DEAR CHARLIE...

Chapter 3~ A new dawn

Joshua's POV

My wife was telling us of the details that happened when she went to see her brother today when suddenly a deep voice called for my wife in my own house.

"Camilla Yasmin Bess!!!", a deep voice yelled, followed by what sounded like three pairs of rushing footsteps and heavy breathing.

Camilla chocked on her wine and the boys chuckled, looking around to find the source of the footsteps. My brother-in-law, Antonio, and his twin sons, Anthony and Antony, came into view. They stood infront of us, panting and wheezing. Anthony grabbed my eldest son, Josh's drink from his hand and gulped it and passed it to his brother who gulped the remaining contents of it in one go. "Hey! I was drinking that!", Josh whined but the twins just glared at him and ignored him.

Camilla stood up and gave her brother a drink whilst trying to calm him down. I was still confused on what was happening. "Come down, you three and tell us what happened," my wife said. "Take deep breaths in and out," Josh joked. The trio just glared at him in a 'you're not helping' look. He shrugged in return.

Finally the father and sons calmed down and started to explain what happened after Camilla left Antonio's house.

"We were dissing Antony's girlfriend when a vase suddenly dropped drawing our attention to the source of the sound. We saw a figure running away and our men chasing the mysterious figure. One of the men yelled, "sir it's MJ." We immediately took off after her. Long story short, we caught her by the cliff overlooking the river. We had her where we wanted her and I noticed she was shot on her shoulder blade. Anthony demanded she tell us why she was here but she kept quiet and slowly raised her hands. She removed her mask and to say we were bewildered would be an understatement. I don't get how we didn't pick it up before." Antonio explained. He ket on muffling under his breath hinting at her true identity.

"Antonio what are you trying to say. Please be clear. Joshua what is he saying?", she questioned. I just shrugged my shoulders. If anything, I was as confused as she was, if not more.

"Aunty, she said her name is...", Anthony said. "Charlie McKenzie Jasmin Bess," the trio said at once. As soon as those words left their mouths, we froze in place. "M-my b-b-baby is alive? Josh My Jazzy is alive?", she asked with tears streaming down her face. I was also in tears. We never gave up on her even after 20 years, we still did not lose hope.

Antonio nodded his head slowly. He wiped his sister's tears and whispered, "she is alive, amore. She said to tell you that she loves you a lot and she misses you and she only came to my house because she heard you were there but she was too late as you had already left."

"So then what are we waiting for, let's go find her,"  Jason said already standing up. They also missed their siblings equally as much as we did. They were traumatized after they were taken and our family was never the same ever again. "Was she with the boys?" Jaden asked.

"No," Antony responded. "Wait what, what do you mean by that?", I asked. "She was alone and she said not to try and find her. She said she will come meet you once she has found all of her brothers, then she fell into the water. We looked down only to see the S.W.A.T submarine already rescuing her, which could mean she works for them. We asked our best hackers to find out information about her but they found nothing. We even enquired about her at the S.W.A.T HQ but there was no Charlie McKenzie Jasmin Bess or any MJ. It's like she was never born nor does she exist. We did the same with her brothers but nothing. So I guess we should just wait for her and the boys to come to us," Antony said, shrugging his shoulders.

I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I was so happy that my kids were alive and on the other hand I was so confused on how they survived. My wife looked at me with a look I last saw 20 years ago. Happiness. Hope. Relaxation. Excitement. She conveyed all these feelings to me through her tears and I knew she wanted me to find our little bundles of joy immediately and bring them back in her arms. We were so ecstatic that we did not sleep.  We spent the entire night trying to find the boys and her. We almost gave up until Jase found them, at last, but their information was protected by a fire wall neither of us could crack. We  finally decided to call it a night and decided to continue the search in the morning. My wife and I slept like babies. The peaceful, longest sleep we have ever had in the last 20 years ever since they were taken.

The darkest night has the brightest of stars. The saying is true indeed. This has been one long dark night.