Page 34 of Cole
“Lord Montgomery is head of Great Britain’s National Nuclear Laboratory. He is a nuclear scientist.”
“You don’t think he’s helping my grandfather, do you?” asked Layla.
“I doubt it,” said Cole. “It would be more likely that he knew what your grandfather was planning and tried to stop his daughter from leaving.”
Layla looked at her new sister-in-law, then at Angus and finally, Ham. Ham reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze.
“What should I do?” she asked the older man.
“Do what you think is best for you. That’s the only thing important,” he said. Layla nodded, then looked at AJ.
“Try to find them. Please,” she said. “I have to know.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“We didn’t know,” said her grandfather staring back at her from the screen. “I assure you, had we known we would have come and brought you back to England. We weren’t even aware that our daughter had passed. We sent letters, tried to call, but got nothing. I wish we’d known.” She could see the pain on the faces of her grandparents, her grandmother looking so much like her mother.
“That means so much to me,” she smiled. “I’m happy, and safe now.”
“Will you come and visit us?” asked her grandmother. “Or can we come and visit you?”
“You’re welcome here any time,” said Cole. “Until we get this mess straightened out with her grandfather, we’ll keep her safe here. But, if you want to come over, we’ll make it happen.”
“I think I’d like that,” said her grandmother.
“Sir, did your daughter or son-in-law ever talk to you about nuclear weapons?” Lord Montgomery stared at Cole, then back at his wife.
“Neither showed an interest in weapons but when his father came to visit right after the wedding, he kept asking about my work and wanted a tour of our facility. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to offer that, nor did I. He seemed angered by it and when he left, he did so abruptly.”
“I see,” nodded Cole. “Well, you are welcome here. If you and Lady Montgomery wish to come and spend time with Layla, please feel free.”
“I’m curious how you were able to acquire a western name. Your father assured us that you would have a traditional Syrian name,” said Lady Montgomery.
“Oh, I didn’t have one. My Syrian name is Hala but we changed it when I came here so that my grandfather couldn’t follow me. Layla seemed close to Hala.” Her grandmother smiled a warm, loving smile.
“It’s my name,” she said softly.
“Wh-what?”
“Well, it’s my middle name. Elizabeth Layla Osborne Montgomery. A mouthful, really.”
“I didn’t know. I swear to you, I didn’t know,” said Layla.
“Layla, I’m not bothered by it. I’m thrilled by the fact that you’ve chosen a name from our family. Accident or not, it’s lovely.”
“I’ll let you finish your conversation with your grandparents,” said Cole, kissing her cheek. “We’ll be right over there when you’re done.”
The group of men and women left Layla alone to get acquainted with the grandparents she knew nothing about. To have lived for so long without knowledge of them must be quite a surprise.
“What do you think?” Cole asked the others.
“I think the old man had something to do with those two meeting,” said Angus. “Think about it. He allowed his son to go to Oxford, probably with bodyguards, just like Layla. I’m going to bet the bodyguards knew about her mother and somehow put them in one another’s path.”
“God, this sucks,” said Cole. “They did nothing wrong except fall in love and refuse to help that crazy fucker.”
“I’m going to bet her mother sent word to her parents that she was pregnant but the old man intercepted the communication,” said Cam. “It’s really a shame that they’vemissed out on all these years of connection. He killed her parents, kept her a prisoner, making her believe that he was all she had. Knowing her now, I’d put money down on the fact that she would have escaped and gone to England.”
“I couldn’t agree more, although that may have ended badly,” said Cole. “What do we do now? Should we go back to Syria?”
