Trapped By The Wicked Billionaire

Chapter 19: A Target For Trouble

RIVA POV:

“Is she alright?” I jumped out of my seat. The purse was already slung over my shoulder and I was ready to head out.

“I don’t know,” he whispered helplessly as he rushed into the room to look for something.

“Ethaniel, snap out of it!” I hissed.

Proximity makes one lose sight of what was important. His daughter was in an accident and the usually cool man had lost his wits. My heart thrashed against my ribcage, but I knew to keep my cool.

“Where is my phone?” Ethaniel hissed, ignoring me.

“It’s in your pocket, Ethaniel,” I reminded. I could see its outline in his pocket. “ETHANIEL!” I yelled, snapping him out. He whipped around to look at me. “It’s in your pocket,” I said softly.

The air rushed out of his lungs. He pulled it out and nodded. “Jax is waiting downstairs. You can go home alone,” he said sternly.

My brows furrowed in confusion. “I am coming with you,” I replied.

He walked past me to the door before stopping. “You’re coming?”

I gave him a blank look, wondering how he managed a company when an emergency turned him into a blubbering fool.

“Move!” I prompted.

The ride down the elevator felt like a ticking time bomb. And once I slid into the car, the city blurred around me. Jax broke every speed limit in town, and Ethaniel still pressed him to go faster.

I remained silent. At some point while I was coming down, the temperature around me fell. Whereas Ethaniel had calmed down, my heart plummeted.

Finally, he spoke. “She has been receiving some threatening letters at school. At first, they were generic so I didn’t think much of it, but later they became personal. So, I had a bodyguard watching over her.”

I looked at him in shock. I hadn’t known! Neither of them had whispered a word of it to me and I remained blissfully oblivious, wishing to find ammunition against Ethaniel.

“Today, by the time I got a report something would happen, they tried to get rid of Tilly and the bodyguard so that they could take Snow. They almost succeeded, but she managed to scream for help.”

I shuddered at the thought of her being taken away.

“They struck her so that she would keep silent, but Snow kept protesting so they dropped her and ran. Don’t worry, they were caught a few blocks away.”

He was watching outside the window as he said this.

The only visible proof of my fear was the almost uncontrollable shaking. It was so bad that Ethaniel scooted over and put his arm around me to try and stop it.

“Who would do something like that?” I asked after a long pause.

“Just bad people, Riva. When you are rich, you become a target for criminals. The paparazzi might be annoying but they are harmless. It’s the others who I try to keep my life private from in the first place.” He clenched his teeth.

They had been well and fine until I came into the picture. News of me got out and now people knew how to find Ethaniel and Snow. It was none of my fault, but the guilt stabbed at me.

The thought of Snow being injured because I was not careful enough to remain unfollowed made my throat close up.

“Do you have a lot of enemies?” I asked softly.

He whipped around and thought about the answer. “No, I don’t. But I can’t control what others think.”

“Who gave you the report?” I asked.

“It’s someone who… someone who works for me. But by the time the news reached me, the kidnappers were already taking action. I was called directly to go to the hospital.” He turned to Jax and tapped on the back of the driver’s seat. “We need to go faster.”

Jax stepped on the pedal. “I should have been there with her,” he muttered while the car hit the last stretch of the highway.

“Jax, it is not your fault. If someone should have been there for her, it’s me,” Ethaniel replied cautiously.

I sat in a daze.

The sticky note felt heavy in my purse.

This Abby person might have been the person keeping an eye on Snow. She was the one who came to give the report. But that meant she was close to Ethaniel in the first place to be handed such an important and confidential job.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

My priority was Snow, who was hurt and waiting for us at the hospital.

I shivered.

To say I despised hospitals would be an understatement. But this wasn’t about me. It was about sweet, funny, and brave Snow, who I didn’t want to disappear. I would go to every hospital and endure torture if it meant she was unscathed.

We all but ran through the hallways of the hospital to the VIP ward. We were greeted by a shaken Tilly. Her head was bandaged and she looked dazed from the fear, but otherwise, she was alright.

“Are you alright? How is Snow?” I whispered, grabbing her cold hand in mine.

“We were returning from school and Snow wanted some ice cream, so we walked down the block to the parlor. I don’t know what happened but someone came up from behind me.” Her free arm shot up to the back of her head.

My breath hitched.

“She’ll be alright, right?” Tilly cried out suddenly, tears pouring down her cheeks.

She cried and hiccuped through the explanation and it all went above my head. Hope rose again when a team of doctors walked out of the hospital room and stood in front of us.

“How is she doing?”

“She has blunt force trauma to her head and bruising on several parts of her body. We have to run all the tests before I can give you any answer.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Ethaniel grabbed my arm, pulling me back.

“When will she wake up next?” Apparently, Snow lost a lot of blood and had lost consciousness right before we arrived.

“We can’t say conclusively.”