Chapter 360: BEACH HOUSE
The call only rang once and the receiver immediately picked it up.
"Are you people at the beach house yet?" The voice of Adrain rang in her ears and Jude didn’t know how to tell him what was in her mind anymore. "Tell me, are you people at the beach yet? If you are, follow the plan and bring those children to me."
Adrain waited for a second if he could hear her speak and when she refused to stay quiet, he barked out loud, startling her.
"Talk!"
Jude quickly calmed down her breathing before she replied.
"Sir, I-I can’t do this," she finally said. The call was quiet for a second and Jude wondered if Adrain heard her or not. "S-sir," she uttered, hoping he heard her so she wouldn’t have to repeat herself. Saying that sentence once was already hard enough.
"What did you say?" Adrian asked.
Jude frowned, knowing fully well that Adrian heard her words but he was asking her to repeat it.
Calming herself down even more by taking deep breaths so she wouldn’t stutter anymore, Jude opened her mouth to speak.
"I can’t do this anymore. I can’t kidnap the twins and bring them to you, sir. That’s very wrong."
"Do you realize that I have your daughter held captive and I’m very sure that you do know what will happen to her if you don’t do what I’ve asked you to do, Jude? The girl will be dead before you even arrive here to take her body." As those words spilled out of his mouth, Adrain immediately laughed as if he’d just heard the funniest joke known to man.
"P-please sir, leave my daughter out of this," Jude pleaded as tears brimmed in her eyes. This was the last thing that she wanted to hold her back from doing what she wanted. To get her daughter back from Adrain, she had to sacrifice two little boys. "Please sir, take pity on me. Don’t harm my daughter, I beg of you." She sobbed silently so that she wouldn’t bring unwanted attention to herself.
"I won’t be harming your daughter, Jude but I will if you don’t follow the plan," Adrain said and hung up on the call without giving her a chance to say anything anymore.
The phone glued to Jude’s ears until she slowly pulled it away and teared up even more.
Looking at the house, she apologized,
"I’m sorry Mr and Mrs Anderson, but the life of my daughter is at stake here. If I don’t do what I’ve been told to do, I will lose her forever."
—
"The beach is so beautiful," Luca commented as soon as his eyes landed on the large ocean with waves. Seagulls chirped above the sea as they flew happily.
"This isn’t the first time we’ve been to the beach before, why are you acting like you haven’t seen it before?" John asked his little brother, frowning.
"It’s because it seems like it looks even more beautiful now." Turning to John, Luca asked, "Are you not excited about the beach? Look at it, it’s so beautiful."
John stared out of the window, glanced at the beach but didn’t reply to Luca’s question. "It looks the same."
"Beautiful right?" Luca asked deadpan, wanting to make John admit the beach was beautiful. The latter glared at him but he returned it with a sheepish smile and tapped his mother on the shoulder.
"Yes, sweetie?" Erika asked with a smile.
"The beach does look beautiful right?" Luca asked.
Erika nodded. "It does look very beautiful and after we have our things settled at the beach house, you can go ahead and play in it."
Luca’s eyes immediately shone with happiness when he heard his mother’s words. That was exactly the next question he was about to ask her and she answered even before it came out of his mouth.
"Okie."
Jude, who was seated beside them, smiled when Luca made eye contact with him.
"You should come with us," he said.
Erika turned to see whom Luca was talking with and saw Jude sitting still like a statue.
"Who is ’us’?" John interrupted.
"You and me of course," Luca replied.
"Did I ever mention going to play at the beach?"
"You didn’t but definitely will after I’m all dressed up to play with the water. Did you think I would go to the beach without you beside me?" Luca asked and John could only sigh.
"I’m not going to the beach," he said.
Both Erika and Ethan glanced at them from the rearview mirror and smiled because they could already see the upcoming bickering those two were going to have soon.
The twins continued to argue until they arrived at the beach house and Erika had to intervene else they would continue until it was nighttime.
"Boys, get down now," she said.
They got out of the car and headed inside the house.
The house was smaller in size than their mansion but it looked expensive due to its fancy pieces of furniture.
Ethan assisted Erika in bringing the food containers into the kitchen and storing them in the fridge.
"When two bicker, there’s no ending to it," she commented.
"Yeah but at the end of the day, John will still do what Luca says. I bet you that he will go to the beach with Luca before the end of the day," he replied and Erika smiled.
"That’s right."
At that same time, Luca pulled John with him as they walked towards the door, dressed in their beach shorts.
"Mom, Dad, we are going to play on the beach now," Luca declared.
Both Ethan and Erika glanced at John who was holding up the biggest frown they’d ever seen on his face but he didn’t resist when Luca pulled him.
"Okay, sweetie. I will ask Jude to join you in a while," said Erika, and Luca nodded.
Without letting go of John’s hand for a second, he continued to pull him until they got to the shore with Jude right behind them.
