Chapter 5 - SHADOWS AND SECRETS
While the legal battles raged, Elelliana focused on survival. The group home was a tough place. Food was stolen from plates, and weakness was exploited. But Elelliana had protected two infants on the winter streets; she was not easily intimidated. She made a silent alliance with an older girl named Maya, trading her dessert for access to a smuggled prepaid cell phone. Under the covers at midnight, Elelliana dialed the number Nathan had pressed into her hand before they took her away.
"Nathan?" she whispered into the static. The billionaire picked up on the first ring, his voice tightening with relief. "Elelliana. Are you hurt? Are you safe?" She told him about Marcus’s visit, about the million-dollar ransom, and the threat to take the twins across state lines. Nathan’s silence on the other end was terrifying in its intensity. "Listen to me very carefully, Elelliana," Nathan said, his voice dropping into a register of pure, lethal focus. "I am coming for you. I am coming for the boys. Do not let Marcus put you in a car. I have people digging into his past right now, and what we are finding will lock him away for a very long time. Just hold on a little longer." But time was running out. Marcus had greased the palms of a corrupt family court judge, pushing through an expedited kinship placement that would hand the children to him by Friday. It was Wednesday night.
