A Woman Worth Billions Dated the Wrong Brother novel Chapter 378

Amber POV

Jason didn't answer his phone.

The first time I called, I wasn't worried. Not really. Jason was supposed to be returning from the DNA testing appointment, and there were a dozen perfectly reasonable explanations for why he wouldn't answer immediately. He could still be speaking with the trustees. He could be driving. He could have stopped to speak with security.

So I waited five minutes and called again.

It rang.

And rang.

And went unanswered.

I frowned at the screen.

Jason always answered me.

Maybe not on the first ring. Sometimes not even on the first call if he was in the middle of something important. But if I called twice, he answered. If he couldn't, someone from his security team did.

I called a third time.

Nothing.

"Okay."

I sat straighter on the bed.

There was still no reason to panic.

I called his driver.

No answer.

Then his security detail.

No answer.

That was when the first thread of fear worked its way into my chest.

I opened the security application on my phone and checked Jason's location.

Unavailable.

"No."

I refreshed it.

Still unavailable.

Chronos had trackers everywhere. Jason practically breathed technology. His phone, watch, car, security team—there were redundancies built into redundancies because both of us had been kidnapped enough times to develop what normal people would probably consider an unhealthy relationship with tracking devices.

Jason didn't simply disappear.

I called again.

"Come on, Jason."

The phone rang beside my ear.

Nothing.

I checked the time.

He should have been home.

By the time an hour passed, I had called everyone.

Mr. Stait.

Emory.

Marcus.

Pamela.

Jasper.

Malcolm.

My grandfather.

Mr. and Mrs. Sun were already moving through the castle coordinating with security while I searched every system I could reach from my phone.

The testing site had cameras.

The streets around it had cameras.

Nearby businesses had cameras.

Traffic intersections had cameras.

I hacked every single one I could access.

Jason appeared entering the testing site.

He appeared leaving it.

He walked toward his car.

Then—

Nothing.

I went backward.

Watched again.

Jason left the building.

He was alone for only a few seconds while his security shifted around the vehicle.

The camera angle changed.

A delivery truck passed.

Then the feed glitched.

Three seconds.

That was all.

Three seconds of corrupted footage.

When the image returned, I couldn't see Jason properly anymore.

Another camera should have caught him.

It didn't.

I searched the next one.

Nothing.

Another.

Nothing.

His car disappeared too.

It was as if Jason Sun had walked out of a building in the middle of River City and vanished from the planet.

That was impossible.

Which meant someone had planned it.

My phone rang.

I answered immediately.

"Jason?"

"Amber."

Mrs. Sun.

My heart dropped.

"What did you find?"

"We're still looking."

"That's not an answer."

"I know."

"Where is he?"

"We don't know yet."

My breathing became shallow.

No.

I wasn't doing this.

I wasn't panicking.

Panic didn't help.

Information helped.

"His car."

Mrs. Sun hesitated.

"What about it?"

"Find the car."

"We're trying."

"Chronos has trackers."

"They're offline."

"All of them?"

Silence.

"Grandma."

"Yes."

I closed my eyes.

Someone had known exactly what they were doing.

The Vincents?

Mr. White?

Oscar?

Someone connected to the St. Johns trust?

We had just exposed an international trafficking network. Arrests were happening across multiple countries. Companies were collapsing. Women were talking. Oliver had handed over evidence that could destroy Alexander and expose Mr. White as the man behind the entire operation.

And Jason had just publicly revealed that he'd been one of the children who lost his identity.

Then he'd gone to establish whether he was biologically connected to another vanished family.

Too many possibilities.

Too many enemies.

"His last confirmed location?" I asked.

"Outside the testing site."

"And the car?"

"Gone."

I stopped.

"What?"

"The car is gone too."

I pushed the blanket away.

"I'm coming."

"No."

"I'm coming."

"Amber, absolutely not."

"Jason is missing."

"And you're six months pregnant and on bed rest."

"I don't care!"

The room tilted.

I grabbed the edge of the mattress.

Mrs. Sun's voice sharpened through the phone.

"Amber?"

"I'm fine."

I wasn't.

My heart was beating too quickly.

There was pressure in my head and a strange buzzing in my ears.

"Amber, lie down."

"I'm fine."

"Call the doctor."

"I'm not calling the damn doctor. I'm finding Jason."

I tried to stand.

My legs didn't cooperate.

The door opened.

One of the castle staff members took one look at me and immediately ran toward the bed.

"Mrs. Sun?"

"Don't—"

She took the phone from my hand.

I heard Mrs. Sun shouting through it.

Everything became noise after that.

People entered.

Someone checked my blood pressure.

Then checked it again.

Their expression told me enough.

"How high?"

No one answered.

"Tell me."

The number they gave me made my stomach drop.

My hand immediately went over my belly.

The twins.

Fear changed direction instantly.

Not Jason.

Not me.

Them.

"Are the babies okay?"

"We need to take you to the hospital."

"Are they okay?"

"We need to monitor all three of you."

I hated that answer.

I hated everything about it.

But for once, I didn't fight.

Because Jason was missing.

And I couldn't lose our babies while trying to find him.

I was admitted to the hospital less than an hour later.

The babies were monitored immediately.

Two heartbeats.

Strong.

Steady.

I cried when I heard them.

Not dramatically.

I simply turned my face away and cried while a nurse adjusted the monitors around my stomach.

Jason should have been here.

He would have been hovering over everyone, asking the doctors questions they had already answered and probably demanding credentials from anyone who came within five feet of me.

Instead, the chair beside my bed was empty.

Mrs. Sun arrived shortly afterward.

I knew from her face that there was no good news.

"Tell me."

She sat beside me.

"They found his last confirmed location."

"I know. Outside the testing site."

She nodded.

I sighed.

Jasmine dropped into the chair near the door.

"We've decided we're your protection detail."

I blinked.

"You've decided?"

"Yes."

"Nobody asked you."

"No."

I looked at Noah.

He shrugged.

"We voted."

"Who voted?"

"The three of us."

"That's not how assigning protection works."

"It worked on the island," Jasmine said.

Daniel sighed.

"We're not officially replacing her security."

Jasmine looked disappointed.

"We're supplementing it."

"Thank you, Daniel."

"You're welcome."

Noah moved toward the window and checked outside.

I watched him.

"You're actually serious."

All three looked at me.

Apparently, that was a stupid question.

Jasmine leaned forward.

"Someone made Jason Sun disappear in broad daylight."

The humor left her expression.

"You're pregnant with his children, you just publicly declared war on the people we're investigating, and Oliver handed over evidence connecting Mr. White to the trafficking network."

Noah finished for her.

"You're a target."

I didn't like hearing it.

Mostly because they were right.

Daniel pulled another chair closer.

"So we're staying."

I looked around the room.

Pamela had claimed one side.

Marcus had taken the other.

Jasmine was guarding the door.

Noah had positioned himself near the window.

Daniel was apparently going to personally monitor my blood pressure until one of us died from irritation.

And Jason was still missing.

My phone lay on the table beside me.

I picked it up.

Called him again.

Everyone went quiet.

The phone rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Four.

"Come on," I whispered.

Voicemail.

I closed my eyes.

For one horrible second, I remembered being four years old.

Not the memory itself.

I still couldn't remember that place Oliver's mother had described.

But I remembered what Oliver had said.

A little girl who wanted to escape.

Apparently, I'd once been that girl.

Jason had been taken too.

He'd lost his identity for two years.

Someone had eventually rescued him.

And then, if our suspicions were correct, Mr. White had taken him back.

I opened my eyes.

Not again.

Whoever had Jason had made one enormous mistake.

They thought making him disappear would frighten me into stopping.

It did frighten me.

I was terrified.

But fear and surrender had never been the same thing.

I looked at Pamela.

"Get me everything on the testing site."

Then Marcus.

"Contact every Chronos location Jason activated during the St. Johns investigation."

Noah straightened.

"Amber—"

"I'm not leaving this bed."

Daniel looked mildly surprised.

"I can work from here."

That earned me a sigh.

Finally, I looked at Jasmine.

"Find that car."

Her smile disappeared.

She stood.

"Now that I can do."

My hand settled protectively over my stomach as the twins moved.

Jason had asked me to stay safe at the castle because he was afraid someone would attack me.

Instead, someone had taken him.

I stared at his unanswered number on my phone.

"Hold on, Jason."

Because whoever had him clearly hadn't learned enough about our family.

We always came looking.