Perseverance [Complete]

Chapter 26

Kong's POV

I had bile rising up my stomach. Aim and Wad were worrying over me while I was retching right in the middle of P'Arthit's living room.

He took her.

Those words kept playing in my head over and over again. I needed to get to the hospital. I needed to get Rune back.

How could it have taken me so long to make the connection. I was literally staring at all the proof I needed right now. This toy. This closet. All the fucking things covered in plastic where Rune's things should have been. I had myself packed a closet which looked exactly like this the week before I returned for the party. I am holding the toy my niece was crying over when my sister and I frantically stuffed their belongings in bags to leave her husband.

That god awful week where my family and I had done everything in our power to make sure my vile brother-in-law would never see his wife or daughter again. For heaven's sake I never wanted to see that man again. When I had finally returned from home, P'Arthit and Rune were a breath of fresh air. I was desperately trying to put everything associated to him out of my mind and I had succeeded.

I knew he hated me. He had told me repeatedly how much he despised me, how he blamed me for taking his daughter away. I knew he had anger issues. I knew he was abusive towards my sister and niece. I knew he had snapped when I finally managed to get them away. I fucking knew all of that and yet I didn't make the connection. It wasn't P'Arthit being followed that night of the party after I returned. It was me.

But I thought he had stopped. He had signed the divorce papers. He had stayed away from my sister and niece. He hadn't even tried contacting them since then. And like a fool I believed the nightmare had finally ended. Obviously it had not. And now he had managed to make P'Arthit and Rune a part of it. And he took her.

I reached the hospital to see P'Arthit surrounded by a few cops talking frantically to them. I had called my family on my way and they arrived almost the same time I did.

As soon as P'Arthit saw me he rushed forwards to grab me in a bone crushing hug. He was shaking all over with tears covering his distraught face.

"Kong, what do I do? I lost her. I let her go jus for a moment and she was gone. How do I find her? What do I do?"

"P'Arthit I..."

The police interrupted us to start asking me and my family questions. I needed to be strong and focused. I needed to get her back. I had failed everyone once already but I wasn't going to let that happen again.

"Kongpop are you sure it is your brother-in-law?"

"Yes"

"Why do you suspect him? We checked all the security cameras for this hallway, we don't see anyone talking to her or approaching her. She is standing here one minute and gone the next. We can't even figure out which direction she went."

For the first time since we arrived my sister had stopped crying enough to explain why it couldn't be anyone but her ex-husband. "He is the director of security at this hospital."

"What?"

"He has worked here for the past 15 years. Avoiding or manipulating a few cameras should be very easy for him."

"Is that how he could put all those cameras in my apartment so easily?"

"Yes, P'Arthit. Don't you see? The broken glass, the apple juice for Rune, that was not to scare you. That was to get Rune to the hospital. Once she is here, it is easier for him to get to her. For some reason he failed the last two times, maybe because I happened to be with you both the times. I would have recognized him from a mile away so he didn't approach her. That's why she thought he was my friend. Rune must have seen him last year when I took her to my niece's birthday party."

I could see P'Arthit was having a hard time absorbing all this information. It was still difficult for me to swallow the fact that my sister had married such a deranged man. None of us needed the answer to the unspoken question. It was obvious he went after Rune to get back at me. He was taking his revenge against me out on a vulnerable child.

"Then why did he send us those dead birds? He should have known that would just scare us away. That I would keep a closer eye on her after that."

"I...I am not sure..."

All of us were silent for a moment before P'Arthit voiced the thought we were fearing.

"Wh...what do you think he will do with her?"

My sister and I exchanged a scared look. If our past experience with him was anything to go by, we needed to track them down and get Rune away from him fast.

We gave the police all the information we had on him. His home address, the places he frequented, names and address for his friends and family, anything and everything we could think of. They were going to launch a city wide search.

And now they expected us to just wait. Do nothing. Just sit and hope they would get to Rune soon. But how can we rely only on them? They hadn't been of much help until now.

I needed to focus. I needed to think. Until now we had been going about this blind, but now we knew who we were dealing with. Now we could predict his moves. I needed to figure out what his end game was, so that we could disrupt it.

One of the cops and P'Arthit were trying to get as much information out of my sister as possible while she replied brokenly in-between sobs. I knew what she was feeling. Heart wrenching guilt. But right now was not the time for that. That will come later.

We were about to head to the police station to wait for any news regarding the multiple search parties that had dispersed, when I grabbed P'Arthit's arm to get his attention.

"P'Arthit...I ....I think I know what he wants with Rune. We need to go back to your apartment."