Mending A Broken Heart

Chapter 10

Augustine stared into space as he tried to determine who would even think of taking his child. He was trying his best to stay positive. There was no way that he could would put himself through the ordeal of imaging the worse. He silently listened to the cops and negotiators talk about his daughter as if they knew her personally. No one knew Isabella the way that he did, but he they had more experience in these situations, and he wanted all the help he could get in getting his baby back home safely. He sat at his desk, awaiting a phone call from the kidnappers or for any news updates, but it seemed that there wasn't anything to report. He found himself going stir crazy, and the only thing he wanted was for his daughter to be back in his arms.

He was brought out of his thoughts by soft knocks at the door. He cleared his throat, and told the guest to enter the room. A small smile spread across his face as he watched Trisha come through the door. She still had on her evening gown. She looked just as beautiful as she did when he first picked her up. The only things that were different were here sad eyes, and she had pulled her beautiful hair into a bun on the top of her head.

Sitting a small takeout box in front of him, Trisha took a seat in front of his desk. She watched as Augustine began staring back out of the window. There was nothing she could do to comfort him. She didn't have a way to make the situation better. The only thing she knew is that he hadn't eaten, and he needed to stay well for his daughter's sake. A calm silence filled the room, and the only sound that could be heard was the ticking of the clock.

A soft buzz rung in the office, and Augustine quickly reached for it. Looking over to the officer who sat at the left of him, he answered the phone putting it on speaker. "Hello who is this?"
"You should see your beautiful angel. She is sleeping peacefully."
"What do you want? I just want my daughter home."
"I want the money that was taking from me, and I will give you your daughter back. Not a hair harmed on her head."
"Name the price."
"34.2 million dollars."
"It's gonna take me some time to gather that type of money, but that will be no problem."
"You have until dawn. Your daughter will be a Foley Square, and the money will be dropped into baggage claim at FDR Airport. If there are any cops around, you'd better tell them to back off, because I have inside people at the police department, and I will know who's coming."
"There will be no one there. I'll have your money."
"You better, for the sake of la nina," the distorted voice cut out, and Augustine frantically looked at the officers. One officers was typing away on a keyboard with a determined look on his face. Seconds later he sadly said, "I'm sorry he was bouncing the calls off multiple towers all around the world.

Anger took over Augustine as he threw the items off of his desk. Turning quickly towards the officers, he firmly stated, "Don't come near either drop point. You had one job, trace the call, and you couldn't even do that. There's no way that I would trust you saving my daughter's life. I want all of you out of my building right now." The officers looked at Augustine confused, causing a loud yell to boom from Augustine's throat, "I said get the hell out now." The officers quickly started packing their things away, and left with remorse.

Running his hands through his hair vigorously, Augustine wanted nothing more but to find out what the hell was going on with his daughter. Soft tapping of a keyboard made Augustine snap his head around. His anger quickly turned to frustration as he saw her in her natural habitat reading spreadsheets on the computer. Furrowing his brows, he asked, "Trisha why the hell are you looking at spreadsheets right now? You should be on the phone with the banks right now trying to get the money together."
"I'm just going to ignore your attitude because I know that you are going through a great ordeal at the moment. I already contacted Sean Hogan from the bank, and he and his associates are getting the money together as we speak."
"So what the hell are you doing at my computer?"
"Augustine obviously you aren't thinking clearly."
"Clearly i'm not on the same page as you."
"Think about the amount of money that they asked you for. Who the hell asks for that random sum of money."
"I don't know Trisha it seems that the abductors know."
"No Augustine, you're a freaking billionaire. 34 million is not a lot to as it would be for a normal person. So why ask for that total if it has nothing to do with you," Trisha asked still looking at the computer screen.

Augustine stared at Trisha has went from file to file looking for some type of connection. She thought that there had to be some type of reference in the many deals that they had brokered. If not what they had done together, it might have been from his last CFO. Augustine didn't know what to think. The only thing that he knew is that he needed and had no choice but to get his daughter back. Isabella was everything to him, there is nothing that he wouldn't do for her, and if that meant paying the ransom that's exactly what he was going to do.

While Trisha tried to figure out the connection, the door burst open rattling the frame that it sat in. A yelp escaped through her lips, and Augustine swung around in anger, and was greeted by the angry eyes of Sofia. Sofia stormed right up to Augustine, and screamed, "Why the hell did you send the cops packing? Our daughter has been kidnapped, and you're in here throwing your weight around. Don't you care about what happens to Issy?"
"Hey don't question my love for my daughter Sophia. You know that's the quickest way to get your ass thrown out of this building?"
"Throw me out? I'm here trying to save my daughter's life, and you're more concerned with arguing with me."
"You're the one who came in here questioning me about why the cops aren't here," Augustine said not backing down from Sophia.

Trisha quickly stepped in between the both of them, earning a dirty look from Sophia. She stepped back disgusted, and asked, "Is this what is going on? You're not sleeping around with your little slut of a secretary anymore, so you're sleeping with the whore who takes care of your money."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't know anything about him sleeping around with Emily, but he surely isn't sleeping around with me. Now you can talk how you want to anyone else, but you surely won't disrespect me, and think that you will get away with it. I'm here trying to help save your daughter, and if you both don't mind i'm trying to work here," Trisha stated firmly before going back to the computer. Sophia looked as if she wanted to respond, but decided not to.

Instead of continuing to fight with Sophia, Augustine grabbed his keys, and headed for the door. "And where the hell do you think that you're going," Sofia asked folding her hands across her chest. Looking out of the wall of windows to the approaching sun, Augustine turned to her with a determined look on his face, and said, "I'm going to save my baby."