Without A Trace(Luke Hemmings FF)

Thirty-two

Zoey's POV:
We wake up the next morning, cuddled up to each other.

"Good morning." I smile.

"Good morning." He replies. There's a knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in!" I call out. My little brother walks in holding the landline phone.

"Uh, sis? Someone is on the phone for you." He says, sounding as confused as I probably look.

"On the landline? Why do we still even have that thing? Everyone has cell phones nowadays." I say, sitting up. Luke does, too. Zed shrugs, handing me the phone.

"It's an automated voice recorder. Someone from prison." He tells me and my heart starts racing. I put the phone on speaker and Zed walks out.

"If you would like to accept this collect call from inmate, Mark Hemmings, please press one now." The recorded woman's voice says.

"Luke, get your phone out and record this conversation." I tell him and he quickly obliges. Once he starts recording, I press one.

"Hel-hello?" I answer hesitantly.

"Hello, Molly. How have you been?" He asks sounding chipper.

"My name is Zoey." I tell him, voice strained. Luke rubs circles on my back and kisses the corner of my forehead.

"So, Molly, I just wanted to let you know that I told Luke about Baby Nikolas." He says and I can't steady my breathing.

"I figured that he needed to know that you're a mum." He adds and I quickly look at Luke. He looks confused, but supportive.

"Why did you tell him that?" I cry.

"He needed to know. He's my son. I'm just looking out for him." He says, so I just hang up. I can't keep doing this! He's in prison, but he still has complete control over me.

"You don't have to tell me anything. If you wanted me to know, you would have told me by now." He says and I shake my head.

"While I was there, my first month there, one of the guys that worked for Mark got me pregnant." I begin. He just sits and listens.

"About eight and a half months later, baby Nikolas was born. I loved him. Despite his father and where we were living. I loved him so much! He was my baby. He is my baby." I sob.

"I had him for about a week, then one day, Mark came in and made me give the baby up for adoption. He said that if I fought it, he'd kill us both, so I went along with it. I didn't want anything bad happening to my son, so I interviewed a couple. They were perfect. He is a pastor and she is a doctor. They have had issues with fertility, so they can't conceive on their own. They do have two other children. Twins that they adopted from Kenya. I know that he is okay and that they are taking good care of him, it's just... That was my job." I sniffle and he pulls me into him.

"Everything is going to be okay, baby." He says and I nod, wiping my tears. I grab my cell phone and dial Mitchell Greene, my attorney's, number.

"Who are you calling?" Luke asks.

"My attorney. I want that sixty-two million dollars." I tell him.

...

I'm sitting at the dining room table with Luke sitting next to me and my attorney sitting across from me.

"So, you've decided that you want to go ahead with the trial, then?" Mitchell asks. Luke takes my hands in his on top of the table, giving me the courage to speak.

"Yes." I tell him and he scans through papers.

"If you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to go through with it?" He wonders.