Chapter 4 - Chapter 4

Cherry stared at the photograph on her phone.Her mother was sitting inside an unfamiliar car. Beneath the picture were three words.She's with us.Her knees weakened, and Gilbert caught her by the arm."Mama," she whispered."Liam, give the number and the photographs to the police," Gilbert said. "Ask our security team to help identify the car."He turned to the duty manager."Call the police now. Have security watch the exits and preserve the hotel footage. Tell them about the messages and what happened in that room."Benjamin stepped forward."I had nothing to do with this."Gilbert looked at him."Then tell them what you know."Cherry barely heard Benjamin's reply. Her mother had been outside their house. Now she was in a car with people who were using her to force Cherry into another meeting."What if they hurt her?"Gilbert turned back to her."We're getting help.""You don't know where she is.""Not yet."Cherry searched his face. He did not promise that her mother was safe this time.He stayed beside her.The next hour passed slowly.The police examined the messages and photographs while hotel staff searched for Luke. Liam worked with Gilbert's security team, passing any useful details about the car to the officers.Cherry waited in the public lounge. Each time someone approached, she stood, hoping they had news.Gilbert remained nearby, making calls. Whenever Cherry looked toward him, he was still there.Finally, Liam returned."The police found your mother."Cherry rose so quickly that her chair shifted behind her."Where?""Near a petrol station outside the city. The people in the car left her there. She's frightened, but she isn't hurt."Cherry gripped the back of the chair."Can I speak to her?"Liam handed her a phone."Mama?""Cherry."At the sound of her mother's voice, Cherry closed her eyes. For a moment, she could not speak."Are you hurt?" she finally asked."No. I'm all right."Cherry pressed the phone closer to her ear."Who took you?""I don't know. They said you'd sent a car for me. When I got inside, they took my phone.""Could you recognize them?""I don't think so." Her mother's voice shook. "Cherry, I'm sorry."Relief gave Cherry enough strength to ask the question that had troubled her since she entered the hotel."Why did you tell me Luke was being held here?"Her mother fell silent."Mama?""I thought he was.""Who told you?""I'll explain when I see you.""Mama, I need to know."Her mother began crying. A police officer took the phone and assured Cherry that they would bring her home safely.Cherry thanked him, but when the call ended, she was still holding the phone tightly.Her mother was alive and unharmed.That mattered most.But Cherry still did not know who had sent her to Benjamin.Shortly afterward, hotel security brought Luke into the lounge. They had found him in a staff waiting area on another floor.Cherry hurried to him and wrapped her arms around him."Are you okay?"Luke nodded against her shoulder."I didn't take anything, Cherry."She drew back enough to look at him."Tell me what happened.""A man said Mama needed help. He brought me here and told me to wait for you.""Do you know him?"Luke shook his head.Cherry hugged him again. He was sixteen, gentle, and easily frightened by situations he did not understand. Whoever had brought him here had left him waiting while she was sent to a different room.Across the lounge, Benjamin was speaking to the police.Cherry looked at him. He noticed and turned away.That did not prove he had arranged any of it. But he had been waiting in the room where she was told she would find Luke.She needed to know why.The police took their statements and opened an investigation. The people who had taken her mother had abandoned the car and disappeared.Cherry could finally take Luke home.Her family was safe for now, but the questions followed her out of the hotel.Several days later, she returned to Celestial Hotel to complete her statement.Gilbert stood across the lobby.Cherry slowed when she saw him. Their last meeting had left her with two very different memories: his suspicion that she had used his grandmother, and the way he had stayed while she waited for news of her family.Whatever he thought of her, he had helped.She approached him."Thank you, Mister Ace Carter."He looked at her."For helping my mother and Luke," she added. "I wanted to thank you properly."Gilbert's expression remained guarded.He had told himself that the incident concerned his family too. His wife had been threatened inside the hotel. If the matter became public, his grandmother could be drawn into it.That was reason enough to act.Yet he remembered Cherry gripping the chair when Liam said her mother had been found. He remembered how her voice had broken on the phone."You may go now, Miss Blaire," he said.Her small smile faded."All right."She nodded and walked away.Gilbert watched her for a moment before turning back to his business."Miss Blaire."Cherry stopped near the entrance.Liam Miller was approaching her."Do you have a moment?"A few minutes later, they sat across from each other in a coffee shop near the hotel.Liam placed a brown envelope on the table."Mister Carter wants you to sign this agreement today. It sets out the terms he's proposing as you proceed with the annulment."Cherry looked at the envelope.Of course. Helping her family had not changed his decision.She opened it and took out the papers. When she reached for a pen, Liam stopped her."Please read it first."Cherry lowered the pen."What should I know?""It says you won't receive any money from Mister Carter."She looked down at the page."At first, he intended to provide a condominium and five million pesos," Liam continued. "That offer has been removed.""Five million pesos?""Yes."For a moment, Cherry could only stare at him.That money could cover Luke's school expenses. It could pay for food and give them a place to live without constant worry.She would not have to count every coin before deciding what could wait until next week."Why did he change it?" she asked.Liam hesitated."After Mister Scott accused you of marrying for access to the family, Mister Carter withdrew the offer."Cherry's fingers closed around the pen.She had asked Gilbert to check the truth. He had agreed.But he had already taken something away because of Benjamin's accusation.It was not the lost money that hurt most. It was knowing how little her denial had meant to him.She looked back at the papers."I never asked him for any of that.""I understand. But you should still know what you're signing."Cherry read the agreement. The offer Liam had described was gone. The papers set out what Gilbert wanted her to accept as they moved toward ending the marriage; her signature would not make the marriage disappear that day.When she finished reading, she picked up the pen.She had agreed to marry for her grandmother's peace. She had not expected Gilbert to pay her when it ended.She signed and pushed the papers back across the table."I need to check on Luke before class."Liam looked at her signature, then at her."There's one more thing."Cherry waited."Mister Carter wants you to stop contacting Madame Mathilde. He doesn't want her to learn about the annulment yet."Cherry went still.The money had never been hers.Mathilde's kindness had been real.She had listened to Cherry at the volunteer center. She had treated her like someone worth caring about, long before Gilbert became her husband.Cherry lowered her eyes."He doesn't want me near her at all?""That's his request."She took a slow breath."You have my word, Mister Miller. I won't contact her."Liam paused, watching her.Cherry adjusted the strap of her old bag."If we're finished, I should go.""You have class today?""Yes. After I check on my brother.""And after class?""Work.""What do you do?""I have a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant. I also take other work when I can."She gave him a polite nod and stood.Liam did not stop her again.Outside the coffee shop, Cherry kept walking until she was far enough away to let her smile fall.She could manage without a condominium or a settlement. She had been managing for years.Keeping away from Mathilde would be harder.Still, she had promised. She would not give Gilbert another reason to accuse her of trying to reach his family.After checking on Luke, Cherry went to class, then straight to her shift at the restaurant.Her scholarship covered tuition. It did not cover meals, transportation, projects, or the expenses at Luke's special education school.Those still had to be paid.Her father had died when she was three. As she grew older, more of the family's responsibilities fell to her. Her mother made promises, apologized when she broke them, and asked for another chance.Cherry kept giving her one.Even now, after the hotel, part of her wanted to believe there was an explanation she could understand. Her mother had been frightened too.But Cherry could no longer ignore the questions. She needed to know who had told her mother that Luke was being held, and why Benjamin had a document bearing her name.For that evening, though, she had customers waiting.Cherry carried orders, cleared tables, and greeted people until her shift ended. Back at her boarding house, she photographed old clothes, shoes, and small accessories to sell online.On days without a restaurant shift, she delivered food on her secondhand bicycle.She was tired, but she opened her schoolwork before going to bed.Her scholarship was the one chance she could not afford to lose.Five million pesos could have changed her life. She would not pretend otherwise.But she had never married Gilbert for his money. She would not argue for an offer he had withdrawn because he thought she had.She turned to the next page and kept working.Later, Liam opened the signed agreement again.Cherry had read it, accepted that there would be no payment, and left to check on her brother before going to class and work.She had not tried to bargain.That did not prove every suspicion about her was wrong. But it gave him reason to question the story they had accepted.He remembered the way her face had changed when he mentioned Mathilde. Losing contact with the older woman had seemed to hurt her more than losing the money.Then he thought of the hotel.Cherry had been told her brother was in room eighteen zero seven. Luke had been waiting on another floor. Benjamin had been inside the room, ready to confront her with a document she said she knew nothing about.Afterward, someone had threatened her mother.There was no proof that Benjamin was connected to those threats. Liam could not turn suspicion into fact.But Benjamin had called Cherry a liar while leaving his own part in the meeting unexplained.Liam looked down at her signature.They had spent so much time asking what Cherry wanted from the Carter family.There was another question they needed to answer.What had Benjamin Scott actually done to her?