Authors note: Hello everyone. Please be aware that this is the third series in the world of the Twelve Tables. It is heavily set in the BDSM lifestyle of Dominant men and submissive women although that can and does vary from time to time the concept is constant.
I am, as always, grateful to David and Kate for being my second sets of eyes. I hope those of you who enjoy this series continue to do so. ~ellie.
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"I know that you're going to warn us not to contact Noah," Genesis said, as most of the other men began to leave the room. "However, I have something else to propose, if you can ask Zanto to stay as well."
Gideon gave his brother a strange look but said nothing as Xavier raised an eyebrow and called out to Zanto before he left the room. Orlando had already joined them for this more intimate discussion, and Genesis sat back, formulating what he wanted to say without coming across as stepping over any lines between right and wrong. Perhaps they would see it as doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.
"Okay." Genesis scratched at his five o'clock shadow and pursed his lips. "It was Gideon's decision, down in the emergency room, to remove Marcella's personal belongings as well as her phone, which Vivienne had taken from her to cancel her date with the pilot," he began. "We still have those belongings, and access to her apartment."
"You can't just search through her belongings as if she was criminal," Gideon grumbled, startled by what his brother was suggesting.
"No, but we do have cause, if you will just give me a minute to explain my thinking," he said and looked meaningfully at Dominic, whom he knew was capable of judging his words wisely and deciding the fate of his suggestion.
"Alright," Xavier said. "Tell us what you're thinking." His cousin hadn't become an award-winning investigative journalist without excellent instincts for seeking out the truth, and exposing subterfuge.
"There is something more going on with Apollo than what we know. Both Marcella and Olivia refused to believe any notion that Apollo would try to harm her. They see him as a protector, a friend, almost a saviour of sorts. He had a relationship with Marcie almost a decade ago, but they have only been friends since. Olivia refers to him as a frog, not a prince. Nice but not...," he searched for the right word.
"Not a knight in shining armour, there to sweep them off their feet." Dominic finished his sentence for him. "So, the question is, why would he have come here claiming to be her fiancé?"
"Exactly. Apollo could have come as nothing more than Marcie's friend to celebrate her birthday, and he would have been welcomed far more easily. Why insinuate that they were more than friends?" Genesis asked the small group. "We know that he went to Perth first, and was obviously told she was here, and possibly dating someone from our family."
"Namely Noah. Which was why he was the one that Apollo made his announcement to and set off the chain of events that led to her accident," Dominic added, seeing exactly where Genesis was going with this. "But why lie like that when he knew Marcella wouldn't go along with it?"
"More of a question is who sent him and why? I mean, and just go with me on this...," he paused, "Now we have discovered that, before coming here to identify and help Olivia, Marcella had divorced herself from her family and the benefits that come with the name. She had to take those back to come here. What if, once she had retaken the name, her father expected to be able to exert family law over her, and she ignored his directive to claim that Olivia was a fraud and return immediately. What if he was unhappy that she had stayed and gotten involved with our family, instead of the one he had chosen for her for his own benefit? He could have sent Apollo with the express reason of bringing her home to force his will on her, which might have included an arranged marriage, possibly to Apollo, if he is to be believed, but I think there is more to the story. I just can't put it all together yet."
"Well, if that was the plan, they failed," Orlando said, frowning.
"Or so we think, but even after Apollo and the Battaglia left, Marcella still disappeared. What if Apollo was just a scout, to see what was really going on with her up here?" Genesis said.
"Or, what was really going on between Noah and Marcella. She told her father that she was dating up here, so he wouldn't push for her to return immediately and possibly allow her mother to visit to see Olivia." Gideon added in what he knew of her story from Vivienne.
"Okay. So, logic tells us that Apollo, her father, or possibly some missing component of this story, has tried to call or text her in the last forty-eight hours. If we could access her phone, then we might be able to see if the threat was from Apollo alone or if he was acting under the influence of someone else," Genesis said.
"We'd have cause," Orlando agreed. "Someone attempted to kill her, then she disappeared from the hospital without a trace, and we only have Noah's identification and assurance that she has been located. No one else sees more than a passing resemblance from the woman in that video," he said, stretching the truth to fit their needs.
"We haven't had any luck engaging the older sister or the mother," Gideon admitted, adding to Genesis's proposal, even though he knew that Vivienne was attempting to contact Jessa again.
"Where are her belongings now?" Xavier asked, still not sure about invading the woman's privacy, but knowing that he couldn't and didn't want to disturb Noah to ask how he felt about an even bigger intrusion into Marcella's life than she had already been subjected to by Vivienne's report.
