Puppy Love
Chapter 36

~Liam~

We drove to the hospital in silence, and I could feel the grim in the air. Other than Charlotte that was excited about seeing her mother, the rest of us were in deep thought.

Evidently, the people who made the video and sent it to our parents were those who blew up the van and the house.

They were the people that were watching

Josephine and me.

I could understand why Justin freaked out. I wondered what their deal was and why they had to harm the housekeeper. How does she tie into all this? Although they said the housekeeper had been employed by my grandparents, I did not know who she was. Grandma had a lot of workers, but we always ended up doing most of the chores in the house, so they rarely came by.

This housekeeper must have been unlucky to be the one sent to the house. We need to look into her life to understand what might have happened.

We arrived at the hospital, and the number of, guards we found there indicated that Aunty Claudia was truly in the building. Uncle Vino never took chances with his girls; he was sure to double down when it came to his wife.

While we entered the building, I could not help but chuckle internally. I could just imagine the scowl that might be on Uncle Vino’s face right now.

I remember when the issue with Sophia started, he was pretty annoyed. He did not understand why it should be our business. Seeing him go from that to being super excited about getting involved with the investigation was amazing.

People greeted us, and we responded, walking briskly to the elevator.

We divide ourselves into two groups.

Charlotte’s group went before us, and so by the time our elevator got to the floor where the housekeeper was kept, Charlotte was already with her mother, so we missed the reunion, but she seemed to be grinning.

Aunty Claudia looked serious, and she was already attending to the housekeeper, wearing an overall.

The scowl on her face showed she wasn’t happy with how the hospital had managed the housekeeper’s condition, and I already knew it would be the case.

“Good Afternoon, Aunty,” I greeted her, and she smiled at me.

“Liam,” she said, her eyes lighting up.

“How are you liking your new job?” She asked, checking the content of the IV.

“I can’t complain. It has been fun,” I said, and she nodded.

“Don’t worry; your father and everyone are on it,”

She said and winked at me.

“We will be setting off to Kaizen next tomorrow,

She linked me, and my eyes widened. It was clear that the information was private, so I could not speak aloud.

“We are all thrilled about this, and I am sure we will replace her and her mother. Just focus on discovering what really happened to Thompson, and Mike’s part in all of this. That is the only way you can save your girlfriend or none of this will matter as the Familicide law is actually localised in all packs. We might abolish it on the national level, but it is left for the packs to adopt it,” She linked me, and I understood what she meant.

(1

I wondered why my father had not told me they

were going to Kaizen. All he said was that they were officially involved now. It was great because now I knew that Sophia would be found. I felt a boost as hope filled my heart.

“They have not been treating this young lady well.”

Aunty Claudia spoke up, talking to Justin.

“How were they planning to flush Silver out of her b***d like this? It is even a miracle she is alive. I have been ordered to patch her up and send her to Eric’s lab in Gad. That is the only place she can be helped right now. There isn’t much we can do for her here,” She said, and she looked annoyed.

“It is very important she survives,” She said, and I knew she knew something. I could not wait for her to share.

We waited in the room for a while. Aunty Claudia patched the housekeeper up, and when she was done, it was time to move her. Kappa Levi and the entire security team were on alert. Once they left, lady Claudia decided she would spend a little time with us at the packhouse.

1 believed her real reason for joining us at the packhouse was that she did not want the people in the hospital to hear what she had to tell us. I also wondered what it was.

We arrived at the packhouse, and Justin told us to gather in the common room so Aunty Claudia could address us.

My guess was spot on, so even though it seemed most of us were hungry, we were willing to endure.

The workers were ordered to leave the premises.

At the same time, the security from Lucland guarded the pack house to ensure no one was eavesdropping.

“After the meeting, we returned to Mountain immediately to start our investigation from there, and Leonardo apprehended someone in Mountain that came from Braile to buy some supplies in the night,” Aunty Claudia said and looked at me.

“After much torture by Amelia, with the help of Linda, Avery, and the Queen herself,” she said, and I did not want to guess the guy’s pain.

“He claimed to have seen someone that fitted the description of Sophia at docks in Braile.” She said, and I leaned forward, attentive.

“So why go to Kaizen?” I asked, and she nodded.

“They were taking her and her mother to Kaizen,” she explained, and it made a lot of sense.

“This was two days ago, so it means she is still alive. Due to the amount of effort we had to exert to get the information out of the man, we now believe that the residents of the Islands are in on it. We are yet to figure out how all of this ties together, so we need you all to solve the case in Grizlo,” she said and looked at me.

“We can’t help your girlfriend if you guys don’t solve the matter here. The best we can do is replace her and hand her over to Christian, and none of us wants that,” She said, and although I understood my aunt, I was worried about how Josephine will take the ‘girlfriend’ part of the conversation. I had to hope it didn’t get to her.

Aunty Claudia sighed, and I knew what she had to say next was serious.

“Stephanie says she did not send Natasha to clean the house,” She said, and I was surprised.

“She was surprised that the victim was Natasha.

Stephanie said she sent Margret. Margret has not answered her phone since we discovered that the person in the hospital isn’t Margret but Natasha,” she said, and Josephine gasped. All of us were surprised.

“You have to replace where Margret is,” Aunty Claudia said on a serious note.

“We do not know how this ties together, but I think it is pretty odd that this happened the day you all arrived in Grizlo. Margret shouldn’t have sent Natasha in her stead without permission. The question now is, was Natasha asked to fill in for Margert by Margret, or does Natasha have a link with terrorists? If so, why try to kill her?” Aunty Claudia asked, and the questions were valid. Those were avenues to explore too. I wondered what would make Natasha or Margret get involved in this shit. There was also the possibility it was a coincidence, but why was Margret missing if so?

Aunty Claudia spent a while with us, most especially Charlotte, before leaving. She seemed thrilled about their trip to Kaizen, and I knew she must have been part of the people that tortured the man from Braile. I could see the compassion she felt for Sophia and her mother. She was right. The situation was unfair to both of them, and I was mad at Mike for dragging them into his shit.

Whatever they had going on in Grizlo was messed up. Knowing they weren’t doing much for Natasha at the hospital, factoring in what we had learned from my grandmother’s neighbours about the fire service, I believed Grizlo was in deeper than we thought. Left to me, I would pick up Gamma Lebedev and Delta Sokolov, but I trusted Justin’s method, and I wasn’t here to override his orders but work under him.

After dinner in the evening, we decided to wait for Alpha Caspian to arrive since they said he was on his way. I hadn’t forgotten my date with Josephine, but I did not want any interruption.

It was best to wait for the alpha to arrive and welcome him before we got cosy in my room.

I had ordered small bite-size snacks from Mrs Mirabel, and I was going to leave Josephine to decide what movie we would be watching on the streaming service. I planned to do a lot, and I hoped that Alex would be able to maintain control, but for now, we will have to wait.

Caspian did not arrive until nine in the night. I wondered what took him so long, but since he was already an Alpah of an Island, I knew he must have had some last minutes arrangements to make before heading to Grizlo.

Justin linked us to welcome the alpha in his office.

I knew by now they must have shown the man his room. I wondered the kind of person he would be. I guess we have to replace out.

As always, we went to Justin’s office, and Josephine and I were the last to arrive. The man was pretty young, around Justin’s age, and good-looking.

He stood up the moment I entered and greeted me with a bow. he extended the same curtsey to the others.

He was very polite and seemed humble, too, because I wasn’t in Grizlo as a prince but as my cousin’s beta.

We all greeted him with respect, and he sat down. I did not notice what was happening around me until Marvin linked me to look at Charlotte.

She seemed completely taken by the guy. He was good-looking and all, but I had never seen my cousin lose her shit like this before. She was downright blushing, and then the guy kept staring at her at every given opportunity. I would say maybe they had met before, but I doubted it because Uncle Vino hated Cains; something about the place being rigged with bad memories for him.

I guess they were crushing on each other. It was hard not to crush on Charlotte or any of her sisters because they were very attractive. They gave people complex at the academy, and maybe that was why neither of them ever dated, but the attraction between Caspian and Charlotte was too sudden, and while I wondered about it, it clicked in my head that my cousin was eighteen plus.