CHAPTER 1
Mother
Surely after several weeks of no contact with us, mother must have known that she wasn't on vacation and that everything I had tried to tell her and what my brothers had tried to tell her was a reality. Victor Grant and Michael Stevens were identical twins and if she hadn't figured it out, my dad surely did, because although he never saw the man behind the mask, my brothers and I as well as Julio had interacted with our look a-like father for the last month or two and our bodyguards also.
We fired Chase and Stefano and the chip that had been in my arm had been completely removed with my arm healing quite well. My body was healing from the brutal beating that I had taken in the warehouse by those guys. I had no idea how they looked or who they were. No one talked about what happened and Julio didn't push the issue. He was just thankful I helped bring Antonio back home and because of that he was very grateful and figured in time, if I wanted to talk about it, I would. But for now, he didn't care about anything except for the fact that his brother was back home and I was somehow responsible for finding him.
Adam had tried to make a case against Chase, Carlos, Stefano and Jeff, but had no grounds for his case and couldn't get past the district attorney good enough to even hint a possible conspiracy or anything else. However, the four of them were still located at the Grant Stevens Corporate Offices running the company for Victor and not wreaking any havoc on me, because everything was still hot and being investigated by the police. They knew they were being watched. We were pretty sure that Victor got to the judge and the D.A. because of it being election year and they needed his money to keep funding their elections.
I focused most of my attention on Julio, and the fact that I didn't want to be used as a puppet anymore. I still had every intention of finding Johnnie Lee and Casey as well as my mother, but I knew that I had to get my strength back before I could get back to my sleuth ways.
A lot of people suffered and died over the last few months and I almost lost my life and I knew that whatever I did, that as long as I had Julio, Jake and Adam in my corner and my brothers of course, that we'd find mom. I, for one, wouldn't stop looking until we had her back home with us safe in our dad's arms.
Another shake up was coming at Three Points and although my brothers and I still held our positions, Debra had decided that she wanted to head the New York City Regional Offices of Three Points and moved there after father had approved her transfer and her position. She'd still have to deal with Patrick; just not work as closely as she had to with him. Patrick still ran the Domestic division of the company. Finding a replacement for Debra would be hard, but we were all sure that it was the best thing for everyone. Phu left the company for safety's sake and after working with Phil and Jake concerning security related technology, he ended up leaving and going to work for his grandfather in Chinatown in San Francisco because all the excitement that he had recently had had taken its toll and he needed something just a little less crazy. I said goodbye to my last remaining college friend as did Phil.
The search for qualified candidates led my brothers and me, along with the help of father to promote Jeremy's father Jordan to head of the accounting department and Marcello who was already CFO was promoted yet again. Father with the help of me and my brothers ended up hiring a lady by the name of Jessica Lynn Smith who was in her mid-thirties to be the new PR manager with the loss of Maria Gomez, but she looked like she was in her late twenties and Christopher Stiles to handle Debra's region who was also in his mid-thirties but looked really good for his age and could easily pass for his late twenties without any second guessing. They both had great references as well as job related backgrounds. We were all thrilled that we connected with them rather quickly and well when we interviewed them, that we knew they were perfect fits for the company.
Father was moping around the house and at work, worried about mother and although we never let information out about mom missing, we knew that it would be a matter of time before people caught whim of something going on with the Stevens family again. Antonio had returned back to his rightful place on father's right hand side again and Julio and me, although we weren't having sex yet because of me completely healing. We were still very much intimate, just not sexually. There wasn't a day that went by that I wasn't going over things with Jake and Adam about trying to see if there were any leads concerning my mom, Johnnie Lee and Casey; even Verna.
We still had positions within the company to fill, especially with our security team as well as for the security team at home. A part of me wanted Carlos and Stefano to continue being security for us, but knew that they never were security for the family, they only did what they were told and that was to keep an eye on me for Victor Grant. We still had Marcus, Douglas and Julio, besides Antonio, but that was for the house and for work and that wasn't enough personnel to protect everyone just in case something happened again. Between the four of us, we knew that finding good bodyguards would be hell and Antonio was all out of people he knew at the moment, that he felt could be mutual in their respect and their opinions concerning anything that happened in the Stevens' household, less more at the company.
It didn't seem like two weeks had already passed with mom being gone, but we knew that Victor wouldn't hurt her, especially if he was still playing up like he was dad. The thing is she had no clue and it bothered all of us knowing they were together and the fact that she hadn't made an attempt to call could only mean that he was showing her the world and they were enjoying it. However, my father was definitely trying to find them and there wasn't a day that went by that he wasn't on the phone calling his international connections looking for some sign or hope that she was there, but acting like he was Victor, instead of himself.
Patrick was standing in his receptionist area when he saw me passing by and called for me to come to him. I briefly spoke with Marcus. Patrick and I went into his office.
"What's up lil bro?" Patrick asked. "You've been keeping to yourself a lot lately," he observed.
"Yeah," I said. "I've just been trying to deal with mom being with Victor and she having no clue it was him instead of father."
"Yeah, I know," Patrick returned. "How can you not know your husband?" he questioned.
"I know right," I added. "How are you doing since Debra moved?"
"You know," Patrick started. "I'm honestly good because I realize that I wasn't over Bethany and had jumped into something with Debra without thinking about it and because I thought she was hot," he admitted. "I guess I never really loved Debra and it was about the sex," he continued.
"Yeah," I laughed. "Sex is a powerful thing if the one you're having it with ..." I stopped.
My mind suddenly drifted to Adam and then to Antonio. Damn I hadn't had sex in a couple of weeks. Julio had been right there waiting patiently for me to heal from being torn so badly by the horse hung white guy, who had no problems tearing my insides out with his massive...
