Page 110 of The Billionaire's Virgin

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, and I could hear the pain in her voice.

“Don’t, Taylor,” I said, trying not to let my own emotion through. “You can’t have known that Sofia was still a threat. She backed you into a corner with that phone call.”

“She obviously never had a gun.”

“You couldn’t have known that,” I said. “What if you hadn’t believed her and she had had a gun on her the whole time? She would have started shooting up the playground. Is that something you could have lived with?”

“Of course not—”

“Then you had no choice but to do exactly what you did,” I said. “She gave you no choice.”

“I should have kept my eye on Jenna, though. I should have never taken my eyes off her.”

“Sometimes blinking is all it takes to lose track of someone, Taylor,” I said. “You can’t blame yourself. I don’t.”

“Why don’t you?” Taylor demanded. “Because of me, your child is missing… if I were you, I’d be furious.”

“I am furious,” I said. “But not with you.”

I heard a split second of silence, and then soft sobs came through on the other line. I felt my heart break with sadness and all I wanted to do was hold Taylor and promise her that everything was going to be all right. The only problem was that I didn’t know that myself.

“This is… this is all my fault.”

“Taylor, please—”

“You trusted her to me,” Taylor continued. “And I failed completely. If anything happens to Jenna…”

“I don’t think Sofia will hurt Jenna,” I said.

“How can you know that?”

“Because she wants me,” I said. “That is her end goal, and I think she knows at this point that if she harms Jenna in any way that it will effectively destroy any chance of getting back together with me.”

“Well, I hope you’re right,” Taylor said. “Because…

“Don’t even think it, Taylor,” I said, echoing the same words that Jennifer had just said to me. “We need to have hope and keep the faith. Jenna is going to come back to us.”

“Okay,” Taylor said, in a voice filled with keen desperation. “Have you heard anything from the police?”

“Not anything important,” I said. “They’re trying to keep things hush, hush because of Sofia’s father.”

“He’s greasing their palms.”

“I have no doubt of that.”

“And there’s nothing we can do?” Taylor asked.

“There’s always something we can do,” I said. “And I’ve already called the relevant parties.”

“Thank God,” Taylor said.

“Taylor, please,” I said. “Just come home; we need to stick together on this. I know you’re feeling awful. I know you’re feeling scared and guilty. But that’s why you need to be close to me. We need to get each other through this. We need to be together when they return Jenna to us.”

“I will come home,” Taylor replied. “But I’ll go over the area once more before I leave.”

“Taylor—”

“Please,” she begged, cutting me off. “I can’t just sit in that apartment and do nothing. Especially since I’m the reason she’s gone.”