First-Class Vacation for His Parents? His Secretary Had Other Plans Chapter 04

Part of me wanted to walk away. They weren’t my parents, after all.

But I couldn’t live with that.

Back when I had nothing and was still getting my business off the ground, my in-laws had never looked down on me. They’d encouraged Ryan to marry me.

They’d said I was a good person and would make a good wife. Now they were in danger. I couldn’t just stand by.

I reached out to old friends with connections in the underworld.

They had plenty of people to call on and contacts everywhere. With their help, I was sure we could find my in-laws.

Two hours later, they had a lead.

That bitch Chloe really had dumped them in a remote old-growth forest.

Finding them would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

I called Ryan. We’d need as many people as possible to search for them, but he refused to answer.

I gripped my phone, so frantic I almost started swearing. Then Chloe called.

“Mr. Carter says your parents are your problem.”

“And he won’t be giving them another million dollars to squander.”

I was too desperate to save them to waste time arguing with her.

“Chloe, they’re not my parents. They’re my in-laws.”

“Tell me exactly where you left them. Now.”

“I left them at… Actually, why should I tell you?”

“Ha! Worried now, are you?”

“Good. After this, your parents will have learned their lesson. They’ll never ask Mr. Carter for money again.”

“Bye!”

“Hello?”

The line went dead. She’d hung up.

There was no point in asking again. She was never going to tell me.

She’d only string me along and waste more time. We couldn’t afford that, so I gathered my friends.

Following the trail they’d pieced together from surveillance footage, we headed out.

We reached the foot of a mountain. The forest ahead was dark and forbidding.

There was no sign of my in-laws. We didn’t know if they’d gone farther up the mountain, somehow made it home, or ended up somewhere else entirely.

Their phones were still unreachable, and they were nowhere to be found.

I’d called the police, too, but the officer told me they wouldn’t start a search until twenty-four hours had passed.

We wore GPS-enabled smartwatches that could also make calls.

Whoever found them would call the rest of us right away. If a search turned up nothing, we were to head back before we got lost, too.

We searched for two days and two nights without finding them.

The police joined the search, but they had no luck either.

We didn’t even know for certain whether this was where my in-laws had disappeared.

Only Chloe could tell us. Furious, I went back to the company.

Filthy and exhausted, I walked into Ryan’s office.

This time, they were kissing.

I stormed in just as I had before and sent Chloe flying with a kick.

Ignoring Ryan’s shouting, I grabbed her by the throat.

“Tell me where you dumped Mom and Dad!”

She was frightened enough to answer, but before she could speak, something struck my head.

Ryan had smashed a vase over my head.

“You really have lost your mind. Can’t you talk without getting violent?”

“I told Chloe to leave your parents out in the wilderness. If you’ve got a problem with that, take it up with me.”

I froze. No wonder Chloe had been so brazen.

Ryan was the one backing her up.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He thought they were my parents, so he couldn’t care less.

Then my phone rang.

I answered and heard my friend’s voice.

“Ms. Bennett, we found them.”

“I’m sorry. They’re both dead.”

I had the call on speaker. Ryan and Chloe heard every word.

I’d expected him to be devastated, to lash out at Chloe, to blame himself.

Instead, he merely sighed and wrote me a check.

“There’s nothing you can do now. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“This is the last money I’ll ever give them. Use it to give them a proper funeral.”

I tore up the check.

“It’s your parents who are dead!” I screamed. “If you don’t believe me, take a good look at their bodies.”

“Officer Reed, please point the camera at them. Let their devoted son see for himself.”

“All right.”