Rose and Thorns

Chapter 5

Carla Brown

“Why is Alan not here yet?” Dr. Nolan Brown leaned down to ask his daughter who was seated with her mother, talking to one of their guests. Dr.Brown was Alan’s eighty-seven years old grandfather. He was also the founder and the retired CEO of Brown Group of Hospitals.

“He was supposed to be here by now, dad. I will call him and check..” She excused herself and walked away from the chatterings of people. Alan had kept her well informed about the surgery that was scheduled the previous night but that should have been over two hours ago.

While she was trying his number, she saw William walking in with some of his and Alan’s friends.

“William, there you are..” She immediately pulled him aside, “Where is Alan?”

“I met him at the hospital. Hasn't he come yet?” It had been three hours since he last saw Alan. “Have you tried calling him?”

“I have been calling him but he is out of reach. The bride's family is here and it's time for him to be waiting at the altar. What will I tell them if they ask about him?” Her pretty face was displaying distress as minutes passed. All their guests had gathered and yet there was no sign of her son.

Alan was always punctual in his schedules and it worried her that he wasn't present with them. This was his wedding for crying out loud. She kept on pacing up and down inside the groom’s room, waiting for her son to arrive anytime now.

“Dr. Brown..” The door was burst open by Alan’s driver, James. His chest heaved up and down in an unusual manner.

“Oh thank god, he is finally here!” She heaved a huge sigh of relief and went to the door to receive her son but a scowl etched on her face when the corridor was empty behind James. “Where is Alan?”

“Dr. Brown, I was waiting for him in the parking lot and he even told me that he was making his way out of the hospital but I never saw him. I checked the whole hospital but he is not anywhere. And then I found this..” He showed a neatly folded sheet of paper to her. "..in his room along with his phone and wallet.." 

“What is this?” She asked unfolding the sheet. Her eyes went widening further as she kept on reading whatever was typed in it. The note wasn't handwritten and she wondered why did he have to take the burden of typing it when he could have just scribbled on a paper. 

“What’s does it say?” William leaned closer to have a look at it. He had to hurriedly grab the sheet when it slipped away from Carla’s hand as she stood in a daze.

Dear Mom,

I am sorry to disappoint you.  

I cannot marry a woman that I barely know. I hope you understand.

Forgive me if you can,

Alan Brown.

Carla had to hold on to the nearby wall for support. Till yesterday, everything seemed normal with Alan and now she had no idea of what was going on around her.

By this time, a small crowd had formed in the room.

“What the hell is going on, Will? Did you know about this?” Dr. Nolan grilled him with suspicion after reading the letter since he was Alan’s closest friend and expected him to know this decision of Alan's.

“I swear, I have no idea that he was going to chicken out at the last moment. I even offered to drive him here and he said he would drive here himself after his shift at the hospital..” Will tried to prove his innocence in the matter. 

“How are we going to face everyone? What do we tell the bride’s family? They will be devastated.” Nolan didn’t know how to deal with this twisted situation. Everyone they know was here and this would be a scandalous disgrace to their family.

They were all in a confused state about how this had to be dealt with when an angry Abigail walked into the room. “Where the hell is Alan? How long do I have to wait?” She was mad at Alan for being late for his own wedding. God knew what she would do when she found out that Alan had actually run away from the wedding.

Carla wasn’t ready to tell anything about her son’s goodbye note to anyone yet. She thought this had to be some kind of sick joke and he would walk in any moment looking dashing as ever.

“Abi, honey.. It was a last-minute surgery that he couldn’t deny taking up. So, please relax. Alan will be here any minute..” She pleaded. 

Abigail inhaled and perched on the couch. Was there anything else she could do other than waiting?

Right from the beginning, Abigail had a feeling that Alan wasn’t really interested in the wedding and was agreeing to it only because his mother wanted him to. But she didn’t care about it as long as he married her and had a family with her. Marrying Alan Brown was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which most of the women would die for. That opportunity came in Abigail’s footsteps just like that. Even though she was in a serious relationship with her longtime boyfriend, she readily agreed to their alliance.

Minutes turned into hours and everyone understood that Alan wasn’t going to come. The news began to spread among the guests and they slowly started to disperse out of the wedding hall.

“Your son could have told us if he didn’t want to get married, instead of running away like this and bringing shame to our family..” Abigail’s parents were furious while they were leaving. Abigail was a crying mess and Carla had no words to console her. 

Abigail's glares were like powerful swords that pierced through Carla’s heart and for the first time she felt so ashamed of her son's actions. 

She broke down into tears when she was finally left alone. She read her son’s note again and again and it made no sense to her. 

She kept on asking herself if her beloved son could ever do this to her. 

They had a very good mother-son relationship. In fact, they were like close friends and they shared everything with each other. Then, how could he do this to her? How could he put the whole family into such a shameful circumstance? 

A few days passed but there was no news about Alan. They checked airports and railway terminals but there was no evidence of Alan traveling out of the country. It was like he had disappeared into dust. 

“You shouldn’t have forced him to get married when he was so against it..” Carla’s mother said while trying to calm her down.

But Carla had never forced Alan into anything. When she suggested he should marry Abigail, he just said that he was okay as long as his mom was happy.

Alan was never so imprudent to call off a wedding. He never made any rash decisions in his life and was always the one to think of the consequences. Then how did he commit such a big blunder? It was so not like Alan.

Her motherly instincts kept telling her that her son would never betray her this way and there was more to whatever was going around.

“I want to see all the surveillance tapes from the last seventy-two hours in and outside the hospital building..” Carla went to the hospital to find out about her son’s sudden disappearance. She couldn't come to peace and she wanted to know anything that would lead her to Alan. He was not a normal man that he could run away and lead a happy and peaceful life.

He was the badass Mafia head’s son which he himself knew. Though she had successfully changed her son’s identity after coming back, she never believed that they were completely out of danger.

Alan’s life was very valuable to Riccardo’s enemies and if he had suddenly disappeared then there could be a chance that his life was at risk.

The security guard led Carla and Christopher towards the surveillance room. Christopher was her driver and also her personal guard, appointed by Riccardo himself when she left Colombia years ago. When he was assigned as her bodyguard, Christopher was in his early twenties but he was one of the best assassins that worked for Riccardo. Now in his late forties, he was still the same fierce and bloodthirsty man yet extremely loyal to Carla and her family. His relationship with Carla was purely professional but Carla always considered him like her younger brother. His life mission was to protect her and he always stuck around her but never made her feel uneasy in his presence. 

Though Ricardo had feigned to have broken all ties with Carla, he had always kept his vigilant eyes on them. It wasn’t easy for Carla to leave the man she loved so madly and her two young children behind. Yet she had to keep going on for the one-child that she had brought with her. Life didn’t go smoothly as she had expected it to. She was the wife of the most powerful man in the dark world and there were so many times that her past had come to haunt her. Enemies after enemies were sent for their heads but Riccardo was always one step ahead of them to save them. Though she never saw him after they broke up, she could many times feel his eyes on her. She was certain that he was around her, protecting his wife and son.  

Anyways that was long back. They had begun to live a normal life as time passed but now once again she could feel certain darkness surrounding her.

The security personal played the footage from that night where Alan was seen walking out of the operation theatre and enter into his room, after which Will was seen walking out of the same room, Then James shortly entered the room to hand him his wedding suit. However, there was no recording of Alan coming out of that room. James once again comes into the view to check on Alan and that's when he seems panicked after finding the note that was left behind.

“How is this possible?” Carla’s eyes were glued to the screen as she muttered incredulously. How did he disappear without passing through the corridor, was her first thought. 

“Someone has tampered with the tapes..” Christopher remarked, taking a close look at the screen. “Alan didn’t run away. He was kidnapped.”

“By whom?” Carla was terrified but she remained undaunted by this discovery. She had anticipated this to have happened when Alan was a child but not when he was a grown man. Ricardo was always there to save him back then. 

What shocked her was that this time Ricardo failed to protect his family which was out of the ordinary.

“We need to find it out. The video footages are no more useful since it is clearly meddled by someone..” Christopher’s hard eyes held two different emotions, anger and pity for Carla. She must be dead worried from the inside, he knew. “Ms. Brown, don’t worry, Alan is stronger than you think. I am sure he can save himself..”

“Who can be so bold to kidnap Ricardo’s son?” She demanded in a whisper.

“As much as I know, the Boss had killed everyone who knew about Alan’s existence..” Christopher was aware that Ricardo had made the world believe that his son and wife were killed in an airplane crash but there were still some people who refused to believe that and when they found out the truth, Ricardo didn't hesitate to kill them.

“I need to meet Ricardo. Arrange a meeting with him as soon as possible..” Carlo ordered 

"But Ms. Brown. You know it is not that easy.." 

"I don't care. I want to meet him at any cost. Make it happen.." She yelled at his face and turned on her feet.

“Yes, Ma’am..”

A/N:

Hellow REaders!! 

Thanks for reading this chapter. I know this was a very short chapter but this was Carla's introduction into the book. I hope you liked it. 

SwaRam