t he answering her calls?

I clench my jaw, trying to shake it off. He’s not my concern anymore. He made that perfectly clear. But the longer the silence stretches, the tighter the knot in my chest pulls.

Where is he? Why won’t he answer? I know his family is the most important thing to him. He would never ignore his sister like that.

I don’t want to care. I don’t care.

Liam’s words echo again in my mind. His cruelty. “We’re like a proton and an electron…”

I freeze, my hand stilling on Schrodinger’s fur. “Wait a minute,” I whisper, my heart beginning to race. “That’s not right. ”

I jump up, startling Schrodinger, and pace. “Protons and electrons don’t force each other apart. They attract each other. Liam knows that. He’d never make that kind of mistake.”

The realization hits me like a physical blow. Liam wasn’t breaking up with me. He was trying to send a message. The incorrect physics wasn’t a mistake; it was a warning.

“Oh God,” I gasp, my voice shaking. “He was trying to tell me something was wrong, and I missed it.”

I lunge for my phone, my fingers trembling as I dial Cora’s number. As soon as she picks up, I blurt out, “Cora, I think something’s wrong with Liam.”

“That’s what I was saying!” Cora’s voice is sharp with concern. “Aleria, what do you know?”

“The breakup,” I explain, words tumbling out in a rush. “He said something about protons and electrons that was completely wrong. Liam would never make a mistake like that. I think... I think he was trying to tell me he was in trouble.”

There’s a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Then Cora says, “His bodyguard didn’t see him either. I’m calling a family meeting. We need to figure out what’s going on. Can you come to the estate? I’m texting you the address now.”

“I’ll be there as fast as I can,” I promise, already reaching for my keys.

Thirty minutes later, I’m pulling up to the Valeur estate. The sheer size of the property still takes my breath away, a sprawling mansion that stretches across manicured lawns. I park my beat-up Prius next to a line of luxury vehicles, feeling more out of place than ever.

One of the housekeeping staff answers my tentative knock, ushering me into a foyer that screams old money. Crystal chandeliers, priceless artwork, and antique furniture surround me, a stark reminder of the world Liam comes from—a world so different from my own.

As I follow her deeper into the house, the sounds of urgency grow louder. We enter a vast living room, and I’m struck by the controlled chaos within.

Ryder paces near a window, his phone pressed to his ear. His voice is low and intense as he speaks to someone named Zane. “Use every resource we have. Find him.”

On a plush sofa, Logan has his arm around a sobbing Cora. He murmurs words of comfort, but the worry etched on his face betrays his own fear. Cora looks up as I enter, her mascara streaked down her cheeks. “Aleria,” she chokes out. “Thank God you’re here.”

The elder Valeur sits in a high-backed chair with his head in his hands, and across the room, Lucas is engaged in what sounds like a heated phone conversation. “No, we can’t go to the police yet. Just...keep looking. Call me the moment you find anything.”

At a sleek desk in the corner, Sloane’s fingers fly across her laptop keyboard. She barely glances up as I approach, her eyes fixed on the screen with laser-like focus. “I’m trying to hack into the city’s traffic cam system,” she explains without preamble. “If we can track his car’s movements...”

The opulence of the room feels at odds with the panic in the air. Despite the wealth surrounding us, the Valeurs look as lost and scared as I am.

“Aleria,” Cora says. “You were the last to see Liam, as far as we know. Tell us exactly what happened. ”

I recount the interaction, every detail I can remember. With each word, the sense of wrongness grows.

“He kept saying I should leave,” I mumble. “God, how could I have been so stupid? He was trying to warn me.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Logan says, his hand warm on my shoulder. “But now we need to find him.”

The next hour is a blur of activity. Zane tracked Liam’s phone and car, discovering that his phone is in his penthouse apartment and his car is in the garage downstairs.

I suggest checking security cameras around his apartment building, and Logan sits at the laptop, remembering that he can access the security feed from inside Liam’s penthouse.

As we wait for the footage, I observe the family. Their concern is palpable, but so is their unity. Sloane hands me a cup of coffee, squeezing my hand as she does.

“We’re going to find him,” she says. “He’s too stubborn to let some asshole get the better of him.”

We crowd around the screen, tension thick in the air as Logan navigates through the footage. The timestamp shows the approximate hour of our breakup.

We see a man entering Liam’s penthouse, but he’s wearing one of those medical masks and keeps his face averted. He seems to know where the cameras are, carefully avoiding clear shots.

“Dammit!” Ryder slams his fist on the table. “This guy knows what he’s doing. He got past the security—all of it—how? How the hell does he know where all the cameras are?”

We see Liam being confronted in the kitchen. The gun, the posture, and Liam talking to me through the slightly open door with the man at his back, aiming the gun in my direction .

We watch as Liam is forced to leave with the man, and everyone bursts into action once again.

The tension in the room ratchets up with each dead end. I feel helpless, my mind replaying my last interaction with Liam over and over. If only I’d realized sooner...

We divide into teams, each tackling a different aspect of the problem. Logan and Sloane hunker down at the computer, their faces illuminated by the screen’s glow as they work on tracing the abductor’s movements through traffic cameras.

“If we can track the car he used to take Liam, we might be able to pinpoint where he’s holding him,” Logan mutters, his eyes never leaving the screen.

Sloane nods, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m accessing the city’s traffic cam network now. We’ll start from Liam’s building and work our way out.”

Ryder and Cora huddle together on the couch, compiling a list of properties this man might be using. “He’d need somewhere isolated,” Cora says, her voice tight with worry. “Somewhere he could hold someone without raising suspicion.”

“I’m checking abandoned buildings, warehouses, anything off the grid,” Ryder responds, scrolling through his tablet.

Meanwhile, Ava and I spread out maps of the city on the large dining table. We pore over them, looking for any location that might match the background we glimpsed in the video.

“It has to be somewhere secluded,” I mutter, more to myself than to Ava. “Somewhere that wouldn’t draw attention.”

Ava circles a few areas on the map. “What about these industrial zones on the outskirts? Lots of empty buildings, not much foot traffic.”

I nod. “Good thinking. Let’s cross-reference these with Ryder and Cora’s list.”

“Even if we find them, we can’t just go charging in there,” Mr. Valeur says. “Elias is dangerous, and he has Liam. We need to be smart about this.”

“What are you suggesting?” Lucas asks.

Mr. Valeur takes a deep breath. “I think... I think I need to turn myself in. Perhaps If I do that, he’ll let Liam go.”

“No!” The protest comes from all of us at once.

“There has to be another way,” Logan insists. “We can’t let him win like this.”

“What are you all talking about?” I ask, confused. “You know who did this?”

Cora’s eyes flicker to her father before she turns back to me. “There’s something you need to know, Aleria,” she begins, her voice dropping to a near-whisper, forcing me to lean in close. “The man who took Liam... It’s not random. He has a history with our family.”

I furrow my brow. “What do you mean?”

Cora glances around the room, noting the tense expressions on her family members’ faces. Mr. Valeur shifts in his armchair, looking older and more tired than I’ve ever seen him.

“We can’t go into all the details right now,” Logan interjects. “But there was an...incident, years ago. Something Dad was involved in.”

“What kind of incident?” I ask, my mind racing.

Ryder steps forward, his jaw clenched. “The point is, this man, Elias, he believes the Valeur family wronged him. He’s out for revenge. He’s been threatening the Valeur family for some time now.”

I struggle to process this information, looking from face to face. “So the threats, the kidnapping... It’s all about something that happened in the past?”

“Yes,” Sloane confirms, her fingers stilling on her keyboard. “He wants to make us all pay for what he thinks was done to his family.”

The gravity of the situation settles over me like a physical weight. This isn’t just about finding Liam anymore. It’s about a family’s dark secret and a man’s quest for vengeance.

“If you know who he is, why haven’t you called the cops? Why haven’t you stopped him?”

They glance at each other. “We can’t,” Lucas says. “Not if we want to protect the family. Plus, we know his name but that’s about all. We haven’t been able to locate him, and we have no idea what he looks like.”

“I know this is a lot to take in,” Cora says, placing a hand on my arm. “And I promise we’ll explain everything when we can. But right now...”

“Right now, we need to focus on finding Liam,” I finish for her, pushing aside my confusion and countless questions. “Okay. Tell me everything you know about this Elias. Every detail could be crucial.”

As they fill me in on what little they know, I concentrate on the task at hand. The Valeurs’ mysterious past will have to wait. All that matters now is bringing Liam home safely.

We dive back into our search with renewed vigor. I throw myself into the work, pushing aside the gnawing worry and guilt. Every minute that passes is another minute Liam is in danger .

As the hours tick by, fatigue sets in. My eyes burn from staring at screens and maps, and my hands shake as I reach for yet another cup of coffee.

“Aleria,” Ava says, “you need to rest, honey. You’re no good to Liam if you collapse from exhaustion.”

I shake my head. “I can’t. Not while he’s out there.”

Ava’s eyes soften. “You love him, don’t you?”

The question catches me off guard. I’ve been so focused on finding Liam that I haven’t let myself dwell on my feelings. But now, faced with the possibility of losing him forever, the truth is undeniable.

“Yes,” I whisper. “I do. And I never got to tell him.”

Ava pulls me into a hug, and for a moment, I let myself be comforted. But then I straighten up, wiping my eyes. “Okay. Back to work. We’re going to find him, and then I’m going to tell him how I feel—right after I yell at him for scaring me like this.”

Ava laughs, a welcome sound in the tense atmosphere. “That’s the spirit. Now, let’s take another look at that traffic cam footage. I think I saw something...”

All the phones buzz simultaneously. We share a look of trepidation before Cora opens the message—a video link from an unknown number.

With shaking hands, Logan connects his phone to the large screen on his father’s desk. The image flickers to life, and my heart stops.

Liam is there, bound to a chair. A dark bruise blooming on his cheek. He looks like he’s in pain, and I bite back a cry, my hand flying to my mouth.

“The Valeur family has lived in luxury,” a whispered voice comes over the speaker, “built on the suffering of others for too long. Now, you have a choice.”

The voice cuts through the room like ice, each word a dagger.

“Donate all the Valeur wealth to the specified charities listed on the screen. Liquidate everything—every cent, gone.” The man pauses, the silence more terrifying than the demand.

“And Peter Valeur...” The voice drips with venom.

“Peter Valeur must die. On camera. He will confess every crime, every sin, before the world. His last breath will carry the truth.”

A collective gasp reverberates in the room, the weight of the words sinking in. I watch the blood drain from Mr. Valeur’s face, the gravity of the demand dawning on him.

“His life for Liam’s,” the voice resumes, colder, more relentless. “A public execution to balance the scales. “You have twenty-four hours,” the voice concludes, “or Liam pays the price for your sins.”