Chapter 266: The Power of Love

Giselle closed her eyes.

The deep blue of them disappeared beneath her lashes.

The moment Serena Blackwood’s name settled in her mind, the weight in her chest grew thick enough to hurt. It felt like lying flat on wet sand while the tide kept coming in. Wave after wave crashed over her body, forced salt into her mouth, dragged breath out of her lungs, and ground her down a little more each time.

Melinda was still arguing nearby.

"I’m telling you, you need to find him today. Not tomorrow. Not after some internal review. Today."

Her voice cut through the lobby, sharp with anger. Guests had begun slowing down at the edges. Staff hovered with trained, useless faces. The manager kept apologizing without offering anything that mattered.

Giselle stood in the middle of it all and felt alone.

Not lonely. Alone.

There was a difference.

Loneliness was an empty room. This was worse. This was a crowded resort lobby, voices pressing in from every direction, and still no path to Elias. She knew what Serena could do when she was prepared. Money, security, staff, private routes, medical access, silence bought before anyone realized it had a price. If Serena had planned this properly, Giselle would not find Elias by shouting at hotel employees.

She was not Serena’s match yet.

Not alone.

The only person who could stand evenly against Serena Blackwood was someone Giselle had spent years refusing to rely on.

She opened her eyes.

They were clear again, blue and still.

Melinda was pointing at the manager’s face when Giselle spoke.

"That’s enough."

Melinda turned. "What?"

She saw Giselle’s calm expression and grew angrier at once. "Are you serious? You’re giving up already? You’re really going to stand there like that and let them—"

"I’m grateful," Giselle said.

Melinda stopped.

"If you hadn’t told me what you saw, I wouldn’t have known right away that Elias was missing." Giselle lowered her head in a formal, controlled bow. Silver hair slid over her shoulder. "Thank you for helping him."

Melinda and her two friends stared.

"I’m not giving up on him," Giselle said. "I know who took him."

"Who?" Melinda demanded.

Then she seemed to catch up with herself. "No, wait. If you know, then we go after her."

Giselle exhaled.

"No. I won’t drag you into this."

Melinda’s face darkened again.

Before she could speak, Giselle took out her phone in the middle of the lobby.

The small act drew more attention than shouting had. People watched as she unlocked the screen and placed a call. Her back grew straighter with every second the phone rang, chin lifting, shoulders squared.

Yet the straighter she stood, the more it looked as though she had bent.

Everyone who mattered in that room could feel it. Giselle Frost was lowering herself. Not to the hotel. Not to the manager. Not to Melinda. To someone on the other end of the call.

The line rang for a long time.

At last, someone answered.

Giselle raised her chin a little more. "Where is my mother?"

A woman’s startled voice came through the phone. "Miss Frost?"

The staffer sounded so shocked that she nearly forgot herself. "You called the residence?"

Everyone who worked for the Frost family knew the shape of the fracture between Victoria Frost and her daughter. Victoria might call Giselle. She might send a message through staff, an invitation through a driver, a warning through a bodyguard. Giselle calling first was something else entirely.

"I’m looking for my mother," Giselle said.

Her face remained steady. Her tone dipped only once, on the word mother.

"Yes. Of course."

The staffer understood that Giselle would not have called unless something serious had happened. The line went muffled as she hurried away to find Victoria.

Silence returned.

This wait felt longer than the first.

Giselle did not move. Melinda watched her from a few steps away, anger giving way to uncertainty. The hotel manager seemed to sense that the matter had climbed out of her reach and into a social altitude where her policies would not survive long.

Then a light laugh came through the phone.

"What happened?" Victoria Frost asked. "Did something happen to Elias?"

Giselle’s pupils tightened.

Only for a second.

"I’m in the Maldives," she said. "Elias is missing. I need help."

Victoria was quiet for a moment. When she spoke again, some of the amusement had left her voice.

"You’ve improved. I expected you to ask whether I sent someone to take him."

Giselle said nothing.

"To be honest, at least you have that much self-awareness," Victoria continued. "You know what kind of feelings you have for that cheap little thing."

Giselle’s hand tightened around the phone.

On any other day, she would have pushed back immediately. She would have rejected the wording, rejected the insult, rejected the right Victoria assumed she had to name what Giselle felt. But Elias was missing. Serena had him. Giselle needed help from the one person she least wanted to ask.

So she said nothing.

"Hmm?"

This time, Victoria sounded genuinely surprised.

She did not continue, but Giselle understood. Victoria had expected a challenge. A correction. Even silence as defiance. She had not expected Giselle to endure the insult because the boy mattered more than pride.

Far away, Victoria sat back in her chair.

The distance between them was enormous, but she could picture Giselle clearly. Silver hair. Straight spine. Face calm enough to pass for indifference if one did not know what it cost. Even asking for help from the person she most hated needing, the girl had not cracked.

Like the sea, Victoria thought.

No matter how wild the waves became, the surface eventually closed over them.

So the boy had done something after all.

Victoria’s red mouth curved, though no laughter entered her voice.

"What leads do you have?"

"Serena Blackwood," Giselle said. "She is the most likely person to have taken Elias."

"Most likely, not certain." Victoria’s tone warmed with interest. "You keep surprising me."

A faint tapping sounded through the call, manicured nails against a desk.

"I’ll send people," Victoria said. "But when you find her, I expect you to handle it like an adult."

There was no answer.

Victoria lifted a brow.

Still rebellious, then.

Understandable. Giselle had been on a trip with that boy, and Serena had cut in and stolen him from under her hand. Wanting to resolve that peacefully would have been stranger.

But Giselle had already shown enough growth for one evening. Victoria could overlook a little disobedience.

If Victoria guessed correctly, by the time Giselle found Elias, the girl would grow again.

Not gently.

But growth rarely was.

At the private terminal, Elias sat beside the window inside Serena’s jet, chin propped in one hand as he looked out at the tarmac.

He looked bored.

In truth, he was waiting.

The cabin was quiet around him. Cream leather seats, sealed windows, a low table laid with drinks he had not touched. A security aide stood near the door with the careful stillness of someone pretending not to watch him. Serena was a few steps away, speaking on the phone in a low voice.

Elias let his gaze wander across the ground crew outside.

"Giselle still isn’t here?" he asked System Theta. "I thought she’d arrive faster."

[System Theta: Based on Serena Blackwood’s resources and Giselle Frost’s current independent capacity, she should not be able to locate you in time.]

Elias tilted his head.

"Is that system analysis?"

[System Theta: Yes. I just developed a new analytical function.]

Its tone held a small, obvious pride. It did not say, praise me, but the meaning was not difficult to hear.

Elias smiled.

"Baby, you’re so impressive."

[System Theta: Thank you, host.]

"But the function still needs work."

The system’s pride faltered.

[System Theta: My analysis should not be wrong.]

Its confidence weakened word by word.

Elias did not say things like that without a reason. If he had dismissed the analysis, then there was a variable the system had failed to weigh. Which meant Giselle might actually come.

Elias’s smile deepened.

"Of course she will."

[System Theta: Why?]

"You have to believe in the power of love."

It sounded ridiculous even in his head.

That was why he enjoyed it.

Love, in this world, was rarely clean enough to deserve the word. It looked like a hospital bill paid before consent could be asked. A private jet waiting before a question was answered. A mother’s surveillance disguised as concern. A woman blocking his exit because she could not stand the thought of him choosing a different room.

Still, it moved people.

It made Serena kidnap him. It made Giselle call Victoria. It made Victoria, who would rather bite her tongue than show softness, send people across an ocean because her daughter had finally lowered her pride.

Love was an excellent engine.

Extremely useful.

Elias looked across the cabin.

Serena had turned away from him while listening to the call. Her profile was calm at first. Then the calm began to change.

The woman on the other end spoke. Serena’s fingers tightened around the phone. Her expression darkened at a visible speed, the warmth she had worn for Eli peeling away until only Blackwood control remained.

Elias watched with interest.

There it was.

Serena’s private jet had just been denied permission to take off.