My Life As An Escort ~ Book 2 New Beginnings (Completed)✅

Chapter 12 ~ Hope

Ben's POV

After the engagement and before the wedding

It had been a few weeks since Lilly found out the truth about her past. It had taken her a few days to come to terms but with Cadence's engagement and wedding day approaching, it had brought her spirits back up.

I couldn't believe that my "Suga" would be a married woman within the day. Evan had gone through hoops to make sure everything went off without a hitch. I was actually impressed with the young Evan McCain and as long as he treated her right, we wouldn't have any issues. Lilly said she would be back by the end of the week so I had been doing a little research.

Carmen had mentioned a Fred and Corrine Warner in her diary. She said that Malcolm had given our child to them as payment for a poker game. After doing research we found out that Fred Warner was an abusive and alcoholic card shark. He would work local poker games and make a killing off the winnings. Come to find out he had taken quite a bit of money from Malcolm at several games.

The unfortunate news was that he died and his wife Corrine died five years later. It seemed that Fred and Corrine did not have a will so my child was sent to foster care.

It seemed that every time we took two steps forward, we got knocked back five. This was like a puzzle with a thousand pieces and it seem that we were only half way done. This was so frustrating that it seemed we were so close but still so far away.

We did find out that Corrine had named the child, Elizabeth Warner. I had Steve searching databanks all over Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, since technically no name was on the birth certificate. If she was adopted this was the only name we had.

I searched on the computer looking for Elizabeth Warner as there were thousands of hits. I knew I was looking for a needle in a haystack but I was willing to try every resource.

We found the door that the key opened at Chateaux Dijon. Inside were documents of Malcolm's shrewd business dealings. He had money in accounts that Lilly had no clue of and stocks and bonds that were worth millions. The certificates were still being appraised but even with the money it didn't come close to filling the hole of our missing daughter.

Deal after deal Malcolm made gave away to greed and misery. We found more pictures of malevolent acts and where he instituted home foreclosures on poor innocent people. Malcolm Monroe was a scoundrel and he was put on this earth to torment people.

There were tons of documents and it would take us months to go through it but Lilly hired a team of organizers to go through it. We were hoping that we could find just one piece of evidence to find the missing pieces we needed.

I heard my phone ringing so I grabbed it and looked down. It was Steve.

"Hey man, I think I found something. Meet me at City Cafe in a hour," Steve said out of breath. I hung up and grabbed my coat.

An hour later I pulled up to the restuarant. I walked inside to see Steve sitting at a table in the corner. He waved me over and I sat.

"Hey. The organizers are just about finished. I think within a few days, they should be done. My friend at the FBI found this."

He reached me an envelope and inside contained a picture of a young girl. She had brownish hair and tanned skin. She looked just like Lilly. She had my lips and she looked absolutely beautiful. This was our child as a teenager. I thought about all the years we had missed and I was saddened.

The look in her eyes showed nothing but sadness. My heart went out to her as I touched the picture. So much time had passed that I felt sick to my stomach.