Alex looked back at Colm but didn't fight his hold. Alex felt crappy right now and was willing to be a punching bag. He would've punched himself too if he could.
"Colm. Son. Do you have any idea what happened? Didn't you visited April today?" Malcolm asked to ease the tension inside the room.
Only then Colm smirked while looking at Alex. "I've treated you like a brother that I've never had. I've warned you about your wife and yet you've never put it on your head! Everything that happened to her (April) was all because of you! If you've never brought her here and just let her lived with us in the US, nothing would've happened to her!"
The three old men stayed silent as the two youngsters had their own talk.
Alex gulped and stared into Colm's angry eyes. Alex could feel a stinging pain in his chest but fought hard not to breakdown. He knew that his friend was right. Colm was right. He should've listened but he was too hungry of love and his own family. If only he didn't enter April's life, this wouldn't have happened to her.
Colm could see Alex's guilt written on his face. Colm wanted to hit his friend but he could see that his lips were bleeding. Knowing that someone had already hit him. Colm then sighed and threw his friend away. He went to sit next to his father and sighed. Trying to calm himself down.
"Colm?" Malcolm asked his son again.
"Francesca." Colm leaned on his knees and closed his eyes. Both of his hands clenched each other.
As soon as the name was brought up, Everyone looked at Colm. This includes Alex.
"What did you mean?" Theo instantly asked. He and Malcolm were the most clear-headed ones inside the room.
"Francesca! That bitch kidnapped April! When I got there, still okay! I talked to her while she still had no response. When I was about to leave, I felt that something wasn't right. So instead of leaving, I went towards the control room. When I was about to knock the door, someone knocked me unconscious by hitting me on the head! When I woke up, April was already gone!" Colm's eyes were still closed. Inside his head, he fought with his emotions hard. He didn't want to shed tears right here and now.
"How do you know it's her? And who knocked you out?" Malcolm asked.
Colm shook his head. "The security guards of the Black Dragon Club. When I woke up, they told me what happened. Also that they already knew that this was going to happen. They use April to lure the snake out! They told me not to do anything or else April's life would be in danger. I fought hard with them, I got so mad! I can't believe they would do that to her. We trusted them to take good care of her!" Colm felt devastated as he recalled what happened to him earlier.
"So they told you that it was Francesca's doing?" Theo asked.
Colm sighed. "I guess because I wasn't willing to leave and just do nothing. So the higher-ups sent someone to give this to me. Only then was I willing to leave." After saying it, he took out a recorder from his inner suit pocket. He pressed play and set the recorder on the coffee table.
Everyone stared at the recorder as the voices came out. Although Ted and Malcolm didn't recognize the voices on the recorder, they could see the anger in Alex and Theo's eyes. This only confirms the identity of the people on the recorder.
"Alex, who was the other woman?" Theo stared at his son. He recognized Francesca's voice but he didn't know the identity of the other woman.
Alex clenched his fist as he stared at the recorder. "That's Beverly. Francesca's personal assistant. Her right-hand man." Alex took a deep breath and went back to stand in front of the window. He fixed his shirt and tie, as he processed this information. Everyone was silent again. They were all haggard for half a year already. Although their women stay at home, they too weren't spared from the stress. Especially for Malcolm, Ted, and Colm. They had to travel back and forth between the US and the UK.
It seems all they could do is wait and the waiting game was always the hardest part to deal with. They could try to find her but then the Black Dragon Club would not like them to meddle. As they said, they would only be on their way. Theo, Malcolm, and Ted did some small talk about the situation while Colm and Alex stayed silent.
After two hours of waiting, Theo finally received a call. He signaled everyone to stay silent and answered the call. The reason why he knew who the caller was, it was because of the ID Caller. It says as UNKNOWN.
"Theo Hawthorne" Theo spoke.
"Mr. Hawthorne, I'm glad that everyone followed my instructions!" Cefei commented on the other line. He was still using a voice-altering software to change his voice.
Theo clenched his fist and tried to calm himself down. "Can you tell us what's going on now?!"
"Easy. Easy. Put me on speaker if you haven't done so already." Cefei leaned on his chair. He was inside the control room of the Black Dragon Club Headquarters.
Theo sighed and put the phone down on the table and click the speaker mode. "You're now on speaker." He didn't know the identity of this man but he felt that this man was more likely to be Cefei. Although he had only seen that young man a couple of times, he had this vague instinct. Only people who had higher authorities could order the whole Black Dragon Club. He would put all his wealth that it wasn't the Lord of the Black Dragon Club himself.
"Everyone! Good afternoon. On behalf of the Black Dragon Club, I all thank you for cooperating with us for this half-year. I understand all of your concerns and would want to assure you that we know what we are doing."
"DO YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND "OUR" CONCERN?! YOU ARE PLAYING WITH SOMEONE'S LIFE ON THE LINE HERE!" Colm couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and yelled the heavy things inside his heart. "She is vulnerable as a child! How could you play with someone's life like this?!"