The Daughter Extraction

Where To Find You

~Two Weeks Later~
•LUNA•

One thing I had hoped for after waking up from a coma was to forget everything from the past, especially the memories involving Alec. Despite how much it hurt to even consider erasing him permanently from my mind, I was willing to accept the outcome.

But fate had other plans, of course.

I can still remember the day the accident took place and the last time I spoke to Alec. It feels like it was only yesterday, and remembering the words he said to me stabs me in the heart a million times over.

I hated how much he affected me, much less the memories of him did. It only adds to my heartache to think that I fell for a man who wanted nothing to do with me, much less acknowledge my existence.

Waking up from a coma made me realize that despite all my efforts, he made me feel like a thorn in his side that he couldn't remove. To him, I was the living memory of the near-death experience he went through because of me.

I was someone he was trying to permanently erase from his life, and that hurts me more than anything in the world. My existence meant nothing but a reminder of pain to someone who once meant everything to me.

The prick of the needle in my wrist jolts me out of my daze. I turn my head to the side and watch the nurse change my drip bag before giving me a small smile and exiting the room.

Thanks to my father's strict orders, I've been stuck in bed every day watching different hired nurses and doctors walk into my room to do their daily checkups and monitoring before reporting every vital detail back to my father.

I haven't stepped foot outside this room once, and the closest view of the outside world I have is the window next to my bed where I spend every second of the day looking outside, either lost in my thoughts or stuck in a dreamless daze once again.

At first, it bothered me, but now I am starting to appreciate the quiet and solitary space that provides a little peace to help me figure things out from here.

Whether it be plans about going back to school or accepting the job offer at my father's firm to run his campaign, all I know is that it'll be a future without Alec no longer involved.

•ALEC•

"Any luck?" Blair shakes her head before taking a seat next to me.

I release another frustrated sigh before aimlessly gazing at the computer screen in front of me, showing days-old footage from Vancouver General Hospital and L.A.X trying to track down where they had taken Luna after flying her out from Canada.

I've been reviewing this footage all day and rewinding it, but so far, nothing has come up. It's like they suddenly disappeared into thin air. They had definitely left the hospital and were spotted at a private airstrip where Luna and some other medical staff boarded a jet, and the jet landed at L.A.X.

But the footage never showed any clips of Luna and them exiting the airport. The cameras were all operating 24/7 that day, and everything was clear as day. But they were gone. How they did that, I have no idea.

But I'm not surprised that with Luna's father being a powerful politician, he could've easily arranged everything and kept all operations strictly on the down low.

I'm just a tad bit surprised he never asked for the CIA's support with such a matter since he's a high-valued candidate working for our President. The CIA is the top-notch security provided to anyone within the President's circle.

But I understand why he wouldn't reach out to us. I was both involved in the CIA and with Luna so by all logical reasons, he's definitely keeping her as far away from me as possible without access to any information regarding her life.

It kills me that I'm no longer in the loop and I have no idea what's going on with Luna. Whether she's alive and okay, or whether she's....

Don't go there yet.

I'm losing retrains on my control day by day and with sleep deprivation and caffeine fueling my adrenaline, I could only hang on to the thin thread of hope that keeps me going, to quickly find her and make sure she's alright.

Otherwise, I'm gonna go fucking insane.

"They kept all hospital records strictly confidential, and according to my source, Whitman is trying to keep the situation from reaching the press. He's dealt with enough shit show already with his failed campaign to run for presidency and the Mexico abduction situation," Blair said. "The last thing he needs is for the press to have a field day after learning about Luna's accident in Canada."

I twist my chair away from the computers and turn towards her and Martin sitting across from me.

"It's odd that they were never spotted by the cameras at the airport, which means they had worked with someone on the inside who could provide an easy exit without getting much attention from anybody," I informed them.

Everything was slowly starting to click inside my head.

"That makes sense," Martin added with a nod of his head. "But despite having that much control of keeping the hospital location strictly confidential, we still have the authority to find out, and we tried. But how come every single hospital we've tracked down had no records of Luna being admitted there?"

Martin's question made me backtrack all the way to the beginning, rethinking again from the start. I was missing something here, yet it felt like it was right there in front of me. The only problem was, I couldn't pinpoint exactly what the answer is.

"Maybe they left the country? It could explain why there's no footage of them leaving the airport," Blair reasoned.

"No, their private jet is still here, and there was no record of them in the system booking any flights or buying a plane ticket," Martin answered with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Whitman nearly lost his daughter once; he wouldn't risk losing her again." Both their heads snapped immediately in my direction, listening in. "He would want to keep her close and strictly monitor her, especially since she was in an accident."

I slowly stood from my chair and walked towards the bigger screens across the room showing live footage of every location we had tracked down where we think the former governor would be hiding his daughter.

I stuffed my hands inside my pockets and stared directly at one particular location that we had overlooked so many times for the past two weeks.

"If I were a father, where would I want to be while keeping my daughter close so I can always be by her side?"

It was a theoretical question because the answer was already on the tip of my tongue. Everything was starting to fall into place now.

"Home?" Martin asked anyway with a twinge of confusion.

I turned around to face them and nodded my head once.

"That's exactly where Luna is."